Soaring (Soaring Saga #1)

☆Chapter Thirteen~Lost, Yet Again☆

     A sign that you definitely not a normal person with definitely not normal friends: you are running for your life from evil fat pigeons from Greek mythology as one of your winged friends is screaming like a banshee and one of your other winged friends is making jokes about how "at least they're not dragons!".

     My life is good.

     We all sprinted off through the snow, skillfully managing not to trip. The birds screeched again, sounding almost metallic this time. I ran low, so they birds wouldn't be able to get to us properly. I noticed Audra was falling behind, and looked uncomfortable. Then I remembered her ankle.

"Guys!" I called, "We need to fly!"

"Have you not noticed the screeching oversized pigeons that'll eat us if we get up to their height?!" Neil replied.

"You think I haven't?!"

"I'm with Cirocco! We have to fly!" Audra agreed, "It's our best bet! We're much faster in the air than on the ground! And they're only pigeons! At least it's not, like, dragons!"

"What?!" Ari called, apparently unable to hear us over the banshee pigeons.

"WEE'RE MMUUCH FAASTERR IINN THEE AAAIIR THAANN OONN THEE GROOOUUUNNND!" Audra yelled to him slowly.

"OOOOOHHHH," he replied, then took off into the sky and managed to zip straight through the cloud of pigeons before the dumb birds realized what was happening. I made the irrational decision to follow. Neil and Audra followed us in the nick of time, because just a split second later the birds darted up after us. Well, that's one way to break a tie.

     We zoomed right through the clouds much easier and faster than when we were on the ground, getting ahead of the pigeons easily. 

"How do we get rid of 'em?" Ari asked after a few minutes. I looked around for a solution, and my eyes caught on the sheathed dagger around Audra's waist. I flew over to her, gestured to the dagger, and asked, 

"You mind?" She pulled it out and handed it to me.

"All yours!"

     I grinned in awe at the thing as I flew right back into the cloud of large pigeons.

"Cirocco!" Neil called, but I didn't look back.

"Just go!" I told them.

      I blindly swung the dagger and the pigeons started to fall out of the air. Only one at a time though, and the cloud was big. I whacked some with every wingbeat, shoving them back and kicking them. 

     But then the sun came out from behind the clouds, and I noticed something: they were shimmering in the sunlight. Not, like, normal shining neck feathers on pigeons, but like, glinting like metal. Glinting bronze, no less.

     I kept hacking away at the bronze pigeons as they tried to peck at me. One actually tore a few feathers from my one wing and I swung at it angrily. At the same time, another pecked my arm hard. Almost like it bit me, and it kinda felt like it did. I yelped and kicked it.

     It got harder and harder to get at them, up to the point where I tried to abort it and fly away. They started chasing me faster than before, and it was harder for me to keep away. I tried as hard as I could, but eventually one caught up to me and it clawed at my shoulder. I yelled at it and turned around to swing the dagger, but it went the other way and managed to get my back and I fell out of the air. Well, that had a bit of a suck factor to it. 

     I flapped as hard as I could, but a spam of pain went up my wing and I unintentionally stopped. I thought about how embarrassing it would be: Cirocco Arellano, death by oversized evil bronze pigeons. I called out for someone, but noticed how scarily close the treetops were... I yelled again... squinted my eyes... and...