The Winged

5- Monsters

Another tremor shot through the ground, though it was nowhere near as strong as the last one. I could faintly feel the vibrations through stone and earth under the bottom of my boots. Each thump seemed louder than the one before, like they were getting closer.

"You're joking..." I murmured, heart racing in my chest. No way... their predicted arrival wasn't for weeks and we weren't even close to the trails they usually took! I frantically searched for some way out of the situation. Could I be mistaken? Maybe these sounds weren't human footsteps-

Humans.

My mind went blank for a moment. It was as though thinking the word made it seem real. My wings were leaden on my back, my breath acid.

Another sound blasted through the forest, even closer than before. I looked to Micah's panicked face, then towards the foragers.
"Flo?" I asked in a high-pitched voice. The woman turned to face me, with eyes that were wide and absent. She stared at me. Behind her, the rest of the group were beginning to step backwards towards a trail.
"What do we do?" I asked. She was still just staring at me. The only explanation was that she was frozen with fear. But I wasn't. What would Rosin do? With Micah behind me, I started to copy the group's example and follow them along the trail— but when I tried to pass by the woman, a hand gripped my shoulder. It sort of hurt.

Panicked, and beginning to grow a little scared, I looked up to her blue eyes. She didn't seem very distracted anymore. Her eyes were awake and focused, calculating exactly what to do. All of a sudden, Flo was storming forwards, practically running. Both of her strong hands had gone to my shoulders and I was almost lifted off the floor with incredible strength. Horribly confused, I cried out and tried to work out what she was doing. The woman was running straight into the clearing with me in her huge arms.
"Zu- Azure," she corrected in a panting voice, "You're a Winged, aren't you?"
I made a sound like a yes. My initial alarm was subsiding a little. Flo had seen humans before, so she would know what to do. I needed to trust her.

She stopped running. We were in the middle of the clearing.
"It's your job to protect the tribes, in't it?" She set me back on my feet gently. I nodded and rubbed my sore arms. Her eyes were grave. "Good." Was her only response. "Then do your job."
The woman shoved me with all the force she could manage.

I was sent violently sprawling onto the floor. The air went out of me and my balance was shot by the impact. Confusion instantly devolved into panic. When I sat up, breathless and sore, she and the rest of the group were running the opposite way.
"Hey- hey! Hold on!" I scrambled to follow her as I cried out. What was she doing?! They all seemed to ignore me and continued their mad dash, all apart from the one that had teased Flo earlier. He looked at me over his shoulder, slowing. I just about heard him say to the blue-haired woman, "Flo-"
But the woman set him back to running with a jolt and shouted, voice cold and clear. "She's a Winged! She's supposed to be protecting us!" Her next words were just as unmistakable as the last. "Let her deal with them!"

A made a sound that I didn't know I could make; a tight, high-pitched sort of thing. I was paralysed for a moment while I tried to understand what was happening.
The woman looked at me briefly, but there was no regret in her eyes. I wasn't from her tribe— I was a Hollow Winged, a stranger, a rival to her own tribe. She was just like everyone else here; she didn't like me, she had just needed me for the foraging. Now that was done and there was a new problem. I was the solution to that too, apparently.

"Flo!" I pleaded, but they had already disappeared into the bush.
My heart was thrumming. No- don't panic, it's fine, okay? All I had to do was fly somewhere. Easy. Don't panic. I had no idea where I was but it didn't matter. I could fly anywhere, get far away from-
"Azure?"
I turned on my heel with a hushed scream. There was no human though. Micah was staring up at my face with a look of despair on his.