My Guardian Stalker

Chapter 7

Flying was amazing, that's what she'd decided. Before this she'd believed that flying was horrible and only meant going away from loved ones but it wasn't half bad when it was with someone you loved. Especially when that person was the one who was doing the flying with a twenty foot span of dark navy blue wings. They had taken off from her house just five minutes before and she could already see the mountains of Colorado. Her sweater and now jeans couldn't seem to keep the cold of the wind out. And her cheeks were pink.

"God there is no way I lived here!" She shouted to him over the wind and the flapping of his wings.

A smile spread across his lips and he shook his head, "You loved the cold weather so much. You used to run around in a tribal dress that went down to your knees and no shoes. It was like strapless and stuff and you were so beautiful in it." He said as we landed on a cliff overlooking a clearing, "The minute you stepped out of your skin hut you'd get the biggest smile on your face at the feeling of the cold and we'd go hunting for the tribe. Your father was the leader and you had three older brothers, all amazing at hunting. You were his youngest child and only daughter. Then the day came for each family to enter their kids, as many as they wanted, to fight for the leadership and leading hunting parties.

"You had begged your father to be entered with your older brothers and finally your mother had convinced your father to let you. Your father had laughed and said it would never happen but in secret for months I'd been teaching you archery and you'd excelled above me in it. You'd outdone all the men in the tribe with your archery in hunting and in that one night had brought home a squirrel, a bunny, and three ten point bucks. It was impressive. You'd out done even your father himself who'd been given the crown as leader because he'd won at that. I'd fallen in love with you more everyday at our training sessions and when they were over for some reason you still kept me around. We unfortunately didn't have the chance to marry. But I loved you all the same." He sat down and she sat with him, their feet dangling over the side of the cliff.

"Down there was where your tribe lived...now its just a big clearing of dead grass. The day before your eighteenth birthday you disappeared on a hunting party and that night the tribe was out searching for you, all but the woman and children under ten and his crew came through the village and burned it down and then killed every last person of the tribe. You watched from this very ledge as they did it. I wasn't able to save any of them and when I found you up here he tore you limb from limb while I was forced to watch. You didn't get a proper burial and so I burned you like your tribe would've done and then dropped your ashes off the edge of this cliff. So they are scattered all the way down there." He pointed down there. Then he stood up and pulled her with him, taking her in his arms and he swooped down to the clearing below and glided over the grass until he got to the other side with more tree and dropped. He set her down and his wings folded up and disappeared again.

He took her hand and they started into the trees. Not too far in they came across a basket up in a tree, sticking out of it was a bow and some arrows, "On our way to the river where you first found me I just out of curiosity want to see if your still as good as you used to be."

He handed her the bow and almost on command something started growing in her and right as a bunny started hopping by she had readied her bow, aimed and shot right in its neck. "You could've just asked me if I did archery Matthew. I was the top in the school my first year here." She smiled and hitched another arrow, "Let's go."

By time they'd gotten to river she'd shot two moving birds and a deer. She was proud of herself but something different shone in Matthews eyes. He took her bow and an arrow and shot a spot in the ground.

"That's where I was laying. I'd awaken as a thirteen year old boy and you'd been twelve. I knew what was happening when I'd woken up and so as I'd done before I let my wings carry me to the area you were in, it was almost as though they always knew where you were. But I was dreading it and so I stopped there and... well let me just show you." He took her face in his hands and pressed her forehead to his.

He was flying through the air when he saw the water fall. He didn't want to do this again... not a twenty-sixth time. He stopped flying on autopilot and started for the water falls edge and nearby he could hear an Indian tribe in the trees. Maybe they would find his body. His toes felt the hard rock and could see the hard ground extremely far below. His heart raced but he just wanted the pain to end, he didn't want to do this again, ever again even if it meant a little more time with her he wanted it to stop. He just wanted to live an actually normal life with her, maybe someday though.

He tore off his t-shirt and all he had on was his shorts and he moved closer to the edge. When he toes were hanging over the side he took one deep breath and hoped his wings didn't try and stop him. Then he jumped and it was almost like slow motion watching it but for him it had been split seconds until his body hit the ground and his bones crunched and broke.

Matthew broke away from her and the flashback ended. Pain filled her eyes. She did this to him over and over again. How could he truly love her if he had already done it twenty-six times already before? She turned and ran into the trees the opposite direction of where they'd come from. She couldn't look at him and she didn't know how he managed to still be able to look at her after all this time and love her. She ran and ran until it was dark with her bow in hand and a full thing of arrows on her back. She ran until it hurt and then she kept running and finally she tripped and fell next to an extremely small stream of water. Then she just laid there and cried for hours and hours until she fell asleep.