A/N: And so it goes. It's been years since I sat at the keyboard and typed for something that I wanted to do. An update, if any of you reading have read any of my fics before: I graduated with my Associate's Degree in Library Technical Assisting, I followed that up with my Bachelor's of General Studies. I'm working at my library's Tech Services Department receiving materials and programming barcodes. I've married my high-school sweetheart and we live in a comfortable 2 bedroom apartment with our 2 cats. I've been wanting to write for years. I have ideas scratched out on a notepad I keep by my bed, but honestly have been almost afraid to type again. I'm hoping that this story goes over well and I haven't lost my ability to write like I used to. Sorry this is forever long, but I felt like I owed an explanation for the lapse in stories. We'll see how this goes!
Disclaimer: I'm not James Patterson
Max POV
"MOOOOOOOOOOM!"
"Your daughter's awake." Fang grumbled next to me.
"I could totally pull a Lion King and quote Mufasa and say before the sun rises she's your daughter." He shot me a glare that said get-your-butt-out-of-bed-and-get-Phoenix-but-I-love-you-for-your-groggy-morning-humor, and rolled over and pulled the covers back over his head.
I rolled out of bed in the humid Peru morning air and shuffled to the other room where Phoenix was already sitting up and playing quietly with her stuffed animals. A pang of memory hits me when I correlate this exact scene with one from nearly six years earlier of my baby Angel lying in a bed packed to the brim with stuffed animal friends. Phoenix of course picked up on this immediately.
"Morning Momma, why are you sad?"
"Never! I'm never sad when I get to see your beautiful face! I'll still never understand how you became such a morning-girl compared to your daddy and I, but here we are!"
Phoenix chuckled and leaped into my arms. "Is Angel coming over to play again today?"
"I can't think of her having much else to do today, so probably."
"And we can fly and swim and dance!?" Phoenix's entire little body quivered with uncontrollable excitement.
"That's the plan!"
"YAAAAAAAAAAAY!"
The world has begun its healing process, resilient and strong as before, but it's been less than a decade, and nothing in nature can recover that quickly. We've been fortunate enough to salvage some plants and begin our own little self-sustaining garden of sorts. In the beginning it was just us and a handful of stragglers. Over the last few months though, Iggy and Gazzy have set smoke signals miles away from our shores, in an attempt to attract more lifeforms that may be of use to us, as well as in need of refuge we could provide. The trek from Russia to here was not an easy one, but we made it.
As for Phoenix, she is of course loved by all. Her fair olive skin was so pale coming out of the caves she called home for the first five years of her life that I was afraid she would burn to a crisp in the Southern Hemisphere's relentless sun. But, true to her DNA, she glows with a gorgeous tan. She's a spitting image of her father: blackish purple wings and dark hair. The one main thing she got from me is the attitude, unfortunately, and my brown eyes the color of un-barfed up chocolate. It's still unclear if she has inherited any of our….abilities. She's never been tested on, but we have. So the question is still there as to whether or not things like that can be passed down from parent to child. That's one of the primary purposes behind Angel and Phoenix's flight time together. Angel's attuned to these sorts of things, so we're hoping that by interacting with her in various settings and activities that we'll get our answer someday.
To be honest there's a lot that we don't know. We had the advantage of having our Flock before, so we knew how to survive, how to grow together. But this starting from scratch thing with a baby? It's challenging. Our morning routine was pretty much this: mock-argue over who got to get out of bed first and get Phoenix, dress the little booger, and make our way to the food prep area and begin making breakfast. We'll attempt some kind of schooling I'm sure, when the time is right that is. Between the Flock and the group of friends we have now we could probably close to cover all bases.
For now we are taking it a day at a time, doing our best and living primarily off of a fruit, veggie, and sea life diet. Today should be a normal day, probably a bunker day in which the boys go off in search of underground bunkers that may be teeming with leftover supplies (thank you doomsday preppers and the government!), Angel and Total and Phoenix will spend the day on the beach, while Nudge and I play harvesters and monitor our growing food preserve.
At least, I had hoped it would be a normal day, until Angel appeared at the door and screamed, "PHOENIX NO!"
And that's when I turned to see Phoenix unsuspectingly reaching right for the flaming grill for her piece of breakfast.
To be continued…
A/N: It's late now, so I'll wrap it up here, let me know what you guys think: should I continue or try something else? Writing a story after the world has ended is an interesting task lol.
~hawkstar2