Author's note and disclaimer are at the bottom... hope y'all enjoy!
The price of freedom is high, that you already know. But do you know, child, whether it is truly freedom you seek? Those who want freedom do not come to me without reason, but what do they have when that cause is lost?
What is freedom then?
Her wings were dark with grime and mud, blood congealing through clumps of torn feathers. This was one of the few times in her short life, she thought, that she wasn't itching to grab the nearest mirror and fix her appearance.
What's the point of- of fixing the way I look if I can't fix myself?
Nudge didn't want to move from her sprawl on the ground- besides for the throbbing in her head and the sharp pain stabbing through various parts of her body- she was quite comfortable there. And besides, if she didn't open her eyes, then she wouldn't have to expend energy on trying to fix the mess she was in.
Whatever that mess actually was.
And usually she would be talking by now, questioning, screaming, trying to figure out why in the name of Gazzy's only clean pair of pants was she here like this? Her senses, muffled as they were, still weren't picking up signs of danger, and she was content to lie there and breathe and hope her body, especially her sore back, would mend soon.
If it was any other member of the Flock, she thought, smiling humorlessly, or the Good Doctor or even Ella, he or she would be kicking butt and taking names, even if they didn't sense any danger. If it was one of them, they'd have rallied the whole Flock by now and be flying gloriously into the Montana mountains.
Did Montana even have mountains?
Point aside, they'd be, well, they'd be heroes. They'd be legends of their kind, gods of another time.
But that wasn't her. That couldn't be her. She was no Angel, and she knew what the others thought of her intelligence and physical ability.
(No matter what grades she got in school. There was only so much space on the fridge for any papers, and she'd been mostly content to stack her report cards neatly in a folder hidden underneath her purple-striped desk, tucked safely away from prying eyes. Angel, during her demon-child-vibe phase, probably had gone and seen them, that sneaky little child, she mused. Actually, Angel in any phase would have snuck into them.)
Nudge began to shiver, becoming aware of the shooting pain traveling up her right arm. No, not pain, she realized. Cold. Wet. She turned her head, groaning as her headache intensified, and took in her surroundings. She was in a cavern, a pitch-black cavern except for the fact that it was illuminated by a clear, glimmering blue pool of water. Gazing into it, Nudge saw nothing. Not a hint of fish, or rocks, or plants, or even a bottom. All she saw was deep, mesmerizing blue.
She wanted to roll over, dip the rest of her body into it. The tingling pain in her arm, she realized, was a welcome feeling. It soothed her, ran over her, made her eyes heavy lidded and her body limp.
Nudge snatched her arm out of the water, her intuition, for once, already ahead of her train of thought. There was no bottom. Oh Dear Lord, there was no bottom and I could have drowned. I could have DROWNED. I could have fell into that flipping pool and never seen the bottom and-
Okay. No. Be like Max. Be the leader. Get yourself out of here.
She slowly sat up, brushing black curls out of her eyes. Her arms and legs ached, and her back felt as if forty-three jerks had stabbed her in the back, over and over and over again. Nevertheless, Nudge ambled towards the wall, stumbling towards it for support. The pool of water gleamed, its light reflecting onto the walls of the cave, and suddenly, for a second, she was tempted to turn back and let it swallow her until she saw ahead a glimmer of daylight. If she could reach that opening before she collapsed, if she could make it out of the cave-
At least she'd be safe. Nudge had an inkling that whatever was out there was much less sinister and alluring than whatever was in that pool behind her.
Unless there's a plate of nachos out there. Alluring, but terrifying for my stomach.
Gripping at the wall, Nudge shook out her thoughts, concentrating on the painful walk ahead of her. The walk to the cave entrance was long, and it didn't help that her feet felt like they were dancing on hot-and-cold needles. Her mind fogged with pain, Nudge stopped to catch her breath, glancing behind her. The glimmer of the water-filled cavern was nearly behind her, dark shadows flickering over its reflection.
She barely gave the shadows a thought, instead choosing to hobble across the ground faster, spurred on by the distorted reflection of the pool. The entrance was nearer now, so close she could feel the cold spray of ocean wind on her skin.
Nudge reached the entrance and stumbled out upon sand, an endless expanse of gold and blue stretching out as far as her eye could see. The beach was empty, save her, and the sun was hot on her back. Her already burning back.
The pain was intensifying in her head, in her feet, in her throat, everywhere, and she knew that there was no way she would be able to fly home, wherever home was, on her own. She tried to call out for help, sniffling, but no sound came out. Over and over again, she screamed, her mouth forming silent shapes. Everything was going fuzzy and her wings-
Her wings.
Nudge grasped at her back, feeling nothing but a wet stickiness. Running her hand over the area where her wings melded into her skin, she crawled over to the water to look at her back in its reflection.
Where there should have been tawny feathers were two large slits of crimson, sinew and bone peeking through the red. Blood ran down her shoulder blades and back, forming rivulets of red dripping down into the ocean. There was nothing there. No sensation of movement, no feathers, nothing.
Her wings were gone.
A/N: Whew! So, its been a while since I've been on this site, and this is my first foray back into fanfiction! It's actually been a while since I read the Maximum Ride series, but they were my favorite books once upon a time...
Anyways, disclaimer: I do not own or intend to profit off of the Maximum Ride characters or series in any way. That cred goes to James Patterson.
So, I hope you guys liked it, and if you do, feel free to drop a review by! Constructive criticism is welcome(and highly needed, the writer has not written an actual story for around three years? Eh, some thing like that. Life, ya know? ), and if I mess up with personality/powers/characterization of the characters, please let me know! Thanks for reading, and I hope y'all have a great day!
By the way, this is multi-chaptered and will have Nudge/Iggy MUCH later XD
Also, so I saw Jeb B. on the character selection box and all I could think of was Jeb Bush? Huh? In this series?