The sun was blindingly bright as I stretched out on the rock I had fallen so comfortably asleep on. The warmth the sun had been giving off earlier this morning had be so wonderfully feeling that I just had to lay out and soak up it warmth.

How long had it been since I was outside? My skin is a sickly pale, unnatural since I usually maintain a healthy copper complexion. Not from sunning but from genetics, I was born with dark rich colored skin but now it almost looked grey.

I need to move on, leave the woods and the safety they provide. But the fact is I do not know what I am doing. I don't know allot that is for sure: like how I don't know were I am; or how I don't know how old I am; but most of all I don't know what I am.

I figure I am around 12 or 13 years old but I can't be sure. The last birthday I remember celebrating was my 11th. I was so happy; I lived in a comfortable house and had a great dad who loved me. Just thinking about my dad made me sad, Dad. My dad, who left me. left me in that cage to rot once he figured out what I was. I know I should not blame it all on her but it is hard for me to hate Dad. But Jessica, I can hate Jessica. She is the one who discovered my mutation. She is the one who had me put in the cage. She was the one who exposed my father to the monster I really was.

Jessica sold me. Sold me to a zoo featuring ancient mythical creatures, really they were just other mutants rounded up and caged for the entertainment of humans. Mutants no longer were tolerated in 2020, you either got the cure or were imprisoned. Weather it be a state prison or a zoo attraction funded by the government (to make funds for more mutant prevention research). I would take the cure in a heart beat if it would work for me but it doesn't I am immune. That's why the jails and zoos hold us, we just can't not be un-mutated.

But I escaped.

I had wings, large bulky useless wings. Wings that protruded awkwardly from my back. They were brown and down covered when they first grew in. Awkward ugly stumpy look appendages that would not be hidden under any amount of clothing.

Time lapse memories of the zoo

That's how my stepmother found me. As I tried to hide them she just continued to cruelly tell me that I was "one of those criminal freaks ". I had tried to explain that they had just appeared in the night, but she would not listen. I begged her to take me to the pharmacy to get the cure. She refused; she did not want me to infest her car with my mutated germs. My father came up stairs then to find out what on earth was causing so much of a problem. He rounded the corner of the hallway then stopped. The look in his eyes will haunt me forever. He looked at me like he was looking at some deformed creature, some mistake of the earth. But it hurt because it was me he was so disgusted with, me he could not stand the sight of, me the one he refused to touch. I reached out for him hoping that he would come to me, comfort me, help me. No he recoiled and grabbed Jessica as if to shield her from me. All that was left of me was a whisper a desperate whisper for help. He did respond to that. Taking Jessica with him the left for the pharmacy, and returned with the cure and false hope. I took it and except for the worst pain I have ever felt nothing changed.

Jessica made the call to the Mutant Control Board got the number for the zoo and started bargaining. When it was all said and done they had money for the new car they always wanted and I would spend the rest of my days in a zoo with snot nosed kids pressed up against the glass of my cage.

The man who ran the zoo, Lost Mythic Creatures, was Michael Briner . Briner had everything from mermaids to the Sasquatch, all mutants of course but people often forgot this fact. He had found over the years everyone loved a good legend especially when they were brought to life. In the wake of the Anti-mutant legislation he saw a money-making opportunity, the jails were running out of room and soon the government was hiring privet companies to contain the mutants. But in all his years he thought he had just about seen every thing till he saw her. She was perfect she would bringing in the big bucks, this one would. He could send her to private appearances he could make her his key attraction, The Fallen Angel.

"so whats ya name little lady" the fat man said to me. The way he looked at me like he was looking at a wonderfull steak scared me.

"Eudora, sir. Were are we going" I hated my name it was my fathers grandmothers name and at school I had gotten lots of crap for it.

" Well Dorry we're goin to my zoo, but first your getting some groomin for them feathers. cuase girl no one has ever seen an angel with brown dirty feathers"

I sat quietly for the rest of the trip. The only thought in my head was what did he mean by grooming?

Grooming it turns out is the horribly painful process of bleaching my feathers. My feathers, which can feel pain in fact they feel a great deal of pain. As the bleach burned my feathers I screamed, I screamed till my throat throbbed with pain but the burning continued it was like my new wings were on fire yet no amount of water extinguished the invisible flame that now ran up my back. In the course of the grooming some one had stripped me down and was now handing me a white robe similar to what a cherub might were, then I was dragged off to a door and pushed through it.

The door had been the entrance to my cage. Pillars like the ones in ancient Rome and Greece littered the floor of my cage a meadow of green soft grass was under my feet. Fountains, shrubs, and pathways were all around me seeming to go on forever. But as I walked around my enclosure I soon discovered all four walls of my cage. However beautiful it was it was still a cage. Artificial light filled the space and ethereal music played in the background. The cage would have been peaceful if it wasn't for the giant wall of glass. That's when I felt the sickness of the world. My father put me here my stepmother sold me and now I was just a creature at the zoo to be gawked at and photographed.

But out of all the bad of what had happened. That was were I met Hank.

At night we did not sleep in our enclosures we slept in kennels at the back of the in closure that is were we slept, ate, and were punished. And my kennel had connecting bars with Hank's.

I was ordered to get into my kennel I obeyed I was to scared, tried, and alone to rebel. As the door was shut I saw the huge beast that lay in the cage beside me. I could not scream, and would not. It was much better if the monster stayed asleep. But then it rolled over. I panicked pressing my self to the farthest part of my cage.

Cowering there praying the bars were strong enough to keep him out was when I heard his voice.

"What on earth are you looking at" the voice was so human so normal so non-threatening aside from it being a little grouchy sounding.

"Calm down child I am not going to eat you, for God's sake relax" it was amazing he talked the big giant beast talked.

"You…. you talk, " I stammer as I begin to relax. My curiosity started to get the best of me.

"Yes I talk. Just like you I am not some dumb creature " he said slightly annoyed.

"Sorry you just startled me…I am Eudora, what's your name sir?" I was so happy, even though he was frightening, he meant I wasn't alone.

"Senator Hank McCoy" he said proudly "or I should say former Senator, current Sasquatch or Bigfoot of this vile zoo"

"Wow you were a senator. That's crazy why would they lock you up here if you were some one as well known as a senator?" he looked at me amused.

"Well kid the anti-mutant legislation was passed I was accused of crimes I had not committed then I was put in a national prison but after 4 years was moved to this hell hole." he then started to look at me more curiously." How old are you anyways"

"11 and a half" I said a little overly proud of my double-digit age.

"They're locking your generation pretty young. Did they give you the cure at least first?"

"Yeah they gave me the cure but it didn't work, so my dad and stepmom sent me here" I said even I heard the pain in my voice Hank was quite for a moment then with the most boisterous jolly tone he could muster under these most depressing conditions said " Would you Like to hear the story of Charles Xavier's X-Men?"

Hank was incredible. He had been through so much history and new the real stories of what actually happened.