It all began one late evening, when it was raining cats and dogs for about the entire day. My parents were running through the forests like animals, panting and coughing up small specks of blood that ran down my face from time to time. They wouldn't speak at all, it was as if all they could do was pull me when my legs felt tired. When we did stop, they were still silent, as if listening for a sound or voice I could not hear.
I wanted to say something, to break the silence, but I felt terrified when I looked into their eyes. They were... how you say, expressionless, and it petrified me so much. Slowly, we started to walk, for the sake of my mother and either my new baby brother or sister. I was slightly glad and excited at the same time, I seriously wanted a brother though.
I was smiling when it happened, that spilt second when everything changed. My father's whole body threw itself onto the floor, the smell of blood mixing with the damp world beneath my feet. My eyes looked at my hand, to only watch what used to be my father's hand still holding onto me. Immediatly, I threw it back to his body, which was slowly disintergrating into dust.
My mother screamed to run, but being a seven-year old, I was frozen with fear with the huge monster in front of me. I'm not kidding, it was humongous, with a body like a dog or even a wolf. His yellow eyes stared down at me, and smiled a smile full of malice. My mother, despite her overly-large stomach with my future sibling, threw herself onto the beast. She began to choke him when I unfroze and started running. But then, I stopped for a moment to turn back to her, almost making my way back to her.
"Mother! Let go!" I screamed, tears of fear rolling down my cheeks as every word came out.
She only looked towards me, and smiled a gentle smile as she was being thrown around like a rodeo clown. Her head shook side-to-side, which made me resist the urge to go back to her even more. Without warning, another beast appeared and pulled her right off, but she landed softly into someone's waiting arms.
"Run! Fly and be free like you were meant to!" I heard her say to me, even though her lips were not moving.
I nodded, turning my back to her and started to run again towards only-god-knows-where. My ears heard them behind me, going faster and faster without stopping. Abruptly, I fell to the floor, blood gushing out from a fresh gash on my leg. The one that stared me down caught up to me, panting as he reached down. I closed my eyes for a moment, ready to give into his grasp. But, all I heard was a yelp and the sounds of someone being pulled down... forcefully.
Stunned, I opened my eyes to see who helped me, but then the person just grasped my hand. He easliy lifted me off the ground and stared angrily at me. the boy was no older than me, but at the time, I thought he looked so much older than what he really was.
"What are you waiting for? We have to leave now." He insisted, pulling me along even though my leg was in no condition to move.
Sighing bitterly, he lifted me up like a princess, and started running towards the sky. At first, all I could see was trees, but then the clearing appeared, showing off what looked like a cliff. A fairly large cliff as a matter of fact. And beneath that cliff... was thousands of giant trees with a few pointy rocks nearby.
"Get ready." Was all he said before the cliff edge got closer and closer to us within the minute.
The beats were still following us, with white foam forming around the corner of their mouths. Nodding to him, I angled myself against his body, ready to take the jump. Right before he jumped, he pushed me into the air with a burst of energy.
With a great smile, I opened my wings and the sudden gush of wind pushed me up into the sky. The young boy was right behind me, smiling a little at our clean excape. But I like to think, he was smiling because of that huge gale just like me. The beasts, angered at our escape, stopped at the edge and watched us in the sky. They waited until we were out of sight, glaring right into the sky. We hid in the clouds, watching them as slowly became normal-looking people. Two of them looked like young adults, with a bit of gray growing into their hairline. But the one from before turned into a boy, just like me and my mysetious savior. Noticing me, he waved up towards the sky and smiled maliciously at me.
Being a child, all I could do was stick out my tounge, and for added measures, my middle finger. My new friend started laughing, his voice echoing through the clouds toward the ground. After two seconds, I joined in as well, sneering a bit at the boy. Without another word, we pushed with the wind, and towards the early morning sun. For a good while, neither of us spoke to one another. Finally, as the sun grew stronger, indicating it was somewhat late morning, did he say something to me.
"What now?"
I looked over to him, but pondered silently about what we needed to do. I debated against landing for the moment, but we would have to land soon or else my leg would lose all it's blood. We HAD to deal with the healing process first before anything else. Then next, we would have to find a way to survive for ourselves without adults meddling in our affairs. But I decided the easiest thing first, just to get us started.
"Change our names?" I squeaked out, a sensation stopping me from actually talking normal.
"Sounds good. What are they now?" He asked me again, his black hair and dark wings glistening in the sun's bright rays.
"...Fang. Fang is your new name." I smiled softly, thinking about the smile I saw from earlier.
He had pearly-white teeth, and he did have little fangs that you only saw when he smiled. I looked away, waiting for him to say something out loud. I didn't even care if he said it was stupid, or why I couldn't think of something better.
"I like it."
I stopped mid-way, just to look at his face and gawk in shock. Surprised that I stopped, he too ceased to fly and came back to me. He waited a moment for me to say something, softly brushing my arm to wake me up.
"You... you like it?"
"Yeah. I do, is there a problem?"
I blushed momentarily, and shook my head a thousand times before looking back at him. He smirked a little again, sticking out his hand for me to take it.
"And you? What's your name now?"
"...Maximum. Maximum Ride."
"It's very nice to meet you then, Max." Fang said to me, just as my hand met his for the second time.
I didn't want to tell him, but his hand was so warm and big, it nearly made me cry. My mother and father were gone, and my baby brother or sister would probably be hurt... or worse. But for some reason, I didn't want that moment to disappear just yet. Silently agreeing with me, he started to casually glide with me in tow. The wind easliy picked up and pushed us along until we slowly fell back to earth.
From then on, we continued to find people just like us, before anything else like what I went through could happen ever again. And on the side, I started searching for any sign of my mother and brother. Sadly, nothing about either of them appeared, but luckily, we found new people to add to our makeshift family. The family, that consisted of me, Fang, and our new brothers and sisters, flew from then on toward a new adventure. All together, we looked for reasons why we were being targeted, why we were who we were. But as the time went on, we grew accustomed to living in secret, trying to find others like us. Maybe... one of these days, we will be able to live openly in civilization...
Together in pure happiness.