Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I don't own Max, and I don't own the Flock.

Max POV:

The sun warmed my feathers as we flew in the frigid morning. We flew like this every morning, just wheeling around in the morning air. We flew in different formations, but most of the time I was on point, with Iggy on my left wing, Fang on my right, Gazzy behind Fang and Nudge behind Iggy. Angel flew directly behind me between Nudge and Gazzy. When we fly like this we kind of look like an Arrow.

It was on this morning that things started to turn interesting. I'd been having weird dreams, although, if you'd grown up dealing with what I had to go through then you would probably have weird dreams too, but these were different dreams. They included people I'd never seen before. Yet I knew they must be real. The dreams felt too real to be anything my mind would come up with. I had woken up this morning and felt like we needed to head north. Northeast. Jeb had warned us not to fly to far from home because this was the only safe haven for us. But I had been having these dreams for a while and I knew they meant something more.

I needed time to think about it. When we landed back at E-house, Iggy started on lunch and Gazzy and Nudge took charge of watching the Angel for the next half hour. I grabbed Fang's arm and led him upstairs and into my room. He looked at me with questioning eyes. "Have you been having strange dreams?" I asked him.

His shoulders moved about a twelfth of an inch but I could see the light change in his eyes. He'd been having them too. "My weren't about the – the school, though," I said, "Last night it was of this girl, she had blonde curly hair and weird gray eyes. She was telling this other kid something, but I can't remember what." He sat down on the floor by my bed and I laid down across my bed, facing him.

"My dream," he started, "my dream had this – this thing that was coming to attack. No not us." He said seeing my alarm. "Not us, but these other kids. I didn't know what it was so I looked it up earlier." He showed me a picture of this weird creature. It had the face of a women, huge wings and the haunches of a lion. Fang had scribbled the word Sphinx across the top. "She – it, whatever it is, was pacing at the crest of a hill, by some random tree with a gold blanket." He paused for a second, and we heard Iggy yelling to us that lunch was ready.

We glanced at each other and decided that we would have a flock meeting after lunch.

Lunch was the usual fun affair. Iggy had made us each 3 of our favorite sandwiches and we had a big bag of chips each. Along with a huge water bottle filled with kool-aid. After that Fang and I told the gang to head out to the flock tree, a special tree Fang and I had found one afternoon that was perfect for discussions amongst the flock.

I carried Angel up to sit with me and Fang on the top bough and the others seated themselves on a branch in front of us.

"Okay guys," I said. "I have a proposition to make."

Gazzy raised his hand, "What's a propisishin?"

I smiled briefly, "it's like an offer or a choice." He nodded. "I want to fly north-east. I think we should head out."

Nudge looked worried. "You mean go away? Like, leave E house? Like, leave the mountain? Forever?"

Fang took this question. "We may be able to come back at some point. But Max and I have a couple things that we need to answer first."

I nodded. "We need to go."

Nudge nodded slowly, and then started to get excited. "Ooh! Can we, like, go sight seeing? Can we? Or can we like go to th-"

Iggy threw his hand over her mouth. "Thanks, Ig." I said.

Gazzy smiled and said, "Sure, why not. We get to go for a long flight!"

"We'll be taking lots of breaks; food breaks, bathroom breaks, don't forget bedtime breaks. And I expect you to be on your best behavior." I said, being the mother-hen that I am.

Angel smiled, "We're going on a venture!"

I smiled at her, "Yup, we're going on an adventure. So pack up guys, we'll leave after dinner. And Ig, can I talk to you for a sec?"

I handed Angel over to Fang and everyone but me and Iggy went back to the house.

"What's up, Max?"

"Can you make some snacks for us to take? I'll get you anything we don't have that you need. But the money that – that's left won't last for very long while out in the big world."

He nodded, his sightless eyes looking thoughtful. "I'll see what I can do."

"Oh! And one more thing," I smiled. "If you can whip up a few mini bombs for safety sake, I'd be ever so grateful."

"I suppose, I might, you know, be able to be of service." He smiled an evil grin that made me worried I'd asked the wrong question.

I shoved Angel's clothes on top of mine in a backpack I'd gotten from the grocery store about 3 miles away. She was practicing her take-off's with Fang outside while I packed up what we would need. Oh the joys of playing leader/mom. I was stuffing one of Angel's stuffed dogs in a backpack small enough for her to wear when I heard mini boom coming from outside. I quickly zipped the bag up and carried them both downstairs to find out what was happening.

Setting the stuff down on the couch, I made my way out the door only to almost fall on my butt laughing. Gazzy and Iggy were smiling sheepishly at Fang who was covered in soot and his steadily-growing-longer hair was standing on end. He was glowering murderously at Iggy and the Gasman as Angel flew right into his arms. She sniffed his neck and then dropped to the ground saying, "You smell funny."

I scooped up my baby as something I've never seen happened. The ground started to shake, and the sky got a little darker. Fang seemed to calm down just a tad bit and he stormed inside muttering "gonna kill them" and then to me, "shower". He headed up the stairs into the bathroom we shared. I looked at the boys. "Okay guys, inside. You can play inside, that is, if you're finished packing?"

They looked at each other and shrugged. Then went inside behind me as I took Angel up to get her ready. I gave her a bath, not knowing when we'd be able to shower again, but hoping it wouldn't be too long.

"Max?" She said, looking up at me through drenched blond curls.

"What's up, sugarplum?"

"Why are we leaving?"

"Cause there's a few questions Fang and I need answers too." I thought about my dream.

"Who's the girl with pretty eyes?" She asked me.

"Hm? Oh, that's one of the questions I need answered. I'm not too sure who it is. But you don't need to worry about that. You just need to worry about picking the three animals you're bringing with you." She smiled and hopped out of the bath tub, She shook out her wings while I toweled her dry.

I glanced back at my flock, who were all standing around me, waiting for me to give the order to fly. I was so proud of them. Each of them had a backpack on over top of their windbreakers. I had discussed with Fang earlier where we should start. And we both decided that we should fly strictly east for about two hours and then check on the kids. I was wary of waiting that long; two hours is a long time for a seven and ten year old to fly with out a break.

So I would keep a check on my family. And make sure no Erasers were around us.

We flew and flew, Gazzy and Nudge were playing feather tag. Super fun, I must say, but I had to make sure we were headed the right way. So I flew, just enjoying the breeze and watching the fluffy white clouds. Sometimes, when I would watch them, I could feel the electricity in them. Sometimes, I could change them from fluffy white clouds to dark threatening thunderclouds. I was doing this now when Fang noticed.
Jul 05th, 6:38pm

I stopped playing with the clouds and asked him, "What was up with the funky shadow thing earlier?"

He shrugged, his version of saying, "You're guess is as good as mine."

"I almost felt like I could control them. I've never done that before." He trailed off.

I shrugged, "Maybe you've got a new ability, awesome! Check out what I can do!" I made a cloud shaped like a feather, then made it turn into a flower, then into a heart, then back into a feather. Fang looked at me. "What?" I asked.

He smiled, "A flower? A heart?"

I smacked him with a wing. And he darted away. I stared ahead, we would need to land soon; It was almost nine o'clock. I swooped down and grabbed Angel, she was starting to slow down. "I'm tired, Max." She said curling into my arms.

"I know, baby, I know," I told her, "We'll land soon."

We flew for fifteen more minutes then found the most secluded part of town right by a river. The tree's were the perfect size. Fang got a couple blankets out of his bag and spread one across a bough for Angel and me to lay on. Then placed the second one on the branch beside us. The others did the same with branches of the same tree. Before we went snoozing, we stacked fists and then they settled in for the night.

"I'll take first," I told Fang through a whisper.

"I'm gonna scope out the land real quick," Fang said jumping off.

I watched him fly away in wide swooping arcs, his wings almost as dark as the night sky above him. I knew they matched his eyes too. His deep black eyes that have just a hint of gray flecks. Not that I stare into them or anything.

Fang POV:

I wasn't ready to go to sleep, or to sit still. I don't know why. Sometime's my attention's fully functioning and I can focus for a full two hours. But lately, my attention span has been getting smaller and smaller. I pushed my self a little harder, trying to find a sign or something that would help me identify our location. I saw a sign down below and focused in. "Welcome to Onaga, KA" So we were in Kansas. That helped a little bit. I landed behind a convenience store and went in to find a map. I found what I needed quickly enough and payed the guy behind the counter a couple bucks then walked back outside.

That's when I saw them. That's when I tried to run

AN:

Hey people! So I wanted to thank my awesome Beta, SCARLET DAYDREAMER! ^_^ Major Kudos to her and all her help. (:

More to come, I promise.

~Jezi Raewin