Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I was so happy. I'm glad people already started reading my sequel! Also, I wanted to say this; some people reviewed pleading for Iggy to get his chance at love. I promise you, he will. I already know what's going to happen and have the character planned out, so no ideas or anything; they'll go to waste. But I also promise you, it's gonna be a HUGE surprise!
And to the person who reviewed wondering where the sad sob-stuff was? Just two words for ya; it's coming. Maybe not in this chapter, or the next, but very soon.
And thanks to you who reviewed saying the zebra was cool. Wanna know where my idea for Zebry came from? Me. Yeah. Zebry is my own stuffed zebra, the first stuffed animal I ever received. And yes, I'm in my mid-teens and I still sleep with him every night… I'll tell him he has fans :)
Disclaimer: don't own. (I'm bored of saying that)
Angel POV
We all gathered in a large circle. The Flock has certain rules when playing Tag; in fact, we sort of have our own version of the game. You see, a while ago we discovered that, when playing alone, certain people---cough me cough---had certain advantages and would win practically every time. Whereas other people---cough Iggy cough---had certain disadvantages and would practically never win. Therefore, we decided to play Tag in teams.
The way we picked teams was simply by forming a circle and shouting out one person you wanted to be on a team with. You didn't have to shout out, but you could.
For instance, me and Nudge chose someone almost every time, whereas Fang had never chose anyone as far as I can remember.
"Okay, mom, Ella, we'll put you on opposite teams so it's fair. Which of you want to be on my team?"
"Me!" Ella shouted, jumping over to stand by Max.
"Okay, then. One… two… three…"
Nudge looked as if she was eagerly awaiting the game, but I could tell she wasn't about to call a name. One of the few times she held back. In fact, from what I could hear, the only one other than me planning to choose someone was Max.
There was a pattern when choosing people; Fang never chose, and Iggy almost never did. I think he had chosen Gazzy and me once or twice before. Gazzy chose less often than me and Nudge, and mostly only chose me or Iggy. Nudge almost always chose Max and Fang, and I had only ever chose Max, Nudge, or Gazzy. Max usually chose Fang and me.
No one except Gazzy had ever picked Iggy.
So you can imagine the surprise and happiness I heard in his mind when Max and I both shouted "Iggy!" simultaneously.
"It's decided then," Max said smiling, grabbing Iggy's and my forearms and dragging us over beside her and Ella. "Now, we get ten minutes to set up battle strategies and hide. Exactly ten minutes. On your mark… get set… go!"
Max rushed off, dragging Ella and Iggy behind her and leaving me to run after them.
She stopped about half a mile into the forest, breathing lightly, though her little sister was gasping.
"I… am not… cut out… for this," Ella choked as she tried to take in gulps of air.
Max laughed.
"Okay, so plan… Angel, I want you to go lay in the lake. Anyone passes by, you wait until there is no way for them to get out of the way in time, then you jump up and get them."
"Aye aye, cap'n," I cheered, saluting smartly. Iggy smirked.
"What about me?" Ella asked eagerly, apparently having regained her breath.
Max looked at her for a moment. "I think it's a mutual silent agreement for no one in the Flock to try to tag you. You wouldn't stand a chance."
"Hey!" she protested ineffectively.
"So, how about you go hide somewhere and try to get mom? If you see anyone else, broadcast their location to Angel and she'll give it to either me or Iggy."
Ella nodded.
"What about me?" Iggy asked softly. He was now wondering why the heck me and Max wanted to be with him.
"Because we love you, Iggy," I said out loud. He turned his surprised face in my direction. Now he was wondering why that never caused us to want to before.
"I know, it's our fault, not yours. I'm sorry we never did it earlier."
Ella and Max were looking back and forth between us with confused expressions on their faces.
"What?" Ella asked.
"Nothing," Iggy muttered.
"Well, Iggy, let's just say we'll be doing a bit of evil masterminding of our own," Max answered his previous question slyly. "Let me just say, we're going to need to use your gift."
Iggy scowled at that, and Max sighed sympathetically.
"Really, Iggy, there's no need to act that way. We're all completely jealous."
"Of what? That I'm a mutant freak?" he muttered.
"Yeah, that's totally it. We're all jealous that we don't have wings and stuff like you do," Max drawled sarcastically, elbowing him. "No, silly! You've only got the best power out of all of us! Except maybe Angel."
"That's right, because even if you're all-knowing, I can just get the answers from your mind," I added sweetly.
"Yeah, thanks." Iggy grins lopsidedly.
That's when we heard and explosion from a way to our left.
"Oh, shoot!" Max cursed. "Ten minutes up! Okay, you two, go do your stuff!"
Max POV
I don't know what it is about Iggy, but something had happened in the past few months that… just made me closer to him. I feel like he's more my best friend now than even Fang. I feel like… like I can trust him with anything, even the life of the Flock. And that he'd give anything to ensure that trust never wavers.
Plus, he's just so fun to be around! I was worried when we first got back; he was sullen and withdrawn. But eventually he became… well, himself again. Angel said it's because he accepted that everything he went through was a dream. I still can't believe he got over it again so fast enough to be happy.
But now, him and I were rushing through the forest in search of a large tree. To be more specific, the large tree that him and I had found a week-or-so previously.
And we found it.
Said tree was huge. I'm talking huge. As in about-one-half-times-taller-than-all-the-rest huge. Plus---and here's the awesome part---it's hollow.
That's right. Hollow as a rotten log.
Thing is, though, said tree only has one way to get into it. And the only person who knows is me and Iggy.
Iggy was the one who actually discovered it. We were flying once when, quite randomly, he fell and crashed through the branches. He landed half-in, half-out (and to all those who are actually wondering, it was the bottom half that was sticking out) of a hole in the top of one of the largest branches.
That's when we found out that the branch was hollow, and led like a tunnel down to the trunk. Inside was a veritable network of other tunnels from the biggest branches, as well as the rather large room that was the trunk. There were even holes, barely noticeable from the outside, with which one---to be specific, actually, only me---could look out and spy. Iggy, at least, could press his ear to it and listen out.
So the two of us began to climb the tree.
Iggy made it up first, and once he reached the opening he dived in. Momentarily his legs simply flailed in the air for a moment until he pulled them in behind him. I laughed a bit, but once it was my turn I realized that I probably looked even less graceful then him---and he was, what, six-foot-four?
After we'd crawled all the way down the small passage, we dropped softly to the bottom of the trunk. The ground was soft and coated with moss, lichen, and fungi. It smelled rather musty, but that was fine.
"Hey, Igs," I muttered. "What's the probability of any one of the other team crossing by here?"
"Well," Iggy started after a moment. "We're about a mile from the start of the forest, due south-east from Dr. Martinez's house. This tree is approximately three-quarters of a mile away from the lake, and is ideally surrounded by a thick cover of bushes and other trees. Not much light shines down in this part of the forest."
"Yeah, and..?"
"I'd say about an eighty-three percent chance of Fang coming this way, twenty-four of your mom, sixty-eight for Gazzy, and forty-three for Nudge."
I nod. "Okay. So, what about the probability of just someone coming this way?"
A pause. "Ninety-eight point two three."
I nod again. "Sure. Now we wait."
So we waited.
Until we heard a crunching of dead leaves being stepped on outside.
And we tensed, ready for our first 'out.'
Yay! Second chapter done! Love all you splendiferous readers. Oh, and on my profile I have a poll on which of my fanfics peeps want me to concentrate on most. Go vote. I've only got, like, two so far.
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