Fang's View
Song
Normal
"Speaking"
'Thinking'
'Accented'
Maximum Ride:
Lost without you
Chapter 2
We arrived back at the house thirty minutes after we had left it. Neither Dr. Martinez nor Ella would be back for another couple of hours and we were both restless.
"I'm worried about the rest of the flock and I can't stand just sitting around any longer!" Max suddenly burst out. I had been thinking the same thing.
"Then lets go. We'll leave a message for Dr. Martinez and Ella. I can't stand this either."
"All right!" Her smile was radiant and as we took off to reunite with our family she shone with delight.
The next two hours sped past, we spent them talking and teasing one another, Max was getting better at it too. We had just spotted the Hawk Cave when we were surrounded by dozens of birds' wings. The flock, plus a couple of hawks as escorts. The instant we touched down the flock threw itself into Max's arms, I wasn't exactly the touchy-feelie type and the kids knew this. They fought for Max's attention; each one's voice rising above another's only succeeding in distorting all of their words.
"All right everybody. Stop. All of you!" Everyone stopped immediately. "Okay. Now one at a time."
Nudge asked the questions that were at the top of all of their minds. "Where were you and what happened? What took you so long? What's in the bag and why is Fang all bandaged up?" She said this all in a single breath and was about to continue.
"Nudge. Do I get to answer the questions?" Max broke in before she could say any more. "We were at Dr. Martinez's. We stayed there so that Fang could heal himself. While we were there we went shopping and got some new clothes. We bought about five sets for all of you. And as for your other questions. I don't know. Fang will have to answer them for all of us." They all turned to stare at me. I was standing silently at the mouth of the cave staring down at a group of people. It was what the woman held in her hand that had caught my attention. It was a ghastly apparatus with grisly metal teeth; it had the look of something meant to kill. It was meant to do exactly that. I was thrown back into the horror of the day I had gotten my wounds.
I was scouting out the woods, finding where the closest clean water source was and what was edible around our new cave. I wasn't watching or paying any attention to my surroundings though that had gotten me into trouble before. But it was a beautiful day; the sky was a clear, bright blue. The forest was peaceful; there was only a breath of wind, and you could hardly tell that it was still winter for spring was in the air. I wasn't expecting anything, just walking and dreaming. Yes I admit it I was dreaming. I walked slowly enjoying the day, and my dawdling steps were the only thing that saved me. I hadn't even touched the ground when the trap sprung stabbing itself into my leg mercilessly grinding its way into me, shattering the bone. I fell headlong and landed with a face plant into the dirt. I was helpless, the horrible mechanism was firmly embedded and though I struggled to pry its teeth out it would not loosen. Blood flowed freely across the forest floor and the earth greedily soaked it up. I stayed in that position for what seemed an eternity before I even tried to pry it loose for a second time. I was disoriented by that time and couldn't think straight enough to even understand my own thoughts, still by some fluke I fought myself free. With my mind still in chaos I forced myself to stand and shouldering my way through the brush fell over the edge of the cliff I had previously been searching for. I tumbled down the slope unable to halt my progress down the ridge. I had not folded my wings in and the rocks shredded and tore at them. And with every jarring bounce pain seared through my body. A blissful blackness overtook me before I reached the bottom.
I gradually came back to reality and found myself again staring at the party, it had only been a moment, but this time I saw something that pained me even more. Before I had only noticed the monstrous device, but now I saw the kids, the winged kids, following the man while the woman still holding the trap trailed them.
The rest of the flock stood like sentries staring at me, aware of my conflicting emotions. "The explanation will have to wait. Look." I pointed the group out to the others. They understood immediately and a single glance confirmed what our plan of action was to be. We threw ourselves from the cave and flying in tight formation we plummeted towards the earth.
The plan was simple, in theory at least. My job was to get the kids out of harm's way; Max and the others would distract the two adults. Neither of the boys wanted to fight the woman, saying it was against their code. So Max was to get the man with Gazzy to back her up, and Nudge and Angel were going to gang up on the woman with Iggy watching over them. I didn't like the plan very much, but Max was in charge and she said I was still too wounded. 'Great I get to be Mr. Gimpy, and take care of the little imps.' The other five landed in front of the adults while I snuck behind them to reach the kids. They were a ragged bunch; the oldest one was only ten, maybe eleven. She reminded me somewhat of Max, their hair was the same golden blond, and the same stubbornness was clearly visible in the young girl's eyes. The next oldest one was blind like Iggy, and the youngest two were twins, a boy and a girl both tiny little things. The last one looked to be the older girl's brother. "Come on!" I commanded and gestured, indicating that they should follow me. They just stood there, confusion written on their faces. "What are you waiting for? You've got to get out of here." I whispered miffed at their unwillingness. "Come on," And began to drag the new flock away. We were only a couple of feet away from a bend that would have gotten us out of sight when I heard a scream.
'Max!' I reacted instantly, spinning on my heals, and frantically searching for Max. Gazzy was the one who had shouted. He had been trapped in some sort of net and Max was struggling to free him. The man she had been fighting was descending upon them both, and something small in his hand glinted for just a second as a ray of light hit it. Iggy and the two girls were too far away to help them and were busy with their own fight anyway. I sprinted towards them, but I was too late.
"Max!" My voice was ragged, more a ghost's wail of anguish than a human sound. She collapsed in slow motion each second that ticked by seemed like a hundred lifetimes. I reached Max, and shoving the man into a tree trunk with all my might cradled her in my arms for a minute before turning to Gazzy. I freed him, leaving the net in tatters and choked out. "Up and away. Up and away." They obeyed instantly, I was about to take off too when a sharp object shoved its way into my leg just above my knee. Darkness clawed at the edges of my vision and as I dropped a sense of failure overwhelmed me. Both flocks were still there.
I awoke to find myself in a small room bare of anything but the bed I was sprawled out on. I instinctively searched the room for ways to escape; there were none. The walls were made up of thick heartwood timber, and no window broke the rough reddish-brown expanse. I gazed doubtfully at the door. It was of the same material as the walls, but didn't look quite as intimidating. I sighed "I guess it's my only chance." I stood quickly and readied myself. Then I was hurtling directly at the door. Time and time again I flung myself at it, and a single thought repeated itself over and over inside my head. 'Max.' I didn't care how many times I had to batter at the door. I would get through. And each time I crashed into it my heart pulsed harder and faster. Max was on the other side of the door and I would get to her. My world narrowed the only thing I saw was my one way of escape.
"Max?" Angle's terrified voice, a faint whisper, sounded in my head.
"Angel?" My horrified voice seemed loud to my unexplainably sensitive ears. "Did something happen?" Comprehension dawned upon me. "They caught you."
"They've captured everybody. Iggy and Gazzy are still intoxicated by whatever they had in that needle. Nudge was just brought in and Fang…I don't know. I can't get inside his head. He seems to be alright though." Her voice was panicked and was almost hysterical.
"What's the situation?" My voice also threatened to show my own terror.
"Well, we're all in different rooms, but still in the same building or at least the same general area. I could find them if I had to, but I don't know where we are." She was still frightened, but her voice slowly became calm again.
"What about the people? Can you tell what they're thinking."
Silence prevailed and I could imagine Angel's face twisted in a look of total concentration. "Max? I don't think they don't mean us any harm!" Surprise colored her voice. "They want to help us! They kidnapped us because they thought that we needed their help like the other winged kids. I think we can trust them. Max? What should we do?"
A smile came to my lips. "I have a plan." Gingerly I stood up still unsure of my ability to keep my feet under me, then taking one step at a time I made my way over to the door. I stood before it for a moment unsure. 'What if I'm wrong? What if this only brings their attention back to us? What if they're part of the School?' I gulped and taking a chance knocked on the door. Each rap reverberated throughout my entire body and thundered in my head like a drum. My door inched open to reveal a woman's face that reflected all my feelings.
"Hi. My name is Max." My voice trembled uncontrollably, but I achieved what I was going for.
"Hello?" Her voice mirrored mine just as her face had. She took a deep breath and forced her voice into a calmer more confident tone. "Are you hungry? Do you need anything?"
"Yes. I'm hungry but first I need to check on my flo—siblings first." My gaze was steady if my voice wasn't and she got the point.
"Of course! By the way I'm Frannie. Frannie O'Neill." And she opened the door wider and ushered me out. Then she began leading me along a short, warm brown hallway scattered with pictures and photos, most of them depicting the other winged kids, but an occasional one showed strangers. The first door we stopped at looked just like mine, a plain wood door the color only a tiny bit darker than the surrounding walls. It opened to reveal the hunched form of Angel; she flung herself at me tears streaming from her eyes. She, though mature for her age was still just six years old.
"Hey Angel. Come on. Let's go get the rest of our family." I murmured into her ear after her tears had slowed to a trickle. One by one the flock was reunited, Gazzy and Iggy had a few problems with walking at first and Nudge was still inert, she was awoken with much fussing. The last door we came to bulged and had started to crack straight down the middle and a persistent and rhythmic sound of thunder came from behind it. It must have been a very sturdy door to hold up to Fang's unyieldingly furious determination. The second I heard him ram into the door yanked it open to a furious Fang already inches from my face. We toppled and rolled, my head still feeling the effects of the drug misted over. I found myself sitting on top of a slightly amused, but mainly confused and surprised Fang.
"Hi." It was the only word that would come to my bewildered mind. Then when I had regained my senses I gloated, "I win."
"…This is a game?"
"Is now." My retort came seconds before he shifted trying to sit up, his thoughts plain on his face. I knew exactly what he wanted to do. "Nuh uh. No you don't. If I let you do that you'll win." I shoved my finger into his chest, pushing him back down, and tried to pout. I leaned back, and at that moment, when I was unbalanced as I was going to get, Fang surged up rolling me over onto my back.
"I win anyway." A smile tugged at his lips but he had seen the rest of the flock and resisted the urge. Standing up he offered me his hand. I was up on my feet before the surprise rekindled in his eyes. "What is she doing here?" He demanded indicating Frannie.
"She's the one who let us out."
"What?" He was incredulous. "What do you mean she let us out? She was the one who imprisoned us in the first place." He didn't even try to keep his voice down.
"Fang! She has a name! It's Frannie. She doesn't mean us any harm. She thought we needed help."
"Well she was wrong." Something strange was up with Fang. He never spoke more than was necessary. It was a speech for him if he actually voiced a complete sentence. 'I'll have to figure it out later. He wouldn't tell me in front of the flock much less a stranger. Dang! I hate not knowing. It's got to be important if he's acting like this!" I sighed softly so that no one would notice. I failed in this task. Fang heard and glanced at me questioningly.
We were invited to dinner. I wanted to refuse but the rest of the flock, Fang not included, wanted to stay. They liked Frannie. I could see why. She cared for nature. She was a veterinarian, and treated any kind of sick or hurt animal to come her way. We were in her animal hospital; it was called the Inn-Patient. She was compassionate and unwavering in her determination to do what was right. There was something you just couldn't help but love about her. Maybe it was the way her eyes sparkled with humor or how her smile seemed to be for you alone and say that you were someone special. We all liked her, yes, even Fang and myself with our incredibly paranoid nature.
We were led to a room with a large rectangular wood table of a much darker hue than the rest of the house. There we dined with Frannie, and the man that had accompanied her, the other kids. The oldest one was Max, Maximum Ride just like me, and her brother Matthew, a smaller version of her, were the leaders. Four others completed their flock, Icarus blind and suspicious, Ozymandis, or Oz, bold and brave at the age of seven, and Wendy and Peter, the youngest, twins and exact duplicates of each other. The food was heavenly, Frannie told us that it was the man, Kit…Tom, I wasn't quite sure which of those was his real name, who had cooked and claimed that if we ever had to eat one of her preparations she would pity us. Frannie and Kit were amazingly composed in the face of our appalling manners, and habits. Somehow we ended up agreeing to spend the night, and we were led to adjacent rooms, I ended up in the room where I had been held captive. Fang though was shown to the room right next to mine, as the one he had inhabited before looked as if a tornado had hit, only worse.
A hushed knock sounded at my door and a muffled voice filtered through. "Can I come in?" I scrambled to open the door so that I wouldn't disturb the others. The household was utterly silent and the rest of the inhabitants were sound asleep.
"Why are you up so late?" I knew why, but I needed to hear him admit it.
He shifted uncomfortably. "You already know."
"Tell me why." I had to hear it.
"I can't trust them." His eyes held mine with their intensity.
"Why can't you?"
"It's not just them I can't trust, I can't trust anyone, except the flock! Our whole life we have run from any human contact, we talked to hardly any and trusted even fewer. I–I just…can't." He turned away ashamed.
His eyes were filled a pain deep enough to wound any and an uncertainty. In that one instant he was vulnerable. I had never seen him like that and I couldn't stand. I went to him, wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my face in his chest. "It's okay. We have each other. The flock will always be our family. We don't need anything else." I stood there, my arms wrapped around him, simply showing him I loved him. I did. I loved him more than anything. He and the flock were everything to me.
"It was the mechanism she had in her hand." He spoke softly, almost as if he was speaking to himself and unaware I was still there. I froze afraid to move even to breathe. "It was that thing that did this to me." He seemed to be indicating his injuries. "I've seen it before too. Around the forest, usually on the hidden forest trails used only by animals meant to catch and kill animals. Not for food, or in self defense, or even for warmth but for the skins themselves, so they can hang them up on their walls and boast." Bitterness crept into his voice. "It was bad enough when they killed animals fairly, or at least as fairly as it can get, but traps?" His breath shook as he sighed. "I thought she was one of them; one of the people to set those traps, I know she isn't now but…still I can't let it go." He glanced down at me and blushed, he had forgotten. "I'm sorry."
He tried to pry my arms away, but I resisted. "Nuh-uh. You're not allowed to leave." He smiled sweetly, but there was a sadness to it. He couldn't fool me anymore.
"Okay."
We left at dawn the next day. The entire flock frolicked in the warm sunshine. Spring had finally come and we were happier than we had been in weeks. I continuously glanced back at Fang, he was as stoic as ever, and he never once met my gaze. I took that to mean that he didn't want to discuss the night before. I really couldn't blame him either it was filled with humiliation, we hadn't told the rest of the flock about our date and our new boyfriend/girlfriend status either. I didn't plan on telling them soon.
"Max!" A scream came from Gazzy's direction. Instinct took over and I was there in a split second. Gazzy had been the cause of the scream, I could tell just by looking at him. He fidgeted nervously, and he attempted a convincing innocent smile. Needless to say it didn't work.
"What have you done now?" I couldn't blame him, it was a beautiful day and it was a great time to get rid of all of the extra energy we had acquired.
Nudge answered for him. "Max he was dropping bombs! In mid-air he almost hit Angel and Total!" I glanced at Gazzy questioningly. His sheepish smile was answer enough.
"Gazzy please try to behave yourself."
The next few hours were similarly spent. Me trying to catch Fang's eyes and the rest of the flock preoccupying each other with their antics. We finally reached the Hawk Cave at about noon, and instantly fell asleep.
Weeks passed filled with their normal lazy days. And not once did they think of the other flock or the two adults caring for them. Of at least most of the flock didn't. Fang wasn't most though, and I with my sense of intuition figured this out. I too couldn't help but think of the happy family on the other side of the border. The other flock was well taken care of, you could tell that in the way their eyes sparkled and how they were always smiling. And I wondered what it would be like to have a real family. I liked the other Max, she was stubborn and brave and there was something irresistibly charismatic about her. The other kids were adorable, and reminded me so much of our little family that I couldn't help but love them. We were happy here in the Hawk Cave but at times I remembered the comfort and joy back with Frannie, Kit, and the other flock. At times I would find Fang also lost in thought and despite the fact that he wouldn't tell me I knew he was thinking of them as well. I, also, had started to get the feeling that my flock was also remembering them. And so I struggled with the idea of going back.
I was saved the problem of deciding one day by an unexpected visit of the younger Max and her siblings. We ushered them in excitedly showing off our place to crash. And a wonderful day of festivity and flying commenced. But every day comes to an end and when all but Max had taken to the air she hesitated.
"Come with us…" Max finally pleaded. "Frannie and Kit were so distressed when they found you had disappeared. They searched for days fearful and anxious. They've all but given up hope…they don't know that we visited you today, but…. They care, they really do, and it would be so great if you would come. Please." Her words were so rushed that I could just barely understand them.
I wanted to so much. But…. "I can't make that decision alone." I turned to my family and every eye there rested on me filled with hope and longing. I understood perfectly. "What do you think?" Their answers were simultaneous and needed no interpretation. Cries of joy and affirmation echoed back from the cave walls. Angel and Gazzy threw themselves at me shrieking jubilantly and Nudge's mouth started going a hundred miles per minute. Iggy barely containing his excitement whooped and shook his head up and down like a dog wagging its tail. Fang's response was the barest of nods but I at the least could tell that he too was overjoyed.
And so we flew.
Several stargazers were out that night beneath the beautiful, full moon that shone like spun silver. They would always remember that night. Now, twenty years later they could still recall the slightest detail of that beautiful star lit scene. Twelve celestial beings flying in perfect harmony with each other like the music of the heavens, a dance of ethereal beauty, poetry of the skies. They shimmered like the stars. And two voices rising forever heavenward in song.
"Mysterious, that's what I'd call you
I'm curious about you
I'm sacred and I'm not sure that you are safe
But your eyes seem to say that you are good
This is not a dream that I'm livin'
This is just a world of your own
You took me from all that I knew
Shown me how if feels to hope
With you, with me, facing tomorrow
Together I can learn fly
Feels like I'm living in the lion's mouth
But the lion is an angel
Wise eyes, you see the core of me
Your gentleness, melts me
And now I know that words cannot describe
The power that I feel when I'm with you
This is not a dream that I'm livin'
This is just a world of your own
You took me from all that I knew
Shown me how if feels to hope
With you, with me, facing tomorrow
Together I can learn fly
Feels like I'm living in the lion's mouth
But the lion is an—
Peace and power, love forever
Who am I to stand before you
I am speechless, and in my weakness
You are here and all—is—well
You took me from all that I knew
Shown me how if feels to hope
With you, with me, facing tomorrow
Together I can learn to fly
Feels like I'm living in the lion's mouth
But the lion is an—
This is not a dream that I'm livin'
This is just a world of your own
You took me from all that I knew
Shown me how it feels to hope
With you, with me, facing tomorrow
Together I can learn to fly
Feels like I'm living in the lion's mouth
But the lion is an angel
Is an angel"
Their hearts were filled with wonder and with awe. There was nothing on this earth to describe the majesty of what they had seen or the gracefulness of the beings' flight. And their voices were that of angels or of the sun and the moon. The stargazers searched traveling from country to country always seeking the angels they had seen, but neither word nor sight was found and as years passed they began to lose hope. Then five years later on a winter day much like when this story began, in a beautiful little house in the middle of the most majestic forest of all, they were found.
Max and Fang never married, not officially at the least, actually in all officiality they do not exist at all, but were married by a gorgeous couple who had served as their guardians. That was years and years ago, and now I am growing old.
And so those stargazers wish to pass this story on to you and ask for you, their readers, to pass this on to your friends and them to theirs. So that even when the world is almost at its end it may remember that in the year of 2008 something so beautiful and indescribable was seen by the light like spun silver of the immortal moon. Twelve angels flew above the earth in living poetry.
A/N: I don't want to end this, but I'm going completely brain-dead and can't think of a single way to make this continue…
Please if you have any ideas of how I can continue this, or any ideas for a sequel tell me!
Thank you for reading my story and please leave a review.
—Sui-chan (Koyuki)