I'm not going to lie to you. Flying in a simulator, it's easy, there's no currents, no annoying people to make sure to avoid, no planes, helicopters, blimps, hang-gliders, irritating skydivers etc. There are especially no bugs; I swallowed more than my life's share of bugs in about five minutes. That's when I learned to keep my mouth closed.

God it was exhilarating though, coasting on air currents, flying with packs of birds, and skirting in and out of clouds. I wasn't the most graceful flyer in the world, but I figured I just had to practice some.

I have this perfect sense of direction, so I knew that I had passed into Arizona. I'd gone really far today, my wings were starting to ache, so I started to circle lower, looking for a place to land where people wouldn't see me.

A few minutes later I flew across a small town. About time… I mean America is civilized right? Anyway I was totally beat so I circled around the town looking for place to land. One of the perks of being an avian-human genetic hybrid (Jeez that's a mouthful) is that I have vision like a raptor. I can pick out the smallest details on the ground from ten thousand feet up. It's pretty cool.

Eventually I find and abandoned parking lot, there's nobody around so I tuck my wings in and dive and then whip them out again as the ground gets close, just like I practiced in the simulator, and come to a super clumsy landing, trip and land face first on the asphalt. Ow. I need to practice that.

Pulling myself to my feet, I do a quick evaluation. Nope nothing broken just some scraped knees and hands. It'll heal in a matter of minutes. I turn to leave when I hear an argument from around the corner of the building that I'm behind.

I stop to listen, what can I say? I'm curious; I've never met any "normal humans" before. And the more I listen the more intrigued I get. I hear two different male voices. They both sound rough and angry. There's also a female voice, it sounds small and frightened.

"I told ya Charlene! That was ya last chance to pay up." The first male voice said. I'm naming him Jimmy

"Yeah, ya owe us for that dope we got chu." Said the second voice, let's call him Paul, Jimmy and Paul, how intimidating.

"I told you! You didn't give me any dope!" Charlene says and starts to cry.

"Aww, would ya look at that, little Charlene's crying." The one named Paul said with a snicker. "What should we do?"

"I think we should take what's ours." Jimmy responds.

So classic scenario, Jimmy the alpha male and his sidekick Paul are traumatizing Charlene because they want money, drugs, sex, etc, seriously be a little more creative people. Either way I didn't like it.

"No please!" Charlene whimpered, I figured this wasn't the first time, this had happened to her, but I was going to make sure it was the last.

"Problem boys?" I ask coolly stepping around the corner. I was right, the bigger male that I'd named Jimmy had Charlene backed up against a wall and Paul was watching with a sadistic satisfaction.

The men jumped when they heard my voice, but as soon as they see me; a tall, pretty, skinny, blonde girl, if possible they get even more excited.

"Lookie what we got here," Jimmy says, pushing Charlene; who gives small yelp, into Paul and starts towards me.

"Leave her alone." I say planting my feet. "And no one gets hurt."

The guys exchange looks and burst out laughing. "Girlie ya chose the wrong day to play superhero." Jimmy says, continuing to walk towards me.

I shake my head. "I'm giving you about ten seconds to leave Charlene alone and get the hell out of here."

"How old are ya? Like seventeen?" Paul spits at me.

"Seriously kid, do ya know who we are?"

"Fifteen and you are a bunch of low-life drug dealing thugs with nothing better to do than torment helpless women, duh" I say rolling my eyes and curl my hands into fists.

"That's it. I hope ya have Medicare ya bitch." Jimmy said and charged towards me. I still had time to roll my eyes one more time at him before ducking under his first punch and delivering an uppercut into his chest, I felt the air leave lungs with a woosh and he fell to the ground gasping for breath.

I'll give him credit, got to his feet and directed a kick towards my chest. I caught his foot and flipped it over his head, making him land face first into the pavement. He didn't get back up.

"You gonna play the loyal follower or are you gonna be smart for a change?" I asked Paul who was still trying to process what had just happened.

"Who are ya?"

"Why don't you come find out?" I said narrowing my eyes.

Even though Paul wasn't the typical alpha male in his group or just in general, he seemed to be pretty smart. He picked up a wooden board from the ground and started towards me.

"I don't know who ya are, or what ya problem is, but you're going to be sorry ya ever decided to stick ya pretty little nose into our business." Paul says menacingly and swings the board towards my head.

My fight skills go into overdrive and I duck and the board skims the top of my hair. I crouch and sweep his legs out from under him. See this is what makes the most sense in my life, beating up people who get in my way.

Paul goes down hard and I kick the board out of his hand and step over him. "Yeah I'm real sorry," I say with a laugh, "Now here's what going to happen, you're going to take your buddy here to the hospital because his ribs are probably broken, you're never going to bother Charlene again, and you're going to thank the Lord that I didn't decide to hurt you." I say looking down on him. "Do I make myself clear?"

Paul nodded looking frightened. He jumped up and scampered away pulling Jimmy the "alpha male" with him. I started towards Charlene who was looking at me like I was some sort of mutant… I guess that's pretty accurate though.

"It's ok," I say soothingly. "You're safe now; they're not going to bother you anymore. I promise."

"What- What are you?" She asks clearly frightened.

"I'm just a normal person like you." I say, fat lie, right there.

"You took down two of the biggest drug dealers in town, with no problem, you're fifteen? You're just lucky they didn't have guns…" Guns… hmmm, sounds like a good idea to me. They probably won't go anywhere without them now.

"My parents put me in martial arts when I was younger. Ya I'm fifteen and I guess I am lucky. Listen to me Charlene," I said my tone suddenly more serious, "Those were bad guys, I know you know that, I also know they didn't go after you for no reason, so here's what I want you to do;" I looked at her and she nodded.

"I want you to get whatever you need, money, family, a bit of food and get out of town. I want you to get clean and start again where those guys can't find you. Okay?" Charlene nodded tears in her eyes.

"Thank you. I will. Wait!" She says as I turn to leave. "You shouldn't stay here either, you need to get out of town even more than I do, and the bigger guy (Jimmy I guess) is Diego Cartel. He's bad news; he will hunt you down and kill you. Please you need to go."

I sigh, I could be gone in a matter of seconds, but something tells me I should stick around for a little while, just until I know Charlene is safe. "Thank you, don't worry I didn't plan on hanging around, but I think I'll help you get out of here. Let's go get your stuff." I say and make a lead the way gesture.

"Okay, you look hungry; we can go to my house." Charlene turns and we start walking east. May I be the first to say that walking compared to flying, SUCKS!

"So what's your name?" Charlene asks as we walk down yet another street to turn onto, surprise, surprise; another street.

"1-" I start to say but stop myself, "Brianne, Brianne Newport." I really hate that name.

"Ok Brianne, where are you from?" I consider my options, Utah is kinda the truth but I figure I should steer away from that. "Canada." I say.

"Cool me too! Where in?" Uh-oh… that's not good, I rack my brain for places in Canada.

"New Brunswick."

"Ahh East Coast, I'm from British Colombia."

I racked my brain for suitable answers, "Sweet." Was what I decided on.

"So where are your parents?" Charlene asks.

"Umm... I don't really have any."

"Why don't you have anyone looking after you?" She asked.

"I can take care of myself. You just saw that."

"What about food and a place to sleep?" I hadn't really thought that far ahead… nice job "Brianne" Seriously that name just didn't fit.

"I'm not really that hungry." I lie as my treacherous stomach chooses that exact moment to growl angrily. I blink innocently.

"Okay… sure Brianne. Here's my place, let's go get some food, get rested up and packed." I nodded and followed Charlene inside her one story brick house. It was quaint but beautiful and I loved it.