"Psst! Max! Hey, Max!" whispered Nudge.

"Y'know, Nudge, that when we're flying more than 200 feet from anyone else, whispering is kind of pointless, don't you?" I asked, conversationally.

"Yeah, well, whatever. Y'see, I was wondering if you ever found out anything about your or Fang's parents, because if you did, I'll try and find it for you guys." She looked at me eagerly.

I smiled. "Thanks, Nudge, but I didn't find anything. But keep looking for your family, don't worry about me. And maybe keep an eye out for Fang. All I know is that his mum was a single mum, a teenager, and that she was going to keep him instead of putting him up for adoption."

Nudge looked at me with a kind of pathetic awe. "You said something that was longer than the thing I said before it." The look changed slightly, and then she looked sad, suddenly. "Oh, Max, you're so brave, and you don't even care about finding your own family, you just care about us finding our families and being happy you're such a wonderful person, always looking after us and out for us and protecting us, and never worrying about yourself getting hurt and I wish I could be selfless and brave and happy for Iggy and Angel and Gazzy like you are but I cant and I'm going to be so miserable when they leave, especially Iggy, but I don't know why Iggy…" she trailed off and burst into tears. I signaled to Fang that we needed to take a break. He nodded, and banked towards a big ledge on the edge of the cliff. We all followed him. I just love the Cascade Mountain Range, so many useful cliffs and stuff to land on. But, back to Nudge. I guided her down to the cliff and we landed a little ways from everyone else.

"It's okay, Nudge, it's all okay." I leaned in to hug her and she buried her face in my shoulder and sobbed. I had a flashback to me and Fang, the night before. I just rubbed her back and stroked her hair, a little in shock. She must have been bottling up emotions for a long time. I thought about what Nudge had said and felt a pang of guilt. She thought I was some kind of saint. But if it weren't for me, no one would need to protect her from mutant wolves, or feed and clothe her while on the run. If it weren't for me, she would be a normail little kid, playing skip-rope at recess and baking cookies with her mum and 1.6 siblings while her father sat and the table drinking coffee and reading the Georgia Straight. She'd be crying about the juvenile crush who thought girls were icky, rather than running for her life and eating protein bars for breakfast and crying because of the possibility of half of her family being taken away from her in only a couple of days. It was all my fault and I needed to make it up to them. I needed to find all their homes, and then carry on to save the world. It's my fault that we're being hunted. They're after me.

I thought about the other thing Nudge had said, the part about missing Iggy. Wait, did that mean…well, that was a new thought. And now, I had a feeling that it would nag me more than the Voice.

Yes, well, you do need to get around to saving the world soon, you know.

And here I thought that you were going to leave me alone for just one day.

I wasn't.

Is one day, just one little day, 24 hours, so much to ask?

The Voice didn't reply. I didn't expect it too. I just felt slightly miffed as I stroked Nudge's hair. Slowly, her sobs faded to sniffles, and then stopped. She pulled out of my hold and wiped her face on her sleeve. "I'm sorry. I got snot on your shirt." Again, with the flashback to the night before. "I'm also sorry for losing it like that. I haven't done that in a long time. I just feel really condused and out of sorts lately, and the thought of losing them just feels like too much. And I'm growing so much, and my mind cant keep up, and then I talk to try and get it all out and then I realize that I've set everyone on edge trying to make myself feel better, and then it just makes me feel worse for making everybody else feel worse. And now I've made you feel bad about how im feeling." She looked like she was about to start crying again.

"It's okay Nudge, I get it, you're just going throughan awkward phase right now and you're just trying to figure it all out. Hey, growing up is complicated. I get it."

Nudge nodded. "Thanks, Max." She stood up, kissed me on the cheek in another, silent thanks, then walked off towards the others. Ah, Nudge, growing up. What a delightful thing this is.

Soon enough, she's going to have a lot of questions about growing up, and I'll have to sit down with her and answer them, probably at a time when I'd rather be sleeping. Huzzah. With that cheerful thought in mind, I wandered off after Nudge, towards the part of the cliff where everyone was scolding Gazzy. Do I really need to say what for?