Chapter 7
Fang Pov
"Good bye Fang, be careful." My mom told me. I nodded
"Bye Mom, We'll be back once we get this taken care of." I told her. She hugged me.
"Let's go meet them" Max said. We all took off towards the valley and the pack.
We landed to find the pack waiting for us. Merric was saying good bye to Aaron and John to Katie. Kale stood behind them with his wing's flared out for no apparent reason.
We landed and John and Merric automatically turned to meet us. "We head West today." John said.
"Katie hugged him one last time.
"Gazzy, don't blow anything up, and listen to Aaron, Kale and Katie." Max told Gazzy hugging him.
"I'll be good." He told her.
She smiled at him, "We'll be back. I love you." She hugged Nudge next, "If anything happens, you're in charge."
"Okay Max, I'll keep everyone in line. I love you. Come back soon."
"We will, I love you too Nudge."
Angel ran to Max and hugged her, "Bye Max, have fun."
Max smiled, "I will Angel. No mind controlling got it?"
"Got it."
"Okay, call us if you need anything, I love you guys, keep your heads up, don't let your guard down."
"Right Max." They said in unison.
"We'll keep them safe Max." Aaron assured us.
"Bye guys." Max said.
Angel ran up and hugged me. "Bye Fang, see you when you get back." She told me.
"Bye Angel," I told her.
Nudge came up and hugged me then. Why were they all hugging me? "See you when you get back."
"Bye Nudge, good luck with Kale."
"Thanks Fang."
"Bye Fang!" Gazzy yelled.
"Bye, and work on your bomb hiding places, next time I find one in my back pack I'll set it off in yours." I warned
Gazzy nodded flushing. "Sorry."
I nodded, "Later guys."
Max turned to Mark and nodded, "Let's get going."
Merric kissed Aaron one last time and gave Kale a look.
Kale nodded, "I always do don't I?"
Merric smiled and nodded. "Yep, bye."
"Bye Katie." John whispered.
Katie licked his cheek, "Bye Robin. Be safe."
He nodded. "Always."
Merric nodded to Max and gave her coordinates. "That's not where Hex is." Max pointed out.
"We can't make it there in a day, this is a good stopping place." Merric explained.
"Okay, bye guys." Max said one last time before nodding to me. We took running starts into the air and were on our way.
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"They are a lot faster than they were last time." I pointed out later.
Max nodded, "They aren't injured like they were last time."
That was true. I looked down and watched the two boys running through the spruce trees below us, John pulled out his cell phone. Seconds later mine vibrated. I pulled it out and read the message:
There is a cliff in 50 miles, can you get us down it or do we need to go around?
I turned to Max, "They want to know if they need to go around a cliff or if we can get them down it." I told her.
"We can get them down it." Max said confidently.
I told him we could.
We landed at the edge of the cliff and looked down; it was a long way down.
"Are you sure you can do it?" Merric asked looking down.
"Yeah." Max said.
"One at a time we can get them down but our wings can't support ourselves and one hundred eighty seven pounds." I said. Stupid genetic enhancement made them really heavy. No one would have believed them if they didn't know they were genetically enhanced.
Max pulled her phone out and answered it, "Max."
She listened for a while, before smiling.
"Iggy that's great! When do you start?...No kidding! I'm so proud of you Ig."
She listened to him for a while more.
"Yeah, he's here, … okay." She handed the phone to me.
"Yo,"
"Fang I got in!" Iggy said. "I gave him that line you gave me and I got in!"
"Great."
"Thanks for the help."
"Sure Ig,"
"Okay, I'm good now, bye."
"Bye."
I handed the phone back to Max. She said bye to Iggy and snapped it shut. "Guess he's not coming back then." She said quietly.
"Hey, he called you first." I pointed out.
She nodded before putting on a fake smile, "Let's get you guys down this cliff." She declared.
We grabbed John and took him down first. Then we got Merric down and were following them from the air again.
"You have to let them grow up." I told her when we were in the air again.
Max nodded.
"This is huge, He will probably be the first blind doctor in the world, and he's happy. You should be happy. That's why he called, so you would be happy for him, with him." I told her.
"I know, but I don't want to lose the flock."
"You aren't losing the flock, they are just not always with, you know. You have to- excuse the bad pun but-you have to let them spread their own wings. You can't carry them through life."
Max sighed, "Why not?"
"You would kill someone if they tried to carry you through life; they deserve to experience flying solo like we have too. Think about it Max, Iggy's not a kid anymore, he deserves to get to make his own decisions in what to do with his life. You will always have a need to fly free, unburdened by people, and society. Saving society is one thing, but being part of it is something you will never want to be. Iggy can't handle being on the move all the time. He needs to settle down; He will want to be part of society, because that's who he is. You can't give that to him without letting him strike out on his own." I finished out of breath. Note to self, no more speeches.
Max sighed, "That doesn't make it any easier."
"Well forget about it for know and let's get some speed." I said.
She nodded, "Let's go."
I grinned before taking off towards the horizon. I swooped down to see Merric and John weaving through the trees. I pulled back up and turned a flip before turning to watch Max. She was swooping back and forth in wide arks, then she would flip, and shoot forward. She caught up to me in seconds. A smile had already covered her face.
I dropped so was flying just above the tree tops. I watched as Merric wove around a tree and tag john with his hand. John turned to him and grinned, "Oh, you are on Wolf!" Merric grinned and ran faster.
John Jumped over a fallen log and sprinted after him laughing. "Catch me if you can Connor!" Merric yelled. It was odd who they were so carefree despite the lives they had lived. Max and I didn't abandon our selves like they did as often.
Merric was leading everyone by about five hundred feet, he howled from in front of us around an hour later. John perked up and looked up at me "Water!" He yelled. Okay, odd. He ran faster and I flapped harder to keep up. I saw a stream ahead of us. Merric was waist deep into it and had five water bottles filled and waiting. John grabbed one and drained it; Merric was already doing the same. Max and I landed beside them. John was drenched in sweat, and Merric was soaked with water and panting like a dog.
"Why did you jump into the water aren't you cold now?" Max asked.
"I can't sweat, I was getting close to overheating," Merric panted. "I would have had to stop soon if we hadn't run into this stream and get John's water bottles too to cool down."
"He knows this area or he would have stopped sooner." John panted.
Max nodded, "Okay. Are we stopping here for the night or are we going to keep going?"
John looked to Merric and Merric shook his head, "I want to make it to the lake before we stop. So we have…about a hundred more miles to cover."
"Witch lake?" John asked as he refilled a water bottle.
"Dragon's Tail."
I frowned, there wasn't a Lake Dragon's anywhere near here.
John looked up and explained, "We call it Lake Dragon's Tail, because we are weird like that, we have no idea what it is really call it." He told us.
"Oh, okay."
They refilled all of their water bottles and replaced them in their backpacks before we started off again.
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"How can you abandon yourselves like that?" I asked as Merric and I squatted by the fire on the lake cooking deer.
Merric shrugged, "We can snap out of the playful demeanors in seconds. It is important to let yourself go every once in a while. It keeps you sane."
"I don't think Max does things like that very often."
"That's why she isn't sane. She will go prematurely grey. You will too. You all need to take more breaks, and abandon yourselves more often. You have to be a kid while you can, because we will all grow up soon, and then it will be too late."
"Wow, your pretty deep for a wolf boy."
He grinned, "Your pretty cool for a bird boy so I guess we're even."
Thrid Person
"So, what are we going to do today?" Angel asked.
"I was thinking maybe we could go shopping." Nudge said.
Angel shook her head, "No, we can do that tomorrow."
"We need to go flying." Gazzy said.
"We need to go play around with Katie and Aaron."
"I can't believe we are on our own."
"Yeah, I can't believe I'm in charge."
"Nudge, Kale wants to talk to you." Angel said suddenly.
"What does he want to talk about?" Nudge asked.
Angel shook her head, "That would be cheating."
Nudge rolled her eyes, "Fine," She jumped out the window and spread her wings. Kale was waiting against the house. "Hey Kale."
He grinned sadly, "Hey Nudge."
She nodded to him and leaned back against the wall.
"Aaron wants to know if you all want to go shopping tomorrow, and if you want to go see puppies today." He told her.
Nudge was taken aback, that wasn't what she had expected him to say. "Uh sure." She mumbled.
He sighed and ducked his head, "Well I'll go tell her." He said it was obvious from his voice that he was hurt.
"Sorry Kale I didn't mean it like that." Nudge said.
Kale sighed, "Yes you did, you just didn't mean for me to hear it. Sorry, I can't help it."
Nudge sighed, "its okay it's not your fault."
"I'll see you Nudge." He said. With his head down, he turned and walked away.
Nudge sighed and went back inside to get the kids ready; she should have gone with Max.
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