hello, here is chapter 21, and 4 days to go! I'll try my best to post 1 a day till I go, but it may not happen because of exams anyway--enjoy!PS: if you were confused about the chapter replacements/ were too lazy to read them, Jen, one of the authoresses of this story posted a review putting all the changes, so you just need to read that
21.
I shivered. My warmth had disappeared, and I was cold. I curled up further, and groaned.
A smell hung in the air around me, one I knew well, but couldn't quite place. It twisted my gut and quickened my pulse, a vague sense of fear closed in on me. Blood! That's what it was. I was bleeding? No, no I was fine. Then who? I shivered again, and gave up worrying. I rolled over, and sought out Fang with my fingers, but meeting nothing but cold, hard earth and dew-damp grass.
Perhaps I was a little emotionally vulnerable, but I felt rather abandoned. As I fell back to sleep, the smell of blood faded from my mind, carried by the winds of time and sadness.
Flight was difficult for me, but nevertheless I flew out in front of the Flock. I was angry at Fang. Why? I have no idea, really. I guess I just wanted to blame someone else for this pain I was feeling. I felt so hollow now, when he wasn't near. But when he was, I became shy and closed off. So I blamed him, instead of my heart.
He was a good ways behind me, and had been there most of the flight. I longed to look back, but forced myself to stare straight ahead. A mindless arrow flying straight to…well, we didn't know yet. Currently, we were over a remote desert, and I was just trying to get us as far away from the School now as was possible.
Then something happened that forced me to look back. Nudge screamed. I turned around, expecting Erasers or helicopters, but nothing. I checked out the Flock, and then bolted for the ground far below, shooting after Fang's plummeting form, my heart panicking in my chest. I was too late! He would surely hit the ground! But no, I caught him perhaps a hundred feet above a forest, and strained my wings in an attempt to slow out descent. I hit the ground hard, landing on top of him, and lay there for a minute, stunned. Then my instincts kicked in, and I surveyed the area, checking first for any possible observers. Only then did I acknowledge the blood flowing from his side. I ripped off his shirt to inspect the wound, and gasped in horror. He had done it again. Somehow, he had managed to hide a potentially mortal wound from us, and had been stupid enough to fly with it.
"Oh Fang," I groaned. I wished the others would show up. Iggy had our only medical supplies, so I did the next best thing. I discarded his blood soaked shirt, and stripped off both my sweater and my tank top; silently hoping he wouldn't wake up until I had put the first back on. Thankfully he didn't, which saved me a great deal of embarrassment. The tank top I used to bind his wound, stretching it as tight as it would go around his thin frame. Then I arranged some leaves into a small pile for his head to rest on, and settled in to wait. Already I could see the Flock, distant black specks high in the sky. I settled my gaze back on his face, pale from the loss of blood.
"Hold on, Fang, Hold on. Don't you dare die on me!" I said furiously. Then sat, tears falling silently to the earth as I waited.