Chapter 20

Tears Shed

(i need a pic idea for this one)

As I flew back to the others, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was up, besides the sky. I started to feel a little shaky as I approached the top of the cliff.

"Shadow!" I heard Gazzy call, "Iggy! I found her!"

My heart dropped the instant I heard his voice, for some reason, I was not relieved. "What is it? What happened?!"

"It's hard to explain, just follow us and we'll show you." Iggy said, trying to ease my worry, which was a waste of effort.

We flew to the lake where, much to Iggys displeasure, Nudge and Total were playing.

We landed near the water's edge and Iggy went to go rat them out for leaving her alone with Nova… Whoever 'her' is…

I sighed in relief when the fight was finally over and they could show me what was going on.

We walked over to a clearing that was sort of close to the lake I entered first, trying to make up for being gone at just the wrong moment… "Star!" I gasped when Iggy put my hands on her face to show who she was, much to my embarrassment.

"Nova? What are you doing?" Iggy asked in suspicion.

"Trying to keep her warm." He answered simply, "She was freezing, so I had to do something."

"What happened?!" I interrupted.

"We don't know, we were hanging out by the lake when Iggy suddenly got up and told us to follow him. We came here and there she was, blood and all!"

I stood there for a couple of minutes, trying to regain control of myself before I spoke again, "Any signs of whitecoats or the others?"

"No. I don't think they would have been able to get up here, not without a chopper, and you would have known if any of the others were here." Iggy sighed.

"How'd she get up here?"

"We don't know…"

"How bad is she?"

"Well, umm, apparently she used to have wings…"

"Used to! What do you mean used to?" I gasped.

"Well, they're gone now, but we know she had them…" Iggy said, turning pale. He lead my hand to Star's back and I felt the lumps of where the wings were cut of.

Gasping I pulled my hand back as if someone had shocked it. I felt a slight sob rise to my throat and I turned around so the others couldn't see my tears. When I had successfully hid them, I turned back to address them, "Obviously it's not safe to stay here anymore, I think it would be the best idea if we went back to school and stayed in public areas where they are less likely to attack us, but I'm open for suggestions."

"I think we should stay. Like you said, they would have to have a chopper to come here. We would hear them coming and be able to escape! Also, if we go into public, what are we supposed to do with Star? She isn't strong enough to be moved, we could work together and fly her away once she's healed a little more, but we aren't strong enough to hold her up for long. We probably would only be able to get her down from the cliff and from there we would have to walk!" Nova exclaimed.

I sighed, seeing his point. "Ok, so that's one suggestion. Any others? If there are no other ideas, I think we will be staying here." no one answered so I guessed they all wanted to stay. We sat there in silence when suddenly Gazzy's stomach growled, interrupting the silence.

(end of chapter 20)