Chapter 4

I'm only going back to help stop Itex. That's the only reason. Max can't do it without me. As soon as we defeat Itexicon and save the world, I'm gone again.

At least, that was what Fang told himself as he flew back to the cabin where they were staying.

He flew slowly, though, since he wasn't waiting until morning like he had originally planned. He didn't want to get back too soon, and lead Max to believe has was eager to see her, or anything like that. Because that was so not the case. It really wasn't. He didn't have his watch on, so he had to guess that he'd been gone roughly around two hours. That was a reasonable amount of time, right?

Looking ahead of him, Fang saw something. At first it looked sort of like a cloud, but it was only a few feet higher than the trees. And the rest of the sky was perfectly clear. A few minutes later, when he was closer, he realized that it was smoke. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Surely it was nothing. One of the neighboring cabins was having a bonfire, or something.

At three in the morning? said the logical voice in the back of his mind.

Fang sped up, flapping his wings harder and faster.

He would probably return to find the flock asleep in the living room and Max on the roof keeping watch, just like he'd left them.

But he still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Ten minutes later, Fang's breath caught in his throat. He could see it now. The cabin was on fire. The whole cabin. Flames were leaping out of every window, and smoke was rising in ringlets from the windows and roof.

Thank God, he thought as he saw the flock hovering near the trees a little ways from the cabin. Relief flooded through his body.

"Hey! Hey, guys, over here!" Fang shouted and flew towards them.

"Fang!" cried Nudge. Getting closer, he saw that there were tears running down her cheeks. He looked at everyone else; Gazzy and Angel were also crying (although Gazzy was trying to hide it), and even Iggy looked uncharacteristically frightened.

He scanned each of their faces one more time.

There were only four of them.

"Where's Max?" Fang asked quietly, even though he knew the answer.

"She's still in there!" Gazzy yelled, pointing towards the flaming cabin. He stopped trying to wipe his tears away.

"She got us all out and said she was gonna try to find our bags," Iggy said in a rush. "We've been waiting at least ten minutes!" There was a note of hysteria in his voice.

"Fang, you have to go get her!" cried Angel.

Fang nodded. "Don't worry," he told them, trying to sound calm and in control. That's what Max would do first. Pretend everything was just fine, no biggie.

But the truth was Fang felt like crying himself. Max had been in there ten minutes? Anything could have happened. She could have passed out from the smoke, or gotten stuck, or gotten burned…

Fang turned around and leapt into the smoke-filled sky.

The hole in the roof was easy to find. A large column of smoke was rising from it. But there was no way Fang would be able to get back out of that hole once he jumped into it, especially if Max couldn't do it.

He ran to the edge of the roof and called to Iggy. "Get up here! I'm gonna need your help!" Following the sound of Fang's voice, Iggy made his way to the hole.

"Wait here," Fang instructed. "You're gonna have to help me pull Max through the hole." Iggy nodded silently.

Fang sat on the roof and scooted to the edge of the hole, dangling his legs over. Keeping his wings tucked tight against his back, he sucked in a deep breath and dropped to the floor.

He landed with a thud, barely audible over the crackling of the flames. Immediately he began coughing, having taken a breath when he hit the ground. The smoke was everywhere, choking him, blinding him…

Fang dropped to his hands and knees, squeezing his eyes shut tight and holding his breath. Max had to be on the floor somewhere, passed out. If he could just feel his way around, he would find her.

He didn't know how long he groped along the floor, not seeing or hearing anything; it could have been three minutes, it could have been an hour. He lost track of time completely. Fang was just about to give up hope when his hand bumped into something. Something soft, not like furniture.

It was Max. He was touching her hair. She was right there, he had found her!

"I'm here, Max," he said quietly, reassuring her, even though he knew she couldn't hear him.

His breathing was ragged as he reached for her hand. He put two fingers on the inside of her wrist, and relief washed over him when he felt a pulse there. It was much too slow, though, and it was faint.

Fang stood up and reached down to scoop her limp form up off the ground; she was definitely unconscious. He was surprised by how little she seemed to weigh, how easy it was to lift her. She'd lost weight since the last time he'd carried her. They had all lost weight recently, he guessed, but Fang hadn't really thought about it until now.

He turned around in the direction he thought the hole must be. But he wasn't sure. He had gotten turned around crawling around on the floor.

"Iggy!" he called as loud as he could. There was no response.

"IGGY!"

"Over here!" he heard faintly.

Fang stumbled towards where he thought Iggy's voice was coming from. The smoke was so freaking thick; he could barely even see Max, cradled in is arms. He was blind in here. He wondered vaguely if this was how Iggy felt all of the time.

"I'm here, Fang!" he heard from close by. It sounded like it was coming from the left. Fang walked a few paces to the left, wrenching his eyelids open to look up for some sign of the outside. It was really hot in there, and the heat radiating from Max's body clutched close to him wasn't helping.

"Right here!" Iggy's voice was right above him. He could faintly make out Iggy's dark silhouette through the smoke.

But how would he get Max up? Iggy was there to pull her through, but Fang couldn't lift her that high by himself.

Fang thought for a minute, racking his brain for ideas. He thought he had felt the thin wooden leg of a table when he first landed in there and started searching.

He slid his foot out in front of him and moved forward a few paces, hoping to catch it around the table leg. He shuffled around in circles until his leg finally caught on it. He pulled it back towards him with his foot until it was centered directly under the hole. He laid Max down on the table as gently as he could, then hopped up on it himself. He lifted Max into his arms again as soon as he got balanced.

"Iggy?" he called up.

"I'm here!"

"I'm gonna lift Max up! Be ready to grab her!"

"Okay," Iggy replied. He sounded slightly unsure. "Is she okay?" Worry filled his voice.

"I hope so."