Ummm. Yeah. I already know that I took forever to update, but you'll have to get used to it. I was sort of organizing the plot a bit more in my head, and that took a while. I also think I might go back and do some major revisions. Like some stuff I typed as just something to take up space but had no actual relevancy to the story.
Get mad at me all you want for not updating, but it won't help. I didn't start this chapter until the twelfth of December. So yeah.
I'm working on making Wyll a more important character in the story, you'll see why later. Although you may not be happy. Especially if you happen to be Taelyr…yeah, if you were Taelyr you would have a freaking spaz. That's all I'm gonna say.
Madysen POV
By the time we got to Kathmandu, we estimated we still had another half an hour to kill before Aaron reached us. He may run as fast as a cheetah, but we could still fly faster. In the meantime, we could locate the piece of crap hotel we'd been staying at for the past three days. A tiny thing at the outskirts of the city, it was dirty, definitely had mice, rats, all types of rodents, and would by no stretch of the imagination get a pass from American or Canadian health officials.
The only reasons we'd chosen this hotel was because 1) it was cheap, and we weren't sure how much money the MaxRide card had on it. And 2) the outskirts of a town was a good place to land if you don't want people to see your wings.
We flew circles around the outskirts of the city, eventually seeing the hotel, which was little more than a shack. Compared to the lovely Days Inn we'd stayed at in Oxford, it would barely pass as a communal outhouse. But we'd survived in the Schools, all of us, so I was sure we could survive in the Outhouse Hotel. I laughed quietly at the name I'd invented.
As we landed, we each tucked our wings in. Be them bat, bird or beetle, they pretty much all fold up against our spines. Shanyn led the way down the road to our hotel. We passed quietly through the unlit lobby, up the stairs, and into our room. It consisted of two single beds with dirty sheets, broken shutters, a rotting desk, and no bathroom. There was a public toilet and showers on the main floor. "Home, sweet home," Taelyr said sarcastically.
"Wonder what Aaron's gonna think," Iggy said out loud.
"Speaking of which," Taelyr said, "Someone should probably go hover in the air to see when he's getting here. He doesn't know where the hotel is."
Everyone groaned at the thought of escorting grumpy Aaron to our hotel. Eventually it came down to a rock, paper, scissors tournament, and I came in dead-last. How this happened, I don't know, I always win rock, paper, scissors.
"Rematch?" I asked hopefully.
"Not a chance," Natalca told me.
I stuck my tongue out at her but continued out the door,
When I got outside, I walked back down the road to the little abandoned field where we took off, flung out my wings, and took off. (At this point I seriously considered making Aaron go traitor on the flock, kidnap Madysen, and hold her hostage. But it didn't work in properly with what was gonna happen later. Just a bit of insight into the author's mysterious mind.) I carefully hovered above the field, listening and watching for Aaron. I figured I would hear him before I saw him. He was the clumsiest runner I'd ever seen, his feet hitting the ground with so much force they sounded like a herd of elephants.
After ten minutes, which was less time than I'd expected, I heard a thudding noise a couple hundred meters away. I turned around to look, and saw a speck, growing bigger rapidly. As he came closer, he materialized into Aaron's form. I watched as he came closer, eventually reaching the outskirts of the city. "Aaron! Up here!" I shouted, flipping in circles to try to get his attention.
The thick jacket's hood must have blocked me out though, because he didn't respond, nor show any interest in responding. Instead, he paused for a second, looked around, and then started off at a speed that I assumed for him was a jog, but for anyone else would be a very fast sprint. Annoyed, I followed him, watching what the heck he was doing.
I followed him as he went down the street, and watched in amazement as he walked the exact route we'd taken to our hotel. When he entered the door, I quickly flew in the window to our room. "Where's Aaron?" Taelyr asked as I entered.
"He's coming," I told her, "He doesn't know I went after him. I called to him when I could see him, but he didn't hear me. He just kept going, so I followed him, and he came to our hotel. He should walk in the door any second."
"How'd he know where we were?" Natalca asked.
"I don't know! He just kept running. I'm asking him as soon as he gets in that door how he knew where to go," I said angrily.
Everyone nodded, and I sat down to wait with the rest of them. A few seconds later, Aaron walked through the door. "How'd you know where we were?" I asked him.
"What?" he said, looking at me like I was crazy.
"How'd you know which hotel we were in?" I asked him again, "You didn't see where we went, but you ran the exact route we had taken. How'd you know?"
"None of your business," Aaron said angrily, taking off his jacket and hanging it over the back of a chair.
"Yes, it is her business," Shanyn snapped, "If you're part of our group now, you have to tell us stuff like this. There's no secrets allowed."
Aaron looked angry at being told what to do by people that were three years younger than him. "I can follow a person's scent trail," he snapped, his voice still low and angry.
"Great, one more similarity between you and a Shifter," Taelyr said.
"What are the other ones?" Aaron challenged.
"We don't like Shifters very much," Taelyr replied.
Aaron's mouth twisted into a scowl, and his muscles flexed. He walked across the room in two steps and swung his arm around, punching Taelyr in the side of the head so fast she didn't even make a move to block it. Taelyr flew off the edge of the bed she'd been sitting on and landed on her back on the floor. She put a shaking hand to her temple and winced. I ran over to her. "Are you okay?" I asked her urgently.
Taelyr sat up. "I think so," she said, her voice shaking as much as she was. She stood up, lost her balance and fell back onto the bed behind her, "I think I just need a minute to sit down."
I nodded. As Taelyr rubbed her head, I got up and went over to the other side of the room where Shanyn, Natalca, and Iggy were spazzing out (This computer thinks that 'spazzing' should be switched to 'spa zing') at Aaron, while Wyll was struggling to not punch Aaron back. "What the hell was that for?!" I yelled at Aaron.
"If someone insults me, I have a right to get mad at them," Aaron said in his usual quiet, cold voice.
"That wasn't getting mad! That was almost knocking someone out because they said they didn't like you!" Shanyn shouted at him.
Aaron remained silent, his face completely indifferent. "Are you even going to apologize?" Natalca asked.
Aaron snorted. "Why?" he asked calmly, "She didn't apologize to me."
I lost it then. I punched Aaron in the nose with all the force I could without breaking his nose. Blood flowed from his nostrils, and he plugged his nose with one hand and pushed me down with the other. I landed on the floor, and when I got up, Aaron was opening the door to leave, probably heading to the downstairs washrooms to stop his nosebleed. Somehow it slipped my mind to tell him that Shanyn could have stopped it in five seconds. "Can we ditch him?" I asked no one in particular.
Just then, my brain exploded like a bomb. My hands flew up to hold my head as waves of pain shot through my skull, and I curled into a little ball. No! You need him! My voice all but screamed at me. Okay! I thought back. Okay, okay, just leave me alone!
After a final blast of pain, it stopped as quickly as it had come. "Are you serious?" Natalca asked, obviously having read my mind.
"Unless you want my brain to go splat, we have to take Aaron with us," I informed everyone.
A grumble passed through the group. Taelyr stood up and wobbly walked over to us. "I feel better now," she announced, "Just a killer headache."
"Oh gee, I wonder why?" Shanyn said sarcastically.
Taelyr stuck her tongue out at Shanyn. Yup, she was better. "I guess we should decide where we want to go next," I decided.
"Hmmm. I don't know. We haven't been to Australia or Africa yet, and the flock is in South America," said Iggy, "I vote Africa."
"Any idea where there's a School in Africa?" Wyll asked.
"I say we skip the Schools for a few days and just go on a site-seeing trip," Natalca suggested, "I wanna see some lions."
"I agree," I said, "I'd like to relax for a while."
"Can we leave first thing tomorrow?" Taelyr asked, "We could go on a safari in Kruger when we get there!"
"Kruger?" Shanyn asked.
"It's a wildlife reserve in South Africa," Taelyr informed everyone, "It's got lions and rhinos and hippos and wildebeests and lots of other animals."
Everyone agreed with our plan to relax for a week or so. "How do you guys want to get there?" Wyll asked, "We can't really fly anymore, since we've got Aaron. Even if he can run superspeed, we'd have to cross an ocean to get to South Africa, otherwise we'd have to go all the way around that little strip of land. The only thing I can think of would be to take a plane."
As always, everyone groaned. "Another addition to ways Aaron annoys us," Taelyr said.
In the end though, everyone agreed to take a plane, and Iggy went to the downstairs telephone to go book a flight the next morning and hotel rooms in Kruger.
After that, we all spread out to do what we pleased. Shanyn and Natalca decided to go explore Kathmandu, and dragged Iggy with them, while Taelyr, Wyll and I stayed in the hotel to plan out what we would do in Kruger. "Do they have any self-guided tours?" I asked, "That'd be better than going with a bunch of people."
"I doubt it," Taelyr said, "They probably wouldn't let people run around unattended in a place with lions. Common sense Madysen, you're lacking once again."
"Don't pretend you weren't thinking it too," I accused, "And we could kick a lion's but no problem."
"We should just camp out in Kruger," a voice said from the door.
Joy, I thought, Aaron has returned.
Sure enough, when I turned around, the door was just swinging shut. Aaron walked through the door and leaned against the wall. Even the way he moved was frustrating, as though the rest of the world was beneath his notice. Aaron continued on, "Like Madysen said, we could kick a lion's but no problem, so why not just camp out in Kruger? Then we get free self-guided tours as well. No messing around with stupid safari jeeps and warnings about keeping hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times. We could explore Kruger the way wildlife should be experienced."
As much as I hated him, as much as we all hated him, his speech was so convincing. I felt myself drawn to his plan, considering it, and eventually deciding that it couldn't hurt. Before I could agree though, Taelyr did. Followed by Wyll, and then me. I saw Aaron smile subtly. Another show of his assumed superiority. "You have some blood on your nose still," I snapped at him.
The smile vanished from his face, and he reached up to scratch at his nostrils. Now it was my turn to smile.
And that is where I shall end it! I'm really sorry about the amount of time it took me to get this chapter up, even if I barely have any readers, but guess what?!?! I have a plot!!!! The chapters should come a bit faster now.
Guess who the bad guys are gonna be???? The first person to guess right gets a chapter dedicated to them. And yes, ally, you can guess. Just cause I've changed it a little since I last saw you. You actually have to go back to previous chapters and read the whole thing to find out who.