I flew up higher, struggling to hold Sam up. It had been three days since the scene at my house. I shifted my shoulder slightly; my pack was slipping down it. I sighed as I noticed the glow in the east. The sun was starting to come up. Then Sammy started barking.

"What is it?" I asked.

I looked behind me and saw a dark shape behind me, too big to be a bird, way too big. It had wings. I swooped down, and set Sam on the ground. Then I shoved off the ground hard, angling my body up towards them.

We collided in mid air, grabbing at each other, our wings brushing at each other as we hovered in the air. I stared deep into his hazel eyes, and he stared into mine.

"Who are you?" I asked.

He looked about twelve, his wingspan was smaller then mine. He looked scared, shocked.

"Nick. Who are you?" He spoke with a Californian accent.

"Charlie. Where'd you come from?" I asked.

"California. We stopped in Alaska to pick up passengers in the plane. I thought there might be someone else here, from something Mum said. What about you?"

"Dad was acting weird, he'd brought a friend. The friend grabbed me and Sammy attacked him, so I flew out of there. I found another one of us too."

I hadn't meant to say it, but I thought he had a right to know. I hoped Jasmin was okay.

"Who's Sammy? And who did you find? Where are they?"

"Let's go down." I said abruptly.

We swooped down to where I had left Sammy; she was waiting loyally like always. He landed rather awkwardly and it was then I noticed the deep shadows in his eyes. He was exhausted.

"This is Sammy." I said, giving her a loving cuddle.

"And what were you saying before, about another one of us?"

"Jasmin. She's fourteen and lives in Australia. She's like us."

"Ok."

I pulled a thick blanket out of my bag, and passed it too him.

"Here, get some sleep." I said.

"But won't you get cold?"

"I have Sam." I said, trying to sound convincing.

"Here," he said, brushing away twigs and snow from the forest floor, so we had enough space to lie down in, if we were next to each other.

He started to lie down, but I went and grabbed some kindling. I pushed it together, and was pulling a page off a newspaper I'd bought in town, when something caught my eye.

'China calls for truth from Americans about nuclear warheads.'

I read it, and to put it simply, China is getting mad at us, because we weren't clear on what type of weapons we were making, and they thought we were going to start a war. I placed it in my pack, folding it carefully, before scrunching some more up to use to start the fire.

"Can you look for more firewood?" I asked.

"Yeah." He said, getting up.

A few minutes he came back, with an armful of wood. I put some of it in the stack, and put the rest aside. Then I put the newspaper underneath it and lit it. We lay down next to it and curled underneath the blanket together. I spread my wing over us. Sam lay by my side and I spread the other wing. There we were, a nice feathery bundle.

I stirred sleepily, I couldn't work out where I was. My wing was out; I was sleeping with my wings out. That was weird. Something stirred under my left wing and then I remembered. I had run away and met Nick. I glanced at my watch. It was four o'clock. Not very late, but it was already dark out. The fire had almost gone out. I rolled out from under the blanket, being careful not to hurt my wings.

I pulled my heavy coat on, and stood up, looking around. I dug in my bag, and pulled out a can of stew, and some aluminium foil. I poured the stew into some foil, and folded it around it, before sticking it in the coals so it would heat up. I was freezing.

I prodded Nick, and he rolled over and went back to sleep. He was cold, too cold. Oh shit. I shoved him hard, dragging the blanket off him.

"C'mon Nick, please wake up buddy."

He stirred slightly and I shook him harder. This time he sat up, grumbled and glared at me for waking up.

"You were about to freeze to death Nick."

I made him get his coat on, then wrapped blankets around him. I found a small billy and some coffee in Nick's bag. I packed some snow into it and set it onto the fire, stirring the fire back to life.

He started coming closer to the fire, and when it was ready I stuffed a cup of coffee in his hands. He drunk it slowly, and I could see the colour coming back to his face. Jeez that had been close.

"I think we'd better find a motel tonight."

"Do you have money?"

"Yes."

I started packing everything up into our bags, as he finished his coffee. Then I dug out the stew and we ate ravenously. I put out the fire and buried the aluminum foil. Then we stood up, put our bags on our backs and I grabbed Sam. Then we snapped out our wings, and started too fly.

We stopped at the first motel we came to, and circled around until we found a deserted place to land. Then we landed quickly and pulled our wings in. I noticed Nick was still rather shaky. Hmm, maybe he wasn't used to flying. I hugged my wings to me, glad of their warmth. We walked to the door, and I tried to arrange somewhere to sleep while Nick got food. I was going well, and then suddenly the TV was showing pictures of two missing children. Of course it was Nick and I.

"That's you, isn't it?" asked the motel keeper.

"Maybe."

"Why don't you and your friend over there just sit down while I call the police."

"I think I'll pass." I said, sliding behind a table out of her grasp.

"Will you pass on this too?" asked a sweet, honey-like voice.

I heard the motel keeper screaming, and looked behind me. I gasped and instinctively moved away from both of them. In front of me was the scariest thing I'd ever seen.

It was a man, but its muzzle was a muzzle of a wolf, it had claws shooting out of its hands, and it was slowly crouching down. I leapt onto the table, glancing at the big window in front of me. "Nick."

He spun around and glanced at me, his jaw dropping open in shock. I snapped out my wings and flew forward, grabbing him around the waist and smashing through the window. I looked down for Sammy, but wolf people surrounded her. I couldn't leave her, then I realized how badly Nick was. He was shaking and I could only just hold him up. I flew up higher, and dropped him, hoping he would get his wings out in time.

He did, and we flew off. I wanted Sam there, but I knew going back for her would be a death trap. I couldn't believe I was abandoning her.

"Well that went well." Announced Nick.

I couldn't help chuckling.