Chapter 3

Sara woke me up to take over watch just as a line of red appeared along the horizon. Yawning, I stretched my arms out above my head. I rolled my head and stretched my wingspan. For some reason I had the worst taste in my mouth... Weird. Well, I was up and was going to stay up, so I figured I might as well do the twins a kindness and make them breakfast. 'Cause that's just the caring little bird-girl I am.

Seeing as we were in the middle of a forest reserve or something though, there wasn't exactly a restaurant out in the middle of the forest with a big flashing sign saying "Free food here!" So, as I had done so many times in the past, I was forced to make do with what Mother Nature provided. I grabbed my knife from my backpack and looked down at the ground so far below my branch, staying perfectly still, closing my eyes and slowing my heartbeat. I listened as hard as my hypersensitive ears could listen. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Snap. My eyes flew open and I threw myself off the branch, snapping my blue wings open, taking to the air like I owned it.

I soared low over the treetops, watching the ground between the flashes of leaves that came so quickly, it was like watching the ground in an old film. Nothing, nothing, nothing...wait, yes! I had the faintest crack, something stepping on a leaf? I kept flying low, scanning the forest floor until... bam! My raptor vision caught a wild boar snooping in the woods. I shrugged. Bacon is bacon, no matter how hard it is to get. Quietly I folded my wings and dropped in a divebomb, plunging straight towards the pig. One can't help but love that rush you get when freefalling to the earth at almost two hundred miles an hour. Don't you just love snapping your wings out at the last moment and speeding off... sorry. I keep forgetting you guys are normal.

Well anyways, I caught myself at the last moment, following the pig, which was now running for his life. I was speeding above him, trying to watch him and the trees popping in front of me so fast I couldn't blink. It was a game, a test of reflexes, those trees, and I knew how to avoid running into them. I dropped down onto the squealing boar and ended his misery quickly with a hard slash across his throat. The first time I think I actually let my animal go, not able to kill it. The next day I was more starving than the day before though, and I quickly learned how to kill animals and not feel it. Meat is, after all, a necessary part of life for us hybrids. It's protein and calories combined into one, two things we could never seem to get enough of.

Next was another hard part. Skinning and slicing the kill. I won't go into the details, but let's say it's not a clean job, but I was so used to it that blood only got on my hands, which were quickly washed in a nearby brook. I built a fire near our tree (the twins were still asleep) and broke sticks to stretch a thinly sliced slab of meat across the flames. I put a handful of water on top of the meat, as well as some plants I knew to make wonderful herbs when torn up. After a couple of minutes the meat began to cook, the delicious aroma wafting upward with the smoke, waking the twins to a beautiful sunrise and the scent of breakfast in their lungs. I know, I'm too nice.

Tara rolled over, the action dumping her off the branch, and she fell about forty feet before landing gracefully on her feet. "Is that bacon?" she asked as I flipped it over on the fire.

"Sort of," I said cheerfully, the smell of cooking meat making my mouth water.

"Where'd you get that?" Sara said dropping in beside me.

"Don't ask, just eat." And it was freaking delicious! Definitely some of the best wild hog I'd ever made. It was soft but had a little crunch, sweet and tender with a bit of aftertaste... YUM! We ate so much and when it was gone, there was still more meat I had sliced so we cooked more and ate that too. High five for Food Network; Bird-Girl Edition! After we had eaten 'til we all felt nice and full, we took running starts for the last leg of our journey, which would take...eh, I'd say about twenty minutes. Tops.

Twenty wind-blown, energy-pumped, high-speed minutes later, we were soaring over the glistening metropolis that was Atlanta. "It's so big!" Sara exclaimed. "I can still see it in, like, every direction!" Indeed it was HUGE, but not so much as say New York city or anything like that. By the time the sky was blue as my wings, we were sitting on top of a skyscraper, dangling our feet over the edge of the roof and admiring the height. Most people wouldn't go anywhere near where we were unless they were suicidal, but then we weren't most people. The busy people below were ants and we were so high we could almost touch the clouds without a single flap of our wings.

It was so nice. Maybe we could fly to the mountains and live up high for a- "Hey, you girls! Wh-what are you doing? Get away from there!"

I sighed. Can't a girl catch a break? A casual glance over my shoulder revealed a guy about eighteen in a uniform from the maintenance team of the building we were sitting on. I looked him over, casually disinterested. "Or what?"

He breathed heavily, looking around him, almost like he was scared. Scared of us? He should be, but we had our wings tucked away so we looked perfectly normal. Why was he scared then? "I'll-I-I'll-Don't make me come over there!"

I smirked a little. "Sorry, how inconsiderate of me, care to join us?" I asked, patting the roof next to me. Don't worry, I knew he wouldn't come.

"You-you girls get away from there right now or I'll make you!"

I shrugged. "By all means, make us!" He sucked in a deep breath and inched his way, about a foot closer to us and paused, breathing deeply.

"What's the matter?" I asked quizzically, with a sarcastic edge. "Afraid of heights?" I stood up, my eyes challenging him. I stood maybe an inch away from a drop that must have been about a thousand feet. The wind picked up, and at this height it kind of made all of us sway. It blew my layered straight black hair into my eyes, and I tucked it back behind my ear. The twins stood on either side of me, following my lead.

Weenie over here, crept his way another foot closer, still breathing deeply. "Now, girls, calmly walk towards me, very carefully, and everything will be okay."

I cocked my head to the side. "Wait a minute, I thought you were coming to get us?"

"Miss, this is no time for games. Please come away from the ledge."

"Nah. I'm good." Weenie was just out of arms reach from us now and I figured it was time to go. "Well, as much as I'd love to stick around and wait for you to finally get the guts to walk across a roof, we've got places to go, people to meet. But it was nice meeting you!"

And just like that, I fell backwards. Like a trust fall, except there was a thousand foot drop and nobody there to catch me. I just leaned backwards and for a second just dropped, watching the people below grow bigger. I could hear weenie-watchman's voice scream "NO!" as I first fell away, but soon the sound was ripped from my ears and replaced with the rush of wind and beat of my heart. I briefly wondered what all the business people from the building thought as they looked out over the city and suddenly three girls dropped past their window. Just another crazy day at the office, I guess.

When I decided we'd fallen far enough, I whipped out my wings and caught the updraft from the city, soaring high against the sun. My wings filled like sails and lifted me upward, to the clouds and higher. As we leveled with the roof we had fallen off of, I caught the maintenance guy's eye as he gawked at us all. I shrugged in an I-told-you-so manner and Sara waved happily. He watched us fly higher, the twins rising steadily behind me. God, flying's such a rush.

As we flew, music drifted up to us, and granted how far up we were, it must have been some pretty loud music. The acute hearing didn't hurt either. Glancing down, lights were flashing on the ground, a massive crowd of people huddled around what looked like a stage. Sara gasped, "Oh oh! It's a concert! Jay, can we go? Please?"

I shrugged. "Eh, we've got nothing better to do. It could be fun. Let's find a safe place to land."

We landed in an alleyway, careful not to let anyone see us. Tucking my wings in, I ducked around the corner and almost turned around left. The crowd could have filled a college football stadium, including the field, maybe even more than that. As if that weren't bad enough, everyone was moving, a sea of people packed together and swaying, jumping, or dancing all at the same time. If ever there existed a literal wall of flesh, this was it.

Something changed that I couldn't put my finger on, and suddenly everyone in the crowd started screaming at once. Crap! What now? I crouched, wings flexed inside my clothes, ready to spring up and fly as my eyes scanned the massive crowd. But then I realized what had changed. The music had stopped playing. They were changing songs. I let out a sigh of relief and straightened up. God, these crowds would be the death of me.

"I love this song! C'mon!" Sara enthused, snatching my wrist and yanking me forward. A giant beautiful grin covered her face as she elbow-swum through the sea of dancing figures. I wanted to resist her and run the opposite direction, getting as far away from all these strangers as possible, but seeing that light in Sara's eyes as she jumped to the beat of the music….I just couldn't. Even Tara seemed to be enjoying herself, actually smiling and swaying, singing even. Sometimes you gotta take one for the team.

I tried scanning the crowd, but there were just too many. Too many faces to possibly read each one. Suddenly the crowd went wild, and my attention went to the stage this time. The girl and guy singing had linked arms while still holding their microphones, holding out a long note in harmony. The guy playing guitar slid forward on his knees as they let go of the note, blaring out a complicated solo as girls screamed and reached out towards him as if his touch would complete their lives. I had to admit, the speed of his fingers moving along the neck of his guitar was pretty dang impressive. I caught my foot tapping out the rhythm, and actually found myself yelling "Go weirdly-tattooed guitar-guy!"

As soon as I yelled this, somebody laid a hand on my shoulder, grabbing it to turn me around. My heart froze and picked up to an unbelievable rate, as my nightmares came true. They'd found us.