ME: hey guys.

RIANNA: gotts to go guys! i'll come back after the next...i dont know chapters. *waves and walks out door*

ME: okay..so Ri's gone...Iggy and Angel are out back moving trees...and i've decided to put up ALL the chapters i've done so far. there's alot and it stops at 17 so i'll save my clossing A/N till the end of that chappie. till then...ENJOOOYYYY! :D

Chapter 7

I'm not strong enough, I thought to myself. After breakfast, Max told me I would need to start training; if I was going to a part of the flock I would have to be able to fight like the flock. Now I was getting my butt handed to me by sweet little 12-year-old Nudge. I felt like I was never going to be a good fighter and it sucked to think that such a small, fragile girl was gunna be the one to prove it to me.

"You have to be quick on your feet, Ja'leese. C'mon, you can do this," Max encouraged me from the sidelines.

We were all in a big clearing in the woods, and me and Nudge were in the middle with everyone else in the low branches of the trees surrounding us. I had fought Gazzy already and after Nudge, Max said I could take my try with Angel; I wasn't really looking forward to that. Finally, Nudge hit me in my all-time weak spot; my left side. The wind got knocked out of me as I fell to ground panting and sweating.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you!" Nudge said holding her hand to me.

I shook my head and stood up. "No, you're good. You just caught me in my soft spot," I said rubbing where Nudge's foot had collided with my body.

Angel hopped down from the branch she was perched on and walked over to me. "Still wunna try fighting me?" she asked with a sweet, innocent smile.

"No, that's okay. I've had enough of get my butt beat for one day," I told her sitting on the branch Iggy was on. It was really low to the ground, so it didn't take much out of me to get on.

Max jumped of her branch, landing softly on the ground, and walked to the middle of the clearing motioning for Fang to follow her. "How about you just watch for a while, Ja'leese? Regain your strength," she offered.

"Yeah, what little strength she needs to regain," Iggy muttered.

I hit him playfully on his arm and told Max that her plan sounded fine to me. After a brief nod to me, Max got into a fighting stance, and her and Fang started their little fighting demo. I didn't pay much attention to them because I decided I would just ask Iggy or Angel to teach me any need-to-know fighting moves at a later time. I sprawled myself across Iggy's lap, put my arms behind my head, and looked up and through the trees at the bright, yellow sun playing hide-and-go-seek in the leaves. Iggy stroked my hair and started playing with the very ends of it, rubbing it against his hand as if it was a make-up brush. Leaves rustling deeper in the forest made me sit up and look into the cluster of trees, eyes narrowed. Apparently Iggy heard it to, because he craned his head around as if he would be able to see if someone was coming our way. A twig snapped and I leaped gently off our branch and started walking towards the sound with Iggy following, his fingers lingering on the back of my shirt.

We walked further and further away from the clearing and I started to wonder if we had just been hearing things; then again, Iggy and I both had phenomenal hearing. Another twig snapped and we came to a halt and looked to where the sound was coming from.