Author's Note: No one seems to be reading anymore (which I can understand), but I'm going to keep writing it anyway, because I know that if I don't, it'll just gnaw at me forever.
As it turns out, when Angel says 'a few minutes,' she really means two hours. Now, I don't mind a two hour flight. I like to fly. I just don't want Angel to tell me it's only a few minutes away when it's really not.
So there we were, flying through the sky (obviously, where else would we fly?), me shooting Angel discreet 'how could you' looks, Fang chuckling at me and my looks, Angel pretending not to notice, and Gazzy, Iggy, and Nudge genuinely not noticing, when my head starts to hurt. Hello, Maximum.
For a moment, I forgot how to fly.
Between the millisecond that my eyes closed to the millisecond that they reopened, I had dropped several hundred feet. I don't know how, and I don't know when, since I never felt the sensation of falling, or not falling for that matter, but Fang managed to catch me.
At this point, the Flock is concerned.
We are now just hovering, stationary in the sky, and I'm looking from concerned face to concerned face, trying to smile like everything's okay. But it's not okay. The voice is back, the retched voice, and I don't know what to make of that.
The voice has left me alone for so long, I had allowed myself the think it might never come back.
Even in my post-voice trance, I could tell from their faces that they knew what was happening. But, bless them; none of them said a word. Iggy was the first to pick up on the uncomfortable 'oh, crap, it's back' silence, and he was the first to break it.
"…Are we ready to keep going?"
Fang was hesitant.
"Can you fly?"
"Yeah, I think so…This one wasn't nearly as bad as it usually is."
"Is that why you fell out of the sky?"
I gave him a grimace and hopped out of his arms to prove that I could indeed fly, although, not as well I usually could. When I jumped away from him, I staggered a bit, and hesitated, so I almost fell again, but I managed to catch myself and stay up. He didn't look pleased.
"Come on, gang. We're off to the orchard," I said, and continued flying toward where Angel had said the Orchard was.
"Are you sure you're okay?" said a concerned Angel.
"Should we go back?" a concerned Nudge.
"I'll be fine." They didn't look convinced, but the Flock followed nonetheless.
Maximum, you shouldn't go to the orchard.
Since when do I listen to you? I thought bitterly at the voice.
Be careful, Maximum.