The morning was beautiful. Too bad this "other flock" had to ruin it. I mean, seriously, the dawn was really gorgeous, a nice peach and salmon mixed with a blue gray, then that thought just came up and I was all in my 'This day is crap' mood. Tyler was gone from his resting place, but I couldn't see him anywhere. Rebecca was gathering Hope and Zach, and for the first time I saw Marc. He seemed like a gothic kid, sort of. His clothes were a really ugly brown, but his hair was a deep brown that looked a bit better. His eyes matched his hair perfectly. And I got a glimpse of Elmira too. She looked… weird compared to the rest, with her hair that shined brighter than normal at the morning sun, her silver eyes and her pale face. Maybe that was a mutation. Then again, I really didn't care. I stretched my wings and rose to my feet.

"I thought dawn was the agreement?" I called over in a hushed tone. The less my flock knew the better. All of their eyes focused on me now. I wasn't sure why, but it reminded me of a huge horde of Erasers. "It was." Rebecca stated simply. My gaze now said 'Then why haven't you left?' widely. "We're waiting for Tyler. He went to go see which path we're going to take next." Elmira finished for Rebecca. When her eyes met mine, I swear, it was like having a thousand knifes, or bullets perhaps, coming at you. And trust me, that is not fun. But when I saw her gaze, I had another feeling that she wasn't the only one watching me right now. That was confirmed a few minutes later. Who're they, Max? I heard Angel's sweet voice inside my head.

Crap, was my only thought. I had to admit, I loved Angel. She was my little sweetheart. But sometimes the mind-reading/mind-controlling setting just didn't please me, especially with my thoughts on Fang. Not that I'm worried she'll tell him, just… sometimes I want to keep things to myself, you know? Why are you awake? I thought back.

I always wake up around this time, you know that. So, who are they? I looked back towards Angel. I couldn't look into her eyes, those cute, blue, puppy-dog eyes. Not without caving in to her. I'll tell you later, they're leaving in a moment, hopefully. For a few seconds, I wasn't quite sure if she was still reading my mind, because of how still she was standing. But she nodded her head and disappeared back to her resting place. I swiveled on my heels and walked towards them. "How long should this take?" I crossed my arms and leaned to the left a little bit.

"Not much longer. He usually takes up most of the night finding the way." Rebecca answered. Most of the night? He wasn't here all night? I thought curiously. I thought the point of asking someone for a place to stay the night, was to actually sleep there that night? Anyway, I'm not him, I'm glad I'm not, so I'd leave it be. I rolled my eyes quickly and examined them again. Hope seemed to be in some state of concentration that sort of freaked me out a bit. Repeatedly, she would close her eyes for a few seconds, then open them, then close them again. I decided to focus on someone else. The kid Zach was in the baseball cap I didn't recognize the team of.

Rebecca was tapping her foot impatiently as her blue-gray wings simply extended. She seemed to be muttering a curse upon Tyler's lateness. I had no idea what to do next. So I decided to just stay with them. I assumed Elmira was getting tired of waiting, considering she took off in flight and out of my view. "What's her problem?" I asked anyway.

I was actually surprised. Not only was it different from what I expected, Marc answered instead of Rebecca. "She does love to fly. It's not that she has too much energy, she just prefers moving to standing for too long." He sounded so…. sophisticated. Compared to Gazzy anyway. A few moments later, Elmira returned with her face in a state of relaxation. A large gust of wind blew into my face, messing up my hair and making it get all into my eyes. Along with that wind, I heard many sighs of relief. I couldn't see the big picture because obviously my hair was in my eyes. Rapidly, I brushed it out of my face. Tyler had returned. Finally!!

You know those moments, where you think something and you're just so excited, you don't even realize you actually said it out loud? Yeah… that was one of those moments… really embarrassing. Each one of the 'other' flock was staring at me like I had six eyes and eight legs. I pressed my lips together really hard and backed up a few paces, letting them talk. As much as I wanted to hear what they were planning, my embarrassment overpowered everything. "Focus Max… once they're actually gone, you can rejoice all you want…. convert the embarrassment into energy…" I breathed quietly. My mom told me that whenever I have negative energy or thoughts, I should convert that into positive energy. Where she got that from, I have no clue. But it helps far more than it sounds ineffective. Regaining my confidence, I walked slowly back to the group. Don't even mention the incident. "Well… Hope you guys have a safe trip and uh… try to stay away from those Erasers. Last time we saw them was more eastward." That ought to keep their minds off the rude comment. "That's exactly why I've found somewhere sort of southwest." Tyler replied. I don't know why, or the better question, why I cared, but Tyler's hair seemed to have sort of an aura to it in sunlight, far more than in moonlight. He grinned politely. "What about you? Or, do you plan to make this your permanent residence?"

I started laughing lightly. "No... if I was ever going to make myself a permanent home, it would never be in the woods." His eyes pierced into me, like thorns. But not really in a bad way. I'm pretty sure that he wanted to stay longer. Or, so that's what showed in his eyes anyway. And that was never going to happen on my watch. This was my life, my flock, my destiny. I wasn't about to let Tyler and his flock change and ruin it. "We should be going now." At first, I thought that was a statement from my own head. But then I realized that it was Elmira who said that. At least there's someone who has my common interest. And they all began to nod and take off into the sky, without another word. As I watched from below, I had a grin on my face, proud of myself that this hadn't been too much work. Or that there wasn't too much evidence that this flock had been here. Well…that was…easier than I thought it would be. I shrugged. They were out of my life. For good.

In the pit of my stomach, I wracked a lot of guilt suddenly. I thought of Angel. If I knew my little Angel well enough, she'd tell someone. Most likely Total. And if I knew Total correctly, he would blab it out to my entire flock. Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge…and Fang… Fang… I snapped myself out of the state of mind. Well, that leaves one step: telling the flock. I swallowed hard. How would I explain this to them? They would all mock my choice. Especially Fang, even though he was my right hand man. Come on Max. Toughen up! You're the leader here, not them. You make the decisions! I was telling myself. I clenched my fist and shut my eyes tightly. Then I shot my eyes open and began to walk back towards the flock. And I was feeling like the toughest, roughest leader there was out there. I felt like a million bucks. I felt like no one could stop me. Boy was I off…