So here's another one! I'm really happy that I got this written in a more regular schedule. Hooray! Anyways, hope you like it. :)
I drove down the road as fast as I could to get back home. If I wasn't in my cop car, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten a speeding ticket for this. I swerved around streets and curbs until I had finally made it to my house. I parked in the driveway and walked up to my brick home and used my keys to unlock the door. I stepped in and was tackled by a little man with brown hair and a stray curl.
Feliciano.
"Gilbert!", he whined into my ear as he grabbed me in a hug, "Luddy was worried about you because you didn't come home last night." I looked over Feli's head and saw my little brother Ludwig standing over by the living room and shaking his head with a small smile that doesn't show up often. I was able to break free of Feli's tight embrace and walk over to Ludwig. I shook up his hair a little and cackled in amusement.
"Oh! So you do care about your big bro, don't you Luddy?", I smirked as his little grin turned back into his normal cold expression, except it did have a hint of annoyance in it this time. I took away my hand to end his torture and I walked over to the kitchen. I opened up the fridge and picked out myself some leftover wurst and spaghetti and placed it in the microwave for two minutes. "Well guys, I'm in a hurry today, so I can't stay long."
"Where are you going?", Feli asked me as he walked over towards the kitchen island and rested his head in his hands with a big smile. His eyes, even though they were barely open, seemed to always be sparkling with some kind of childish curiosity. I didn't really want to tell him that I was going to run over to America real quick to find a runaway birdman, but also didn't want to leave him and Ludwig without telling them anything.
"Well…", I began slowly, contemplating what to say. I could see Ludwig heading for the kitchen to join the conversation and his icy blue eyes staring into mine put a little bit of pressure on me. "…I have to find someone. They've run away to America and I have been given the assignment to get them."
"A runaway criminal!" Feli exclaimed, "That sounds dangerous Gilbert."
"He's right," Ludwig responded, resting his hand on Feli's shoulder to calm him down a bit, "you don't usually get these kinds of jobs. I mean, you're leaving the country Gilbert! Don't you think this is kind of short notice?"
"Sorry, but my boss can't really call me two weeks in advance to tell me that someone is going to escape." I felt bad about lying to them, but it was mostly truthful.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The microwave was telling me that my food was finished, so I used that as an opportunity to finally turn away from the concerned looks Ludwig and Feli were giving me. Sometimes I feel like they treat me like a baby, even though I'm older than all of them. I grabbed my food out of the microwave and piled it from it's Tupperware container into a normal paper bowl and plastic fork. Easy disposables. With my meal in hand, and all my other equipment packed already in my police car, I headed out to leave.
"Wait!", Ludwig called out after me. "You're already leaving? How long will you be gone?"
"I don't know Luddy, but this is a very important person. If I wait too long, I could lose them. They're faster than a normal person you know." I heard quiet whines coming from Feli over in the kitchen looking at me.
"Well then, call me when you can."
"Okay Luddy," I replied, "love you guys." With that, I walked out of the house and headed off.
I can't believe I had never tasted these things before! I mean, chocolate cookies! Cheesy chips! Flavored soda! Where has it all been?
I sat in a patch of pretty rough dirt as I ate my makeshift meal. All of the flavors that I had been shoving into my mouth for the past forty minutes all started to blend into one big kind of flavor that didn't really taste as good as they did individually. I took that as a sign that I should stop and save the rest for later. I put the half empty packages into my bag and pull out the map in exchange. I licked off my fingers and then opened the map to look at it.
From the looks of it, I was already pretty close to the border with America already, right above what was labeled Minnesota. The problem was, I didn't fully know how to read a map. I saw in the corner a sign with arrows that labeled north, east, south, and west. I guess my first step was to find out how to determine where those directions were. I remembered that once, on one of the rare occasions when the Professor let me outside to fly, I had noticed some kind of a green substance growing on the trees and rocks. The Professor was in a good mood that day, so I asked him what it was.
"It's moss, Matthew," he had answered, "and you know what's interesting about moss? It grows towards north, although, we'll never need to use it when we've got compasses and GPS."
Well, right now I had neither of those, so moss will have to do. According to my map, I have to head southeast to get to Indiana. I hurriedly searched for any moss, and eventually found a small patch of it growing on the side of a tree. I turned towards the opposite side of the moss and just walked on forward. I decided that I'd only fly at night so I wouldn't be seen, so this trip is probably going to take me a lot longer than I first thought it would.
I continued to walk towards the southeast and check for moss every so often, and soon enough, the forest had led me to a little river. I listened to the sound of the water running past as I sat down at the edge of the river in the mud. The water wasn't moving incredibly fast, and I got pretty dirt really quickly once I left on this journey, so I decided to take a quick bath. I looked around for any people nearby, and I couldn't hear or see anyone, so I figured the coast was clear.
I carefully pulled off my clothes and bandages. I checked my wounds now that they were freed, and the didn't look too far along the lines of healing. I guess the glass that the Professor hit me with cut a bit deeper than I thought, but it had only been a little more than two days since then, so they weren't going to be very healed either way by now. I was just a little disappointed that no one was here to help me with the bruises and cuts now, it was just me and my complete medical ignorance.
Once I was completely naked, I gingerly stepped into the water. It was really cold, but surprisingly clean. After a few moments of stepping in and out because of the temperature, I just jumped all the way in. The cold hit me like a slap to the face, but soon enough my body became used to it. I scrubbed all the dirt and sweat off of my body, cleaned out the cuts, and flapped my wings around in the water to get all my feathers wet. The experience actually turned out to be quite enjoyable, that is, until a low grumbling sound came lurking towards me.
I quickly snapped my head around in all different direction until I spotted a huge grizzly bear pawing his way towards me. My body froze in fear. I'd never encountered a bear before, and I'd heard enough gruesome stories about grizzlies to know that I shouldn't be around any…in the middle of a river…covered in wounds…completely naked.
I didn't know if I should escape slowly or swiftly, but I'm pretty sure by the looks he was giving me that he was hungry, and I was a lot bigger than the little rabbits and fish he could be eating. My body started to shiver, not only because of the cold water, and I tried to slowly back my way out of there. As the bear walked closer, I walked farther away. I made it out of the water and picked up my bag and clothing, and tried to tiptoe away, but the bear suddenly growled loudly and ran towards me.
Without thinking I ran as fast as I could in a random direction, not bothering to put my clothes back on. The bear jumped over sticks and rocks while my naked feet felt the stabbing pain of running over them with full force. I didn't want to fly away at risk of being caught by any people, so I just flapped my wings hard enough to push me up onto a large branch of a tree. I stood on the branch holding onto the tree as the bear made it to the bottom of the truck and roared up at me. My heart pounded in my chest and I was starting to hyperventilate. I grabbed onto my chest and leaned my weight against the tree as I tried to pull myself together.
As the bear hit the tree and growled at me angrily, I put back on my clothing and sat down on the branch. I didn't have any new bandages, so I had to be careful about rubbing my bear arms against the rough tree bark. I breathes in deeply and looked up at the sky. Luckily for me, the sun was started to go down, and the bear would have to leave soon. In the meantime while I waited for that, I closed my eyes and held on to the tree, thinking about what the hell I was going to do next.
Author's Note
So, once again, please excuse my complete ignorance on Canadian geography, I just hope I didn't hurt any Canadian hearts today. Also, I'm trying to put more of Gilbert's point of view in here, but you guys can go ahead and tell me what you think about that. (Any constructive criticism would be helpful.) I hope you all have a good day, goodbye!
