To the ten of you who've made it this far, I am sorry for the delay between postings. Hope you enjoy it anyway! :D

-Hawk

Hours later, after a lovely dinner of jackrabbit and a couple of mice - despite Gazzy and Iggy's best attempts to catch a deer - we sat in silence around the fire.

It was a nice cave, all things considered. Streams of water glistened on the walls, forty or fifty feet apart from one another and water droplets fell from the ceiling that I could just reach if I stood on my tiptoes. The little streams pooled in a shallow puddle on the side opposite us. The reddish-blackish soil was firm under my testing fingers, even if it was damp, more solid than mud.

Goldilocks had said barely a word to us since she'd lead us in here, totally cool with letting us talk amongst ourselves. She didn't interrupt or anything. Even when we'd brought in our catches, she just cooly and precisely told us how to set up the fire close to the entry tunnel so we wouldn't all suffocate, and also took the time to tell us where to put the inedible bits.

Now that we had completely and totally run out of any and all icebreakers we knew, (not that there were too many of those - we usually beat the crap out of people, not started conversations with them) a hush had settled in the cave - one that had been awkward at first, but now was sort of… comfortable. In a tense, I-can-still-hear-engines-overhead-once-in-a-while sort of way. Nevertheless, I could see the kiddies' eyes drifting shut. They were warm, they were fed, and there was very little chance of someone finding us here. I could see why Goldie had set up shop here.

"Do you want me to put your shoulder back into place?" I stiffened, then relaxed as I recognized Iggy's voice. After so long of not saying anything, the sound of a voice was a bit weird.

Goldilocks looked at him, her brow furrowed. "Why?"

"Y'know, so you can move it normally again?" Iggy said dryly.

She looked at him for a moment, her green eyes inscrutable, then nodded.

Iggy scooted closer, then reached out until he found her arm. He gently prodded at the injury, checking to see how bad it was. "You're lucky." He told her. "It wasn't very far out of place. It should be very easy to -"

With a twist of his wrist and carefully applied pressure, he popped the bone back into place.

I grimaced at the sound. It brought back all sorts of memories.

Goldie was staring at Iggy, her green eyes slitted. "You're blind?"

Usually, Iggy would've come back with some sort of snappish No Freakin' Duh kind of response, but he just nodded, his mouth pressed together unhappily. "Yup."

"From birth, or…?"

Iggy shook his head, his expression taking on just a tiny hint of bitterness. "No. Scientists."

Goldilocks obviously caught the irony in his voice on the word "scientists' - I personally think "sadistic freaks" works just as well - because her gaze went hard. She understood what he meant. "They've screwed us all over, haven't they?"

I blinked. That wasn't what I'd expected her to say.

"I mean," She continued, gesturing at the flock. "Look at us. Wings. Blindness. Unable to feel pain. Constantly running. They've really messed us up."

I laughed humorlessly. "Oh, you don't know the half of it." Like, the fact that Angel could read minds, I have superspeed, Nudge is magnetic, Fang can blend in with any background, and even our dog can talk. Yeah. We're a little messed up.

Goldie started to respond, but got distracted by Iggy, who had gotten ahold of a strand of her hair.

"What are you doing?" She demanded.

Iggy's fingers kept brushing up and down over the bottom four inches, an expression of awe on his face. "It's so... bright."

She scowled at him, but, for some reason didn't pull away. "What are you talking about?"

"I can sense colors." He told her. "And your hair… It's like firelight."

I had no freakin' idea how Iggy knew what the color of firelight was, but I wasn't going to ruin the moment by saying that out loud. To be honest, I kind of agreed. Especially with the light of the fire glinting off it, making it almost glowed in the darkness.

Look, I've gotten poetic again. I'm so proud of myself: That's twice in one story.

"Ember." Angel said suddenly.

We all turned to look at her.

"What did you say, sweetie?" I asked.

She glanced at me, her blue eyes wide, then looked over at Goldilocks. "I think your name should be Ember." She said sweetly. "Y'know, like the little glowy bits that float out of the fire?"

"Ember." She said the name, testing it out. "Ember."

"Yeah." A faint smile lifted her lips as she stared at the ground in thought. Her green eyes were ever so slightly softer than usual. For the first time, I could see her as a teenager, not the grown-up, kick-butt warrior she'd been up to that moment. " 'Ember.' I like that."

Angel beamed, and Iggy's fingers began cheerfully weaving the lock of golden hair into a braid.

I had no idea where he'd learned how to braid, either.