And yet I said nothing. I don't know what was wrong with me.

I mean normally I'm just o the spot and ready with a thousand smart ass remarks, but that just wasn't the case right now. And I couldn't figure out why.

"When someone says 'hello' it's prudent to give some sort of response," the boy said, smiling as though this was greatly humorous.

He waited another second before turning to look behind me, I assume at Fang.

I was right.

"Fang! My, you've grown. Good to see you're still alive."

Huh..?

"Who are you!" I found myself demanding loudly.

"Better," the boy nodded. "I'm a friend. You can be assured of that."

"Brium…" Fang said from behind me.

I whirled on him, eyes wide with surprise. "What?" I said.

"His name's Brium," Fang said softly, as though he couldn't believe what he was saying.

I turned back to face the boy, who was smiling wider. "He remembers me," the boy shook his head, smiling wider. "And he's correct," the boy turned back to face me. "My name is Brium."

All at once it sunk in again that we were standing in a wreaked campsite where my flock had more than likely been taken captive again.

"Where's the rest of them!" I asked loudly, starting to panic.

Where were they? Was this boy connected to their disappearance?

I readied myself for a fight,

He was an agent of the School; he had to be.

"I can assure you I'm not working for them; quite the opposite, actually," he said, still smiling. "I've been here a little more than fifteen minutes. They were already gone when I got here. What's more, they appear to have been gone at least a half a day. We need to hurry if we're going to catch up."

I'm not sure how he knew what I had been thinking, maybe he could tell all by me tensing up for a fight.

He was good, this guy. I was already way alert.

"We?" I said, giving a derisive laugh. "There's no we, dude. Just me and Fang."

"To get the rest of your flock back, I believe you're going to need my help." Brium, if that was his name, said evenly.

"We can't trust you. We don't even know who you are," I replied. This was going to lead to some kind of fight, and I was glad I had Fang with me. Together we could take this punk for sure.

Brium raised an eyebrow, and I finally figured out what was so entrancing about his stare. He had different color eyes. The right was ice blue, the left a mint green. It gave him a hypnotic, unorthodox stare that I, as much as I hate to admit it, was transfixed by.

"On the contrary," he said, "Fang knows who I am. I thought he already stated that."

I turned back to Fang, this whole meeting thing getting weirder and weirder by the moment.

Fang was being utterly un-Fang-like. He was staring at this newcomer like he was the second coming of Christ or something.

"Fang?" I said, trying to keep myself calm. I didn't have time for this sort of thing. Cavorting around with a potential minion of the School, who could take us out at any moment wasn't something I tended to do.

"He's from the School," Fang said, finding words. "But he's not one of them, Max. He's one of us."

Huh?

"You might want to step back," Brium said, also moving back a few paces, and it was then I spotted the cut slits on either side of his jacket.

They looked exactly like what we had to do in order to allow our wings to open to fly.

To fly…

Brium unfurled his wings.

He had wings.

They were black mainly, mottled here and there with many spots that seemed to mix the color tan with a light brown; the wingspan was more than mine, and more then even Fangs' or Iggy's for that matter.

My jaw dropped open, and once again I was lost for words.

Brium retracted his wings and they once again disappeared inside his jacket.

"There," he said, raising an eyebrow again. "You believe me now?"

"I, um…" I mumbled.

"Trust me, Max. I'm a friend. Maybe the most important friend you'll ever have."

"Max," Fang said. "We can trust him."

There he was again, playing the leader whose opinion was more important than mine.

"We don't know that Fang!" I raised my voice, "He could be working for them! He could be working for Jeb! How did he know who we were and where our camp was?"

"Quite simply, I found this camp due to over ten hours of looking for it. I saw your little excursion at the football game and came to find you. It was on the off chance that you were still here, which I guess you are."

"How did know our names?" I demanded, voice seething,

"Jeb told me. I talked to him a couple days ago."

And there it was. He had talked to Jeb just a couple days ago. Jeb had sent him out here, it was so blatantly obvious.

"Fang, we're gonna have to beat the hell outta this guy," I said, tensing up again.

"Max, I wouldn't do that," Fang said.

Who side was he one? Geez!

"And why not, Fang!" I shouted at him.

"Because he's a much better fighter than we are."

"Yeah, right," I said. "I guess we'll find out."

"I'd listen to Fang, Max. I didn't come all this way to get in a fight with the people I came to meet," Brium sighed. "I can leave, of course, but the situation in different than I imagined. The rest of your flock is now more than likely back in the possession of the School, and I'm offering my services to get them back."

"They're back with the School because you helped the Whitecoats!" I yelled. This was really going nowhere. We had to get moving

Brium smiled again. "You can believe whatever you want to believe, Max."

He turned to leave. "I hadn't had time before you arrived to deduce which direction they went after taking the rest of the flock, but be warned, I believe the School is using something robotic as henchmen now. Whatever it is, it could prove more deadly than Erasers."

Brium was walking away now. "It was good to see you, Fang; it was nice to meet you, Max. See you both in another life."