Chapter 2: The Improved Gingerbread Man

I could tell that I was being watched. It annoyed me. The feeling made my hair stand on end. But for some reason, I just sat there. But they really did a horrible job of hiding where they were. First, they almost barged right into the field from the forest after screaming and yelling. At first, when I heard them, I pulled my wings in quickly and tried to act normal. Well, as normal as a bird kid can act. But the day was too hot, and my wings still wanted to feel the sun, so I let them out just a little bit, but not enough that a human could see them from a far distance.

What do I care? They're just humans. They would be in awe, maybe take some pictures, and be on their merry way. So why am I hiding it? Oh yeah, that's right. I would be on the run . . . yet again. But it's not like I have anything more to live for . . . I had thought to myself.

But this, this was just too much. They weren't even taking pictures. They were just sitting there . . . watching! I was about to leave when I heard a voice.

"What are you . . . " and then a rustling sound. I heard a lot of shushes going on before I heard,

"Be quiet! There's a girl over there!" I chuckled to myself. Regular humans wouldn't have been able to hear what was being said between them from where I was sitting.

Of course, they wouldn't know that I'm only 98% human. Sometimes these things really did come in handy.

"Do you think she saw us?" asked a voice, most likely a girl.

"If she did, she's a really good actor" said another; a boy, sounding close to the age of the first voice.

"Angel, see if you can get anything from her" said another voice; another guy, but this one sounding as if he was in charge.

Fat chance that they're gonna steal anything from me, I thought as continued drawing, keeping my ears alert. But they didn't move. I waited and still nothing happened. How are they going to attempt to steal anything if no one makes the first- I started to think to myself.

But suddenly, something felt odd; out of place. As if something was entering my mind.

"She seems nice enough, but she's alert. She knows we're here. She thinks we're going to try and steal something from her." I heard a little snicker and clenched my jaw.

So they had a mind reader.

Well, crap.

I didn't want her probing my mind and announcing it to the whole world, so I let my mind wander a bit before shutting it down completely, blocking her out of my thoughts. I heard a gasp and several people cry "Angel."

Ah, so there's more than four people . . . I thought to myself as I closed my book. I was beginning to get a little anxious. My odds were looking bad, especially if all of them had powers like that girl. Which meant that none of them were ordinary humans, if humans at all.

"What happened?" I heard a voice ask.

"She blocked me out her thoughts" said the girl incredulously.

Yep, it's definitely time to end this, I thought as I calmly put my stuff in my bag. It was only then that I decided to glance at the now standing intruders. Three boys, two girls, and a dog.

But they all had wings.

Well, except for the dog.

I sighed and stood up, brushing dirt off of my pants.

"Great, just my luck" I mumbled. It was then that I disappeared, leaving only a mirage of myself behind.

I was already more than half way across the lake before I heard the sound of wings flapping behind me at an incredibly fast rate. I looked behind me and they were right on my tail.

"Damn it . . . " I muttered to myself as I made a nose-dive down toward the lake. I could control the water, so it's needless to say that it was easy to raise the water and form a wall of very thick ice. They all dodged it but some of the ice shards that I threw at them right after it had cut them.

Jeesh, don't they know that it's quite annoying to follow strangers around? I thought to myself as I ducked into the forest, hoping to lose them. I turned my body sideways and flew in and out from in between trees, but it looked like they had just as much practice as I had.

And then I heard it.

Run into that tree and knock yourself out.

I heard the thought in my head and almost instantly, my body swerved on its own. I was on a one way train toward a huge oak tree, and I couldn't stop myself.

Crap, she can control minds, too! This is gonna hurt . . . I thought to myself.

And then everything went blank.

.^"^.^"^.^"^.^"^.^"^.^"^.