Chapter 10

When I got back, Angel was waiting near the entrance for me. "Max? I--I need to talk to you. By ourselves. It's important."

"All right. Come on." I turned and started flying, not waiting to see if she followed me. I flew for about ten minutes and stopped in a nearby cave. No one would be able to sneak up on us here.

"Max, don't hate the others. Please. It isn't really their fault. I'm just—just tired of pretending but I didn't want the others to hate me." I waited. I could see that she was nervous, but I didn't feel like trying to make things easier. I understood that I was finally about to get some answers.

"I was always the baby of the group. I knew that I had one of the most dangerous powers of everyone, so I was tired of being the baby. I thought…I thought that if I became the leader then I wouldn't be the baby anymore. But to do that, you had to be gone. So I came up with a plan. I would get everyone to tell you to go. I knew you would then. I wanted to just convince you to leave, but you were the only one who could block my attempts. I think it must have been because of the Voice. But anyway, I couldn't make you do anything. So that was when I came up with the second idea. Everyone was tired and they wanted to stop running, so I simply pushed forward the idea that it was because of you that we were. It was something they only thought when they were really tired, but because it was there I was able to make it grow. It would have been forcing otherwise and you would have noticed that. I slowly built it up in everyone's mind until they were convinced that only way they would stop running would be to get rid of you. That was when the vote was called and it went just like I planned. We told you to leave the next day. I felt kind of bad, but I wanted to stop being the baby. This seemed like the only way.

Of course, that was when our troubles began. When you were gone, the Iggy became the leader, because Fang was still upset with you going, even though he had doubted enough to vote. But we started not eating as well, and we couldn't defend ourselves against the Flyboys as well. Fang started helping lead just because Iggy couldn't do it all by himself. I was still the baby of the group. That's when I realized I had done something wrong. But I didn't want to admit it. If I had, they would have hated me and I knew I wouldn't be able to make it without them. We were having enough trouble as it was. So you see, it wasn't really their fault. I just…I wanted to be grown up and I got tired of waiting."

Angel looked at the ground the whole time she talked. I didn't say anything and finally she looked up. That's when I spoke. "I want to exile you for a year just to see how it makes you feel. However, instead I'll just treat you like you want to be treated. You wanted to be grown up? Since you're the least injured of the others, you should collect the food. Report back to me with what you've found. You can also keep an eye out for any Flyboys. Every hour, I want you to do a full circle sweep of the surrounding area to make sure we are safe. Look out for anything that can be used for bandages. Also, keep an eye out for any humans that may discover us. This will continue for a week. I don't want to hear a word of complaint. I won't tell the others what you've done for now. After a week, tell me if you still want to be the grownup. We will be here for at least that long so your job shouldn't be too hard. Understood?"

Angel nodded fiercely, relief evident on her face. "Good. You'd better get started."

When she left I sat down. Well, it was something to know that it hadn't been all the others fault. But as she'd said, she couldn't work with nothing. And she might be able to work with that something again. That is what I needed to guard against. Well, hopefully I wouldn't be here too long anyway. 2-3 months tops most likely to train them up again. Then I would be on my own again. Maybe I'll take another crack at Itex then. It was something to do anyway. I had wasted enough time over the past year. Besides, even if I got the Flock trained again, it would still go better for them if they didn't really have an enemy they needed to fight. They could settle down then like they've always been longing to do. And I could continue on. What else was there anyway?

I hope you liked the chapter. The idea behind Angel's actions just came to me recently, and I had been struggling with it before hand. I hope it makes sense. Please review.

~Flyer