Of Birds and Wolves

Leara knew she wasn't too far away from New York City, and flew towards the lights coming in the horizon. She had been here once before with Max's flock and freed mutants from the Institute. A younger bird kid she helped escape took the other bird kids with her and decided to live in New York. Since Leara helped them and she needed a place to stay, they might have open arms for her.

An empty run-down building was this flock's makeshift home. Leara flew silently into one of the many broken windows. The distant light of a fire led the way for Leara closer to the six-person flock. The eleven-year old girl was the only one Leara had met previously and the girl helped her friends out.

Her heart pounded in her chest, hoping that the girl remembered her. As she came closer, she could see a couple figures sleeping, two sitting by the fire, and the other two silently chasing each other around.

One of the sleeping figures picked his head up. “I hear something... Or someone.” He quickly stood up and looked around. A little brunette girl walked up to him, patted his arm, and said, “I'll go check it out this time. I bet it's just a rat again... Ew...”

Leara held her breath as the girl began to walk towards her way. Though she tried to dive behind some crates, she failed because her movement was seen.

“Hey, I saw that! Show your face, you coward!” the girl shouted as she walked towards Leara. When the girl caught sight of Leara's face, she gasped. “It's you! I'm so sorry! Are you alright? Why are you here and not with the other flock? Are they okay? Did--” the brunette started ranting, but Leara covered her mouth.

“I'm fine and so is the other flock, Kaylee. I just got into an argument and can't stay with them anymore. I came here to see if I could... you know... stay?” She blushed a little, embarrassed that she hadn't thought of a good way to ask.

Kaylee looked over to the older boy, around the same age as Leara, that came over. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don't care. She helped us get out of there. I think the least we could do is let her stay.”

Leara's face lit up, until he spoke up again. “But on one condition,” he said, sounding like a warning. He had one finger pointing up and his face was stern.

“Bryce,” Kaylee warned. “Why should she have to do something for us when we owe her our lives?”

Bryce ignored Kaylee's comment and continued, “If you stay, you have to lead this flock. I am not a good leader and I think you'd be better. You're also a girl, so you have motherly instincts or whatever it's called.”

Leara's face flushed. “Umm...” she stuttered. “I guess I could... Just wasn't expecting to become leader if I joined...” She slowly walked closer to the fire, but she didn't sit close to it.

“I don't bite and the rest are asleep,” Bryce mocked with a smile. Kaylee had walked off to lay down next to another little girl.

Leara shook her head. “It's not that; I'm afraid of fire. I don't know why. Just looking at it gives me the chills.”

With a nod, Bryce laid down. “M'kay; well, I'm getting some shut-eye. See you in the morning,” he yawned . Within three minutes, Leara could hear him snore softly.

She decided to get some rest as well and laid on the cold concrete floor. Though it was uncomfortable to start with, the thoughts of leadership caused her even more discomfort.

Rolling from side to side, she was unable to find a good spot to fall asleep and felt horribly restless.

Suddenly, a small figure pressed itself against Leara. She gasped, but sighed when she saw that it was just a flock member. This little one looked to be four or five years old with bright blue eyes and a messy top of cropped blue-black hair.

“Sowwy if I scawed you,” he said with a lisp. “I could feel how scawed you were and thought you might need some com.. comf...”

“Comforting?” Leara filled in with a small smile. She found his lisp adorable.

The little one nodded. “Yeah, that word. Oh, I almost fowgot; I'm Towonto and I'm fouw,” he whispered. He closed his eyes and snuggled in closer to Leara.

Thinking of how cute he was, she realized Toronto had said he felt how scared she was. He reminded her of Angel, who read and controlled minds. But Toronto felt emotions, not heard them.

Shaking the confusing thoughts from her mind, she rested her head back down on the ground. Looking at his messy hair, she placed her hand on his hair and began to stroke his head. Soon, she fell asleep, not feeling so overwhelmed anymore.