Chapter 1

I wake up shaken and unaware of where I am. Then it all comes back. I'm lying in a dark cave after running away from where Zara had been taken to find somewhere to rest. One of my closest friends, Zara, an albino tiger crossed with an eagle had given me a mission before she swapped places with me in my cage and was taken away. She had whispered in my ear "Save them before dawn breaks" and then pushed me away and disappeared in a cloud of dust. I don't know why she chose me to save them or who "they'' are but I'm not willing to just let her sacrifice her life for nothing. The only thing I can think of to do is rest until morning so I am ready to start searching. The "things" Zara had been talking about must have been other hybrids like me. Creatures that will be hard to find because they are most likely locked up, like I would have been if it weren't for Zara's sacrifice. This means that I need to follow the truck that took Zara if I want to find them. So I will have to wait until night for the cover of darkness before following the truck.

Once I decide it's safe enough to fly, I stretch my wings and take off after the smell the truck left behind. When I eventually see the sun rising I decide I must land soon or I'll get caught. After a few hours, I realize just how hungry I am and that the sun is high enough to stop, so I swoop towards the ground to wait till nightfall when my senses will be strongest and I would be least likely to get caught. As I'm waiting I get so nervous of a human seeing me that I begin to pace. It is only morning which means that I have hours until night arrives so I decide to distract myself from my nervousness by taking the time to think about how I'm going to save whatever Zara has given me a mission to.

I have never been brave or strong like most hybrids; I am basically what you would call a scaredy-cat. So saving a bunch of other hybrids is gonna be a big problem compared to getting to wherever the truck has taken Zara. Luckly, I have lots of time to figure out how to save them since I can't make a plan without seeing what I'm up against first. My top priority right now though is to find food and water so I will have the energy to keep flying.

When night finally arrives I start searching for food. After I catch a mouse I sit down to eat it quickly so that even though I will gladly eat ten more I need time to fly as I don't want to take my chances flying during the day as I will stick out like a sore thumb. I silently take to the air and continue flying towards where the truck had driven off too.

With all this time I am spending flying I have gone back to thinking about what Zara had said. As soon as I started thinking about Zara I started thinking back to how this all started. Zara is two years older than me and has taken care of me most of my life as my parents were taken by the humans when I was only two. I still remember the day when I woke up before Zara and thought "Hey, why don't I use this time and go explore" so I set off into the forest and made the greatest mistake of my life. I was walking through the forest when all of a sudden this net dropped out of nowhere and snatched me up. I cried in fear and I guess the humans heard me because they came over, unhooked the net from the tree and carried me over to their truck where they dumped me into a cage. I spent the most terrifying moments of my life there until Zara found me after following the truck until it stopped, like I am now. As soon as it was dark enough that she wouldn't be seen, Zara picked the lock with her claw and set me free as she knew it was her duty to take care of me. As soon as I was free I eagerly jumped out of the cage glad to have escaped. But as soon as I turned around to wait for Zara to join me on the ground the truck started up. The terrified look I saw on Zara's face the moment the car started will live in my memories forever. I shook myself out of the memory just in time to look up and see that I am about to have a head-on collision with a tree. I swerve sharply, barely missing it. After that, I try to focus on the road ahead, worried that if I drift off into any other memories I would end up actually hitting something. Hours later my wings were exhausted and I landed hoping that it wouldn't be much longer till the truck stops at the place it was taking Zara.