fight and flight (Thia)

I pressed the button with a sigh as soon as I heard those all too familiar sounds, before anyone else had either turned or gotten up and long before I'd turned and gotten up myself. But the base was the other side of town. How long would it take for my father to get here?

The bots weren't doing much at the moment. They stood on the very edge of the town looking threatening while we were backed up just past the border, as if they were waiting for us to make the first move.

The zoo was right behind them and I could just about see the Silqueens in their cage, kicking and whinnying the way horses did when they sensed danger. At times I could see their wings shimmer just a little, as if they were trying to flap them and I felt even more sympathy for the poor creatures.

Jay, stood just a little behind me, made forwards but I held up a hand to stop him. If this was some strategy of theirs then they clearly wanted us to make the first move, which meant we shouldn't do that.

An odd, grinding sound came from one the closer ones, as if it were laughing at me. "How very much like him you are. Your mother would be so proud."

My mother? Had I heard that right?

After a moment of shock, I found myself tensing and snarling towards the machines…then I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders and looked up to see Tiana.

With my momentary distraction, Jay had crouched down towards the edge of the border. The last time he was close to a fight, he'd thrown a fake wand. This time, he started rummaging on the ground to find as many big, sharp stones as he could get.

The bots didn't give him much of a chance though. Seeing what he was doing, one of them came up and, before he had time to react, kicked upwards so he fell backward.

I felt Tiana tensed behind me.

There was already a single stone in his hand. "Get towards the mountains!" he called.

But then I'd be further away from my father. It would take him longer to find me.

But my sisters' hands on my shoulders pulled me back and I was shaken to resist.

We were faster than they were but they could run for longer.

"Just like little children running away!" they leered behind us.

Spinning while was running, Jay threw his one stone back at them, not even stopping to see if it hit. He bent down to pick up another every so often while still running. Now I knew why he wanted to go towards the mountains, not just for higher ground and coverage.

I heard a scream behind me and chanced a look round.

"Tiana!"

She wasn't as quick as us four, nor was she as used to this as we were. She must've fallen behind enough for them to catch up to her. Now she lay on her back in the dust with one of them standing over her.

Instinct taking over, I made towards her but Jay got there first. Pouncing on the bot, he bowled it over and, once he was on top of it, raised the stone in his hand high above his head and brought it down, hard. It didn't do much damage the first time but he kept it pinned down and repeated that same act several times. But that meant he didn't see another one creeping up behind him.

Looking around I saw a nearby stick. Picking it up, I held it in both hands and swung it like a cricket bat at the other bot's head. It hit with a solid clang and the bot went flying to land a few metres away in the dust.

I stared at it for a long moment, before remembering everyone else there. Sam and Noaba had also taken up Jay's example and were searching around for any kinds of rocks or sticks they could use as weapons. But Jay and Tiana were both staring at me. Jay looked impressed but Tina, still on the ground, looked a mix of concerned and relieved.

I went to help her up. "You ok?"

She blinked at me. "Am I ok?" She put her arms around me, protectively.

There was a noise somewhere in the distance.

"What was that?"

It was coming towards the zoo. With a Jolt I noticed, of all the bots that had shown up, only a few had followed us towards the mountains. The rest had stayed on the edge of the city, as if waiting for something. Father I realised. This was a trap. We were just the bait.

But one of them, a tru-head, was coming towards us, slowly; while I could hear a fight going on around the zoo, seeing a few of the animals escape through broken cages.

"Very impressive, little one." It told me. "Perhaps we were wrong to underestimate you."

Tina's arms tightened around me but before it could do anything else, there was the sound of phaser fire behind it, then another, and another, until it collapsed to the ground.

James had reached the back of the zoo and had a weapon held out but behind him—everything seemed to freeze when I realised—an escaped Dragul.

It was a monstress big thing, able to stand on both four legs and two. Though its body and face were somewhat humanoid, there were thick, dark, chunky scales all over its body. Right now, it reared up on its hind legs, standing twice the size of any normal person.

Amidst the fear and shock, I felt a small relief that at least now the Silqueens could run free but a stab of disappointment that they still couldn't fly.

Thankfully, there was only one Dragul and against all of the others, it seemed to be struggling. From this distance, I couldn't quite tell what was happening but I could see it spread its arms then slam them down, creating a shockwave, then with an almighty roar, charged towards the mountains. Right where we were standing. Tina screeched beside me but I just froze, seeing it coming closer and closer…

There was a dark flash and I closed my eyes, feeling myself pushed to the side and held to the ground. We stayed there for a few seconds, then the pressure was released and I opened my eyes again. The Dragul was gone. Seeing this, I stood up and looked around. We seemed to be the only ones left in the small plain between the mountains and Nabula, except…

"Holly...!"

One of the silqueens had come up behind Jay, making him jump and stumble backwards when I noticed it was there. I came towards them, standing between him and the creature and despite everything that had just happened, all I could do was laugh. These things weren't dangerous at all, nothing like the Draguls. They were just desperate.

This one bowed its head towards me and sniffed. I stayed very still, only raising my hand. But instead of going to touch its head, I went around stroking its neck, until I reached under its belly and felt the fetters holding its wings. They weren't hard to undo and once I had, I threw the wretched things away into the dust. "Go." I whispered to the beast.

Rearing backwards a little, it stretched its silky wings. I stepped to the side to let it take a run up and jump into the sky. Up towards the top of the mountains it flew, its wings shimmering in the setting sun. What a magnificent creature I thought.

I heard a whinny beside me and noticed the fowl—the same fowl I'd stroked when we visited the zoo. But this one didn't have fetters under its belly. It didn't appear to have wings either. It looked up at its flying senior almost with longing, but then it dropped its head as if shy or scared.

"I see." I told it. "You've never flown before." Up close, I could see that this silqueen was about the same size as I was. Only a child, like me. and a crazy idea came to me.

"Daddy, can we keep it!"

I'd only just remembered everyone else was there. They were scattered around but all eyes were on me.

I only looked at my father. There was pride in his eyes but also caution and I worried for a moment that he wasn't going to let me…

"Sure. It can stay in the stable with Buddy." Jay pointed out.

"Oh, yes!" I looked at him with gratitude, clasping my hands in front of me. "Please, daddy, please."

And he started to smile. "Well, alright. But you look after it yourself."

"Yesss!" I gave the fowl a little pat. "I'm gonna call you snowflake" I whispered, before running to my father and squeezing my arms around him. "Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou."

After heading back to the base, leaving Snowflake in the stable just outside the entrance, I once again went to the training courtyard. There was still one thing on my mind.

There were few people there so I just watched them for a while but only a few minutes after they all left and I was alone in there, I heard someone else come in.

"I thought I might find you here."

I didn't have to look around to know who it was.

He sat down beside me. "Is something troubling you, my child?"

"Why do they keep mentioning mother?" I said, rather bluntly.

He put an arm around me. "They're just trying to hurt us, little one. I know, it's hard for me too but you need to learn to close your heart to what they say."

And how do I do that?

I looked away but he held me closer. "It's never easy to begin with but if we let our emotions control our actions, then we are giving them exactly what they want."

My eyes burned but I didn't want my father to see me cry.

"Close your heart to it." he repeated. "I swear, it'll get easier."