CHAPTER 21: Flight practice.

"Gwen, stop this!" Theo yelled as he freed himself from her grasp. "Johan can be back any minute, and I simply can't fly."

Gwen stopped and looked at him. "Why not? According to Timon your wings should be big enough and you have enough muscles. And for as far as I can see, you can move your wings just fine."

"You really think that I never tried it myself? What is your presence going to change? Just leave me alone, I have a lot on my mind right now." Theo snarled back at her.

"Then I promise that I will leave you alone after that. Please just try. We don't know when we get another chance like this."

Annoyed Theo furrowed his brows. "Fine."

Gwen clapped her hands together in delight. "Great! I found a quiet place not too far from here. We can practice there."

Theo could only sigh and follow Gwen.

Eventually they reached a place behind the mansion. The entire ground here was covered in long grass with the exception of a few large boulders. There weren't any tents or cabins here, so no one had any reason to be here.

"See?" Gwen exclaimed. "Here we can practice in peace."

Theo rolled his eyes and folded his wings again behind his back. "Stop saying 'we'. You can't do anything."

"No, I'm here for emotional support. But it still counts as doing something." She said with a wide grin written all over her face.

"With that mindset you will end up doing nothing in your entire life." Theo responded whilst leaning against one of the large boulders. "So, what do you expect me to do?"

"Why don't you try to lift yourself off the ground first? It can't be that hard right?"

Theo stepped away from the boulder to give himself some space. Then, he moved his wings much like how he had seen bats do by basically rowing tough the air. When he moved his wings up, he folded them to reduce as much air resistance as possible and after that he moved them down with as much force as he could muster.

He only managed to lift himself a small bit of the ground before he gave up.

"Satisfied now?" he asked as he folded his wings again.

Despite his miserable performance Gwen looked at him in delight. "If you can already do that small bit, then it isn't hopeless! If we try again a few times, then you might be able to actually fly someday."

"You are not thinking of trying again now, are you?"

"Why not?" She managed to ask whilst still suppressing her excitement.

Without saying a word, Theo stretched out his wounded wing. Though it had healed for the most part by now, the cut was still visible.

"Wait, how did you get that? What happened?"

Folding his wing again to hide the wound, Theo bluntly responded. "Shit happened. Now stay true to your part of the deal and leave me alone."

As he started to walk past her, she spoke in a soft, sad tone. "Sorry that I let you do this even though you were wounded. I should have listened when you told me you didn't want to."

In response Theo just shrugged. "You don't have to feel sorry; you didn't know. And besides, it is not like my wing will fall off because of this."

He knew that if he stayed here, she would just find more excuses to blame this on herself. So, to avoid a meaningless argument he left her alone.

But since Gwen was so desperate to help him learn how to fly, maybe he should try again. He never learned anything about his species, it could be that he was supposed to learn how to fly when he was older. And now that it was a few years since he last tried it, chances were that he would now be able to do it.

Not knowing what exactly he was, was truly a bother. Not only was the aspect of flight a mystery for him, but he also had no idea how long his life expectancy would be. He did not even know whether or not he was an adult yet. And if he was not, what was going to change? Of course, there was a change that his lifecycle was similar to that of a human. He was vaguely humanoid after all. But there was also a chance that he would go through a full body change like how a tadpole turns into a frog.

Just the uncertainty of it all scared him to death. Because of this, he hoped to go to the ruins someday. Since that was where his father found him, he might find others of his species. The only thing was that before his parents were against it since the ruins were dangerous. And now he would not only have to escape the watchful eye of his parents, but also that of Johan.

As he made his way through the various tents and small cabins, he eventually met Johan. Being way too emotionally exhausted at the moment he didn't even throw a fight when Johan asked him to go back to the mansion and obediently followed him.

On their way through the many hallways Johan spoke. "How long do you think that this will last? The zombies that are."

Theo's ears slightly twitched when he heard the sudden words from Johan. "I don't even know if there is going to be an end to this at all. We don't know the cause of all of this. Who is to say that it won't happen over and over again?"

"I don't think that will be the case. For as far as we could tell, those things are dead. Even if they are still partially aware and able to feel pain. Their bodies are decomposing and the pain that they feel does not hinder them at all. They will continue to run for kilometres even with a broken leg. At this rate their bodies will deteriorate further until they remain dead. Then they will no longer be able to pass the infection on and this entire thing will be over."

Theo shrugged. "If you say so."

Eventually they reached the hallway leading to each of their rooms. "By the way," Theo said. "Where is the lady you talked with before you got isolated?"

"Oh, she? She returned to her family right after we were done talking. She made a few interesting offers, but I can't risk staying in her debt. She is from a minor family after all. Those people will do anything they can to climb on top."

Theo narrowed his eyes. Adding so much explanation and details to a minor answer seemed a little odd to him. He quickly decided to change the subject. He couldn't care less about the decisions Johan made. He was going to leave this place soon after all. And if Johan was holding something back, then he would find out what that was sooner or later.

"What do you know about how an infection usually progresses?"

"Why do you want to know about that?" Johan responded with a sceptical look on his face.

"Well, since I am entirely different species, there is a change that I might be infected, and the symptoms just manifest later. If I know how an infection progresses, then I might be able to notice if something is wrong."

Johan faintly smiled. "Don't worry, I don't think that you are infected. Though I understand that you must feel nervous because you came in direct contact with the blood of that bear. We don't know if it is a viral or a bacterial infection yet. Tough we believe that it is a virus. The infection is passed on by bodily fluids, indeed including blood. The first symptoms are lack of vision and hallucinations accompanied by vomiting and a strong fever. Usually, the eyes become bloodshot, and the victim starts to uncontrollably twitch. In all the species we found capable of getting infected the creatures showed these signs within six hours. After that they will die. Usually from dehydration or exhaustion. When that happened, we believed that something in the infection restarts the brain to some extent."

"Thank you for your explanation." Theo said. After that he made his way towards his room.

The infection was still relatively new. Theo felt a bit suspicious about how Johan already knew so much about it. It could be that he was just filling in the blanks, but he seemed very confident about the information that he gave.

And why wasn't he worried at all. Theo had come in direct contact with the blood of the bear and most likely got some in his mouth as well. Could it be that creatures form the ruins were immune to the infection, and Johan somehow knew of this?

Theo wasn't sure. So, he just decided to wait and see whether or not he would show symptoms. Surely there would be enough people here to safely take him out, should the need arise.