Colt

"Having any luck?" I laugh, standing beside Emerald.

"No," she sighs exasperated, "I'm just heating the wood, stupid power," she grumbles.

I lean down and press a hand to one of the logs she had been touching. "Ouch!" I pull my hand back quickly, "that's actually really hot."

"It is?" she asks surprised and touches the wood again.

"Here, try this," I pick up a handful of dried pine needles and drop them in a pile on the heated wood.

She places her hands on the pile, holding it for a few seconds before a thin lines of smoke starts to arise from between her fingers. "Woah," she pulls her hands away quickly, as flame starts to spread across the log. A smile spreads across her face "I can make fire."

I laugh at the exited look on her face, "yes you can."

"Birdman, can you hear me? Birdman!" Karl calls into the walkie, pulling mine and Emerald's attention from the fire.

Mollie silently suggests something and Karl nods in agreement.

"What?" I asked walking over to them.

"He's out of range," Karl explains.

"How far did he get?"

"Three hundred yards."

"Karl--Guys--!" the radio sparks to life again as Jasper's panicked voice makes it's way through the static.

I take the walkie from Karl's hand, ignoring his protest, "Jasper, are you alright?"

"Use your code names, man," Karl whined, but I just rolled my eyes.

"Colt!...man...happened...dead..." his voice was interrupted by periodic static and I started walking towards the forest to improve the signal. Karl and Mollie get to their feet to follow me

"Jasper, I can't really hear you, what happened?" I ask, getting a little worried.

"Th-there's this dead guy, I d-don't know what happened. You have to come see this!" Jasper stammered as he rushed to get the words out. He only stammered when he was scared and I couldn't help to get scared too.

"I'm on my way, how far are you?" I ask.

"I think four hundred yards," as soon as he'd replied I thrust the walkie into Karl’s hands and started into the forest.

"I'm coming too," Emerald rushed after me.

"I wanna goo!" Sarah popped up, seemingly out of nowhere.

"No!" Emerald and I said at the same time. She pouted and went to go sit by the fire.

"Let's go," I say staring into the woods. Not wanting to wait any longer I almost run through the forest, I'm barely aware of Emerald at my side struggling to keep up. "Jasper?" I called out.

"Colt? Yeah, it's this way," I hear him before I see him. We caught up and Jasper shows us to the body. I stay standing next to Jasper as Emerald knelt down to get a better look. She lifts his head, from it's resting place on his chest. His face is pale, drained of life, and his eyes are still open. His expression frozen, wild with fear.

"What happened to him?" Jasper asks in a week voice. Emerald tilts his head to the side, revealing a bite mark on his neck. Two perfect puncture wounds directly over the largest vein on his neck.

"Vampire," I mutter darkly, I feel Jasper shiver beside me.

"It's not safe here," Emerald decides, letting the man's head drop back to his chest, "we'll stay for the night, but we're gone by tomorrow, understand?"

We nod wordlessly. She leads the way back to camp and she explains the situation to everyone else.

"Are you okay?" I ask Jasper quietly.

He didn't answer right away, his eyes glued to the ground. "It's just--he was just a human," his head hung.

I didn't know how to answer, he was right, the man was only human, there was nothing he could have done to repel the vampires, it's not like he's from Norway. I don't know how to console Jasper.

"It's getting late..." he grumbles and heads towards our tent. Emerald caught my eye before I could follow him in.

"Hey, do you mind taking first watch?" she asks, "You can wake me or whoever up in a few hours, I just want to make sure Sarah can sleep."

I smile a little, "are you worried about her?"

"She's just a human, if there's a vampire it's going after her," she explained defensively.

I flinched as she used the same words Jasper did when talking about the dead guy. "Yeah, sure. No problem."

She thanked me and retreated into the girls tent, leaving me alone in the clearing. I sigh, fighting the sleep behind my eyes. I take a seat by the fire, leaning my arms on my knees, and getting lost in thought. I worry about Jasper, the scared and sad look on his face haunting my thoughts. He was always so emotional and shows more emotion than I'm used to myself. Growing up the way I did I had to learn to put feelings aside to survive but Jasper was raised by humans and he got luxuries I didn't.

My mother was magical, like me, she could make plants grow faster, or make cut flowers bloom. When I was born with bird wings sprouting from my back my father was reasonably horrified. He stuck around for a while, until my mom got sick and passed when I was five. He wanted to submit me to science or something so I ran away.

I found a drove of magical people (that's the proper term for it), just like me. They didn't look twice at my wings, or look at me with disapproving eyes like my father always had. It didn't last forever though, just long enough for me to lean to survive on my own. There are so many enemies waiting around every corner and I had to watch my second family get torn apart by the violent beasts of the forest.

I met Jasper when I was 14, he had gotten lost in the forest bird watching. He looked at me and my wings with such unmasked awe. He used to take his dinner outside with him to share with me in the forest behind his house, nearly every night. His parents didn't care because they thought he was crazy anyway. He met Emerald and Karl through school, and Emerald meet Mollie in an ASL class (neither one actually learned anything though). Thus our own drove was made; Sarah showed up at some point along the line, but I don't really know how she found out about us. I always figured Emerald told her, she was always too soft on Sarah.

A sudden wind sends a shiver down my spine. With the fire at my front and wings on my back I hadn't noticed how cold it has gotten. I stand up to stretch my legs and I let my wings unfold, fully extending. The breeze ruffles my feathers, sending another shiver through me and I began to wish I'd kept my shirt on. I cast a glance around at the forest to doublecheck it is empty, no sign of a single creacher. Perhaps this should alarm me, but another shiver and I was unzipping the tent to get my jacket from my bag.

I withdraw a moment later and pull it over my arms. Mollie had modified it for me so it has slits in the back to push my wings through. I give another involuntary shiver as I zip it up, shoving my cold hands into the pockets.

I pace around the outskirts of camp, trying to clear my head. The crunching of leaves from somewhere beyond the light of the fire made me stop. I squint into the dark, listening and standing very still. I hear another footstep behind be but before I can turn around there is a splitting pain on the back of my head and I fall forward, into unconsciousness.