Little angel

(2) Goodbyes

A/n: Ivory will be smaller than most children her age due to the diet she had and she will be kinda childish as she never learnt how to grow up. She will mature throughout the story though.

Tony's POV:

We entered the forest after we had been told a girl with wings was last seen in here by some hunters, the villagers avoided that forest as she resided in there and dint want to anger her. The forest itself was beautiful and there was a lot of wildlife, though they ran at the first glance of us. Although a deer stopped under a tree for a few minutes before continuing to run away, I thought nothing of it until I saw the large oak tree with a big oversized bird nest in it. A large pair of white wings was all I could see "fury you see this too?" I ask pointing to the tree "yes I do stark, okay everyone careful when approaching we don't know what's she's capable of" the rest of the team nods and they move in closer to the tree. A small figure flies off, we follow until we hit a river. There's a waterfall to the left and a another drop to the right. We signal for half to team to Split off to the right and the rest follow me to the left.

We check all around the waterfall just to be sure then we close in, I look behind the waterfall but only find a small crawl space. Now way any of us would fit...wait Peter we've got Peter "Peter! You think you can fit in the crawl space?" Peter examines the crack in the wall, "umm maybe?" I step back to the others and he crawls inside. You can hear Peter shuffling and then we heard a crash. I shout in to check if he's okay, he answers back that he's fine. About 5 minutes later Peter comes out with a small child behind him, "um Peter who is that?" I ask a little confused "this is Ivory, or as mr deer calls her 'little one'." I just stood there, this is who we came for? A child? Fury looked even more shocked than me but it quickly disappeared and changed to sympathy. Although he won't often show it he's a big softie at heart. He slowly approached the child and knelt down in front of her.

Ivory's POV:

A man with an eye patch knelt down and held out his hand, I look up at Peter unsure if it's safe, he nods and I cautiously walk over to the other man. I sniffed his hand cause that's what the foxes do as their greeting, his faces looked off maybe this was the wrong greeting? Animals have so many but I don't know the one for people. He sighed with a faint smile "can I have your hand?" His voice was kinda gentle, I gave him my hand and he placed it in his and held on "this is how we greet each other, we shake hands or wave" he explained, I nodded. He was really big compared to me so he was kinda threatening but his voice was gentle, bear? After I started drifting off into my own world thinking what the man with an eyepatch reminded me off he started talking again, "what are you doing in the forest alone Ivory?" "I was told to stay here and not leave until they said it was okay" I mumbled looking at the ground as if I had done something wrong. The man looked at his friends and shrugged "child listen to me" I nod "the person who probably told you stay might have been your mom or dad? Yes" "I'm not sure they're all I remember apart from the forest" I felt like crying cause I could feel the mans frustration "I'm sorry" I step back behind Peter to avoid getting hurt again, the man looked at me concerned this time "hey....hey it's okay your safe" Peter assured me but when I look back over at eye patch he still looks upset "but he's upset so if I stay near him he'll hurt me" I whimper.

Everyone's eyes open wide as if I had said something crazy, "hurt? Why would you think that?" Peter knelt down and held both my hands, "that's what the person who birthed me did both of them got angry at me for having wings so they...." I drift off for a moment before snapping back to reality "I'm sorry I can't get rid of my wings" I covered my body with my wings after letting go of peter's hand. "Don't worry about your wings their really pretty Ivory" mister eyepatch said, I walk back over to him "really?" He nods, I flap my wings happily, everyone around me now looks really happy. I wonder why?

Fury's POV:

I don't think any of us were expecting a child and one as small as this, how long has she been here? "Ivory?" She looks up "how long have you been here?" She thinks and holds up six fingers saying "this many winters" god six years alone? I hope I find her parents and lock them away I'm a place even the sun don't shine. I turn around to the others "okay, plan of action; re-group, go home, find her birth certificate so we know her age and parents, hunt down her parents and lock them up. Any objections" everyone understood and were okay with my plan, I knelt down one last time "Ivory do you want to come home with us?" She was struggling between listening to what her parents told her six years ago and us now "I promise you'll like it at our home. It's warm, there's lots of food and no one will hurt you" she eventually decided to nod, on our way back to the area where we said we'd re-group she stopped "was wrong little one?" I ask, she looks around worried. "Can I say goodbye to mr deer, mr and mrs bear, the fox and rabbit family?" Did she just say bear? "Can I come with?" Again she looks conflicted "they're kinda nervous around peoples" "can I go with you if I stand at a distance?" She nods, I call into the ear piece for everyone to head to the jet and wait for us, the others will fill in the ones who went down stream.

We walk around and she kneeled to the ground and said goodbye by placing her forehead on the rabbits, by nuzzling the foxes, and by hugging the bears who seemed very protective of her. Then finally she said goodbye to a beautiful stag, she pet him between the antlers and told him that she would be leaving with me and a few others, the stag looked at me then back at Ivory. It looked like they had a full conversation, then finally the stag placed his head on her shoulder, nodded in my direction and walked off deep into the woods. "Can you understand the stag?" I ask. She looked at me confused "can't you?" I shake my head "I can understand all of them." I sigh, this child amazes me every time. We walk back to the jet in peace