Winged - Currently Under Heavy Editing

Hope and Trust

Hope Academy-a name for a school that did not provide such amenities. It was a place of average size with average students (save for those blessed with wings), average class lectures, and an average day. The school provided a uniform for its students, a royal blue polo paired with a tan skirt for the women and pants of the same shade for the men. This was Hope Academy.

And for Adelphi and her friends, this was heaven.

Hope Academy had taken them in; well, none of them were sure how they got here. The memories were foggy, but that was it. The institution had sheltered them from most of the hateful world by gathering any winged they found and bringing them here. It was, in a way, a safe haven. The only price to pay was to live with a family until you were 21, the legal adult age. While a few winged were fortunate enough to have parents with neutral feelings towards them, most had a family with one member that felt animosity towards them. This left the hours at school as the only chance for normalcy.

It was still early in the day, classes had only just begun. The Director of the school, several chairmen, and a group of men and women dressed in white shirts and pants had just sat down around a conference table, a meeting had been called.

"Chairmen. Scouts." The director stated, offering a nod of recognition to each group. "As the first semester of the year winds down, it has come time yet again to bring in new arrivals to Hope Academy. Our Scouts have increased incidents with sightings of winged. Would you like to take it from here?" The Director raised a hand towards the group, a slender blonde man rose and accepted the offer.

"Thank you, Director. As mentioned before, we have been seeing more humans with wings in our forested regions as well as our city regions, hoping to blend in we presume." A glance around the room confirmed his suspicions that the chairmen were bored with these matters. "We will proceed the same as always, chairmen are dismissed, scouts stay here for assignments."

Grateful, the white-collar men and women exited the board room, leaving only the white-clad scouts and the director.

No one noticed her outside the window.

The short, ginger who keeps her head low behind a bush. No one knew she heard what they are planning. Silently, she watched as the blonde man gave the others their assignments and, one by one, they leave to resume their posts. She can't stay much longer and when she is about to leave, one of the scouts remains. She is thin, her arms shaky.

She must be new.

~~~~~Spera's POV~~~~~

I wait outside, checking to make sure the dismissed scouts would not see me from my spot. I saw others of my kind walk here, I thought it might have been a safe haven.

What is said next will determine if that's true.

The new recruit conversed with her superior, but I can only catch bits of their conversation.

"Why...for them? What ... if those ... are caught?"

"The Winged ... special people ... aren't ... you and I." The director told her. "These ... not from here ... your job to find them ... here."

"So why ... hunting them?" The girl responded.

The director gave his response. "We are going ... they come ... why they ... special."

Those snips of conversation sent me off running, I wondered why so many trusted these people. I had to get out and get back. Sneaking in was one thing, sneaking out would be another.

Rii, where are you? I thought as I trekked through the empty halls, turning once I found one that reached an outward corridor. Rii was nowhere to be seen - at least not where I left her.

The scouts found her.

But they couldn't have. She has made sure I didn't get caught, she knew this place inside and out. The silk, salty wetness of a tear formed in the corner of my eye. If she was caught - or worse - if she abandoned me, I wouldn't know what to do. I wiped the drops from my eyes to clear my vision, forcing the cries one might hear from a blubbering child down in my throat. A shadow passes by.

I can't stand here in the open.

I am about to move when someone grabs me, muffling my mouth and cursing as I kick them and my wings beat on them. They drag me through the open courtyard and I know I have failed. My captor releases me only when we reach a corner in the field, and I see who it is.

"Spera, by God child. I'm going to have bruises for weeks." A taller, raven-haired teenager spoke harshly but quietly.

"Rii! I thought you were taken!" I squealed with delight, hugging her.

"Quiet Spera, do you want to make it out of here or not?" It was a rhetorical question, we were getting out of here. Nevertheless, I nodded my head briefly. "Good, come on now we are taking the west route."

Rii pulled me along, careful to avoid students and scouts alike. That was no easy task. My wings shone as white as freshly fallen snow. An admirable quality, apparently. Her wings were yin and yang, one white the other black. She was equally admired and insulted because of it.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when she abruptly came to a stop by the outer fence.

"Rii, what's going on?" I asked, peeking out from behind her back. She forced me back behind her before I could process anything. Unfamiliar voices reached my ears, asking me- no, us questions. I peeked around her again to see the white uniforms from earlier and several red beams of light focused in our direction. Rii took advantage of my curiosity and pulled me in front of her, wrapping her wings around me and shielding both herself and me from the men and women I had spied on.

"When I say run, you run. Got it?" She whispered between us.

"But, Rii -" I tried to protest, confused by her sudden actions.

"Nuh uh. No buts, I give the word, you go. Get ready." I nodded, my body guided by her hands, I was pushed into a near crouch when I heard them again. Rii fully expanded her wings and pushed me forward, keeping me hidden while luring their attention to herself. Then it hit me.

She was going to sacrifice herself.

I whimpered, and the scouts barked out demands for Rii to go with them. I could hear footsteps, though whose feet I wasn't sure of. I could no longer feel her shadow on me and I knew I would not stay covered for long.

While the scouts continued their demands, I heard Rii.

"Run."