Flight School: Prey

Natural Laws

Io,

              Mama is writing before dinner. I cooked your favorite boiled potatoes because I thought you would be coming home on Saturday. Papa is in the woods now so I am writing a letter to you. Mama doesn't know if you have money to buy sunflower seeds, so I sent a packet over. Eat your vegetables, and sleep early. Make many many friends and remember to tell Mama about them.

Io, when are you coming home?

______________________________

"Were you there?"

"I wasn't."

"So how did you know that it was the sparrow who won?"

"He had the Joker's mark—"

"Yeah, but who told you that? You believe them?"

Vaughn wondered if it was a sin to wish himself deaf at times.

"Rina told me. She wouldn't lie."

"Irina? Everyone lies, Rhea...you can't trust someone that easily."

"Maybe."

"I mean...he's prey. He can't possibly win."

"Sure, I guess."

"It's more likely that the eagle won."

"And the vulture? He's the headmistress' son. You think he would lose to a first-timer?"

No one called him by his name, apparently.

Or perhaps he didn't have one at all;

In their eyes.

"Nothing's impossible, Rhea. It all boils down to what you were born as; so it makes sense that scavengers aren't all that powerful to begin with."

A snort.

"Yeah, sure. So how do you think he won against Lucienne? And Dimitri? And Slayne?"

"Well—he's cunning. That's all I can say."

Was it wrong to be?

Did they, for some reason—forget the capabilities of a human mind?

To think.

To think, to plan, and to solve—