Flight School: Predator

Full Halves

A/N: It's been two weeks, and I wrote a long chapter ^///^ above is an animated video of several talking parakeets (Japanese parakeets, apparently XD) and since Flight School is all about birds, I felt that I should share it with you guys :>  the subs aren't that accurate but it's so cute.

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"Is Io here? I have good news," said the phoenix as she entered the predator's common room where the rest were gathered in silence. Thinking. Quiet.

Not a single response was given while each waited for the other to speak. There was a string of tension that pulled taut in the air ready to snap, and her entrance only served to tighten whatever grip they had of unease they harbored within. Jing looked around and found the answer to her very own question, dissatisfied.

"He's not here?"

"Yes. As you can see," Dmitri's mood had remained in its state of disobedience, the very characteristic that defined his personality. Stubborn. "You've become strangely vocal these days, haven't you? Minding the business of others that don't concern you."

Jeremiah shook his head in the far back, unable to match the falcon's age to his level of maturity. Odette had a hand over her mouth to mask the amused laughter that threatened to surface.

"Shut up, Dmitri," Lucienne the harpy eagle had not the patience to listen. His words had appeared increasingly childish to her ever since Io's burst of anger; one that had shed light on the situation from a perspective only someone of dual avians could have had. "Tori was not very happy with us, after what we said. He'd left rather abruptly...I doubt any of us have an idea of where he is."

The phoenix appeared slightly taken aback by Lucienne's brief explanation. After all, she'd always assumed it took much to anger the sparrow to such an extent. She was not wrong—but she wasn't entirely right about it either.

"He has club activities today," came a voice from the far corner of the room.

Luka was never the kind of person to spend a whole chunk of his time with his classmates, or anyone for the matter. He simply didn't. And the fact that he did, today, remained a mystery to everyone else as much as it did to himself.

"Thank you," Jing acknowledged with a nod before leaving in the direction she had come from and just as the rest were about to resume their strangled silence, she paused at the door. The phoenix glanced over her shoulder and directed her question at no one in particular.

"And Vaughn?"

It was no surprise that Luka tensed immediately. No surprise and yet, his reasons strangely unknown to himself.

There was no response to her question. "Why do you—"

"I only asked because he isn't here as well. It was not meant to be rhetoric, nor was I implying that they were together," Jing clarified with a great show of indifference, glancing at the eagle before finally leaving the room without another word.

How unusual a feeling it was to be made guilty by the words of one so cold and impassive, one they thought had her cage emptied and then filled with the essence of something so frozen, not even her flames could melt.