Wings Of Choice (Joel Pimentel)

14 - Ego Falls Down

Richard, Zabdiel and Chris follows Cassandra climbs the hill near the palace, as Erick told them to meet him there. "Why does he asks us to do this? It's troublesome." Zabdiel whined, as the walk in between the trees is tiring. Chris using a tree branch he just picked to poke Zabdiel from the back makes things even worse.

As they got on top of the hill Erick is nowhere to be found. "Great. Now he's playing hide and seek. Please strangle him with your muscular hands when we find him, Richard." Zabdiel says while catching his breath with his hands on his knees.

They screamed for Erick's name and tell him to stop playing. "Guys, why does that thing looks like it's going to attack us?" Chris stuttered, as he saw a huge eagle came down from the sky, flying straight towards them.

"Shit, it's big. Run guys! Those claws can kill." Richard yells out as he starts running for his life, followed by the others except for Cassandra. "Cass, run!" Chris ran back to take her hand.

As the eagle gets so close to the Chris pulled Cassandra to his chest and wrapped his arms around her to protect her. He closed his eyes when he does that, counting the seconds for the eagle's claw to slice through his skin. But nothing happened, just a sound of a laughter that annoys him everyday erupts.

"Surprise, cousins!" Erick screams eagerly. "That was me, you guys should see how scared you were, seriously." he bursts in laughter. "And what a gentleman, Chris. I'm proud." he pat Chris's back, wiping the tears in the corner of his eyes for laughing too hard.

Richard and Zabdiel were so confused as they witnessed Erick shift from eagle form to human before their eyes. "Wow, did that just happened?" Richard asked with widened eyes.

"There's Devil's blood in my body, remember? Cass told me I can actually do shape shifting, things like that but I never tried it because you know, my mother abandoned Devil's lifestyle to gain my grandparents trust blah blah blah. But now Cass trained me and looking at your reaction, I did well." he says proudly.

"So you know about this?" Chris asks Cassandra as he lets her go. Smiling at Erick, Cassandra nods and says sorry for playing along with Erick's plan to scare them. "I'm helping him with shape shifting, while he helps me with my wings. Never use them before." she replies.

The three cousins exchange looks with each other, before they gave their evil smirk to Erick, making him feeling unsafe. "Wait, what were you-" before he can finish his words, Richard charges at him, making him fall to the ground on his back before Chris and Zabdiel jumps on him to beat him up.

"That's what you get for making such a bad joke." Chris says when Erick begs Cassandra to help him. "She's in it too, why am I the only one being punished?" he complains when they're done beating him up.

Richard grabs Cassandra and holds her tightly like he's protecting her. "Because we love her." he stick his tounge out at Erick, making Cassandra laugh as Erick continues to complain on how unfair it was that they are only mad at him.

Erick and Cassandra continue to train each other on the skills they've been missing out, as the other three just sat on a tree trunk that's lying on the ground to watch them. After about an hour they got tired and join the others to take a rest.

"You know what, the two of you completes each other." Zabdiel tells Cassandra. "You missed out the angel part in you because you're raised in the lifestyle of a Devil, while Erick missed out the Devil part in him. It's like you guys are missing pieces that finally collides." he adds.

Cassandra took a seat beside him, while Erick grabs a bottle of water and chug it in. "I know right, it's like we're made for each other." Cassandra laughs. Erick's facial expression changed when he heard that, but he looks away immediately before anyone can notice.

Richard clears his throat, drawing everyone's attention to him. "Cass while you and Erick were coaching each other someone flew here but hesitates to come closer. Guess he just managed to calm down his temper." he says, pointing to a tree behind them.

There's Joel, settling himself in tree branches, watching over them from afar. It has been three days since he snapped at her. And no matter how many times he reminded himself not to take back his words when he said he doesn't want Cass anywhere closer to him, he can't deny he misses her.

"Just meet him, Cass. That boy graduated with two degrees at age of 19 but even a genius can suck at love." Zabdiel tells her. But Cassandra is still hesitating. "What if he snaps at me again?" she asks. She's dying to talk to him again but last time's incident still scares her.

"He didn't mean what he said. You might not know this but we're all aware that he has a bad temper. He slipped things when he's mad. But is too egoistic to admit he's wrong." Richard try to convince her to meet Joel.

Chris stood up, and put his hands on Cassandra's shoulders. "It's also a good reason to practice using those wings." he whispered to her with a smile on his face.

Nodding to the guys, Cassandra let out her wings and fly towards the tree Joel is sitting on. When she gets there she sat beside him with no word said. She kicks her feet in the air back and forth to distract herself.

Minutes passed but Joel still hasn't say a word. Feeling ignored, Cassandra drops herself to the ground to walk away. Just after she took a few steps forward she heard a stumbling sound behind her before Joel hugs her from behind.

"I'm sorry for what I've said. I didn't mean it. I was just upset." he rests his chin on top of her head.

Cassandra takes his hand and holds it against her cheek. A tear escape her eyes as he kisses the back of his hand. "I miss you, Joel. Please, don't do that to me again." she speaks in brittle voice.

From a distance, Richard, Chris and Erick just watch Joel and Cassandra hugging each other, trying to read their lips but failed. "I have a feeling that Joelito needs our coaching for this relationship to work." Chris says with his eyes still fixed on the two lovers mending up.