Shards: Intro- Part 1 (old)

Chapter Eight: Sighting

Travis looked back at me with tired eyes, seemingly confused. "Hmm?" He moaned.

I decided that I probably shouldn't have asked that question and was glad he didn't hear it. He'd think I was trying to pester him. "Never mind, what are you looking at?"

"Well, not much. There's no storm clouds and the stars are difficult to see with all these fingerprint stains on the window. The same window we were fighting over earlier." I nodded and looked at my lap in understanding. "I'm sorry Travis, I shouldn't have bought up your ADHD. I just got a bit upset."

Travis mirrored my nod of agreement. "I'm sorry too. I was being just as bad. But Chester," he rubbed his face. "We gotta stop fighting over small things. You know I have ADHD and a short temper when you annoy me. I really do want us all to have a good vacation, but I can't control myself when you constantly get on my nerves."

I began to open my mouth a bit. But Travis held his hands up in front of my chest, "I'm just saying. Can we minimize this?" Travis pointed his finger back and forth between me and him. "Can you please throw me a bone and start over? I want us to make good memories on this trip. Believe it or not, I want you to have a good time too. But you know that I have a hard time concealing frustration when you annoy me. I don't want that on this vacation. I want good memories, Chester."

"I understand Travis. I want that too you know." Travis smiled tiredly and messed up my hair playfully. "Alright bro, then you can have the window seat on the way to Manchester, hows that?"

I giggled and leaned my head back. "Whatever you'd like big brother."

Manchester Airport, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Travis Nelson
*======================*

When we landed this morning, I had only two hours of sleep under my belt. I wasn't complaining though.

We landed in London on schedule, then had to go through customs before transferring to an hour long flight up to Manchester. We couldn't go directly there from Dallas so we had to take an alternate route. Until we landed there, everything was quiet between the family.

Dad knew the roads as well as any other Englishman. But he wanted peace and quiet for the drive to a pub near his home. Chester, Adrian and I sat in the back and admired the hilly countryside of the area. Despite how eager I was to experience this foreign place to the fullest, it got boring after half an hour. With the FIFA World Cup happening at the moment, the radio was the only exception to the peace and quiet. I decided to listen in right when a special report begun.

"In other news......around the same time that Spain clinched their first victory in the World Cup last night, there were reports of a mysterious bird over Western Icelandic skies. The longest day of the summer began with a second sighting, which occurred 70 miles off the Portuguese coast heading SSW. Joining me this morning is French witness Martin Bryce who was on the fishing vessel that first reported the latter instances.

Good morning Martin, welcome. So...uh, what did you see?"

"Well, good morning Jones. And to answer your question: We didn't exactly see it, we captured it during a panoramic my sister took of us on the boat. It looks like the kind of avian creature that you would see on land. Except it's nothing like I've ever seen anywhere."