Flying Without Wings

Not ten minutes had passed since Audrey, Lydia, Monty and the remaining misfits had left when there was another knock on the door. I volunteered to go and let the muscle in, I was in desperate need of some fresh air and a little alone time, even if it was a brief walk in betwixt closing one door and opening another. I’d barely made it out of the basement before the pounding sounded again, it was deep, booming, intimidating. It struck me that I was about to open the door to anyone and wouldn’t know if the brute on the other side was friend or foe. Hadn’t Audrey said they would be an hour? It had only been about 20 minutes. Pushing the negative thoughts from my mind I looked at the shadows behind the door and smiled, friends I’m sure. I turned the old knob and welcomed in the Angha Soldier muscle (with a sigh of relief). There were ten or so men and women, all hefty and menacing but with warm countenances and kind eyes. “Ah you must be Bea.” The first oaf exclaimed pulling me into a bone crushing hug. “Thank you so much for inviting us, here I brought you some carrots.” The chap handed me the bag of carrots with a big toothy smile.

“Thanks?” I laughed taking the bag, his name was Lewis; he had a neat black goatee and short black hair hidden under a red and white flat cap. Everything about him was large; his hairy ears, his puffy hands and the giant gaps between each tooth that came poking through a wide cheery grin. The rest of the group, like the ones heading to the party, were just as strange and unusual. I shook their hands, or was crushed by their hugs as they streamed down the hallway and into our tiny kitchen. The last person to enter was the biggest of them all, the man kept his head down and didn’t make my acquaintance as he rushed past me thudding along. My heart stopped, I had heard those thuds before. I ran into the kitchen after him and grabbed at his tree trunk sized arm. He turned and looked at me with small green eyes and matted lashes, it was Bear. I let out a shrill scream and jumped behind Lewis. “Lewis, this man, he is an imposter he is working for Zenasia!” I shouted hysterically and grabbed at a kitchen knife. My shrieks brought Gomez, Bastian and Humphrey bolting up from the basement, there was no preamble needed, they saw Bear and tackled him to the ground.

“Oi get off him!” Lewis shouted picking Monty, Bastian and Gomez off Bear as if they each weighed 10 kilos. “The lad is with us now.” I looked down at Bear. His bulbous nose was screwed up in a ball and his eyelashes were glued together with tears. I noticed his camouflage jacket had an AS pin on the collar and my heart melted a little. “He came to us yesterday morning in a right state, seems Zenasia had gotten into his attic and taken Ruby, his Angha.” Lewis said. Upon hearing Ruby’s name Bear let out a long howl like a wolf searching for its lost cub and curled up in a ball on the floor.

“Poor dear,” I bent down and patted Bear on his ape like shoulder, “don’t worry, we will get Ruby back, tonight.” I tried to assure him, he wrapped his great arms around me and sobbed into my yellow knit, it quickly became sodden from tears and snot.

“Now then, who else have we got here?” Gomez said looking at the other people sardined into the kitchen. “Well, well aren’t you lot a sight for sore eyes, come on downstairs, there is more room and we can go over the plan for tonight.” The crew followed Gomez and Humphrey back down the stairs leaving Bastian and I alone with Bear. I opened my mouth and was met with an almighty crash and a roar of laughter, I could only assume one of the new weighty members had broken the little wooden ladder. I closed my eyes and waited for the laughter to cease. Bears arms finally left my waist and he curled up into a little ball on the floor again, he apparently had no interest in going downstairs with others to listen to the plan. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes, Bastian had moved right in front of me and I found myself starring into his pooling brown eyes.

“How you feeling babe? It’s been a crazy few days, I feel like we have barely spoken, holding up OK?” he asked plucking a Bear booger off my jumper.

“I’m fine all considering, we are lucky I think, we still have each other and Marvillo, so honestly I feel I have no right to complain about anything, are you OK?”

“I’m amazing actually, I’m not sure what this is all for but I feel like I’m finally doing something good, something that has meaning, not just being some salary man or tending bar, but doing something real. These last few days with these nonsensical people and you have been the most meaningful of my life, and I can’t wait to see what is up for us next… I feel like we were born to do this, to save the Angha.”

“You’re so positive; what if what happens next isn’t good? Everyone else has lost something or someone that makes our chances pretty high too.”

“Bea don’t think like that, look at these people around us,” I looked to the floor at Bear rocking in a ball. “OK not at him, look at Humphrey and Gomez and Audrey, we are with such incredible people doing an incredible thing, it feels so right. And OK I don’t know a lot about the history of the Angha Soldiers and Zimrugh Saviors (Bear whimpered at the name) but I know I am an Angha Soldier, and you are too.” I looked Bastian in the face, he was no longer looking at me and his lips were tight, like they were when he lied.

“What about Marvillo?” I said racking my brain for what he could be hiding from me..

“Well he definitely is a soldier, if not the soldiers and has a fantastic gauge of who is good and who is evil, I wonder if…” he paused for a moment, “MARVILLO here boy.” Bastian shouted towards the basement. Marvillo zoomed down the hall and straight into Bastian’s arms, he licked his face and flapped his long black wings playfully. Bear gave a great sniff, his moist eyes filled with even more tears and he raised his arms beckoning Marvillo to him. Our Angha turned his furry head and looked down at Bear, his nostrils began to sniff long and loud, I could see his nostrils flaring, sucking in every bit of scent to work out what sort of human he was dealing with. Marvillo flew out of Bastian’s arms and hovered above Bear, he was getting lower and lower with each beat of his leathery wings. He seemed to have grown a lot over the past few days, he was looking less and less like a puppy and more of what I had seen in the drawings. He landed a foot away from the crying heap of a man and continued to sniff and circle him, he gave out a low rumbling growl bearing his little razor sharp teeth.

“Oh no, what if Bear still works for Zenasia should I call Gomez?” I gasped grabbing onto Bastian's arm.

“Just give him a minute Bea.” Marvillo continued to growl and slowly move towards Bear, his thick black fur was sticking up on his spine and his bright teeth were exposed beneath his dirty white moustache. Bear continued to wail and reach his arms towards Marvillo, oblivious to his bellicosity. “I think Marvillo could take him anyway.” Bastian snickered. Marvillo launched himself at Bear, Bear cried out in shock and closed his arms around the airborne Angha.

“He’ll crush him!” I screamed but it was too late. There was a flurry of fur and flesh before Bear fell on his back. Marvillo was on his chest his muzzle pressed to Bears face licking his tear stained cheeks. Evidently, Bear was now an Angha Soldier too.