• When she awoke later that night she was laying in a cave on a small pile of fur blankets with one covering her. She struggled to sit up due to the immense pain she felt and put a hand on her side. Before she tried to move any further a gentle hand made her lay back down. “You should be resting so those wounds of yours heal soon,” the person said. It sounded like a young man, but her vision was too blurry to see clearly so she couldn’t tell. She fell asleep again and few minutes later, and didn’t wake up until noon the next day. She could sit up with less pain now, and managed to eat some breakfast before she finally looked at the person and saw that a young man had saved her. He had pure black wings, and was very gentle when her tended to her wounds. “Where you the one that kept saving me?” she asked. The boy looked at her and said, “Yes, I’ve been watching you since you were thrown out of your village. I’m the one that pulled you out of the water.” The girl looked down feeling a little ashamed for causing him so much trouble and said, “Thank you.” He smiled at her kindly and said, “Don’t worry about it. Now how about you tell me you’re name?” “It’s Flame Nova,” the girl replied. “My name is Fire Nokomis,” the boy replied still smiling, “Now get some more rest. Your wounds should be healed by the time you wake up.” Flame laid by down and fell asleep within a few seconds. The next morning her wounds had completely healed, and Fire was still asleep. She smiled a bit and got up withdrawing her wings into her back again. Then she walked outside of the cave and over to a nearby waterfall.

    She washed some of the dirt off her face and hands, and then drank some of the water she had trapped in her hands. Then she walked back to the cave, and sat down near the fire. Fire woke up a few minutes later and asked, “Hungry?” “Starved, “Flame replied blushing when she heard her stomach growl. Fire laughed and ran off to go find some breakfast for the two of them. Neither of them seemed to care what they ate so they settled on fish and some blueberries. After a few minutes they heard a small pack of dogs barking. “Come on we better go. Those dogs belong to a group of hunters,” Fire said while gathering the few things they had. They both ran outside of the cave making their wings come out of their backs and immediately took to the skies. Once they were in the air their retreat turned into a game of “Dodge the Arrow.” Fire ended up having to pretend he was wounded then at the very last second fly back into the air with Flame. Flame had to back flip, draw her wings into her back then bring them back out at the last possible second then fly back up to Fire. It took them a few minutes to get far enough the arrows couldn’t reach them, but that didn’t mean they could stop. Both of them kept flying for hours before finally having to land in the middle of a dessert, and take shelter in a cave. “We might be able to fly pretty high, but we can’t fly high enough to avoid sandstorms,” Fire said while making a fire with some wood he had packed. Flame got some of the food out and made sure Fire got his share before she took hers. They both sat in the cave for a little bit before Flame saw something that looked like a person trapped in the middle of the sandstorm. Fire tried to stop her, but Flame had already ran out into the sandstorm. She had a cloth in her hand and was using her wings to hide her head. When she reached the figure she saw that it was a young man. She grabbed him and put the cloth over his mouth and nose then pulled him back to the cave. This time using her wings to hide both of their heads from the storm. When they got into the cave the man was coughing. “Are you alright?” Flame asked.

    “Y…Yeah I’m fine,” the man stuttered. He looked up and was shocked when he saw a Black Wing and a Blaze Wing. Fire and Flame were even more shocked when he started looking them over like he hand never seen a winged (pronounced wing-ed) before. Flame kept ruffling her feathers and shaking/flapping her wings because sand had gotten stuck on her wings and she was trying to get it off. “That’s why I tried to stop you from going out into the sandstorm,” Fire said in a teasing manor. “If I hadn’t gone out there that man would’ve died!” Flame said in an annoyed tone while pointing to the man. “My name is Ron and maybe I can help you with the sand,” the man said taking a case he had attached his belt. He opened it and pulled something that looked like something some girls used to put blush on. Then he gently brushed over her wings, using a different brush to get the more stubborn grains of sand out of her wings. They all sat down around the fire after a few minutes and Fire asked, “So why were you looking us over like you had never seen a winged before?” “I’ve been fascinated with wingeds all my life. I’m an archaeologist but I’ve made studying wingeds my hobby. I’ve studied them ever since I first met a young White Wing.” Then he pulled out a scrap book and showed a feather of almost every winged alive. “You have a Gray Wing feather but no Black Wing feather,” Fire said looking at the color coded feathers before handing it to Flame. “You also have a Red Wing feather but no Blaze Wing feather,” Flame said hand the book back to Ron when she was finished. Then Fire and Flame got an idea and grabbed a single feather on one of their wings and plucked it. It hurt like no tomorrow, but they traded feathers and each handed Ron their own feather. He looked like he was going to burst into tears when he took the feathers putting them in the correct slots. “Are you okay?” they asked in unison. “Y…Yes, I’m fine,” Ron replied wiping his eyes, “It’s just that wingeds have never actually given me their feathers. I’ve always had to find them on the ground.” They both laughed and said, “You sure love your wings!” It took them another five minutes to figure out the sandstorm was over because none of them could stop talking.

    Ron was still no where his village, so Fire and Flame asked him if he wanted a lift. “It’s always been my dream to fly!” Ron exclaimed. Fire and Flame smiled and said, “Then let’s give you a lift.” Fire grabbed Ron’s right hand while Flame grabbed Ron’s left hand. Then they both took off into the air and heard Ron screaming for joy. It only took them a few minutes to reach Ron’s village, and they landed in front of his house. “Please won’t you come in?” Ron asked. Fire and Flame withdrew their wings into their backs and Ron asked, “Doesn’t that hurt?” “Like bloody murder,” Flame replied. “You get use to it after awhile,” Fire replied, “Now all I feel is a dull tingling.” All three of them walked in and Ron was greeted with hugs from a little girl and a young woman that look a little younger than he was. “Fire, Flame, I’d like you to meet my lovely wife Sarah and my daughter Marbella,” Ron said with a big smile on his face. Fire and Flame just stood their staring blankly before they both screamed, “YOU’RE MARRIED?! YOU ONLY LOOK LIKE YOU’RE 20!!!!”

    Ron busted out laughing and said, “I’m 30 and my wife is 28. We got married when my wife was 20 and I was 22. One year later Marbella came into the world.” “Okay that makes more sense,” Fire and Flame both said. Everyone sat down to have dinner, and Marbella kept asking Fire and Flame all sorts of questions before he mother cut her off. “What’s wrong dears? Neither have asked for more, and you both look thin as a toothpick,” Sarah asked commented. “We’re full. We don’t eat very much but the food was delicious,” Fire and Flame replied in unison. “Well, then at least stay the night,” Ron and Sarah said in unison. “Everyone talking at the same time,” Marbella said giggling. Fire and Flame both agreed and stayed the night sleeping in the living room.

    They got up around sunrise the next day, and began on their way before Ron and Sarah were up. They didn’t want to be anymore of a burden then they had already been. “Would be nice if Ron could fly on his own huh?” Flame commented. “Yeah. I’d give him mine but with all the fast retreats we have to make it would be harder without wings,” Fire replied. “Yeah but it wouldn’t be that much harder. I mean look at us now. We’re not flying. We just picked a direction and started walking,” Flame replied. They both laughed, but quickly fell silent and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw a tornado headed in their direction. It didn’t look like a normal tornado though. It looked like their was a thunder storm trapped in it. Only the lightning was red, blue, green, white, yellow, and all sorts of other colors. Fire and Flame both took off into the air and flew in separate directions, away from the tornado. Somehow the power of the tornado became stronger, and they were both being pulled back no matter how hard they tried to fly away from it. They both felt like their wings were slowly being torn off their backs and thought to themselves, ‘If I must loose my wings I’d rather them go to someone who deserved them!’ Then they were pulled into the tornado and somehow slammed right into each other. They both lost consciousness from the sheer force of their impact. They suddenly awoke screaming in pain as they felt like they were being torn limb from limb. the pain in their back was greater than the pain they felt anywhere else. Then the tornado suddenly vanished and they collapsed to the ground. Flame could barely make out the sound of footsteps headed in their direction just before loosing consciousness. Fire was the first one to wake up, and cringed in pain when he tried to sit up. It took him a minute or two too notice the bandages wrapped around his torso. Flame woke up a minute or two later and she looked at the bandages on Fire’s back. There were two wounds, that were still healing where the base of his wings use to be. They almost passed out again when Ron walked in with a pair of Blazing Red wings with black patterns on them. Sarah and Marbella had the same wings, only with different patterns on them. “Take it easy you two. We don’t know how, but somehow you two lost your wings and we got wings,” Ron said. Sarah took care of Fire and Flame’s wounds before they heard music coming from outside. Ron and Sarah helped Fire and Flame outside and they saw a young man and a woman fighting a group of men and dancing to the music.

    The ground moved up and down like it was measuring the volume of the song, and the men fell to the ground dead within minutes. Fire and Flame seemed to recover almost instantly when they jumped out the window and ran over. The men showed no sign of injury or anything, and they both looked at the man and woman. The woman opened her mouth and the music started playing again, then the guy moved his mouth and it sounded exactly like the people who sang the song. They both stopped and said, “We control the element of sound, and can use it to melt the insides of anyone we choose too. If we don’t want too, then it’s just entertainment.” Fire and Flame looked at each other and said, “Walking, talking instruments.” The pair laughed and the man said, “I’m Echo.” “And I’m his girlfriend Melody,” the woman added, “You’ll meet the others shortly.” “Others?” Fire and Flame said in confusion. “Yes, the other members to the team,” Echo and Melody said.

    Then two tornadoes appeared out of no where and vanished within seconds with a young man and woman standing where the tornadoes were. “Hey Anil. Hey Anila,” Echo and Melody said. “Hey guys,” Anil said. “These the missing pair?” Anila asked with a curious tone. “Huh?” Fire and Flame both said in confusion. “Oh you haven’t told them yet,” Anila and Anil said. “No, we’re still waiting for everyone,” Echo replied. Fire and Flame almost collapsed, but Echo and Anil managed to catch them before they hit the ground. “Let’s go wait inside,” Melody said leading the way back to Ron’s place. Once they were inside Echo sat Fire down in a chair and Anil laid Flame down on the couch. “You two need to take it easy. Your wounds are still healing,” Anila said. A few minutes later Marbella was giggling because Flame’s ear twitched every time the faucet dripped. The water steadily became faster, which agitated Flame because her ear wouldn’t stop twitching every time she heard the water droplets hit the sink. Then the water was put on full blast and no matter what Sarah did it wouldn’t stop. The water overflowed and then something strange began to happen. The water bubbled up until it was the height of a human, and the width of two humans. All the water suddenly vanished and a young man and woman was standing where the pile of bubbling water was. “Well, I see four pairs of the eight are already here,” the man said.