Flying Without Wings

I woke up with the most ridiculous headache I had ever had, a migraine was an absolute joy and a hangover was a pleasure compared to the paralyzing pain I felt. I didn’t think I would ever be able to move again. Slowly I blinked my eyes open and saw nothing but darkness, I tried to look to Bastian but cried out from the pain. My shout roused Marvillo, he curled around my head and started to lick my temple and ears. Within seconds my pain diminished it was like my agony was simply dirt that needed to be wiped away. I gently sat up, Marvillo began to whimper softly beside me, nudging me for affection. His wings were drooped and his head down.

“Why did you do that?” I whispered looking into his bright yellow eyes. He starred back into mine, I felt he was trying to tell me something, maybe sorry. The room was dim and quiet; all I could hear was the soft snores of the people breathing around me.

“What the hell happened?” someone murmured from across the room. Gradually everybody began to sit up groaning, they were all awakening from Marvillo's spell at the same time, even the lights flickered back on as if they too had been asleep.

“How did he do that?” Audrey’s husky voice sounded from the darkness. “Marvillo, how did he make that sound? He wasn’t in pain, or sad, or even crying, he chose to.” I didn’t know they could do that, did you faint? Bastian? Bea?” I looked across the room at her rubbing my head and she knew the answer.

“I think I know why,” Gomez whispered his voice hoarse. “I’ve seen this sort of thing before, Marvillo is a new breed of Angha, he is more powerful and complex than the Angha’s of our generation.” He looked to Monty and Audrey, “Ever since the Zimrugh Saviors had started to capture them, they have been sorta evolving, the ones that escaped are changed creatures, they can do things they couldn’t before and seems like their puppies have evolved too. If Marvillo can knockout a whole room of people, including his people as a puppy, just imagine what he will be able to do when he is fully grown.” Gomez was impressed, maybe even a little jealous and I wondered if he had ever had an Angha, and what had become of it. “We already know he has the power to choose more than one human, you may think it is sweet but I think it is another step of evolution and self-preservation, if one of you dies, it won’t kill him too.” Gomez looked at Bastian and I then turned his gaze to Marvillo, he had a look of admiration then slight terror on his dark face. Gomez had seen the way Angha were treated by the Zimrugh Saviors. The Angha were tortured and abused, they were ripped from their humans and subjected to experiments. He had seen what happens when an Angha goes bad, after all the cruelty and deprivation some had fort back and some had killed. He told us of a rouge Angha that had killed guards and civilians as it escaped from the caves just the year before, the Angha hadn’t been seen since. “A few had escaped, but never killed…I wonder if Marvillo is the pup of that dog, he wasn’t a schnauzer, I don’t know what he was, put he was big, black and shaggy.” We all looked at Marvillo, he shook his course fur, he knew we were talking about him. Most dogs already have a heightened perception of sound, smell and mood and it’s said they can understand more than 165 words. Looking at Marvillo he had all this and much more, I had a feeling he could understand every word we said and every emotion we felt. The way his head moved, his deep eye contact, his control, Angha weren’t just super dogs, they were advanced creatures.

“We do know they evolve pretty rapidly, I remember when they used to have feathered wings.” Montgomery spoke staring off into the distance. How old was he I wondered. “Me dad had one, she wasn’t large like I’d seen in the paintings around our house, but she had feathers like a peacock. They were the most beautiful iridescent greens, purples and blues. I would watch her for ours.” Montgomery’s eyes were glazed and his face was soft, he was again a small boy playing with a winged dog. “I remember when she had puppies, they had these bat like wings first time I’d seen em like that. I don’t know what that step was about, probably to make them more inconspicuous. I guess however many physicals changes they undergo, they probably have just as many psychological ones.”

Evolution I could understand, but could Marvillo be all Gomez thought he was, the puppy of a deranged animal, was he a new breed of Angha? I hadn’t even fully understood the original Angha and every time I felt like I was finally starting to wrap my head around it all I was thrown another curve ball, but at least Marvillo’s unprecedented knocking out had stopped Audrey and Gomez from fighting yet again and reinstated a great lust to destroy the Zimrugh Saviors.

Audrey nipped upstairs and brought down some tea on a large tray (I didn’t know we had), to help clear our minds. We sipped hot tea and continued our plan of attack, it was agreed that the first step should be to find the remaining Angha Soldiers, the ones that were still in Cullen at any rate. Humphrey and Audrey would leave soon and rally the troops. Humphrey because he was the most emotionally stable of the men, and he remembered everyone who had ever been committed to the fight. And Audrey because she could charm anyone who was resistant to returning to the cause, and because she couldn’t be left in the same room as Gomez, although either could Montgomery. Gomez and Monty were yet again butting heads over the plan, and everything else. We were fine tuning the details of how to safely break into the caves and how to trick Zenasia, but they both kept erupting, shouting about their own plans, neither was willing to listen to each other’s equally brilliant ideas. The two men would bicker about anything, they were really fighting for Audrey’s affection of course, even if they wouldn’t admit it. The one thing they could agree on was that if tonight went smoothly, once the Angha were released and the hypnosis lifted on their humans there would be retribution. Zenasia and the Zimrugh Saviors would come at us with full force and according the Gomez, the Zimrugh Saviors were bigger than ever before. That was why it was so important to revive the Angha Soldiers, not just for tonight’s fight but for tomorrow’s battle.