Cargo

Chapter 2 – Facing the Music

"Koda! Ah.." Shou stumbled on his words, not having expected this meeting at all. "What are you.. doing here?"

He asked, moving to step around his elder brother without waiting for a reply. "Do you always have to be so scary and imposing?" he added as he heard his Koda's footsteps behind him.

"You could have been followed."

"I'm being followed."

"You do not understand the danger you put yourself and all of us in when you show yourself in public!" he heard Koda's voice drop lower as his short temper began to pull tight.

Shou picked up his pace, his eyes shifting back a bit, and then studying the path and trees ahead of him. He had heard t his speech many times before, from many different people. They just didn’t get it! He couldn’t stay fenced in or he would go insane. It was one thing to be so different that he could never get close to anyone but the lab rats (as he had so affectionately dubbed them), but to be banned from all outside contact? Shou refused to be caged up again.

"I understand it well enough to avoid it!" he said in a hushed tone over his shoulder.

"Not well enough," came the deep voice from behind him.

Koda reminded him a bit too much of a classic psycho killer. One moment he was cool and calculating, the next he would be right in front of you, glaring and threatening your life. Though, after spending his years with his elder brother, the psycho killer attitude no longer seemed so scary. Shou bristled and took off running, his wings flaring as he lifted into the air in a few strong strokes, knowing his brother would give chase. He always did.

She loved flowers, and it was the perfect time of year for them. Often times she'd simply sit and make herself a headdress or a necklace from some of the smaller ones, or pick a bouquet to make the dining room light up more.

Zamira stood from her kneeling position and tucked a yellow flower behind her ear, pulling her long silver-toned hair back as well. There wouldn't be time for headdresses or necklaces right then. She had duties to attend to, most of which she would be on her own for. Her eyes lifted to the sky for a moment and she calmed herself mentally. It wasn't a new happening that Shou was absent from his duties. It just angered her that most of his duties were also hers! Therefore whenever he was late or simply missing (which was often), she would end up carrying both loads herself. Most times quite literally.

It was time to feed the unicorns, and carrying their bags of grain was not something she could do on her own without some pain. Usually she could goad Sanura into going with her (the girl loved the unicorns), but the Sphinx had her attention this day.

As she made her way through the woods, she stopped for a moment, hearing a sound from a ways off. A moment later, Zamira was walking again, pursing her lips in frustration and mapping out how she would get six bags of grain out to the huge paddock. Why they had to have four unicorns was beyond her. She understood that her 'job' was to care for rescued experimental creations, but why four? They had made one successfully. That should have been enough.

The unicorns were lovely, though. One stallions and three mares, all of varying color. She wondered how they would react if the group could ever manage to capture the pegasus that they all knew the testing facility still had in it's clutches. Zamira sighed slightly as she leaned forward, her steps becoming slower and more strenuous as the pathway stretched further uphill. The sight of their secret compound was at the base of a huge mountain, and the unicorn paddock was located in a well-hidden clearing on one side of it.

Her thoughts were just returning to the flowers along the thin path, when a large being crossed in front of her so quickly that she could only see black. Her hair shifted in its wake, and she heard a crashing sound in the trees on her other side.

"Hey!" was all she could think to yell, though she was mindful of keeping her voice down. There was only so much emotion the Siren could let slip into her words before it effected those around her.

The struggling stopped, followed by a cursing voice. One she recognised. "Shou?"

"Hiya Zammy." she heard him say in a defeated voice, his footsteps stomping through the underbrush towards her.

She took a few steps into the woods herself, focusing to locate the winged male. "I told you not to call me that," her voice began to vibrate ever so slightly, but there was no need to continue anyway. She finally caught sight of Shou, and her eyes widened as she saw who had him. "Koda..."

The eldest of the three held his brother by the joints of his dark wings, pushing him through the woods as if he were a suspected criminal. Though, such a title could be true of Shou. Easily.

"He'll do his chores, then he'll report to Tau."

"And Tau will take me to Irwin, and he'll have my hide!" Shou stated blandly, quoting the last three words. Frederick Irwin was the leader of their 'operation', and had dealt with Shou's behavior on many occasions. It didn't help that the man was also a former military leader, so rules were very much his game. Shou's game seemed to be breaking them. His brother shoved him once more and he began walking up the path. "Convenient that I led us here, huh? I was going to do my damned chores"

Zamira turned and watched as Koda walked back down the path. Unless working (or chasing his brother), Koda wasn't known to fly around freely. Still, she admired the view. Unlike his siblings, he had left his hair black and kept it long. It blended in well with the shining black feathers of his wings.

"Okay I know you're mad, but I can't lift those grain bags by myself!" Shou's voice seemed to slice into her thoughts. She spun and gave him a simple look as she caught up with him, wondering how someone only a few years younger than her could seem so much different.

"Your hair's due for another dye job." Zamira put in quietly, simply aiming to make conversation.

As she thought, Shou was soon going on and on about the possibilities of his next hairstyle.

"He's home. He will report to you once his chores are done."

Tau looked up and blinked, reaching up to pull the shades back down over his eyes. Koda was walking through the clearing, looking as tired as he ever had. With due cause, considering he had been out on duty before, during, and now after the Sphinx mission.

"You might want to tell your sister, then. I sent her after him." Tau admitted, looking back down to his project. They kept several enclosures around the area, all of them monitored. When something technical broke down or faltered, it was his job to fix it. Or try, he thought as he pulled yet another wire from the camera's frame.

"Which way did she go?" Koda asked in a tired tone.

"Towards the lake, I think." he said, then looked up quickly. "Oh do me a favor, tell her I said I'm sorry. I snapped at - Oh hell" Tau sighed heavily and put the camera down on the rock he had been seated on. "Forget it. I'll get her. You go get some rest, “ he finished waving a hand until Koda acknowledged him.

The path to the lake was a decently long one. Shou was often found fishing, catching things, or simply spying on the rich registered settlements on the other side. One could easily go around the edge of the lake or take the even shorter trip uphill and around the other side, but the rules were simple : never interact with anyone outside of the compound. Tau ground his molars at the thought of how many time's Shou had crossed that simple rule. Why he had such a yearning to go outside of the compound was beyond him. Frederick had secured such a large section of the mountain that they could hike for a day or two without going beyond their boundaries. Within the lines were a growing number of mythical creatures that they had saved, all waiting to be worked with and in need of their care.

Shaking his head, he silently hoped that his sister would not go through such a phase as Shou was. It would make keeping themselves a secret even harder. It was enough to keep the flying creatures from leaving for good and, (as he remembered the Sphinx's cry), to keep the loud ones quiet. If the regular vacationers found them, they would have a problem, but if anyone from the Gordon-Wilkes Testing Facility found them, they would have a battle on their hands.

Tau raked his fingers over his scalp as he walked, controlling any anger that his thoughts might have stirred up as he pulled his hair back into a ponytail. His eyes searched the path ahead, while his excelled hearing was attuned to the woods around him. They were never silent, even in the winter when the vacationers were scarce, and the snow seemed to cast a spell of peace on the landscape. Tau had simply learned which sounds belonged, and which did not.

Finally, after about fifteen more minutes of walking, he picked up Michi's scent. It wasn't something he particularly liked working off of, for to him it was almost an invasion of privacy, but it worked nonetheless.

When he came upon her, she was walking down a path that ran parallel to the lake with a pace about as slow as molasses. He couldn't blame her.

"Hey Meech."

Her lack of a reaction made him realize that she also had headphones on. Well, that wasn't a very smart thing to do when looking for someone. This time, Tau tapped her shoulder. She jumped about three feet, her wings extending slightly in what he guessed was some sort of defensive maneuver. The look on her face as she pulled the headphones down was a mixture of guilt and annoyance.

"Easy prey when your ears don't work," he commented, shoving his hands into his pockets. He continued to walk at a slow pace, his peripheral vision picked up her form as she moved to fall into step next to him.

"They work," was all she could say in reply.

Tau shrugged and looked upward through his sunglasses. "Koda found Shou. He's working on his chores now. I figured I'd let you know."

He heard a soft sigh and saw her nod. "Good. I don't think he would want to deal with me now anyway."

Tau smirked. "I ah..." why was it so damned hard to find the words now? A few minutes ago he was telling Koda what to say. "I wanted to apologize." That was a good enough start. Michi threw him a curious look from underneath her blonde streaked bangs.

"I was just on edge this morning, and the fact that he didn't show up...again...had my temper boiling."

He heard her smile. "Shou's got that effect on people."

"Yeah. Well, I'm sorry I took it out on you. I'd imagine that you're sick of dealing with his problems to begin with."

"It's okay. Don't worry about it," she said in what he had come to know as her 'shy voice’. Michi had been talkative once, though Tau couldn't recall what had happened to stop that.

"Right. Well, I've got a few dozen things to fix. If you get bored, come by the enclosures. I need all the help I can get."

Michi smiled at him, nodding and lifting her hands back to the headphones. Something told him she had wanted to be alone to begin with, and he wasn't going to get in the way of that. Throwing her one last wave, Tau turned easily on his heel and walked back down the path, his odd eyes taking in the sights. It was a good day to go out on the lake.

Which meant for them, it was a good day to keep far from it.

“Have a seat, Shou.”

Fred Irwin looked his visitor over. The teenager’s elder brother, Koda, had gone against the rules maybe once in his entire youth, and that had turned out for the better. Their middle sister, Michi, had only gone from a chatterbox to a shy young adult in her pubescent years. She never broke the rules, (at least not that he knew of). Shou’s recent actions had been nothing but a thorn in all of their sides. A thorn that could prove poisonous if the winged teen was not careful.

“How long were you out this time?” Irwin asked.

Shou blushed, his dark eyes shifting to and from the floor as he sat uncomfortably. The seat wasn’t necessarily painful for him. All three winged children had learned to fold their feathered appendages in such a way that sitting normally was not only possible, but comfortable. Shou was shifting in his seat out of pure nerves.

“A few hours,” he mumbled.

“Look at me.” Irwin said, waiting until the dark eyes met his from underneath wildly colored bangs. “Do you understand why we have rules here?”

“Yes’ir,” Shou practically barked the reply. Too fast.

“If you understand them, why do you break them?”

Another long period of silence, and Shou finally spoke up. His red face lifting so that his slanted eyes were showing fully under his hair.

“I can’t stand it here sometimes! Sitting around, doing chores, practicing. It gets old! I just want to meet new people, you know? The whole point of us being here is so that we can’t be kept in a cage,” the boy went on, hands lifting and gesturing as he talked. All three siblings definitely carried that trait. Koda and Michi also talked with their hands when they were upset, it just took longer to rile either of them up.

“But here’s a cage too, if you think about it. Here we have boundaries and rules and schedules. I feel trapped!”” Shou finally finished, sitting back and gripping either side of his chair.

“I suppose you could think of it that way.” Irwin conceded, but only after giving the boy ample time to continue. “However, it is a cage to keep others out. We are free here. We are unnoticed and safe. Without these fences, invisible or not, you would be caught, persecuted, stared at, and tested. You know this as well as the rest of us do.”

Shou sat pouting, looking for all the world as if he would cry. Irwin tended to punish in added chores, more time inside, and even lack of assignments (which most of the group considered fun), and the boy was likely preparing himself for that. Irwin continued, hoping that this time his words would strike a chord with him.

“We cannot risk being seen, Shou. If one set of innocent eyes realizes that those wings are real, there would be a backlash. It does not always go as it does in stories, where the character meets an angel with real wings and keeps that angel a secret. Where they have wild adventures and return home before anyone even sees them! Reality does not work that way.”

“Yes sir.” Shou said, annunciating out of a mixture of frustration and sadness. Irwin had raised enough teenagers to know what a tumultuous mix of emotions their minds could be.

“Now. I am working on finding a second plot of land for us. An expansion. A back-up, if you will.” Irwin was pleased to see Shou’s eyes lighting up at the prospect. “If you not only stay within our boundaries, but complete your chores and training without a fuss, I may just assign you to be a part of the first scouting mission.”

“A new place? Like a new home?” Shou asked, his posture straightening.

“A second home. We will not be leaving here anytime soon,” Irwin glanced at the large, detailed map that he had framed and hung on his wall. “At least, I hope not.”

“Where is it? Is it on another mountain or by the ocea-?” Shou asked, but Irwin lifted a hand and cut him off.

“All within due time. First, you need to prove to me that you are trustworthy.”

The winged boy swallowed audibly and nodded, forcing calm on himself.

Irwin slid the printed list of chores and new duties across his desk, watching as Shou paled slightly before taking it. At once, he stood, lifting his hand in a salute. “Two weeks, and I’ll judge your progress. You are dismissed, Shou.”

Shou stood in an awkward motion and saluted in kind. All of the inhabitants had been trained from young ages to repeat the military gestures in perfect form. Despite his teenage awkwardness, Shou was no exception.

Irwin simply hoped that the new plot of land would be incentive enough to keep the boy from breaking the fence lines again. As always, only time would tell.