Flight School: Prey

Cold Flame

"Cam?"

"Yeah?"

"You've stopped coming over to the Astrology tower," Vaughn said quietly, neither intending it to be a question or a statement. "Is something the matter?"

The owl shook his head and glanced over with a languid smile. "Nothing."

"But you always come," Vaughn reasoned with little understanding, frowning as he returned Cameron's gaze with one of anxious disappointment. His friend only shrugged.

"Are you angry at me?" The vulture asked next.

Cameron looked at Vaughn as though it was a foolish question that he had asked. "Look, you're overthinking."

Vaughn had close to no idea what his friend had meant. Was he really overthinking? He didn't know for sure. He's never had a friend before, so he figured that this was perhaps a new feeling that naturally made no sense.

"Ah. I apologize," He replied quietly.

There was a moment of silence in which the vulture contemplated then, the reason why his friend had stopped coming to the Astrology tower at night. Could it be that he had been caught skipping class? Had be received some sort of warning? After all, Vaughn knew that his mother was rather strict on conduct. Yes, Vaughn convinced himself that this explanation was fairly suiting and sufficient.

Nevertheless, he couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed as they made their way to the dining hall together—Cameron, for supper; and Vaughn, for breakfast. This was the only time left for them to spend together. The break between night and day;

Dawn and dusk.

"I just really need your help with Biology, you see," The vulture bit his lip. "I couldn't do any of the questions without you."

_________________________

The phoenix rose at the crack of dawn with wings spread wide like a fire in the sky—reigning; the land as though it was where it belonged. In the light.

Dmitri stopped in his tracks at the sound of its cry. The creature in his cage trembled with a fearing, willing his gaze to still with a fix. Where was it? He felt as though it was all around.

Moments ago, Jing had witnessed the tearing of her world and how the clouds, themselves, were screaming with a cry that masked the moan of the forest so loud. At present, the fire in her eyes was not something to be mistaken. Io and Slayne stood a distance away, breathing hard from the dead sprint that grasped everything in its hold; waiting for life to catch up. The sphere had vanished from the heart of his palm to manifest, instead, in the skies above where its heat was rooted—fierce—in a land of despair.

Cameron froze; as ironic as the fire rendered him to be, really. Immobile.

There was a catch in his breath that locked away the rest of his mind and prevented any form of rational thought. It was then that diminishing hopes began to settle deep within, ebony frost lacing the once fiery heart that drove his spirit—the idea of beating Vaughn, for once;