^Ash^

     I awoke to Ellani screaming in her sleep  Leaping out of my not so comfy cave floor bed, I ran to her.  Ellani's hands were balled into small fists and her blankets were tangled at her feet.  I picked her up and rocked her back and forth.  Slowly, her eyes opened.  Tears streamed down her dirty face.

"Do you want to go fly for a bit?"  I asked her.  Ellani sniffed and nodded.  I tore a piece of paper out of my notebook and wrote:

Ellani and I are going to fly a bit.  Will be back soon.

-Iris

Satisfied with my work, I grabbed Ellani's hand and leapt into the air.  The cold night calmed Ellani down immediately. With a maniacal grin on my face, I flew over to her and tagged her.  Flying off, Ellani slammed into my arms and hugged me.  Her face was flushed and she glowed with happiness. 

"I love you Iris."

"I love you too Ellani."  I put her on top of my back and flew to the nearest tree with her surfing on my back.  I saw lights of a town ahead.  Bingo.

"Come on Ellani.  Time to get everyone breakfast."  I landed gracefully and tucked my wings into my windbreaker so I looked like a normal teenager.  "If anyone asks, we are Ellani and Iris Batcheldor.  Just to be safe."  I picked Ellani up and put her on my shoulders.  It was hard to remember she was only four.  We went into McDonald's.  A tiers looking young man was at the counter.

"Welcome.  How may I help you?"  Boy, he was in for a surprise.

"Hi.  We're feeding a crowd.  can we please have fifteen hash browns, twenty egg Mcmuffins, ten large fries, and two happy meals?"

"S-Sure.  That will be 118.32."  Taking out a bag of cash, I handed him the money and sat down in a booth.  It was only us and the workers.

"Let's go get cleaned up.  Shall we?"  I grabbed Ellani's hand and brought her to the bathroom.  I gave her a rag from my backpack and told her to clean her face the best she could.  Going into a stall, I borrowed, two rolls of toilet paper and some towels just in case we needed them later.  With a paper towel, I washed my face.  When I went to throw it away, it was black.  Because I could, I put my hair under the sink and washed it.  When I finished, I cleaned Ellani's hair.  Satisfied that we didn't look like mutant bird kids on the run, I came back out.  

"Order number 394, we have your food.  394."

"That's us."  I walked to the counter and grabbed our food, shoving them into my pack.  Ellani took the two happy meals.  Smiling, we flew back to the cave.  When we got their, Max, Iggy, Fang, Sam, and Vivi were looking at a map.  (Well, not so much Iggy.  He was just listening.)

"Hey."  I said smiling.  "We brought breakfast."  Opening my bag, I dumped out the contents and called out for the kids to come.  To my great surprise, Ellani went over to Iggy and sat down on his lap.  He looked shocked for a second, then stroked her hair.  

"What do you guys look like?"  He asked.  That gave me an idea.

"Iggy, give me your hand."  I said.  Iggy put his hand in my general direction.

Closing my eyes, I concentrated as hard as I could.  I felt myself giving my sense of sight to Iggy.  I opened my eyes and everything was dark.  Smiling, I imagined images of my whole flock to together.  Then I showed him his own flock.  Max, Fang, Nudge, and Gazzy.  Finally, I showed him an image of him stroking Ellani's hair.  I felt my energy fading.  I let go of his hand and my vision returned.  I looked into Iggy's eyes.  Their were tears.

"Thank you.  He said in a whisper." 

A/n 

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This is a picture of Iris that I drew a few days ago😝