Shurik must have gotten over his sickness because when I woke up this morning he was gone.

Tomorrow is my day of pairing. I don't intend on risking waiting to leave tonight in case my brother gets off work early. I already wrote a note for Frittle and my brother listing off my reasons for leaving including my intended return. Hopefully, by then, they will have gotten rid of their pairing system here.

I already put my ten premade pies in the oven and have taken them out. 

The humans can have them for free for all I care. 

I set them out on the counter of my food stand for them to pick up. I picked up four pints of raspberries from one of my neighbors and used them to make my brother a pie for tonight. I tuck his note halfway underneath the pie plate. I also wrote for him to give Frittle's note to her.

I pull out my felted tote I've handmade for this very purpose and stuff as many of my clothes as I can inside it. I really can't believe I'm doing this. It feels surreal and I still can't really find it in me to worry about where I'll end up. I just need to leave for a little bit, I won't leave forever. I do want to come back and visit with my friends...my brother too. I explained everything in my notes so they should understand.

Finally, I manage to stuff my old journal and alarm clock into my tote. Then I fly into the kitchen and double-check the oven making sure I turned it off. Everything looks as it should and feeling satisfied, I step out my tent. Most fae are still asleep at this hour and Nate's food stand is still closed up too.

Quietly, I carry my tote with me while flying carefully between the gap between Frittle's tent and mine. When I make it behind my tent, the maple and oak trees will be a good enough cover because they are still in full bloom. 

I start to fly a little higher near their branches, but when I hear my brother's voice behind me, I accidentally drop my tote on the overgrown grassy patch of ground.

"Sadie...?" I hear my brother's voice echo from back inside our tent.

I completely forget he said he would go to the market square this morning and bring home food for tonight! In a panic, I pick up my tote and clutch it to my chest hearing my brother's frantic hollering filled with confusion and alarm.

"Sadie? Sadie!"

It sounds like he's lifting up my bed as if he thinks I'd be found hiding under there like I used to when I was a kid. I hear other things get moved around too and I start to feel bad. This is why I wanted to leave before he returned.

Didn't he read my note? 

Why does he think I'd still be in the tent by now, anyway? 

I'm sure he noticed how cold the pies were too. Still, my heart pounds rapidly and I step back in fear when he becomes quiet. It's like I can feel him staring at me through the thick fabric of our tent, but there's no way he can see me standing out here from inside our home.

Yet, I hear him run out of the room and outside the tent. I rush back into the shade of the great maple tree that looms over the top of our home. I keep running, too afraid to fly in fear he'll spot me easier in the sky. I can hide better on the ground if it comes to it.

I won't let him stop me from running away.

"Sadie! I know you're out here!" he all, but screams.

It only makes me run faster – which happens to still not be fast enough much because I lack the strength and stamina my brother has. Still, I'm a good ways ahead of him and I run in zig-zags to try and lose him. I don't know if he's even spotted me, but there's no way I'm going to slow down just to look and see if he has.

His footfalls behind me sound closer, but still distant. I know I can't outrun him so if I hide, he'll eventually give up and turn back. Then I'll have my chance of escape.

A giant oak tree is just ahead of me. It's encircled by an overgrown wild thorn bush with a bunch of ripe black raspberries. Their stems are thicker than the ones we grow in our great berry field and their thorns are hardened and almost wooden-like. Nestled at the foot of the tree is a little three-foot-high gap in the tree I could maybe fit inside.

I hold my tote out in front of me to hold the briar branches at bay while I crawl through the bush to make it under the gaping hole at the tree's base. Once I manage to crawl about a foot below the overgrown raspberry bush, my wings get snagged on the annoying branches. Pain shoots up my wings and I cover my mouth to muffle my scream. Dozens of nerve endings are in our wings and my wings twitch wildly wanting to fold behind me. In the process, more thorns get snagged onto them.

Thanks to the thorns caught onto them, my wings can't fold and remain suspended.

I'm trapped and was stupid to underestimate the height of my wings before crawling underneath the bush. My brother sounds awfully close now. He must have seen me at some point to have gotten so near to where I currently am. I swallow bile and start to crawl forward still to get under the tree, but it's no use. I hear my brother right behind me and now he's found me in my embarrassing attempt to hide from him.

"Was this worth it? Your wings will be damaged now," my brother reprimands. He continues with a sneer, "Why can't you just grow up and quit acting like a little sprout? I'm going to have to pull out the briars..."

I grit my teeth feeling him tug at a couple of the thorn branches twisted both around and underneath the delicate surface of my wings. 

"Ow!" I whimper in pain.

Tears land on my clenched fists and I hold my breath feeling him pluck out a few thorns embedded in my wings. I know my wings will eventually heal on their own, but they feel badly torn. They quiver and flutter in rapid short bursts riddled in agitation and stress. The last thorn is pulled from my wings. Calloused and stained hands covered in the dark red juice of raspberry grab my waist and roughly pull me out from underneath the bush.

I land on my butt beneath the scrutiny of Shurik's stare.

His eyes blend in with the thick dark purple barbed stems of the briar bushes – a deep purple with a fine line of ivy-green circled around his pupils. He must have already been working at his food stand before he came to the market square and back to our tent.

His apron is caked in flour and mashed raspberry bits are smeared across it. His silvery pink hair dances in the wind while the rest remains stuck in tangles hanging over his forehead because it's covered in sweat from the wild goose chase I didn't intend to make him endure.

He wasn't supposed to come for me.

I hop to my feet feeling my wings twitch in agony against the movement, "Just let me go. I can't live the rest of my life with some stranger. Don't you ever wish to meet more of your own people? Don't you think our rules are silly? Don't you get bored doing the same thing every day?"

Shurik rakes a hand through his damp hair making it stand on its ends as his face darkens almost matching the purple of his eyes. He grabs my arm, "No," he huffs, "You are safe living here. Tomorrow you will make your own life with your pair and fall in love. You'll quickly forget about wanting to leave."

"Stop, let me go!"

"No!" he barks while roughly pulling me along with him back to our tent.

My felted tote drags behind me on the forest floor as I struggle to keep up with my brother's steady stride. The weeds on the forest floor grab at it and I repetitively have to yank it out of their grasp to keep from losing it.

I clench my jaw. "Shouldn't you be at work?"

"No. I took the day off. I figured you would pull something like this. I hoped not, but you didn't disappoint."

When we reach our tent, I still drag my feet behind my brother. It's not long before the red and pink fabric of our home greets us. Shurik tugs me inside behind him. Bitterness swells within me when I watch him tying the entrance closed to keep me from escape.

"Go to work. I don't need you to watch me!" I shout at him when he sits down at the table watching me and refusing to leave.

Shurik stands up speaking in a softer parental tone, "You think I like staying here and babysitting you? I want my own life too, but we don't always get what we want."

His hard stare doesn't match his tone of voice and feeling misunderstood, I decide on simply ignoring him for the day. There's no use in getting any madder at him for chasing me down. I snatch up the two goodbye notes I left on the kitchen counter and violently shred them up before tossing them in the waste bin.

A new voice comes from outside the window of the tent, "These pies look great, Sadie." 

My face flushes, it's Ivan. Frittle stands beside him carrying my pairing cake. I muster a smile to show my appreciation of the dessert they made for me.

A human walks up to her tent and she rushes back leaving Ivan behind with me.

"Feels like just yesterday we were kids and now," Ivan begins, "You're going to meet someone who will be with you...for the rest of your life. Feels great, doesn't it?"

"Yeah."

"What happened to your wings? They look all torn up," Ivan notices.

"Oh, um-"

"Was it your brother?" he asks in a lower voice.

"No, of course not," I laugh, but it's forced as I tell him, "The truth is, well, I kind of freaked out this morning and wanted to leave. So, well, I tried to."

"And he did this to your wings."

"Shurik didn't. I hid in a berry bush and they got torn up," I admit.

Something heavy lands on my shoulder and I jump.

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