Mason's POV

Stepping through the roots of the trees was quite difficult considering Hunter constantly tripped, and pulled me down with him. He had already done this five times. It was getting on my nerves.

I would much rather fly. And I am strong enough to fly while carrying Hunter, but who would want to carry his sorry ass? What's that I hear? Silence. No one. Exactly my point.

Hunter held the map in his hands, as he studied it closely. It was a good thing he was doing the map reading. It's kind of embarrassing to say, but no, I do not know how to read a map, so this was ultimately up to him. He better not screw it up.

Apparently we were near a place called Williamsport. It was in the state of New York, but it didn't really matter since I had no idea what a 'state' was. Or what New York was... or anything else he was talking about for that matter.

Taking off my backpack I unzipped it to grab a bottle of water. My throat was dry, and I was famished. We had been walking for hours. Now I really wished I had decided to fly. Several hours would have been shortened to maybe one.

"Try not to drink it all now," Hunter said watching me gulp down the entire bottle. Too late.

"I'm sorry, but some of us aren't used to walking over 100 miles to get to the nearest civilization to save their girlfriend because some idiot came into our territory, and gave her an unknown sickness called ifuza!"

Hunter stared at me momentarily before shrugging his shoulders and turning around. "It's influenza by the way," Hunter said chuckling.

"Whatever."

We continued our trek in silence. Thankfully, because I didn't need to hear that idiots voice anymore, or ever.

Soon the stars were shining, and we were still walking in silence. My feet were sore and my legs felt like jelly. The only thing that wasn't sore were my wings, and I was dying to stretch them out and feel the breeze through my primaries.

"So how much further?" I asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Further," he muttered staring at the ground. Well fine then.

"Well how much longer until we stop because my feet are sore, and we are out of water."

"Five minutes," he answered after a long period of silence.

I sighed relieved and continued walking. After five minutes we hadn't stopped. Maybe he had predicted wrong, so I kept walking. After another five minutes I was annoyed, but I wasn't giving in yet. I was not weak.

Finally after what felt like and eternity I stopped and just stood there. I felt dead.

"It's been like an hour!" I yelled letting him continue.

"It's been 17 minutes," Hunter said laughing.

"Well I'm gonna see how close we are," I said opening my wings ready for take off. I couldn't even jump off the ground, so trying to lift myself I to the air, I smacked Hunter into the head with my wings.

"Mason wait!" Hunter yelled, but I was already in the air. It felt so much better than walking. I don't know how humans survived.

I grinned finally feeling free, but that moment didn't last very long when a giant metal flying contraption almost hit me. Toppling head over heals, I fell backward, catching myself only a meter from the ground.

Unable to keep myself aloft from the scare, I dropped my wings and fell onto the ground with a thud.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, still lying on the ground. I didn't really feel like getting up right now.

"That was an airplane. It carries people and cargo. I wouldn't recommend flying around here. It's not remote enough, and someone might see you."

I laid my head back onto the ground, not bothering to respond. But hearing Hunter walk away forced me to get up. This day had already made me want to go home, but I had to do this. It was for Pandora.

Rounding a large tree Hunter sat his stuff down, so I heaved myself from the dirt and followed him.

"We can camp here for tonight," Hunter said watching me from the corner of his eye.

"Finally," I muttered as I let my wings hang behind me, dragging against the dirt. I was sure I had a few sticks stuck in them now.

Lifting my dirt, and stick, covered wings I raised myself up into a nearby tree with a new downstrokes. Getting comfortable I rolled onto my stomach and let my wings hang beside me. They almost reached the ground below.

"I told you no flying!" Hunter yelled loudly.

"I'm not flying, I'm sleeping," I replied without opening my eyes. Finally I can sleep.

Before I could even drift off and allow sleep to find me, something hit my head, and I finally opened my eyes to see what was going on.

"Ow," I said looking at him, "What was that?"

"A rock. We have to sleep on the ground. We can't risk being seen by anyone." Hunter said holding another rock in his hand.

"Fine. But only because you know a lot more about humans than I do."

Rolling off the tree, I landed on the ground and laid down. Rolling around again I got comfortable and slammed my eyes shut eager to take them off of Hunter, who was now shirtless.

He had perfectly toned abs, and a six pack, and a lot of scars. God dammit I didn't even have a six pack. But, but but but, I could fly. Could Hunter do that? No.

Instead of asking him where he got his scars, I turned around so he was out of view. Hearing him lay down, I opened my eyes and looked at the starry sky. Thankfully the moon was bright enough to offer some light, but it was still fairly dark.

I rolled around, as my comfort had diminished. Trying to get comfortable again I continued rolling and shuffling around. Hunter grunted annoyed and sat up looking at me. Great now I had to see his abs again.

"Fine! You can sleep in the tree!" He yelled laying back down, covering his face with his arm.

I smiled in triumph even though I hadn't necessarily tried to annoy him. The ground was seriously uncomfortable, and I didn't feel like breathing in dirt all night, so I could lay on my stomach.

I jumped up excitedly and threw open my wings, absentmindedly smacking Hunter again. Flying back onto the branch, I laid down immediately. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep even though my mind was in the constant worry of Pandora's wellbeing.

•

Surprisingly I woke up before Hunter, so I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine.

Picking up a rock I held it in my palm, and waited for the perfect moment. Raising my arm I threw the rock right at his head.

"Ow!" Hunter yelled rolling over immediately.

I snickered loudly watching his priceless reaction. Of course he was still shirtless, but I didn't really care anymore.

"That really hurt!" He yelled, picking up the same rock I'd just thrown at him.

"Didn't hurt when you threw it at me," I said sarcastically.

"One, you said "ow" when I threw it, and two, you have a thick skull."

"That's right I do have a thick skull..wait a minute. That's not a good thing, is it?"

I remembered Hunter had said that once before, and he always laughed when I agreed, so I'm guessing it doesn't mean something good.

"Shouldn't we be heading out now?" I asked watching him turn back around and lay down.

"Yeah.. Later," Hunter replied sleepily between yawns.

"If we want to save Pandora we need to leave now!" I yelled already annoyed.

"Sleep first. Pandora later."

I leapt from the tree, bracing myself with my wings, and charged over towards him. Dammit, when would he get the fact it's not all about him?!

"If Pandora dies it will be your fault! She only has so much time left, and she is in a coma because of your stupidity! We don't have time to be lulling around all day. So let's GO!" I yelled. I was infuriated by his stupidity. Hunter sighed, but got up slowly. Too slowly.

"You sure like her don't you?" Hunter asked smiling slightly.

"Yes," I muttered grabbing my pack and putting it on.

"Wait we need fresh water," Hunter said taking out his empty water bottle.

I nodded, and did the same as I walked towards a stream I had seen from the tree.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

I only motioned for him to follow.

Kneeling down I put the bottle in the stream, and let the water flow into it. After filling that water bottle I filled the other which was only half full.

"You expect me to drink that?" Hunter asked, as he stood behind me.

"Yeah. It's not even that dirty."

"I'm not drinking that." Hunter walked away from the stream, and back to our 'camp'. I followed after I finished filling the water bottles including Hunter's. I threw it at him, and he caught it will a disgusted face, but he reluctantly put it into his back pack.

"Alright let's go!" I said marching off into the woods.

"Mason. It's the other way!" Hunter yelled.

"Other way!" I yelled turning around, and following him.