Page 4 of Anywhere

I screamed in triumph as I brought the stick down for the final blow and knocked the man with the foul mouth out cold. He slumped forward and landed on his buddy, who was already having a forced rest. I stood up straight and searched their faces for any sign they were still awake. Failing to see any visible signs, I fixed my cloak and tucked the loose strands of my hair back, hidden from sight. Azula had taught me that we never used magic to hurt others unless it was our very last option.

Making my way around the two knocked-out men, I lined up the blunt stick with one hand at a time and brought it down hard onto the bones in the middle of their hands until the sound of snapping bones echoed. With men like that, I had to be confident that they couldn’t follow me and try again when I was sleeping. I liked to ensure their hands were useless, just like their pathetic brains and little peens. I didn’t think all men could be this vile, but then again, what did I know about the male species?

The fascination harboured by some of the women in the coven was baffling to me. I wasn’t letting a man near me with one of those things between his legs. All they did was hurt people.

Spitting on the ground, I turned and continued on my way. Out here, you needed to be a little wild to contend with what the world decided to throw at you, and luckily, I was born a whole lot wild.

The sun was high in the sky when a roar streaked over my head. I ducked and stared up at a black bird that was so big it looked like it could swallow a village whole.

I’d never seen something so large or loud in the air before. This bird roared as it moved over the treetops. It didn’t seem to take notice of me, and I couldn’t stand not knowing.

“Dinnie be a donkey,” I said aloud, scolding myself as I jogged after the massive bird. Even though I could no longer see it, I could hear it and followed the sound like a predator following a wounded animal. Streaking through the trees, I ran full speed to keep up with the creature. Small branches and roots hit my arms and grabbed at my feet.

Running out of the cover of the trees, I yelled as I crashed into a large fence, the likes of which I’d never seen. The metal tossed me back, and I landed on my arse while my walking stick flew from my hand and rolled under a bush.

“Serves ya right,” I mumbled as I stared at the metal with holes.

Pulling myself up, my hands brushed off the dirt as I stared around the spot I didn’t recognize. I’d come this way only six moons ago, and there was nothing here then. I would’ve known if I’d had to veer around something this large. How many times had I passed this way and never once come across this tall fence or the wide road and grey building that looked to be made out of metal as well? How strange.

My attention was grabbed once more when the roaring, which had faded, suddenly got louder. I stared at the creature casting a shadow on the ground as it circled, then headed for the wide road.

The women in the coven would be scolding me good for this. They were always saying I was more brazen than a polecat after their fresh fish. I couldn’t help it, though. I had a burning desire to learn about everything I didn’t understand. Where others would cower in fear, I would run towards what I probably shouldn’t.

I was captivated as the black and silver creature roared louder, like a beast from the old tales that Azula would tell us younger girls around the fire. Its wings didn’t flap like a normal bird, and its body looked like a weird fish that could fly. The sound it made was vaguely familiar. I may have heard it once or twice before, but it had seemed far off, and in the dark, I couldn’t see, but this was magnificent. Just before it touched the road, I spotted the wheels like a car on the underbelly.

Man-made? Could man fly? No, don’t be thick. That was impossible. Or was it? Those in the castles had cars, and they had talking boxes they would hold to the side of their head. Azula once told me that they sucked the soul out of your head if you used them too much, so they were a cursed item. When I asked why they would use them then, she couldn’t answer. I didn’t like answers that didn’t make sense, but who else would I ask for such information?

I watched in fascination as the large, winged thing made a horrible, squealing, roaring sound as smoke rose from the large wheels. I covered my ears. As fast as it had come toward the ground, it didn’t crash. Instead, it slowed down and stopped across from where I was standing. Taking a step back, I was hidden among the trees, watching as villagers ran out of the building with a tall thing with many steps. They put it up against the now quieting creature, and a gasp left my mouth as part of the beast’s side opened like a great hole had been cut into its side. A moment later, a man stepped out.

My breath caught as I stared at the man. His hair was as dark as the night sky, and he had something black wrapped around his eyes, making him look dangerous. I could feel the weight of those eyes as his head turned to look around. My power tingled in my stomach, a fluttering that was as soft and fast as a tiny bird’s wings. He was tall. Even when his feet touched the ground, it was easy to tell that he was tall, with wide shoulders and narrow hips. He didn’t dress like anyone I’d ever met. Everything he wore was black and clung to him like the clothing was his skin. His head turned in my direction, and all the air was stolen from my lungs, leaving them frozen in place.

I had the strongest urge to touch him. I wondered what someone who looked like that would taste like as my tongue ran across my lips. I slapped a hand over my mouth for such a thought. The sudden appearance of a car interrupted my view and broke the unusual sensation. The dark-haired man didn’t look happy but got in the car. It took off so fast that, within a blink, he was gone. If metal birds brought men like that, then we needed more metal birds.

Pushing away from my hiding spot, I stumbled back on shaky legs into the shadow of the trees and searched for my fallen stick. I didn’t know who or what that man was, but everything in me said he was dangerous, and I needed to stay away.

Rhys

I snarled at the staff as they walked past with more of my things. “Careful wi’ dat. It be a collector’s item,” I said as the line of people marched on like ants.

“Rhys, are ya still twisted?” Gregory asked as he sauntered down the hall with a cup of coffee.

I hated that the man was watching this happen or that I was essentially putting him in the middle of his blood family and me. Rook was his nephew. I might have been a boy of six when I arrived here in his home, and he may be the closest thing I’ve had to a father since mine was stolen from me, but blood family was always going to win out in a Faction. If he was forced to choose a side, I knew where I stood, and it would be out in the bloody cold.

“How am I no’ ‘sposed to be twisted? I’m the older one. It be my destiny ta be da number one, and now I’m a two and forced ta leave me wing of da castle? What da fuck? Is this guy a cunt or what? I dinnie want him, and I fuckin’ am no one’s number two.”

I snatched the guitar out of the worker’s hand as he went to walk by. “No one touches me Tabitha,” I said, and the servant shrank away from my glare.

“Come on now, son. Ya no how these tings work. He no more chose to be yer one than you chose to be his two.” He laid his hand on my shoulder, and I shook his hand off. I was no longer a boy who needed his comfort. I especially didn’t need to be comforted over this.

“No. I refuse to go through with this. I’m a McGregor, and we are never a two; but moreover, he fuckin’ rejected me already. I ain’t no one’s sloppy seconds ta be discarded aside and picked back up whenever da fucker chooses. Fuck dis shite. I need air.” I stomped away from the man who raised me and I considered family.

“Give ‘im a chance, Rhys. Da spirits know what they be doin’,” he called after me.

“Bah! Fuck da spirits. They can suck me meaty cock, they can,” I yelled back and raised a two-finger salute to the spirits that thought they could fuck with me. There couldn’t have been a McGregor spirit in on this decision. They never would’ve allowed it.

I’d already looked up my chosen match. His face was plastered all over the television from concerts in the Broad Faction bases overseas. What used to be known as North America had been disbanded after the wars, now divided into twelve chunks. Each of the most powerful families of the Faction controlled a territory, even though, to the Flitters of the world, nothing had changed. It was business as usual in their pathetic little lives. Flitters didn’t know that the tax money they spent came to us and that the corporations they worked for were also us. The president who smiled and waved for the people was a real person, all right, just not who they thought. He was nothing more than a talking figurehead who told them all what they wanted to hear, and it was the same all over the world.

The money was now pooled and divided equally by an accountant for each Faction. Most of the twelve stuck to their lines and didn’t cause trouble, but there’d been some unrest in districts three and nine.