Flying Without Wings
Chapter Nineteen

With the setting sun came the operable time to invade the caves and retrieve the stolen Angha. The plan had been made, hashed, trashed and remade a dozen times. Lewis had seemed happy and loquacious to begin with but was now contrary to the original plan. He believed there was no way a group of our size with members of their size could sneak in and simply walk out of a heavily guarded cavernous prison, even if the movements of the guards were known. Others, Gomez especially, had voiced their concern of the ramifications that would follow when Zenasia was alerted to the break-in. They feared for the safety of the haphazard group of Angha Soldiers who were distracting, and no doubt drinking, at the Secret Garden Party. A new plan was then hatched; Bastian, Humphrey and 3 of the new muscle would go to number 36 as backup whilst the rest of us would follow the original plan. Words of good luck and encouragement were briefly exchanged on the steps of my house. I stood at the top of the stairs replaceing it difficult to let go of Bastian. He was trying to assure me he would see me soon but I could see the concern in his deep brown eyes.

“I’ll be watching over you, you are all that matters to me.” He whispered in my ear, I didn’t understand what he meant, and stroked Marvillo’s coarse fur, I could feel my eyes welling up and was unable to meets Bastian's gaze. Marvillo was perched on his shoulder, sombre and quiet. He was to go to Zenasia’s party with Bastian. He would be better protected and more of a positive distraction in that space. I was replaceing it hard to say goodbye to Bastian, I didn’t want to leave him. Bastian’s put his warm hands on my face and held my head to his, our foreheads touching. He kissed me quickly then turned and jogged down the front steps before I could say a word. He knew I would stand there forever if I could. He suddenly seemed so much stronger than I did, so much more controlled. I just wanted to grab him and Marvillo and go hide in a cave but he ran off to join Humphrey and the rest of the group heading to Zenasia's as if that was where he really belonged. They took off at a fast stride and I watched Bastian's bouncing topknot and Marvillo’s leathery wings as long as I could. As soon as they were out of sight, my mind started to clear and I too started to feel I was ready to fight.