Gabriel flew over the crowd, searching wildly for the convict he had been chasing for the past days. His sharp eyes spotted the hooded figure and he swooped down right as it darted into an alley. He reached for his baton, landing hard on the narrow, cobbled path, and looked up, sighing as he saw the tail of the convict’s cloak disappear around the corner. He stood and started running after the the thief, realizing the gap was too narrow to spread his wings.

He thought back to the day before when he had first seen the convict. He was patrolling the main street, listening and watching the bustling crowd of civilians. He had been admiring the city and the surrounding forest, observing the mountains in the distance. He was brooding on the usual criticism of his being softer toward criminals. They’re disgraceful vermin, Meadows: they murder and steal for goodness sake! There is no time to sympathize! He thought about Chief Shadowmill’s lectures and sighed. It wasn’t his fault. The convicts had their wings clipped off. Without painkillers. Seventeen was pretty young to be an Aliquam, or police, in Alatumian.

He snapped back to the present and just in time too. Gabriel turned sharply to the right, narrowly missing the brick wall of the building at the end of the alley. He smiled as he saw the convict mounting the wall and sprinting lightly over the flat roofs. His wings would bring him to the convict faster than he could get to the next two buildings. Then he felt a twinge of guilt. Poor people! Without wings they were nothing. Just like the people over the mountains. He thought. Sighing, he broke through the building levels and rose between the main air traffic and the rooftops.

Gabriel still remembered the storytimes the elders had hosted when he was a child. They told of a race of people that lived on the other side of the mountains that lay at the edge of Alatum. They told of a land where there were no wings. A land of undeveloped primitives. He couldn’t help thinking about the legend, unknown to most of the rest of Alatum, of the creation of the nation. At first, Alatum had supposedly been next to a nation of wingless people, who after the mountains had risen between the two nations were never seen again. It’s just a legend, he said to himself. Shaking his head, he dived blindingly fast towards the convict, feeling the adrenaline of the chase sharpen his senses and snatched at the blurred figure. Gabriel gasped as it’s hood fell off, or rather her. The convict was a girl.

Gabriel almost fell out of the air. She had wild eyes, and a pale, dirt streaked face. She was also kind of, sort of, well — very beautiful. He hovered there for a moment, dumbstruck, as she slipped free of her cloak and leaped onto the next rooftop. He was still staring as she kept running until she was out of the market and towards the forest. He grunted, then started after the convict. Then, stopped. She was heading towards the mountains, which were forbidden to any citizen. Knowing he had to follow, he sighed and headed off.

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Gabriel trudged through the underbrush of the forest, looking for more signs of the convict. He had flown after the her, seeing that she had climbed a tree and started leaping from branch to branch. He had crashed through the trees, leaves, and branches that snapped and whipped him in the face. He had scratches all over his bare arms and face, his short sleeves covered little due to the warmer climate. Hearing the trickling of water, Gabriel stopped in front of a stream to drink. He could smell the clear fresh, cascading water as he stood up, and froze. Gabriel was about to lie down on the soft shore when he heard the sound of splashing further down the stream, closer to the mountain. He froze, and his powerful sight kicked in. 50 yards down the stream, wearing a camouflaged leaf outfit was the girl.

Convict! he corrected himself. Don’t be soft. Don’t let her looks stop you from doing your job. Silently, he spread his wings and darted into the air. Gabriel gritted his teeth and dove towards the girl. Suddenly, the girl looked up and darted to the side. The last thing Gabriel saw was the flat, very hard, rock shore as his head cracked into the ground.

Gabriel groaned. His head was pounding and throbbing, and he groaned again. His vision was blurry and he crawled over to the stream to vomit. He washed his face and stood up, then winced, feeling as if his head was splitting apart. He had been lying face up on the bank. The sky was dark and he realized it was night. Wondering if the boys missed him, he approached the place where he had been lying unconscious, and gasped. There was blood all over the ground and a small gravestone above it. Only then did he feel the dried blood over his head. Gabriel reached up and touched the top of his skull, and gasped. It wasn’t there.

He almost cried out in shock. The whole back of his skull was gone. He could feel his brain and tissues and quickly pulled his hand back, then froze in fear. How was he still alive? Then he felt it. His body was regenerating! His skull closed up in a few seconds, but he wondered how this was possible. Did he ingest anything that had healing powers? Then he remembered. The water! Was the river magic? He looked back at it, but it looked like any other, just with almost crystal blue water, but it sparkled unnaturally. He thought back to the convict. Did the she know about this? She must not have known, since it had to be her who thought he was dead and put a gravestone next to him. Gabriel now realized that he needed the her not only for the law but for answers on what she was doing. He looked down, searching for signs of the girl, and saw the footprints.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Gabriel shuddered as his wings brushed the moist wall of the cave. He had followed the convict’s footprints to a cave into the mountains. Clearly she thought he was dead since she made no effort to conceal her tracks. Still, she was slippery as an eel. He had gone through the caverns, finding traces of her presence through the tunnels. Suddenly, he heard a muffled noise in the cave in front of him. Quickly, he ran into the cave in front of him and gasped. Hanging by her feet to the ceiling, tied up, and gagged was the convict. Other tunnels ran out of this cavern, each placed at equal intervals in the walls. He looked back to the girl, who was unconscious. He went up to her and started sawing away at her bonds with his hunting knife. With a thump, she fell to the floor and promptly woke up. As soon as her eyes came into focus and saw him, she gasped and whispered, “run”. Confused, he stood up and watched as a gleaming blade seemingly grew out of his chest it stopped at about four feet in length then withdrew. Gabriel started to shake and fell to his knees. He felt no pain, but it was shocking to see the blood pouring down the front of his shirt. He watched as the wound healed up, then turned around. There, standing in front of a bowl of blood, was a man in a gray robe, letting the Gabriel’s blood drip from the giant five-foot sword he held in his hands. Gabriel took a step forward and froze. The man had turned around and froze as well. The two figures stood looking at each other, and the man said in a gravelly voice, “So, you drank our water.”

Gabriel could say nothing other than grunt and nod jerkily. The man suddenly screamed and jumped at him, sweeping the giant blade in an arc towards his head. Gabriel ducked, and his criminal fighting training kicked in. In one smooth motion, he brought his hand to the police baton at his side, sliding it out and bring it up to smash it against the man’s side, all of this taking less than a second. He heard ribs crack and the man roar in pain, then he heard cracking sounds again and realized that the man’s ribs were mending back together and knew he had drunk the magic water too. He quickly danced out of the way of the man’s second clumsy sweep and opened his wings. Since the cavern was larger, he could fly up. The man gasped as he saw the wings, then gasped as Gabriel flew up towards the ceiling. Then his expression turned hard. He threw back his head and bellowed, “WATCHERS — TO ME!”

Suddenly, footsteps echoed out of each of the side caves, and ten other men and women burst into the cave, each wearing similar clothing to the man who had called them and each holding swords of their own. Gabriel remembered then that the man had said our water. Immediately, they saw him and faced him. The largest man with bulging arms threw his sword at Gabriel, who had to twist out of the way. To his horror, the sword stuck straight into the stone ceiling of the cave. Suddenly, swords started flying at him from each direction, and the next few seconds were a blur of gray steel and the deafening clanging metal on stone. Then everything was silent. Gabriel still hovered in the air, though he was breathing heavily. The people had run out of swords to throw.

“He’s a slippery one,” one of them said.

“He can’t stay up there forever,” another replied.

Gabriel watched as one of the women ran to one of the caves, presumably to fetch more weapons. The rest sat in a circle around the cavern. Suddenly, he realized that the girl was gone She had run away during the initial chaos. But this wasn’t his priority right now. He needed to find a way to escape, but Gabriel realized with a sinking feeling that there would be none. Each Watcher, he remembered the man had called them, was now sitting in front of each cave, holding a weapon the women had brought back. He would eventually tire and have to land, then would be caught. They wouldn’t be able to kill him, but would probably do horrible things to him. The best case scenario would be that he would be chained and held here for eternity.

Then, through one of the tunnels came another man. He was haggard and gaunt, but clearly very strong and angry. He raised his hand and screamed, blasting an invisible force into the Watchers, sending them flying. The man then swept his hand in an arc and a jet of flame burst out of each finger. Gabriel shuddered as he heard some of them scream in pain. Then he saw an opening. The Watchers were all focused on the man now and had left an entrance wide open. Gabriel took the chance to dive into it and suddenly he was speeding through a wide tunnel, free as a bird, moving towards the blinding light at the other end.

TO BE CONTINUED