It was the first day of the new year. The island was sleeping after the celebrations on New Year Eve; the Complex, too was immersed in silence, as everyone was still sleeping. The party at the Fish Factory had just ended, and all returned to their quarters, some alone, some not, Grissom and Phil among the fortunate ones.
I was not one of the luckiest.
Eddie was sleeping with the other kids, gathered together, for that night, to allow the adults have their party.
So I had finally a night all for me, after more than a months, and I spent it arguing with Tayden over religious matters. Pity me.
When the sun get up beyond the sea, exactly at six o'clock, I left. I sprout my feathers and soared along the thermal forming over the volcano's slopes, where the recent, black bed of lava warmed up quicker than the surroundings.
I turned my head back, toward the factory, more than one time, to see if Brianna was going to follow me, but she was still dancing and smiling and be happy on the terrace, among the crowd. She is young, she had a hard life, why you wonder the happiness of a party should be less urgent, for her, than to rockets herself in the sky.
And, to say the truth, she is very different fro you. I know that her power origins his similar to your own. Metagene, yes, but also an implant of genes from animals. wonders if there was a connection between her prison and Walker. Probably not, but they shared the same tech. How so? In any case, that's obvious the genes are from different animals. If I should bet, I would say her genes is from a merlin. The small, graceful falcon of the moors of her island, quick and deadly on his prey, but similar to a dancer when it flies across the open lands covered in heater.
I am the eagle. Not the enormous golden eagle of the mountains and of the northern countries, mad enough to charge at wild boars, like I saw one time. No, I am the short toed eagle, a bad English name for what it should be called the serpent eagle. Or, in my language, the Big White. The eagle of the mediterranean countryside, of depleted pastures covered in thorny bushes, her piercing eyes always concentrated to find the quick wriggle of a venomous viper. And when she finds the prey, she doesn't need to do powerful dive like a falcon, to kill the chosen bird with the impact of his own body. No, the eagle just let herself to fall over the serpent. And then, with the sharp beak, she cut the reptile heads.
What a coincidence. It never come to my mind until now. That's what my predecessor as the Eternal champions have always done, in a repeating pattern, a never ending cycle that will perpetrate forever. The Hero and the Dragon. Marduck and Tiamat. Herakle and the Hydra. Theseus and the Orca. Saint George and Sigfrid and the Dragons. Many, many more.
Sometime I miss Ladnikia. I miss the confidence she gave me. Not just in fights, but whenever I had need of. Don't think about it, Euro.
I miss the calming effect she had over the eagle in me. The urgency to fly away.
The sea below is inviting. The beach is deserted.
I land.
I take away my cloths, and dive in the water. It's warm, and clear as crystal. Swarm of fishes surrounds me, colorful and as many as the stars in the night sky.
When I get out, there is a woman standing right when the water arrives farthest to wet the sand.
Black bicker shorts, and a back bra, an iPod attached to the belt-line, and earpiece. Bare feet. Tanned skin. Long, black curly hairs, big rounded earpiece. A gypsy with the wrong outfit.
"Hi stranger!" she say, smiling. I am standing with the water at knee level, totally naked.
The last time I was in a situation like this I was still one of the best known persons in the world. I was at a nudist beach in Croatia, but that woman was nude, too.
This face. I saw her before. But where?
I swam for a mile. No clothes to put on. Oh, what the hell.
"You know me? Or should I know you?" I ask.
"Well, having you tried to kill me, I hoped my face would have some meaning to you!" the woman says, smiling mischievously.
"Sorry, lady, but my life has been a mess for the last year. If there are things you think I should respond to justice, please contact my lawyers. I am willing to respond to anything..."
"Wait, wait. I am not seeking to charge you anything. I am on the same line of works as you, and I know what you went through. I worked for Myrrdin. I was the one at the UN building. With Aurochs."
Shadows of the past. Bullets at me. Flying men outside the building. Me diving down, my wings pushing on the poisonous air of New York.
"I remember" I hiss. I wouldn't. I would prefer not to. But it's engraved in my mind like on sandstone.
"Rose Biggles" she say, smiling and lending her hand.
"How do you do, Ms Biggles?" the scene is so absurd, I resort to a phrase from Drills One from my first class of English.
Are you tired, Robert? A little, Mr. Brown. Are you glad to be in Britain? Square colorful panels on a used book. A kid and a very English man, with pipe and mustaches.
I am naked, emerging from the sea, shaking hands with the girl that prevented me to become the puppet of Naecken at the UN, as chairman of the world. Heh heh.
The girl sits down in the sand. She moves like a feline. A cat. No, something more wild, but not ferocious. Not a tiger or a lioness. Something little, slim, but as wild as those big cats. A serval. or a ocelot.
And like a feline, she beats her eyelids very slow. She close them and then reopens them like in slow motion. I get aroused and can't do nothing to hide it.
Her eyes fly at my thing, returning suddenly at my face, but a little smile appear on her little mouth. She lies down, her arms crossed behind her head. I don't like the confidence she has in the situation.
"Obviously you want to tell me something, Ms. Biggle." I can't stop myself to feel comfortable too. Just one moment ago I wasn't.
"Rose."
"Rose, okay. I'm Ed"
"I heard you have lost Ladnikia. I have heard you were possessed. I saw you flying down in the sea, when I was walking on the beach, so I come to know you. To see for myself, so to speak."
"Who are you, Rose?"
"Eh. I am a stage magician. And seer. I have worked for Grimm, once. And did a pretty good job in the war at the South Pole."
"How did you get there?"
"With the EPS carrier."
"And now? Do you want a place in Vanguard?"
She smiles. "No, I am happy with my job. Your team hide too much in the shadows for my taste. I want the stage."
"So, Rose, tell me: why you are here?"
"I am waiting for you to kiss me"
"Eh?"
"I saw us making love on the beach. And what I see, always happens. So, I am simply waiting for you to do the next move".
The breeze strokes her skin, bringing me the smell of her sweat. I want to eat her. I want to make sex with her. She wants, too, why should I stop?
I kiss her, feeling her pink lips opening in a wide smile.
Than she spreads her legs, and I dive down.
