Bounding along the shale beach after a night and most of the day of being cooped up inside felt like the best thing in the world. Being able to run freely without being hindered by snow was, apparently, the next best thing. Kaza and Eseth leaped along like over energetic children, Redwing lagging behind somewhat, as he stopped more often to pick things us.

Therefore it was Eseth who saw him first.

She stopped for a moment on the beach, looking toward a crumpled mass of feathers and flesh shaped into the semblance of a man. "What's that?" she asked Kaza, who had stopped when Eseth had.

"What's what?" asked Redwing, who had stopped hovering over the rocks and now walked up beside them. Eseth pointed.

"It looks like...a person. Angel, maybe." said Kaza. "We should go over and check. Whoever they are, they don't look good." and set off running. Eseth dashed after her as Redwing took to the air and followed.

When Kaza got to the person, she hissed. He was completely out of it, dilated pupils of a high fever and all. It also looked like his right wing was broken. In her hurry to help him, she didn't notice the shade of his wings.

They were white. Or they would be, once he got them clean. Eseth arrived a mere seconds after Kaza, and, like her, didn't notice the shade of the angel's wings. Redwing did, however.

"Oh, no..." he muttered, and started to shake.

"What? What is it?" asked Kaza, who had taken off her heavy fur cloak and placed it over the angel. Redwing pointed to the angel's wings. Kaza looked, and understood. "Oh my..." she grimaced.
"What should we do with him?" she asked softly. Redwing shrugged. Eseth glanced up at them. "What bit you two?" she asked.

"That's a Swan." said Redwing. "And he looks important."

Eseth asked "How can you tell?" before lighting her hands, then spreading the fire more evenly over them. The starting technique for flame healing.

"What are you doing?" asked Kaza worriedly, Eseth's question forgotten.

"I'm healing him. Or the worst of that fever, anyway. What does it look like?"

"But why?" asked Redwing, who now nervously hovered over the rocks.

"Because I can't let him die. No matter who he is, we can't just let him die. And with that wing, he's not going anywhere. He's not going to be dangerous to you, or to anyone else."

Redwing nodded shakily, and stopped hovering. Kaza went to his side. "Are you all right?" she asked him quietly. He nodded, then shook his head. "No," he said. "Not at all."

"You said he looks important. How can you tell?" she asked softly.

"His clothes," said Redwing in reply. "Swan angels have a caste system among themselves. Politicians and military leaders at the top, artists, writers, and musicians at the bottom, and everyone else in varying positions in the middle depending on family, money, connections, politics, and who marries whom. Each caste has a particular uniform, and the material gets better and the clothes fancier the higher up the ladder you go."

Kaza nodded and looked toward the angel. They stood there for a few minutes as Eseth healed him, nervously shifting from foot to foot.

Finally, Eseth stood up. "I've gotten rid of the fever, though he'll probably be really weak for the next few days, and I can't heal broken bones, even hollow ones like his. We'll have to set that wing."

Kaza nodded. "But are we going to be able to get him back to the tree?" she glanced at Redwing. Any hope of the angel staying in his tower was out.

Eseth grimaced. "I can't pick him up without damaging the wing. I think you'll have to either drag him back on an ice-sled or something, or we have to wait until he wakes up. Hopefully, he'll be able to stand up and walk around."

Redwing said "I think that's the best thing-" but was cut off by a groan. The angel had woken up.

"Where am I?" he asked sleepily, and tried to stand up. Eseth placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "Don't get up just yet," she said. "Or, at least, don't get up that way. Your left wing is broken. Get up very, very slowly, and don't move it at all." the angel did as she said, inching up as if he were swimming through molasses.

Kaza glanced at Redwing. She sighed. "You're hovering again," she said quietly. He glanced at her. "I know." he muttered back. "It's a nervous habit." the other angel looked sharply at them, and gasped in pain. Eseth snapped "I told you to move slowly!" but the angel ignored her. "You're a red angel," he sneered. "So we were right after all."

Eseth scowled, and Redwing's face turned white. "Listen here, you," Eseth said. "Redwing is a Hawk angel, but that doesn't matter, because you're not in your city any more. As far as we know, we're the only ones living on this deserted little island. We're the ones who saw you, and we're the ones taking care of you. Save the rivalry for later."

The angel glared at her, but said nothing. Eseth glared right back, then said to Kaza "I think we have to use that ice-sled idea. He probably shouldn't be walking."

Kaza nodded, and summoned a sheet of ice from the nearby ocean and slid it under the angel, who gasped in surprise. Kaza inched it along, helped by Redwing and Eseth, who pushed it from behind. It took so long to get it from the shore to the tree, the angel fell asleep. "Good," said Kaza when she noticed. "It'll be easier to brace that wing." she turned to Redwing. "How exactly do you brace an angel's wing, anyway?" she asked.

"You have to turn him on his side and try and straighten it out. Then you brace it as you would someones arm."

Kaza nodded and set to work once they reached the tree after they placed him in the newly-shaped hollow that Kaza had created after the blizzard. Redwing looked at the darkening sky. "I have to get going. I can't see at night." and took off. After bracing the wing(Kaza was extremely glad that the angel was asleep), Kaza told Eseth to keep watch over him.

"I'm going to shape this hollow so it connects to the main one," she said, and placed her hand on the floor. In surprisingly little time, the hollow had a hole in it which connected to the main hollow. Kaza then shaped a ladder down the hole, and sealed the opening in the hollow which served as a door.

"There!" exclaimed Kaza, stepping back to examine her handywork.

"That's really great, Kaza," said Eseth. Kaza smiled. The angel blinked wide, suddenly awake eyes. eyes.

"What are you staring at?" asked Kaza nastily, looking behind Eseth toward him. Eseth jumped and looked over her shoulder. She scowled. "You could have let me know you were awake," she informed him. "How's the wing doing?"

"Better, I guess." Kaza noticed he looked young, probably as young as them. He was tall, with a more muscular build than Redwing, with very white wings. He had pale green eyes that slanted slightly downward, accenting a softly triangular face. His hair was short, and a fair shade of blonde. His long fingered hands looked as elegant as a pianist's. His skin was fair, though not nearly as pale as Kaza's.

His thin lips were pursed, as if in disapproval when he looked at Kaza. "Who are you?" he asked, confusion coloring his voice. "Where exactly am I? I was trying to get to an island-"

"Oh, you're on an island, all right." Eseth commented. "Ocean's Flame, we think it's called." I'm Eseth, by the way. Eseth Ba Leigh. Her with the white hair over there is Kaza Judonis. The Hawk angel you saw is Redwing Androson."

The angel frowned. "We were right, after all..." he muttered.

"What?" asked Kaza.

"I found a map of this island, though on our maps it's Pyro Oceania*. I took it to my superiors, who decided that red angels could be hiding there. Something went wrong, I got caught in a storm-"

"Never mind that now, what's your name?" asked Eseth impatiently.

"Junin Levordah. Second Degree-Fifth Rank, Red Angel Locators."

Eseth raised an eyebrow. "That's a long name."

Kaza bared her teeth. "He's part of a group to hunt Hawk angels." she growled. "Why?"

Junin looked at her, surprise clear in his face. "We can't have them go unpunished, or burden them on other nations." he said. "They instigated the Rebellion, and, as such, we can't let them go. I found this island on a map in some of our oldest files. My superiors told me to scout ahead of the main group, but I think that everyone got blown off course."

Kaza nodded, glared at Junin one more time, and climbed down the ladder to the main hollow.

Eseth bit her lip. She hadn't expected Kaza top be that upset. "Don't mind her," she told Junin. "She's just angry that you'd treat her boyfriend so badly." she glanced at him. "Mind you, I'm not happy about the angel society, either. I think it's pretty horrible."

Junin glared at her, then raised an eyebrow. "Boyfriend?"

Eseth flapped a hand. "Okay, so they're not boyfriend and girlfriend yet. But they're pretty close."

Junin stared at her. Heappeared to be struck speechless. Eseth said "Surprised that I'm actually talking to you?" she grinned. "I like to talk to my patients, regardless of where they come from."

Junin shrugged, bewildered. Then he grimaced in pain, a hand darting to his broken wing. Eseth noticed at once.

"Don't touch that!" she snapped. "It's a broken wing. You don't want to mess around with it."

Junin lowered his hand. Eseth said "Be back in a minute. I'm going to ask Kaza if you need anything else for that wing." and clambered down the ladder. Junin attempted to stand up, but deciding against it when his shoulder started aching.
He sighed, and sat back down.

Eseth came back up the ladder, with news. "Apparently, you don't have to do anything with that wing unless it hurts you. That's about it."

She sat, propping her face on her hands. She scrutinized him carefully. "So what's it like in that angel society of yours?"

He glanced at her. "It's been a bit different since the Rebellion." said he.

"Your government doesn't try to hide it?" she asked carefully.

Junin shook his head. "They do say that the Red angels started it all." he shrugged. "I'm not surprised."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, they're not very..." his voice dropped to a whisper. "Civilized, you know. Cause fights and things whenever they can."

Eseth narrowed her eyes. "Oh, really?" she asked, her cheerfulness vanishing. Junin didn't notice.

"Very violent. That's why they started the Swan Murders and the Rebellion, you see."

Eseth nodded grimly. "Now, have you ever actually met a Hawk angel?" she asked delicately.

Junin looked shocked. "Of course not!" he spluttered. "I'm a Swan! A Levordah, as well! I come from an old family that doesn't muck about with--with rubbish!"

Eseth glowered at him. "Rubbish indeed," she muttered. "Well, if you've never met a Hawk angel, how do you know that they're horrible?"

Junin rolled his pale eyes at her. "Everyone says so," he said. "And if Leader Minyahn Jevorn and the Council of Fourteen say so, it's true. That's all there is to it."

Eseth rolled her own eyes back. "No, it isn't." she snapped. "My, how stereotypical of you."

"How is it stereotypical of me?" asked Junin. "If anything, the Red angels make themselves into stereotypes. Not us."

Eseth sighed. "You misunderstood me. You're being a racist noble. Honestly, I don't know why I bother talking to you."

Junin scowled at her. "I'm not a noble," he told her. "And it's not racist if it's true."

"But it's not true." Eseth pointed out. "Hawk angels aren't that bad."

Junin glanced at her in surprise. Changing the subject, he asked, "Why do you call them Hawk angels? No one else in the city does."

Eseth raised her eyebrows. "Really? Everyone else in the world calls them that. You're a Swan angel, the class right below you is Raven, and below that is Hawk." she narrowed her eyes as she thought. "I think there's also Owl angels, and Nightinggale, Eagle, and Osprey, but that's all I know."

"Oh." Junin seemed surprised.

"Eseth!" Kaza's voice called from below. "Come down now, or else you'll be eating the food that I cook!"

Eseth cringed, and climbed down the ladder into the main hollow. Climbing down, she told Junin "I'll bring you something to eat soon. People with broken wings should probably get as much food as they can."

Junin nodded, and watched her go.

---

Kaza glared at the new ladder as soon as Eseth alighted on the floor of the main hollow.

"I don't like keeping him here." she said as Eseth pulled out a pot. "What are you making?'

"Stew," said Eseth in reply. "And you know that Redwing can't keep him, and he certainly can't be on his own just yet."

"I still don't like it," said Kaza unhappily. "And that wing will keep him here for at least two moons!"

Eseth sighed. "If you dislike him that much, you could probably stay with Redwing until his wing heals and he finds a place to stay."

Kaza considered for a moment, blushing slightly at the thought, and said "Maybe I should."

Eseth nodded, stirring meat and herbs into the pot of boiling water.

"Smells good," said Kaza hungrily.

"Thanks," said Eseth. "Could you set the table, please?"

"Sure," sighed Kaza.

Over dinner, Kaza said "D'you think I should ask Redwing if I could stay with him tomorrow?"

"Yeah, you can." said Eseth, rolling her eyes. "Though I'd advise you to go there. I'm pretty sure he won't be hanging out here for a while."

Kaza nodded pensively. They spent the rest of the meal in silence.

end

*Pyro=fire
Oceania=one of the three ruling dictatorships of 1984(the book, not the year)