[center]"Decisions.... fucking decisions...."[/center]

Clo was exhausted. Her mind reeling, her body aching from pain and excursion. For the past half hour she'd spent her energy trying to air lift a pair of lost children back to the city. She gotten far, only a handful of miles out but there in the middle of the Red Waste she'd hit her limit. Her wings, as large as they were, could not support the weight of all three of them. And so there she was, a girl burdened with protecting the lives of hundreds of people, collapsed and out of breath in the dirt. 

Her eyes drifted from the blue sky to the children standing over her, their sodden forms shivering and clutching each other in fright. One was a boy, blonde hair and green eyes. There was mud caked on his face and a sliver of blood from a cracked lip. The other was a girl and probably the boys sister. Slightly taller than the other and just as afraid. She too was in need of a good bath. 

[center][b][i]...Bath...[/i][/b][/center]

She chuckled at the thought. Here she was about ready to tell these kids to get and clean themselves off when she was lying on the ground caked in dust and grim and blood. Pulling them out of that horde hadn't been an easy task. She'd severed more limbs in those few minutes than she'd done her entire life. Still, even as the smell of decayed flesh reached her nose and made her stomach turn, she knew what she'd done was necessary. If she hadn't intervened when she did, they'd be dead. Instead, here they were standing next to her confused and scared... but alive. Now all that was left was to keep them alive. Their safety for the moment was fleeting. Some few hundred yards away was a large mass of the dead moving in on her position giving chase to the meal that was stolen from them. At the rate the three of them were moving, the dead would catch up easy enough and all though Clo would have no problem getting away, it was the children that would be in danger. She wasn't about to gamble with their lives. The solution was simple: she'd give them a head start, time to move to the safety of the walls while she held the monsters back and try to dwindle their numbers down before they reached the city. She hadn't realized it yet but the approaching horde was the largest yet. The threat they posed was immense.

Taking one last gulp of air, Clo breathed out a silent [b]"Fuck"[/b] and pushed herself to her feet. The siblings looked to Clo, the angel that had come to their rescue in the darkness and pulled them to safety. She could only imagine what they were thinking, what kind of creature she appeared to be in their eyes. A young girl shrouded by the sun under wings of black, like shadows that sprouted from her back and poured into the air around her. Their eyes followed the outline of her shoulder and continued from the blades to the edges of her wings. They both looked mesmerized, squinting against the sun as they admired her form. Smiling, Clo cleared her throat to get their attention and shaded them from the sun with one of her wings.

[b]"Ever seen an angel?"[/b] She asked them, stepping closer and kneeling down to their height. The boy shook his head but the girl glanced at her wings before turning back to Clo. [b]"Oh no no. I mean a real angel. Here..."[/b] She pulled them in close and then pointed out in the distance toward the horizon, her finger pressed against the point where the sky met the ground.

"I don't see anything..." The boy said after a few seconds of nothing.

[b]"Give it a moment... She's lazy... and sometimes a little slow..."[/b] Clo smiled. Sure enough there in the sky was a flash of light. It was small and only lasted for a split second but it was sharp and easily noticeable. Few made regular trips out of the city and fewer made more trips than Clo. One of the things she'd learned early on before becoming a Harpy was how to find her way back. Her sisters had been given the title shortly before she had and whenever Ramera took to the sky, her metallic wings were beacons of light reminding her which way was home. She was never lost in the Red Waste, even this far out. 

[b]"That's an angel... a real one. She's beautiful, made of light and can fly like me and her wings... they shine in the sun... not like mine."[/b] She flapped her other wing around for added effect. Even with the sun shining down on it, it held it's dark color refusing to glisten in it's caress. [b]"And you know what's the best part?"[/b]

"What?... What's the best part?" The girl chimed in next nearly jumping out of her worn shoes as beings of light filled her imagination.

[b]"There are two of them, one for each of you."[/b]

"Does the other one have shiny wings too?"

Clo turned to the boy, completely caught off guard by the honest question. [b]"Well... no. But... she has candy. Lots of fucking candy."[/b] The boy just stared at her. [b]"You do know what candy is right?"[/b] She asked to which he shook his head. [b]"Whatever that's not important... the important thing is that they're angels and you're always safe with angels... I promise. So here's what I need you to do."[/b] She pointed once again at the horizon. [b]"That flash of light will lead you to them. Just follow the light... Don't stop for anyone or anything and do not stray. Follow the light and you'll find the angels. And take this."[/b] Clo folded her free wing down in front of her and pluck one of the feathers. It was covered in blood. She grimaced before tossing it to the side. [i][b]...Don't want them thinking I'm dead...[/b][/i] The second one she pulled was clean and she handed it to the girl. [b]"Hold on to that. Don't lose it. When you find the angels you give them that okay?"[/b]

"What about you?" The girl reached out and touched Clo's forearm, the soft of her hands pressing against Clo's rough and dirty skin.

[b]"I'll be fine sweetheart. I have a lot of bad guys to kill."[/b]