"Quinn? You have wings," I stated in disbelief. He nodded slowly. "Are you a Faerie?" I asked, seeing as they were the only creatures with wings that I knew of. "Half. I'm half Fey," Quinn told me. I was speechless. Didn't see that one coming. His wings fluttered nervously. "Can I touch them?" I asked. He winced at the request. I mentally kicked myself. Asking the guy who hated being touched if you could touch his wings. Incredibly stupid, not to mention rude. But to my surprise, he slowly stretched out one of his wings toward me. I gently reached up to touch it. When I did, it trembled slightly at my touch. His wings seemed bigger than the wings of the other Fey I'd seen. I gently stroked it. It shuddered as I did. "Does it hurt?" I asked. "Uh, no," Quinn admitted, rubbing the back of his neck, "You're actually tickling me." "Oh," I said, dropping my hand. He pulled his wing back. Quinn lifted his other wing. There was a small chunk missing and the edges of the missing part were charred black. "Are you ok?" I asked, concerned. "Yeah, some stray lava came at us, and I couldn't completely dodge it. I'll be fine. My wings heal fast," Quinn stated. I racked my brain for other questions. "How did you hide them?" I asked. Quinn turned around and lifted his hair. His wings pulled themselves into his back. Once they were gone from view, I could see his shirt had two long slits from his wings. I saw that there were long wire lines on his back extending up and across the back of his neck. I reached out to touch his neck. Just before I could, his hand shot to cover it. He spun around. "Promise me something. Don't touch my wing lines. Ever," he demanded with such intensity that I wondered what had caused it. I raised my hands in surrender. "Alright, I promise. No touchy. Got it," I promised. He let out a breath of relief. He released his wings again. "They heal faster when they're not hidden," he explained. It was then that I noticed something in the water. It was blood. "Quinn, are you bleeding?" I asked, worried. He lifted his leg from the water. I sucked in a breath. It looked pretty bad. The side of his thigh was completely red with blood. "My leg was hit by lava too," Quinn explained weakly. "Are you kidding me?! You should have said that first. That looks really bad," I ranted. Quinn shrugged. I looked back. We were way too close to the flaming city. I looked around and noticed a trail leading into the woods. That was probably our best option. I stood up and walked over to Quinn. I started to grab him, and he flinched away. "Quinn, we need to get out of here and you can't walk on that leg. You're going to have to let me carry you, or at least lean on me when we walk," I told him. He nodded and let me help him up. I pulled his arm around my shoulders and helped brace him as he stood up. "You're pretty light," I observed. "Yeah, I have light bones to help me fly," Quinn explained. He yelped as he tried to put weight on his leg. "Don't put weight on it," I told him, exasperated, "You always tell hurt people not to do something and they always do it anyway." "Well, technically, you didn't tell me not to do it until AFTER I did it, so you can't really fault me there," Quinn quipped weakly. "It's called common sense. Use it," I told him. "Common sense? By this point, that's almost as unfathomable as logic. Or rationality. Or normality. Because honestly, that's all gone by now," Quinn remarked, gesturing around. I sighed. "Alright, you win. But only 'cause I'm feeling bad that you're hurt," I fibbed. He'd won no matter what. But he didn't argue with me. "Come on," I told him, pulling him towards the path. He stumbled along, gripping me for balance. His wings were dragging behind us. "Won't your wings get caught in the trees if they're dragging like that?" I asked. "Oh yeah," Quinn slurred. He was paler than usual, and I could feel him sweating. "Would it be better if the rested on my other shoulder?" I asked. He nodded, lifting his wings. I pulled them over my shoulder. I could see he was right, his wings were healing fast. "Wish your leg would heal as fast as your wings," I muttered. Quinn snorted. "Wouldn't that be nice." We walked/stumbled into the forest. "Don't tell anyone else about my wings. Not even the others," Quinn told me. "Why not?" I asked. "Because. No one likes half Fey half humans. The Fey disown them because they see them only as human, and the humans disown them because they only see them as Fey," Quinn informed me. "Oh," I said, trying to understand. But it wasn't really a problem for us on Earth. "And I'm sorry, but I don't really know you guys enough to trust you with this," Quinn admitted. "But you trust me," I argued, seeing his point but being too stubborn for my own good. "Well I had no choice if I wanted to save your life," he told me, nearly tripping over a particularly tree root. I helped him gain his balance. "Thanks for that by the way. You didn't have to do that," I thanked him. Quinn scoffed. "You idiot. Of course I did," he told me, locking eyes with me. "Well thank you anyway," I repeated, feeling stupid, though not entirely sure why. "You're welcome," he replied. Suddenly, a small girl ran onto the path. She looked surprised to see us. "Who are you?" she asked with a strong South American accent. "I'm Cale," I offered. "You are Key-Rah's friend. You are Quinn then," she concluded, "You are Fey?" she asked. Quinn tried to hide behind me. I sighed. One thing I'd noticed about Quinn was either extremely shy, or sarcastic as heck. Now he was being shy again. "Yes, we're Kiera's friends. Yes, he's Quinn. Maybe on the Fey," I told her, "Who are you and do you know where Kiera and going he others are?" "I am Maggy. Key-Rah went..." she trailed off looking down at Quinn's leg. "You are hurt," she observed. Quinn shrank even further. "Let me see. I help," Maggy offered. I helped him sit down. He stretched his leg out towards her. She touched it and he flinched. I started, "Quinn, you have to-" "I know!" he snapped angrily. I took s step back, shocked. "Just because I don't like being touched, doesn't mean I'm too stupid to understand that, yes, sometimes, people need to touch me to help me. I flinched out of habit, but that's all I did. So don't get on me for that!" he growled. "I-I'm sorry," I apologized. Maggy pulled out some bandages (though where it came from, I have no idea) and began to wrap it to stop the bleeding. "Key-Rah and her friends went to Ship Master. They went to Furui," Maggy informed us. Quinn nodded. "That'd be the place to go. We can meet up with them there," Quinn said. "Can you take us to this Ship Master?" I asked Maggy. She nodded. I helped Quinn stand up. "Come on," Maggy told us, leading the way. We stumbled along behind her until we reached the Ship Master's dock. "Hello there," said a man in a bird T-shirt who I assumed to be the Ship Master. "They need to follow Key-Rah and her friends," Maggy told him. He nodded. "Well, you're gonna have to wait until morning, 'cause that's when the next boat that can take you will get back," Ship Master told us. "Great, what now?" I asked. "Well, I have a shed you two could sleep in until morning," he offered. "Alright," I agreed. Quinn nodded as well. "Alrighty then, it looks like you'll be staying in my shed. I'll show you the way," Ship Master told us. He lead us to a shed near the dock. "Thank you," I told him. I looked at Quinn still leaning on me. He looked like he was about to pass out. I set him down on the floor. His wings spread out across the floor. I couldn't help staring. I'd never seen anything like them, and they were beautiful. "Goodnight Quinn," I whispered. "GoodnightCale," Quinn slurred. I smiled and lied down myself. Goodnight indeed, I thought to myself, falling asleep.

Ta-Da!!! I published. I don't care that it's 1:06. It was my birthday party today and we still haven't gone to sleep yet. I stayed up this late typing, so I published it. Enjoy.
       -Dell