It was going to be epic. It was a beautiful, late Saturday morning, probably around nine o’clock. Elizabeth had already been up for several hours and she had decided that Carrick had been asleep long enough. At least, she assumed he was asleep. She’d been standing outside of his door for fifteen minutes, waiting and listening for any sounds. She hadn’t heard any. A mischievous grin spread across her face. When she had finally determined that her special male friend was either not there or asleep, Liz stealthily slid open the door.

Stepping softly, so her cowboy boots wouldn’t thud against the floor and alert anyone in there to her presence, the cowgirl slowly entered the room. She flipped her braids over her shoulder and readjusted her hat, taking in the scene. Yes, the room was a mess like normal, but that was of no concern to her, other than it could pose a safety hazard. Or a burglar-alarm. Either way, she needed to be careful.

Like an Indian scout, the blonde slipped into the room, picking her way through near-artistically arranged piles of clothing and miscellaneous clutter. She made a quick beeline directly to what she wanted. Carrick’s stash of birdseed. She knew exactly where it was, having been given some before. Therefore it posed little problem to retrieve it. She quickly snatched up the bag and then threw caution to the wind, bolting out the door as best she could in her boots. She let the door slam behind her as she raced down the hall, laughing softly over her loot.

It was late, or early the winged boy didn’t know but someone was moving around in his room. The sound of his clutter being avoided and shuffled slightly was the indicator of that. Figuring it was his roommate Carrick buried his face into his pillow and lifted his wing over his head slightly to make it just dark enough so he could convince himself it was still night and eventually fall back asleep. While he was normally one to never sleep late on the weekends he was still some how convinced it was Friday meaning he had class, meaning he was planning on skipping.

The drawer next to his bed opened slightly and he didn’t pay it any mind until he heard his bag of seed move and then his stomach growled. The next thing he heard was the door slam and that was when he jumped put of bed. Kai was a good roommate he wouldn’t slam the door when he was sleeping, even if he was in a green sour apple mood. Looking to the door Carrick blinked and wiped the grains of sand from his eyes (what his mother called it). Looking from the slammed door to the floor his eyes then fixed on his drawer, which was now seedless! He jumped out of bed and stepped on a pizza box and slid backwards hitting his back on his bed forcing himself to be thrown forward into a cluster of dirty shirts.

”Coddle!” Carrick yelled angrily into his shirts as he pushed himself upright and then bolted to the door in nothing but his pajama pants and his skullcap. Some would all it indecent to bolt from your room wearing no shirt and cussing up a storm but Carrick was cheesed, he couldn’t believe the cheek of this their whoever it was, even he knew better to refrain from stealing another thief’s food.

Wings open Carrick saw a flash at the end of the corner and jumped into the air to track down the one who had the gull to steal from him. ”Ohi! Get back ‘ere!” Carrick yelled after the blond streak.

Angry words followed Elizabeth down the hall. Muffling her giggles about the so-far success of her plan, Liz plonked and thudded her way through the labyrinth of the mansion, creating an easy sound to follow while still staying ahead. Item Number One: Steal the birdseed. Check. A grin split Beth’s face as she eagerly contemplated how the rest of her day’s entertainment would work out. Even though she had only just initiated her plan, Liz was an optimist and was confident that it would all work out.

As if on cue, Liz could detect the rushing of air way behind her in the direction she’d come from. Item Number Two: Get Carrick to follow. Check. The girl knew that her male-friend -maybe-not-boy-friend would give chase, even if only because she had disturbed his beauty sleep with the slamming of the door. She had even counted on him taking to air (the beating sound she had heard were wings) and had planned her escape route accordingly.

She dove through the doorway of the dining room, neatly avoiding the pathetic duct-tape web she had constructed over the top two-thirds of the doorway. Hopefully, the web would make it harder to fly through the doorway, giving Liz more time to get away. But she didn’t worry too much.

You see, Liz had specifically chosen the dining room as the first stop in her escape plan because hardly anyone ever used it, and especially not on a Saturday morning before noontime. Therefore nobody would get in her way. She had also picked it because it had a nice, big table in it, perfect to stash weapons under.

As she rolled to her knees, Liz tossed a third of a handful of seeds out in front of the door, giving a not-so-subtle clue as to where the thief was hiding. Then she ducked under the table just quick enough to grab two weapons to add to her arsenal, as well as a red bandana. As she stuck the projectile propellers in the waist of her jeans, she quickly obscured the lower half of her face with the scarlet cloth. Then she dashed out through another set of doors and quickly hid behind them. She tossed another handful of seed in the middle of the room she was now in, to lure Carrick in.

That done, she drew her cans of Silly String and quickly shook them up.

”Crummy thief! Carrick called out to the thief who had the gull to steal from him! Whoever this thief was they weren’t great at the get-away, which was something that was to be expected when trying to run away. His getaway method usually consisted of jumping then taking off never to be seen again by the victim to his thievery. Then again from the long blonde hair he had seen glimpses off as he was rounding the hallways he had been coming to the conclusion that his thief was a girl and for some reason she seemed very familiar to him. The trip down the stairs made him notice the view of someone he had seen several times before he just couldn’t place it.

So he came to the conclusion that there was some new master thief that had heard how great he was and wanted to try her luck… that had to be it. Well she was going to be very disappointed! Flying towards the kitchen hallway Carrick slowed and spotted his bird seed leading into the dining room a touch of irritation added to his already upset face as he added wasting food to the list of crimes this female thief committed.

Shifting his wings and entering the dining room Carrick planned what to do with this thief when he caught her ‘someone was getting stuck atop the flag pole out front, that would be…’ Carrick’s thoughts were interrupted as he threw his arms up in reaction to something trying to block his entry to the dinging room. It was a web! A tape web, something he had never seen before and something he wasn’t sure how to deal with so when he hit the web he closed his eyes and brought his wings in close to his body trying to make himself as small as possible.

Probably not the best idea seeing as the web of tape gave way from the wall and attached itself to him and accompanied him on his tumble down to the dining room floor where he was sure something else would be lying in wait for him so keeping his eyes closed Carrick fought the tape as quickly as possibly managing to get a majority of it off his body but failing to get a smaller piece off while his eyes were still closed. His thought of no one being able to hurt him while his eyes were closed probably wasn’t the best thought process to have. Especially when he gets into as much trouble as he does.

Grumbling more and more Carrick looked around the dining room for a clue now that his eyes were open and he was no longer in any immediate danger. Spotting the piece of duct tape that tried to remain attached to his wings Carrick removed it quickly with a wince and then kicked a bit of the tape with his bare feet only managing to get it stuck in the process. Grumbling more Carrick decided that the empire state buildings flag pole was a far better idea now instead of the flagpole out in front of the mansion. If they wanted to put him in a bad mood and try to best him then they better be aware of the consequences.

Once the tape was balled and thrown to the other side of the room Carrick quit grumbling about the empire state building and noticed another pile of seed exiting the dining room. He frowned this time not willing to take the bait and fly in like the thief was expecting no this time he was walking through this time on guard for the unknown.

Walking over to the pile of seeds carefully Carrick tiptoed into the room and spotted a large handful of his birdseed on the floor in the center of the room. ”Bird seed isn’t as cheap as everyone thinks it is!” Carrick said allowed not really caring that he was giving his position away he just wanted to see the thief so he could pounce her whoever she was. Walking into the room Carrick’s wings were open slightly and his knees were bent ready so he could jump into the air and attack whoever was trying to trap him.

The dull “thud” of a teenaged-gryphon-boy’s body hitting the floor was practically music to Elizabeth Sundance’s ears. Not that she wanted him injured or anything, no, she just wanted him to think twice, three times, and possibly even four times before trying to fly after her. That would just ruin her fun and she didn’t want that. Oh no, she still had many more “surprises” in store for the afternoon.

Grinning with benignly malicious glee, Liz waited for the fateful treads on the floor that would signify Carrick’s presence in the room. Instead, she didn’t hear anything but still witnessed him walk in the room anyways. And his back was to her. Major tactical blunder. Although she had to give him credit for style. The tape on his foot was a rather elegant touch. Was he trying to expose her with unstoppable laughter? But Liz hid her smile behind her red mask and took careful aim.

She jumped out from behind the door, yelling, “YEEEAAWW! Aye aye yi yi yi!” as loud as she could. Twin streams of pale pink and blue silly string thundered through the air at the winged-lad. As she sent spray after spray after the boy, she quickly sidestepped around the door and backed into the dining room again. Then she hightailed it out of the room, desperately trying to keep her laughter under control. She wasn’t doing such a good job, however, and her chuckles could probably he heard all through the hallway.

Number Three: Get Carrick mad. Check. This whole checklist thing was starting to get to be fun!

She dashed out into the hallway again and resumed her original course. She managed to make it to a crossing-road, of sorts. The hallway split into two paths, one going to the left and the other going to the right. On the hall way that went left, Liz had taped a sign, “Birdseed Thief: 20 feet ahead.” On the right side, she had taped a sign that read: “Danger! Beware of Venomous Snakes and Fire-Breathing Dinosaurs!”

The left hallway was a pretty quick route to the main entrance of the mansion. The right hallway eventually branched off to the kitchen. Liz placed a small pile of birdseed in the middle of the fork, although a foot or so closer to the right hallway. She didn’t want Carrick to waste too much time picking the correct course of action. And just to make sure she didn’t lose her trail, Liz had placed a sign further down the left hallway that read, “Sucker! Don’t believe everything you read!” As she trotted down the right hallway, the one with pictures of rattlesnakes and crummily photoshopped T-Rexes taped to the walls here and there, Liz couldn’t help but laugh at the moral lesson she had managed to slip into her adventure.

She quickly arrived at the kitchen.

Oh yeah the Irish curses escaped his mouth as he was assaulted with silly sting from behind, not only was he irritated but to sneak up on someone after he was already on edge? Oh this masked villain was getting the flagpole alright! Within seconds Carrick opened his eyes to realize he was once again alone in the room covered with silly sting? Carrick grumbled and opened his wings and removed the stupid sting as fast as he could this time a little more remained on him then the tape.

Looking around and grumbling even more about how irritated he was he turned to the entrance of the dining hall and exited this time on foot making sure that there was no traps that he could fall for, “fool me once shame on me fool me three or more times shame on you!” thought Carrick as he ran out and looked to see more of his bird seed and then there was the fork.

Dinosaurs and danger or the bird thief… Carrick stared at both signs for a few moments debating which path the thief would take. She could be trying to trick him by making it seem like the best course was the one that said bird thief… then again… Carrick believing he was going to outsmart this thief took the pathway to the left. His pace was quickening as his motivation to catch this thief had grown ”Can’t out smart me Eejit!” he stopped dead in his tracks and kicked the air in front of him as more curses escaped this time louder than before. He fell for another trick!

Turning around and flapping his wings to cover the lost distance in a matter of moments Carrick landed and ran down the hallway that was indeed littered with snakes and dinosaurs but no danger. He wasn’t going to fall for it again, ”Give me back my seeds!” Carrick called out, as the sound of girl laughter was getting louder and louder. He would catch her!

A loud yell for his seeds caused Elizabeth to catch her breath for a moment. That wasn’t good. Carrick had caught up to her much faster than expected. She had assumed that her window of escape had been large enough, but judging from the relative closeness of her maybe-something-more-than-a-friend’s voice, it hadn’t been. Great. This plan may not turn out well after all. But since she had spent so much time preparing, she wasn’t going to waste it now.

She burst into the kitchen and slammed the doors shut behind her. She looped a piece of string around the handles a couple times. It wasn’t enough to permanently shut the door, but it would hopefully delay the boy for a few more precious seconds. Then Liz glanced around the kitchen. It was empty. That was good. Nobody would get caught in the cross-fire.

Liz dashed over to the counter and dumped the seeds in a concoction she had created earlier. She stirred it vigorously for a time and then opened the oven and stuck it in. She also took out a secret weapon she had prepared beforehand. After she set the timer on the oven again, Liz set out a big plate of hot, fresh, chocolate-chip cookies on the table with a glass of cold milk. Already the wonderful aroma was filling the kitchen. The blonde bandit smiled under her bandana, grinning maliciously at the sight of her potent weapon.

But she couldn’t waste any more time. She bolted towards the back door. On it was a sign that she had taped there earlier when she had been making the cookies. It read: “The Seed Thief did not go this way.” Doubtlessly it wouldn’t throw Carrick off, especially since her last set of signs, but she had been in the mood for extra stuff so she had made it anyways.

She left the mansion, stepping onto the patio behind the kitchen. She closed the door behind her and proceeded to complete her next trap. She carefully grabbed a hanging cord from the door from, looped it under a nail, and stretched it across the doorway to be tied to another nail on the other side. She only took a second to admire her work. It was simple, really. It was designed that when Carrick opened the door and went through, he’d hit the cord, pulling on the net suspended above the door on two flimsy dowel rods. The net would collapse and approximately thirty water balloons would fall and hit the winged lad, potentially limiting his flight capability.

At least, that was Liz’ hope. In any case, it would probably shock him a bit. But she didn’t stick around to watch. She darted off into the hedge maze located behind the mansion. She still had the bag with most of the seed in it so she started sprinkling some as she went along. Liz had already been through there that morning and she had marked her path through it with white stones with purple dots of paint on them. Now she used these to guide her way to the center of the maze. Carrick probably wouldn’t be looking for purple-painted rocks so she left a birdseed trail for him to follow.

Elizabeth started running through the maze.

It was a straight shot to the kitchen now, that or out doors and if the trail led out doors he was sure he’d have the thief in his clutches within moments, the only way this person could escape was invisibility, super speed or if she had teleportation, seeing as he had been gaining on her and she didn’t vanish he ruled out the three powers that would have kept her safe from him. Carrick was now a man on a mission and was determined to catch the thief.

Moments passed and he eventually turned his tail to the kitchen and stared at the doors debating going around the building to the back door Carrick’s tail twitched behind him showing his irritation. ”…A trap…” whispered Carrick to himself more than allowed as he stared at door slowly approaching it and having no intention let anything fall on top of him or step in anything as he entered. Walking forward his nostrils tingled as the smell of freshly baked cookies tickled his nostrils.

Frowning more he eyed the door and touched it and then jumped back immediately the door budged an inch then was pushed back as if something in the way. Carrick focused on the door a again and repeated, only this time adding a bit more force. The door inched just a bit further then stopped Carrick backed away and ran down the hallway looking for something useful to aid him in his quest.

Two minutes later Carrick returned to the kitchen door with a broom handle with a purpose and a fear that the thief would be long gone then again Carrick had a feeling that the main reason the thief had stolen from him was to challenge him and seeing as the girl had gone through all the trouble to confuse him and trick him Carrick doubted that she was done yet. He had yet to get hit with anything that impressive though even he had to admit he did think the duct tape net was a nice touch.

Pushing the broom through the gap and lifting it up and down Carrick felt a resistance near the handle, lifting the broom to the other side of the handle Carrick lifted up then pushed down and frowned, ”Tied… clever…” Carrick said to himself as the more he worked his way through the door the more he smelled cookies. His stomach grumbled and his mouth watered. He was hungry and the thief was teasing him now.

Soon the string gave way and when it snapped Carrick forced the door open and looked around the kitchen first at his feet then above him then his eyes focused on everything else the plate of cookies the milk and then the floor to see if there was a sign of his trail. A few seeds littered the floor but not enough to give him a clear path however with the cookies and the milk and the door barred like it was it was safe he thought to come to the conclusion that the thief passed through here.

Looking around he spotted the windows and the doors that led out to the back where he could see the trees in the distance. Hoping that the thief was to far away he inched closer to the cookies and milk and took a big whiff and then backed up. He was tempted to take one but he didn’t know what these cookies were capable of.

His attention next went to the sign and with that he ignored his hunger and went for the next exit. Broom in hand Carrick poked the door handles and then the door trying to see what would happen, if there was another trap he didn’t want to spring it the last thing he wanted was to get covered in glue and feath… more feathers. The door opened and nothing happened walking forward cautiously Carrick poked the broom forward the straw side first and then he waved it about trying to test for a trap.

The broom was brought to the ground and Carrick was about to drop it when he noticed that it wouldn’t move forward any further when he left it alone. Frowning more Carrick pushed the broom and then noticed that after a short period of resistance nothing happened. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary so he decided to step forward however right before he was about to walk out a net fell in front of him and landed oun the ground.

Smirking and laughing Carrick stepped onto the net feeling pretty good all of the sudden like he had bested the blonde thief at her own game. The moment was short lived right before he was about to point out her trap failed he was hit with a water balloon followed by a few dozen more. Now drenched to the bone Carrick shivered on the patio and opened up his wings to try and let the sun warm him. He was wet cold and madder than ever!

Reaching down and picking up two balloons that didn’t break on him Carrick jumped into the air and flew straight up hoping he could find the thief.

As Elizabeth darted down the path she had made, she took a quick stock of her location. She was at least four-fifths of the way through the maze. So far, she’d had quite a bit of a head start, probably due to her practical application of string theory. And she’d have a lot more time since Carrick couldn’t fly with waterlogged wings. But of course, Liz didn’t slow down one bit. She wanted to get to her next spot as quickly as possible.

As she cleared the last of the hedges in the maze, Liz stopped for a moment to catch her breath. She hadn’t run quite that much in a long time. Not to mention the various other things she had been doing while running, and rolling, and navigating mazes. She peered back behind her, wondering if Carrick had left the mansion yet. She could see the back door open, and the balloons not in their pre-sprung spots.

She could also see the silhouette of a flying mutant bird-cat kid swiftly getting closer.

Crap, she thought eloquently. I guess he can fly when his wings are wet! Well, that was certainly a big monkey wrench in her plans.

But hey, she wasn’t caught yet.

Liz smiled triumphantly to herself and twirled on a heel, making a direct beeline toward a decent-sized stand of about twenty or thirty trees about thirty yards away. She had picked that particular stand over the other closer ones for two reasons. One, there were a bunch of pine trees in there and the trees were pretty close together, hopefully making it difficult to fly between. And two, the canopy was really tightly packed, making it very dark. She would require both if her plan was to continue past that point.

Liz didn’t even bother leaving a trail now. If Carrick was unable to see her from where he was at, than he needed to get some binoculars glued to his head. Besides, she didn’t want to waste any of her rapidly-draining time senselessly scattering seeds. At least, not then.

The blonde bandit pushed between two towering evergreens and dodged an assortment of branches and shrubs. She probably only had mere moments before that Greek-statue of an angelic life form came descending on her from above and catch her red-handed before she could explain things. That would not go over so well. Beth ignored those thoughts for the moment, concentrating on what to do now.

She was standing in the middle of a small clearing, only about fifteen feet wide. She reached into the bag of seeds and lightly scattered a couple handfuls of seed around, before retreating into the brush. Another interesting thing about this grove of trees. When one entered it, he or she would probably notice that there were no animal sounds or noises. There was a good reason for that. Liz was pouring out enough tranquility and other Zen qualities to the fauna in the area to sedate an entire mental facility.

She also had her hand on a thin piece of fishing wire that stretched all the way up to an iPod situated on a branch a good twenty feet off the ground on the opposite side of the clearing. Her iPod was nestled in a docking port for two ginormous speakers, just waiting for her to pull the string and have the volume button turned on. Also, because Liz didn’t plan many half-way things in this adventure, the device and accessories were hidden behind a light covering of leaves, so an observant celestial-like mutant probably wouldn’t notice it if he’d spent a minute looking for it.

While still sending out extreme calming feelings to the surrounding animals, Liz waited for her friend to make his appearance.

The tides had turned and he had the high ground and what he hoped was the element of surprise, after all the second trap failed for the most part. It slowed him down but probably not as bad she would have hoped. A devilish smirk was planted on Carrick’s face as he scanned the ground ahead to see where the thief was.

Flying higher and higher with balloons in hand Carrick spotted his target that was attempting to dart into the scenery. Joke was on her; even though it was pretty densely packed Carrick could still manage to move fast enough to catch up especially if he dropped in. It would hurt and take him a minute to drop in but it could be done and to catch her it was worth it. She would no doubt expect him to attempt to walk through the trees at least that was what Carrick was counting on.

Flying over the trees Carrick flew low and close to the canopy looking for a proper place to dive into the trees to close the distance between them however short it must be now. Carrick had waited long enough and if she wanted to the blonde bandit could have left the trees before he closed his wings to his body and dove in with his hands covering his face.

It went dark as needles of brush ran across his body, scraps and small cuts formed as the balloon in his right hand popped drenching his hair and his face in water as the one in his right covered his body, in hind sight it was a bad idea but that didn’t stop Carrick from attempting to grab a branch as he was coming crashing down to the ground. Catching him self with a loud huff Carrick managed to swing on a low branch before he fell into some bushes below. All right add one ore point to the blonde thief’s scoreboard; she defiantly used it to her advantage to hide in here.

Opening his eyes and wincing Carrick looked around and righted himself. Trees was the summary of what he saw, it was dark and it was quite, too quite especially for the tumble he just underwent he knew that a few birds lived in these trees and his Gryphon form might have hunted a squirrel here before. But it was silent…

The winged mutant jumped from the pushes and landed in his feet oblivious to the few scraps he now had on his body he’d worry about them later he was to dirty, too mad and too hungry to care right now, sides Doc could fix him up if anything was bad. Despite the eerie quite Carrick hadn’t noticed much of a change in the woods, no obvious traps no trip wires near him just the giant hole he put in the canopy and a little light in the distance where he knew there was a clearing.

His stomach sank, he sensed another trap and moved forward slowly doing his best to remain silent. When he had a chance he hid behind a tree and looked around and even tossed out a mildly quite hawk screech to make it seem like there was a hawk where he was who was making the rustling sounds.

Moving forward Carrick saw it his snacks and no one in sight near it. This smelt like a trap one that he would have to spring to flush out the thief. One thing was for sure he was going to come prepared for this.

Picking up a stick Carrick threw it out into the open to see if anything would happen, he gave it a second and picked up another stick the side of his forearm and then jumped into the clearing opening his wings and flapping rushing towards the bird seed.

The glade remained still and silent, even as a loud thrashing and cascade of thousands of broken needles began showering the floor, plainly announcing the arrival of a certain Thanagarian. Honestly, it sounded painful. A patch of sunlight suddenly broke through the hole in the micro forest, magically landing directly on the patch of seeds in the ground. A hawk cried out, but Liz only smirked. She knew it was only Carrick and one of his bird imitations. She would’ve felt the hawk’s feeling sif it had been real and she would’ve smothered them into complacency. Oh no, Carrick would not draw her out.

Then a stick pulled an army roll into the middle of the clearing. The lad was finally starting to learn.

But then Carrick leaped out as well. That was the signal for all heck to break loose.

Elizabeth’s trigger finger twitched and the stand of trees exploded into chaos as “It’s raining men! Hallelujah!” began blaring over the speakers at an almost painfully-loud level, competing against the cries of dozens and dozens of birds and squirrels and hundreds and thousands of insects flying and running around in sheer confusion, failing at dealing with the sudden and conflicting emotions of everything from terror to sadness to overwhelming joy.

Wings beat the air as sparrows and crows flocked to the birdseed, not caring if they happened to brush by a certain bird-boy. Chipmunks screeched and shrieked as they darted all over the ground. A garter snake hissed in outrage as it territory under a tree was disturbed. Assorted wildlife were going crazy, fueled by the emotional witchery of the Sundance Kid. All the while, the song was still blaring from its hidden spot across the clearing.

Hoping that the pandemonium would be a sufficient distraction, Liz whirled around from her bush and let the string fall to the ground. She didn’t need it anymore. But she did need the secret weapon she had stashed under the bush. Once acquired, she held it securely in both hands, slipped on sun glasses, and then snuck out of the miniature forest, trying to make as little noise as possible and hopefully remain unnoticed.

Now was the hardest part of her plan. Liz needed to run all the way to the side of mansion without being caught. Over open ground. In boots. Maybe I should’ve thought this part through a little better, she thought as she began running.

The seeds were in reach in fact he had his hands on his snack before everything went to hell. Carrick blinked for a second not able to react to anything as his sense of sound kicked in. Feeling his heart skip a beat Carrick jumped in a panic and looked around, as he stayed low. Ears ringing momentarily followed by the screeches of lesser flyers scrambling towards his treats as the sound of some song echoed throughout the clearing he had entered. Another Trap!

A bird nipped Carrick’s hand as he reached down towards his seeds followed by a few scratches from some angry sparrows. Opening his wings and swatting anything that flew in twoards him Carrick let out another eagle like scream letting all those around him know that he was in charge.

Some fled some didn’t some chipmunks ran towards the seeds hungry to eat but ran quickly as Carrick swiped at them. More birds flew in and pecked Carrick until he couldn’t take any more. He could shift but he would still be attacked something he didn’t want to deal with so swallowing his pride and letting out another loud screech sending a few more birds off Carrick reached down and picked up some seed shoved them in his pocket and jumped up into the air and flew straight up towards the trees as a few angry birds flew after him.

Bringing his hands to cover his face Carrick raced towards the pine branches and spun in a circle flying higher and higher till he made his way through the branches. It hurt but he had to get the hell out of there the noise and everything around him was too much to handle. Flying higher and higher fighting back the pain from getting more scrapes on his body Carrick looked around hoping to see the one person he wished he could find.

Shifting his head towards the mansion there was a blonde figure running away from the scene of the crime. Mismatched colored eyes narrowed on his target as he descended like a bat out of hell. Keeping his mouth closed he flew over her and landed in front of her Slamming his hands on the ground and opening his wings wide revealing the scrapes he had gotten from everything with a wicked grin on his face. ”Good laugh did ya? My turn now!”

Please don’t trip, please don’t trip, please don’t trip! Elizabeth fervently prayed. A single slip up (no pun intended) would cost her the whole plan. It could even make Carrick quite angry with her. That was completely not part of the plan. Her cowboy-booted feet streaked over the ground, not unlike the Roadrunner. She even had a mortal adversary chasing her. Was this what her plan had come down do? A simple Warner Brothers cartoon? That was ridiculous.

But it was too late to do anything about it now. All she could do was run, run, run.

And then the dreaded sound began filling her ears, all too soon. She heard the heavy thwacking of the air. Heart speeding up, Liz jerked her bandana up to her nose, neatly covering most of her face, her eyes concealed behind unremarkable sunglasses.

Like an avenging angel from above (or vengeful something-else from below), the winged-and-tailed shape of Carrick passed over her head, his shadow splashing over the ground before he landed. His posture reminded her of a large cat stalking its prey. His beautiful wings remained spread, showing the fruits of his labors after her. On the outside, Liz was a little nervous at this confrontation, but deep inside, she was rejoicing. Her plan seemed to have worked pretty well up until that point. She could see various twigs, needles, and bits of dirt imbedded and intermixed among Carrick’s feathers. She himself didn’t look much better. Tiny scrapes and scratches covered him, probably from when he grappled with a forest.

But that smile worried her. It wasn’t the smile you gave to your best friend or the nice, old lady across the street. No, it was the smile a starving eagle gave to the tiny rabbit before it. And those words that seemed to roll off Carrick’s tongue seemed like the final gloat.

But rabbits didn’t have paintball guns. “But I’m not done yet,” she quipped, deliberately trying to lower and change her voice. She threw it elsewhere, using all the ventriloquism practice she’d built up over the years, in the hopes that Carrick wouldn’t recognize her voice.

Then she took aim with her rifle and shot at him. Several times. At his wings. And at his hands. Bright red paintballs soon began filling the air. She was a pretty good shot. However, she deliberately avoided his chest or head. She didn’t want to really hurt him. Just make him think she would so she could get back to the mansion first.

And speaking of…

Within half a minute of her initial barrage, Liz dodged around Carrick (making sure to stay plenty far away from arm reach) and dashed off to the mansion, rapidly gaining ground, regardless of how high her heels were.

Golden brown wings gleamed in the sunlight as the grin plastered on Carrick’s grew wider as he took a step closer, it was all a show now the more afraid the thief was the better off his plans of revenge would be. ”I owe you quite a bit don’t I?” he paused and took another step forward, ”You afraid of heights?” Carrick asked his tail flicking behind him revealing the amusement he was now feeling at the now turned tables.

The red bandana now covered the thief’s entire face and all he could see was the blonde hair and the eyes that looked familiar. Ignoring the familiarity he had with the woman’s eyes he started to move closer till the woman spoke with an almost recognizable voice despite the downshift in pitch. His sudden attempt to scare her ended as she removed a paintball gun from somewhere on her person and started to unload the red balls of paint in his direction.

The first few hit his wings and quickly Carrick let out yet another string of curses. His wings snapped forward and around his lowered body in hopes to prevent him from more pain but one or two shots managed to connect to his hands, which was still bare and already covered in a few cuts. Letting out a yell of frustration and pain Carrick closed his eyes and waited till the shots ended only to turn as the bullets slowly changed direction. Who ever this thief was she was stepping over the line, Carrick wasn’t normally a violent person but he was on the tipping point and started to wonder how much trouble he’d be in if he shifted and the proceeded to maul her.

”Get back ‘ere!” Carrick howled as he started to reveal how upset he was starting to get over the entire situation, before he attempted to hide his frustrations (which he failed at miserably) but now he didn’t really care at this point he would get his hands on her one way or another.

Once the barrage of bullets stopped Carrick opened his wings and flapped them once shaking a few twigs and pine needles from his now red spotted wings and then jumped off into the air in an attempt to catch up to the woman again this time he intended on tackling her making it impossible for her to run.

Elizabeth spared no effort to pat herself on the back for how far on her mental checklist she’d come. Not only had she seriously riled Carrick up, but it appeared that she had also gravely mistaken the extreme advantage his wings gave him over her. Red leather boots just didn’t cut it against golden angel wings. Especially since Liz wasn’t used to running long distance, or running much at all. What I wouldn’t give to be part jackrabbit right now, she thought uselessly to herself as she panted.

Every ten or so seconds, as she ate up the grass between her and the mansion, Liz would aim the paintball gun in Carrick’s general direction and shoot at him. She doubted any of them would hit. Actually aiming would take too much time she didn’t have, and again, she didn’t really want to hurt him much. Just discourage him from getting too close. When first unleashing her scarlet salvo against him, it had seemed like the gun had done the trick. It had definitely bought her some time.

However, all of her tricks, traps, surprises, and aces up her sleeves hadn’t done any good in the long run except to get Carrick to come after her. Every time she shot at him, he seemed much closer than before. In the distance, maybe a single football field away, the entrance of the mansion beckoned to her, tantalizing her with impossible fantasies of actually getting away from Carrick and being able to wrap the whole thing up in a pretty bow and work it out according to plan.

Like that was going to happen.

But she wasn’t giving up on it yet. Liz ignored the small fire in her legs and pushed herself harder. Maybe, just maybe, she could get to the mansion’s entrance, or at least a side door. Or, failing that, at least a nice tree to put her back against. She wasn’t too picky. She took one last burst at Carrick before (gently) dropping her gun in the grass. The weapon wasn’t light, and she needed all the strength she could get.

But it seemed in vain. Either she was hallucinating due to a lack of blood flow to her brain, or she was hearing those thundering wings really close. Crap.