Read Wings for Free Online

Masklin.
    "With all those humans in there?"
    "They'll be too busy to notice us. Right, Thing?"
    "Right."
    There is a place so far up there is no down. A little lower, a white dart seared across the top of the sky, outrunning the night, overtaking the sun, crossing in a few hours an ocean that was once the edge of the world.
    Masklin lowered himself carefully to the floor and crept forward. The humans weren't even looking in his direction.
    I hope the Thing really knows how to drive this plane, he thought.
    He sidled along toward the panels where, with any luck, Angalo was hiding.
    This wasn't right. He hated being exposed like this. Of course, it had probably been worse in the days when he used to have to hunt alone. If anything had caught him then, he would never have known it. He'd have been a mouthful. Whereas no one knew what humans would do to a nome if they caught one.
    He darted into the blessed shadows.
    "Angalo!" he whispered.
    After a while a voice from behind the wiring said, "Who is it?" Masklin straightened up.
    "How many guesses do you want?" he said in his normal voice.
    Angalo dropped down.
    "They chased me!" he said. "And one of them stuck its arm -" "I know. Come on, while they're busy."
    "What's happening?" said Angalo as they hurried out into the light.
    "The Thing is flying us."
    "How? It's got no arms. It can't change gears or anything -"
    "Apparently it's being bossy to the computers that do all that. Come on."
    "I looked out the window," bubbled Angalo. "There's sky all over the place!"
    "Don't remind me," said Masklin.
    "Let me just have one more look -" Angalo began.
    "Listen, Gurder's waiting for us and we don't want any more trouble -"
    "But this is better than any truck -"
    There was a strangled kind of noise.
    The nomes looked up.
    One of the humans was watching them. Its mouth was open and it had an expression on its face of someone who is going to have a lot of difficulty explaining what they have just seen, especially to themselves.
    The human was already getting to its feet. Angalo and Masklin looked at one another. "Run!" they shouted.
    Gurder was lurking suspiciously in a patch of shadow by the door when they came past, arms and legs going like pistons. He caught up the skirts of his robe and scurried after them.
    "What's happening! What's happening?"
    "There's a human after us!"
    "Don't leave me behind! Don't leave me behind!"
    Masklin was just ahead of the other two as they raced up the aisle between the rows of humans, who paid no attention at all to three tiny blurs running between the seats.
    "We shouldn't have... stood around... looking!" Masklin gasped.
    "We might... never... have a chance... like that again!" panted Angalo.
    "You're right!" The floor tilted slightly.
    "Thing! What are you doing!"
    "Creating a distraction."
    "Don't! Everyone this way!" Masklin darted between two seats, around a pair of giant shoes, and threw himself flat on the carpet. The others hurled themselves down behind him.
    Two huge human feet were a few inches away from them.
    Masklin pulled the Thing up close to his face.
    "Let them have their airplane back!" he said.
    "I was hoping to be allowed to land it," said the Thing. Even though its voice was always flat and expressionless, Masklin still thought that it sounded wistful.
    "Do you know how to land one of these things?" said Masklin.
    "I should like the opportunity to learn -"
    "Let them have it back right now!" There was a faint lurch and a change in the pattern of the lights on the Thing's surface. Masklin breathed out.
    "Now, will everyone act sensibly for five minutes?" he said.
    "Sorry, Masklin," said Angalo. He tried to look apologetic, but it didn't work. Masklin recognised the wide-eyed, slightly mad smile of someone very nearly in their own personal heaven. "It was just that... do you know it's even blue below us? It's like there's no ground down there at all! And -"
    "If the Thing tries any more flying lessons we might all find out if that's