Hey readers. It's been a while since I have seen this movie, but I found it very enjoyable. I took a particular liking to Tiberius, the predatory, somewhat cynical, yet loyal friend of Gidget. I think hawks, and birds of prey in general, are magnificent creatures. Anyway. I figured Tiberius deserved a nice background story, hence I wrote this fanfiction one-shot. (I whipped it up in a few hours, so fingers crossed that typos are limitedly present.)
The Origin of Tiberius the Hawk
*Tap, tap, tap*
The pounding against the bars of the cage stirred the eyelids of the little hawk into action. First blinkingly, adjusting to the light, then they looked curiously at the relatively enormous head of the human child that was poking at him. The kid stared back, equally intrigued by the brown chick that sat on a stick in the middle of the cage. Neither of them knew anything about the other and this fuelled the drive to gaze at each other in silence. A silence rudely interrupted by the child's mother.
"Jimmy! Get away from that thing."
"But mom, he looks funny!" The kid whined.
"We're not getting you such a murderous beast! Here, let's have a look at those hamsters over there."
The petit hawk sighed as the kid was dragged off by his mother and upon reaching the rodent section, immediately fell in love with them. With a clear disappointment in his eyes, he witnessed the pair leaving with a guinea pig. This was his life ever since he was picked up and brought to this pet store last year. He had fallen out of his nest and a pair of giants had found and dropped him off here. Everyone that came here regarded him with suspicion. Some of the male kids sometimes showed a bit of interest in him, but it never got any further than that.
"Failed again, hunh?"
His neighbours laughed at him. They were a pair of budgerigars who had been here as of last week. They had been nothing but horrible to him.
"Of course not, who would want him?" The second bullied.
The hawk flew up and slammed its talons in the side of his cage, slightly spooking the two budgies that made fun of him. But this was only for a second.
"If there wasn't a fence between us, I'd peck your eyes out." The hawk threatened.
"See, that's why you have no friends."
"Yea. You're a bad bird."
"Shut up. I'm not a bad bird!"
"You're a bááád bird. A bad, bad bird. You're a bááád bird…" The budgies sang.
He turned his back on them, knowing they would stop soon. He hated them almost as much as he envied them. Their kind was appreciated and adored by humans, in contrast to his own. Nobody liked killer hawks. Not a day went by that he wished he hadn't been born a parakeet. Or a macaw. Or maybe be a dog. They always received love, care and cuddles. The chicklet didn't know love. He didn't know family. He didn't even know his own name. Even the owner of the shop treated him with readable fear on his face. Everyone despised him. And the sign on his cage reading: 'Careful, I bite' surely didn't help. He hung his head as a tear sprang from the corner of his eye.
Behind him, the entry bell jingled and a pair of good mornings was exchanged. The footsteps moved hesitantly through the aisle in which his cage was positioned. The chick didn't even turn around. They weren't here for him anyway. The footsteps ceased and he heard a whistle. He raised his head as he heard it again.
"Are you sure he's healthy?" A creaky voice spoke.
"I believe so, yea." The owner replied from a distance.
The hawk turned around and looked straight into a big pair of glasses. Behind the two walls of semi-reflective glass, blueish irises glared at him. They spooked him and instinctively, he squeaked softly.
"He's gorgeous." The man behind the spectacles said, "how much for him?"
The owner of the pet store walked over to the cage and gave the hawk a indistinct look.
"Errr, is 200 bucks okay?"
"That's really cheap for a bird of prey. Even a little one."
"Look man, I'm just glad to see him go. All he does is eat my profits with all that meat. If you got a license to own falcons, I'd be happy to sell him to you for a mere 200 dollars."
The bald elder looked again at the him through the iron bars. The tiny animal had been following the conversation as best he could and stared right back. Deep in him, a fear crawled up from his gut to his chest. This was mostly the moment were people turned their backs on him.
"It's a red-tailed hawk actually."
Then the two humans left, and all the hope faded away again. The fact that this man had gotten further than any other in his history at the pet store, yet even he eventually backed away. Nobody wanted him.
Suddenly, the old man reappeared in front of him. And then, the moment he had waited for had finally arrived.
"Come on, little guy. Let's go home."
.
When the red curtain was removed from his cage, the light stung his eyes. For the past three hours he had been blind to his surroundings and all he had done was wonder. Wonder why the man had picked him. Now he found himself to be in an apartment of some sort. His cage stood on a basic, wooden table; a potted plant on a hand-knitted doyley next to him. The walls were grey of colour and an occasional photograph was all that decorated them. In one of the pictures, he saw a black and white photograph of young boy with a cap and a striped shirt. He wore a glove with on top of it a Harris's Hawk. The boy seemed overjoyed. In the adjacent picture, a middle-aged man in a green overall held a piece of paper in one hand and a juvenile Steller's sea-eagle on a glove in the other.
"Here we are."
The old man came walking out of the kitchen with a plate of meat. He placed it on the table and went to retrieve something from a cupboard that stood against the wall. The petit hawk followed his every move, even though he became slightly distracted by the scent of the meat. The man returned with a cage standard and placed it in the middle of the room. He picked up the cage with a small groan and lifted it onto the standard. Then he placed a chair next to it and sat down with the meat platter on his lap.
With a pair of tweezers, he stuck the first piece through the bars and held it in front of his bird. Suspicious at first, the chicklet snatched the meat and ate it with a grateful look. The elder continued to feed him the rest of the food.
"There. Good boy."
Suddenly, the man opened the door of the cage. The bird turned his head to observe what was happening, for this had never happened before. The man's hand got closer and closer. Slowly and cautiously. Then it touched him. On the stomach.
The hawk screeched in response. The man was startled and pulled back. But then he did it again. Gently, he stroked the feathers on the chest and stomach. It felt strange, yet comforting. Never in his life had the chick been petted. For all he knew, he hadn't deserved it. He was despised by all, was he not? He looked at his owner curiously.
"There, good Tiberius. Do you mind if I name you Tiberius?"
"Tiberius. So that's my name!" He replied.
The man could not understand, though recognized no denial. He smiled caringly.
"Okay then." He continued to caress the chick's plumage, "You're a beautiful bird, you know that?"
Tiberius tilted his head again. In the past hour, this man had given him more affection and kindness than he had had in his entire life. And over the next years, that never ceased. Every day, the old man fed him, rubbed his feathers, and allowed him to fly an hour from the top of the building. His life was fantastic. But this paradise wouldn't last forever. And on one fateful afternoon, everything changed.
.
Tiberius had just flown above New York's sky scrapers for over an hour and he rested his wings after descending onto his owner's leather glove. He had learned that his feet were too sharp too land anywhere else. A tough lesson that had been imprinted after he had unintentionally wounded the human he held dear. They were on their way down the stairs when suddenly, his owner lost his footing. The man tumbled forward and instinctively, Tiberius flew up and landed on a nearby railing.
Panicked and not knowing what to do, Tiberius screeched for help. But nobody came.
He glided down the staircase and tried again at the next floor. It worked. Someone opened the door and he soared out into the hallway.
"Help. My owner is hurt!"
However, Tiberius's frightening appearance caused the people to flee. Eventually, he landed near the door to the staircase. He was tired of calling and flying. But he had to go on. His owner was still in trouble. He had to…
*whoosh*
A black cloth darkened his world. Voices started to echo around him.
"Where did he come from?"
"It attacked my son!"
"Who would want such a savage monster?"
"I think he belongs to the old man on the fifth floor."
Not long after, he felt a leather glove against his feet. The glove! His owner was okay! He stepped onto it. He screeched, asking for the hood to be removed. He got no reply. What was going on?
"Over here!" A faint voice called. "There's an old man here that needs help!"
.
After a week alone in a day-care, Tiberius was finally reunited with his owner, who had come to pick him up. Yet there was something amiss. The man used a cane now to move around and seemed to walk even slower than before. They also travelled by a cab and not in their own car. When they took the lift at the apartment building, Tiberius was certain. The fall had taken away his owner's mobility. Without the cane, he wouldn't be able to move around and for that reason he could no longer walk stairs, nor drive a car. And the disappointment didn't end there.
When they arrived at the roof of the building, Tiberius was brought to the old shed that belonged was placed there for him. After giving him a mouse to eat, his owner tethered him with a small chain. This he had never done before. Tiberius looked quizzically from the chain to his owner.
"I'm sorry old friend. But I'm no longer allowed to have you in my apartment."
A true emotional pain laced the man's speech as he stroked the hawk's chest.
"The other people have complained that you are too dangerous for their kids and the other pets." A smile crept on his face, "They're not wrong, but you can't help it. You were born with killer instincts."
"Killer instincts? Is that why I like to eat other animals?"
The man waited for him to finish eating and then pulled a cap over his head.
"I'm sorry, Tiberius. I will visit again soon."
And even though the man frequently came to him on the roof and let him roam the skies, the feeling was not the same. Sure the bird was overjoyed each time the man returned, but in between those meetings, his life was dark and lonely. The only company he had, were occasional mice that wandered into his lair and the pigeons that sat on his shed. But they were far from nice to him. The mice mocked him, and the pigeons ignored him when he talked to them. And those animals set aside, there was nobody.
All those hours in darkness, occasionally backed up by the clattering sound of the rain on the roof, reminded him of his solitude. And this solitude made him bitter and selfish. He didn't need anyone. They were nothing but food to him anyway. He was the one with killer instincts. And with this in mind, he grew more emotionally distant from other animals.
He used his cunning to rid himself of the mice. As they had always taunted him, he had dared them to come closer, pretending to be more incapacitated than he truly was. The tiny fools always bought it. As for some of the pigeons. They were easily fooled when he said that 'he didn't know what to do with all the food he had'. Those voracious flyers simply couldn't resist coming into the shed.
What Tiberius didn't know, was that his life was once again about to take a change for the better, when a soft female voice stirred him from his afternoon slumber.
"Where are you Max…" the voice sighed.
"Looks like you could use a little help." He spoke kindly.
"Who is that, who said that?"
"Over here, in this dark and foreboding shed." He continued.
With a soft toddle, the newly arrived victim headed for the door of his cage.
"Uh. Hello?"
"I can see for miles. If you let me out, I'll find your friend."
"Wow really? Aw, you're so sweet."
A flashback from his owner popped into his head.
"You're a sweet bird, Tiberius, you know that?"
He shook his feathers and refocussed on the task at hand.
"You're sweet too." He replied.
"Oh-ho-ho, thanks stranger."
"But not too sweet. There's also a salty, gamey thing going on." He added, trying to sound not to suspiciously friendly.
"Yea, that's me. C'mon, let's get you out of that shed."
He heard the door unlock. Apparently, this animal was a lot larger than the occasional rodent that he lured inside. He was probably going to need his eyes for this. But for that, he first needed to trick his victim into removing his hood.
"Yea, that's it. Just step over the pile of bones."
"Pile 'a bones. Okay, will do." The female heaved a sigh. "I sure hope Max is okay."
Again that caring undertone that he had only ever heard in his owner's voice. It had him wonder who he was dealing with. Not that it mattered. She would soon be nothing more than a memory and a full stomach.
"You're a very thoughtful food."
He mentally slapped himself for this slip of the tongue.
"Food? I didn't say that, I said friend. Heh! I meant food, fe-friend. You know what I meant."
"I'm sure lucky I found you, uh…?"
The bird leapt forward.
"Tiberius. And yes, this is a very good thing for you, this whole… meeting me thing. Take of my hood." He said, bowing.
The unsuspecting interlocutor took away the hood and Tiberius opened his eyes. Opposite him stood a small, white Pomeranian with a pink bow on her head. Yes, she was a manageable size for him to take down. This would be an easy kill. He jumped up and flew after her. She realized what was going on just in time to escape through the small door. Tiberius landed with his claws in the doorframe and bit at the runaway dog. He tasted fur and shampoo. She was properly groomed, that was good. He was convinced that the rats he usually caught didn't even know what hygiene meant.
He proceeded his chase. He got closer and closer. Just a bit more. She was but an inch away. Just one more flap of his wings and then…
*Twang*
A strong grip on his paw stopped him in his tracks and had him fall onto the ground.
"Ack! The chain. Aw." He scolded him for his own forgetfulness.
"OH! You tried to EAT ME?!" The dog replied angry.
"I'm sorry." He faked an apology.
"You should be sorry! You deserve to be locked up. You're a bad, bad bird."
Another flashback popped into his mind. This time of the budgies that had sung what a bad bird he was on a daily basis. It couldn't be a coincidence that this dog said the exact same thing. He also remembered the past years in the shed. He had maimed and eaten everyone he ever met there. Sure, some of them had been mean to him, like the mice, yet he had also lured in many animals that were simply gullible. What if he really was a bad bird?
No. He was at the top of the food chain. They, this dog included, were nothing but food to him. He had to try and lure her in again.
"I can't help it! I was born with killer instincts!" He replied in attempt to reconcile.
His owner had said it to him once and he hoped that she, as a dog, would accept this as a reason for his behaviour. She didn't.
"That is just no excuse!"
Realizing that this was probably true, Tiberius hung his wings and started to cry.
"You're right. Even for a predator I'm selfish. I'm a selfish predator. It's no wonder I have no friends. Nobody! I'm just hopeless..."
He cried harder to support his played remorse, even summoning a few tears.
"Oh don't… There is no need to cry. I'm sorry that I yelled at you before."
"Please take off the chain." He asked, limping forward on one leg, "This time I'll help you, I promise."
She looked at him with suspicion.
"Tiberius. This is gonna sound completely horrible, but… uh… I don't fully trust you."
He resumed his sorrowful whimpering.
"Oh, no, no, no. But… I guess everyone deserves a second chance. And you are just a lonely old bird… and you do have weird manners because you live in weird shed on a roof."
The hawk ceased his weeping. What she said was actually true. He was quite lonely up here. And as for the shed. It was indeed a little weird looking.
"So I'll tell you what. If you find Max…"
Yes. It appeared he had won her over. Soon he would be able to-
"…I'll be your best friend."
"Best friend?" He uttered astonished, "You and me?"
She wanted to be his best friend? Tiberius had never had any friends, nor had anyone ever wanted to be that with him. Just imagine all the things they could do together. We could fly together. Skydive together. Kill together. I had never had somebody to share all those activities with. Would she truly want that?
"That sounds nice. Let's do this!"
She leaned forward on unclipped the chain. I glanced at her again. She did look appetizing and she was within reach. No! I couldn't. She had without any insurance trusted me and set me loose. Nobody had ever had had so much faith in me before. She was my friend. My best friend! I couldn't eat her, not anymore. I had to help her find this other guy. Because helping one another is what I believe friends do. I flew up and landed on a metal exhaust of some kind. Then I turned back to her. She gazed at me expectantly.
"So what does this Max look like?"
Well, you know the rest ;). Hope you liked it. Kind Regards,