"Excuse me?" she said, very politely.

Mordecai jumped a little again, making the bird flap his wings to regain balance,

"Shit!" he turned to look and when he saw it was her his face flushed red, "Oh, uh hello

there miss."

"Oh my lord," Selene's eye was fixed on the bird, "What is your bird, sir? He is a

fantastic specimen!" .

"Oh, Bloodwing?" Mordecai asked, "He's my pet."

"A Bloodwing?!" she got even more excited, "oh my goodness, I have only heard

stories and now I find a domesticated specimen? This is fantastic! He is so beautiful!"

Bloodwng's feathers poofed at his neck as he cocked his head at her. Mordecai

looked at Roland and Marcus nervously. They were trying not to laugh.

"oh hes so beautiful!" she continued to freak over the bird, who seemed to be

soaking up all the attention happily. Selene paused and then turned bright red. "Heh,

I'm so sorry, sir, you must take me for a fool…"

"Oh, no," Mordecai started to snap out of it, "I'm very glad you like my pet."

"My name is Selene. I am a biologist here to study the fauna on Pandora. I have

never been able to find a bloodwing before! They are endangered if I am not mistaken."

"Yes, ma'am," he tried to start talking in a more swooning voice, making Roland

snicker a little, "would you like to see him?"

"OH COULD I?" Selene perked up and her eye almost seemed to pop open

when he offered.

Mordecai smiled at her as he bent down, reaching his arm out as if to pass

Bloodwing over to her. The large raptor pecked gently at Selene's sholder and stepped

over, smelling her and inspecting her. Mordecai watched her in awe as his bird took to

the new girl like an old friend; plooming his feathers and chirpping softly as she gently

stroked his leathery wings while she studied him. She was smiling ear to ear and

mumbling to herself about little details of the bird.

Marcus whispered to Roland, "I think we might have lost him, huh?" Roland

grinned and nodded a little. The hunter's eyes were locked on the scientist. They

decided to scoot away while Mordecai was distracted.

"He is such an amazing animal," Selene looked away from the bird and to

Mordecai. "I would love to take samples from him if it was okay."

Mordecai looked at her a little confused, "Samples?"

"Yes, like blood or even a few feathers or skin scrapings. Anything I can get his

DNA from." She inspected his beak briefly, "and if I can get a few photographs of him as

well."

"Oh, I would not mind at all!" Bloodwing swooped back up onto his master's

shoulder. "You wouldn't mind that either, would you Blood?" Bloodwing cawed happily

in reply.

"Excellent!" Selene, clapped her hands together and laced her fingers together

under her chin, "If you two could come back to my base with me when you are able. All

my equipment is there."

"Of course!" Mordecai laughed, "How's tomorrow? The guys and I are gunna be

in fyrestone for a bit between missions."

"Works for me! Your Bloodwing is my only actual work now." Selene wrote

down her frequency on a piece of paper. "Here is my radio frequency if you need to

contact me. Thank you so much, you have no idea how much help this is to me!" Selene

shook Mordecai's hand and after exchanging farewells she turned and made her way to

the town's gate.

"Come on, googly eyes!" Roland yelled at Mordecai, "We got work to do!"