I'm stuck in the airport awaiting a flight so may as well finish and post this, yeah? I've never completed anything with chapters before so I would love some reviews to let me know what you think :)
The sun had already risen by the time Gilbert opened his eyes. With a large yawn he stood and stretched out his stiff limbs. It had been a long time since he had slept on the ground he recalled and still stifling yawns shifted back and made his way inside to check on his friend.
Birdie was in the same place he was the night before, the only difference was that his eyes were closed. The plate was where he had left it on the corner of the bed and from what he could tell, it had barely been touched. Quietly as he could manage he reclaimed the plate, but looking up from it met the violet eyes that watched his every move. "Uh… Guten morgen Birdie! Did you sleep well?" The harpy blinked in response. "Well, I'm going to go get breakfast for us, so don't move." Laughing at his own joke, Gilbert took the plate and others from the day before outside.
Crossing the yard towards the gate, Gilbert took in the usual morning activities: keepers shuffling around taking care of their various charges, maintenance and grounds humans preparing the park for visitors and the daily rituals of those who lived behind the fences. Apparently Antonio was having a good morning, as the neighbor could be heard singing Spanish songs rather loudly. Gilbert leaned against the gate watching the happy minotaur prance about his enclosure while waiting for his keeper to arrive.
He didn't have to wait long before the sound of the motorized cart that pulled the wagon of food neared and the human responsible for him hopped off exchanging the usual morning pleasantries while searching for Gilbert's food.
"You didn't like your dinner?" the human commented, eyeing the half-finished meal.
Gilbert snorted. "The food's fine as far as I'm concerned, but you people dumped a room-mate on me and I was trying to share. Any way you can get me some for him? I don't think he likes what I get."
The human raised his hands up in defense. "The decision was made by the higher-ups, not me. If it was up to me I wouldn't have chosen his fate." Gilbert rolled his eyes and the human brought breakfast up to the small window in the gate. "I can try to find him something, but he didn't seem too interested in what the other harpies were given from what I hear. Then again, I really don't know much about them. They're not my department. Just those of you considered more ferocious."
Without turning, Gilbert pointed over his shoulder to Antonio's yard where the minotaur was still singing and leaping around. "Ja, because that over there is ferocious."
"Yeah, well, he can be." The human argued, but gave up and laughing. "I'm off for now unless you need anything else. I'll be back for lunch."
Gilbert grunted in response and returned to his home to eat his meal in peace before visitors arrived. Birdie had listened to him and not moved, and Gilbert sat down at the small table he had to quickly eat. Birdie remained silent and the two watched each other while Gilbert ate half of his meal. It really wasn't enough to satisfy him, but enough to quiet the hunger for now.
He could hear the starts of announcements and the zoo opened for the day and realized how late it had gotten. They preferred if Gilbert spent most of the day outdoors when there were visitors and so he dropped what was left of his food and began to rush around his small room. The harpy on the bed simply watched as Gilbert searched for a cleaner shirt and tried to figure where his toothbrush was last put down. Slowing down slightly, Gilbert cast one last look to his companion. "You're free to use anything in here. I'll be outside. Doubt you will want to go out with all the visitors around. I'll bring lunch when it's here. Tschüß!" Gilbert raised a hand and made an entrance outside to appear to all his fans.
The morning was fairly slow with only a handful of visitors making it far enough into the park to see him. Mornings usually were. Everyone was more excited to go see the dragon than him and he huffed a little at the lack of attention. Still, he found a comfortable piece of grass to nap in and curled up in his wolf form to pass the time quicker.
Lunch arrived in the middle of the day and his keeper, true to his word, had brought a second dish for Birdie. He carried both into his room and put his down on the small table that was one of the few furnishings. From the outside, the room looked like a small cave built into a rock face, but on the inside it mimicked a human home. He had a small table and chair, a small set of drawers, a sink and toilet, and a bed in the corner where there still perched his golden harpy.
Gilbert started to worry that Birdie was going to get stiff from continually sitting in the same position until he noticed a down feather further across the room. He couldn't stop the grin from spreading across his face and moved to place the food on the edge of the bed for the other. "Good to know you left that spot, Birdie." Birdie's eyes widened a fraction at the statement and light violet orbs showed confusion. Gilbert walked back to his meal, pausing to pick up the feather on the floor. He held it up, examining it and watching out of the corner his eye as the harpy grimaced slightly.
"Don't be so upset, Birdie." The shifter placed the feather on the table and quickly ate his meal. "It's good for you to move around some. And I already told you, you are free to use anything in here." Gilbert wasn't sure if anything was getting through to the creature, finishing quickly and leaving once again.
He had no sooner stepped outside then his sensitive hearing picked up on a group heading in his direction. Finally, visitors to recognize the awesome shifter for who he was. His kind was rare to see in zoos as it was. He decided to stroll towards the visitors' edge of the fence. Listening further, he determined it was a school group complete with tired chaperones. Time for the awesome show to begin.
The group approached the wall that separated them from Gilbert's fence, and the excited children leaned against it studying the entire enclosure including the albino that was simply meandering around nearby. He didn't pay them any mind and was studying something on the ground. Finally one of the kids asked loudly, "Why is there a human in there?"
"Why don't you read the sign?" the exhausted teacher said, trying to help one of the others search for something in their backpack and answering the two other questions the poor woman had been asked at the same time. The children pushed around the plaque stuck to the wall and half a dozen of them started trying to read out what it said. Gilbert knew what it said by heart: on the children's version it would say he as a canid shifter found in the forests of East Germany. There was an adult one further along that stated the human term for what he was in fancy latin terminology: Lupis humanamutare. He would love to find the human that gave him that mouthful of a name.
"It says he changes into a wolf, but he isn't right now." Gilbert pretended not to hear, instead busying himself with something else that was closer to the fence. The woman sighed, "I'm sorry, but if he might not be able to. Maybe he's sick." Gilbert twitched. No way had she said that. He gauged the distance between him and the fence while still focusing on something else. In one fluid motion, Gilbert spun and leapt, landing on four paws and let out a lard bark, his nose almost brushing against the wire fencing. The terrified scream of that woman pleased him and he laughed, a loud barking sort of laugh, and made a quick victory lap while the children watched in awe.
Slowing down towards one end he caught the laughter of his neighbor. The bright green eyes sparkled with amusement as he called out, "You are cruel, amigo!" Gilbert barked in response and turned back to find something else to entertain him. He glanced towards the back of the yard, and thought he saw a flicker of movement in the shadows of his room.
The rest of the afternoon was much of the same. Gilbert alternated between naps and proving how awesome he was to visitors. The real problem was how boring everything could be. He saw the same fenced walls that contained him and the yard that rarely changed. There were a few trees scattered around and on hot days he would sit in their shadow panting heavily. The colder days didn't affect him much, but he would watch his neighbor from a warmer climate struggle to handle the chills.
With the close of another day Gilbert rested along the fence and idly chatted with Antonio. The minotaur had seemly forgotten about the exciting happenings of the day before and Gilbert didn't bring up Birdie as they sat together. It wasn't long before the flapping of wings and greetings in French announced the arrival of their third friend. Francis landed swiftly and quickly handed something to Antonio before flying over the fence to give another to Gilbert. The shifter looked down at what had been pressed into his hands, finding a bottle of beer.
"Where did you get this?" Gilbert said, quickly breaking into it and savoring the rare taste.
Francis winked, using the fingers at the ends of his wings to open his own. "I have my ways."
"So you stole it." The bronze harpy merely smiled in response.
"Francis! What's the news?" Antonio called from over the fence.
The latest of news of their zoo was that a vitter had escaped from his enclosure into his neighboring one. Once there, he had become fond of the näkki that was already in there, staying close by and becoming protective when attempts were made to separate the two. Everything had to put on hold when a larger problem arose elsewhere. A child had dropped ice cream into the argopelter pen and the already hyper creature had managed to eat it and was now haphazardly throwing branches and causing large amounts of damage.
Antonio nodded as he listened, taking everything in. After relaying everything, Francis turned back to Gilbert with a glint in his eye. "And how was the rest of your evening yesterday?" He added a wink to the statement that went over Antonio's head and Gilbert frowned.
"He doesn't talk. I slept outside."
"That's it?" Francis asked in shock. "Mon ami, you can't let an opportunity like this go. He may not be as good as me, but as a harpy he's bound to please you in ways you've never known. However, you would have known had you just accepted my offer at any point. It's always available to you~." Francis purred, brushing his fingers along Gilbert's jaw line, a few of the feathers tickling his skin.
"Francis, you sleep with more people in a week than I ever will in a lifetime. You're probably carrying diseases.'
Francis pouted and withdrew his hand, the feathers along his shoulders and wings ruffling in irritation. Antonio was quick to join in to the conversation, offering to spend time with Francis since Gilbert refused. The harpy smiled happily, fluttering over the fence and cooing his thanks. Gilbert snorted at the display.
"Toni, do you even understand what we were talking about?"
The minotaur shrugged. "I know enough."
Gilbert watched as the pair walked away, Francis wrapped a wing around Antonio's shoulders and was leaning against him, whispering something into his ear. Frustrated, Gilbert left in the opposite direction, collected two plates of dinner and marched inside his own home. Birdie seemed to sense his annoyance, and trembled slightly at Gilbert's arrival. Feeling a bit guilty at further scaring an already terrified creature, he tried to breathe deeply and calm himself before offering out dinner to the harpy on his bed and replacing the hardly touched plate from lunch.
Sitting down at his table with his plate and starting in he glanced back over to the bed. Birdie hadn't moved to get his food and they stared at each other for a full minute before Gilbert groaned in frustration. "Look, the silence is killing me. I'm going to have to talk, and even if you are not going to answer me, that's fine. We're both locked in this pen together and we may as well get used to it since you can't fly away yet and they seem to think that by putting you in here I'll eat you." Birdie's eyes widened at bit. "Wait, that doesn't mean I will. And I'm assuming that if they decide to take you back they're just going to throw you in with something that will actually eat you. I don't. They just assume that I do. Really." Well Gilbert, he thought to himself, way to inspire confidence.
Gilbert rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'll give you my word as a shifter that I will not eat you."
Birdie seemed unsure and Gilbert sighed. "Have you never met a shifter before?" Birdie gave a slight shake of his head to indicate he hadn't. "Alright, short version is that if we give our word we are honor bound to keep it." Gilbert shrugged. "It's how our shifter society works."
His words must have held some comfort, as the harpy relaxed a miniscule amount, the knuckles of his fingers returning to a normal color where they had been pressed against his knees. Gilbert returned to his own food, "Now that we got that out-of-the-way, could you eat all of your dinner? I'm sure you want to get out of this place, and if I were like you and able to escape then I would. And to get out of here you're going to need your strength and it's not gourmet here, but it's at least descent."
The harpy seemed to consider this, and while keeping a close eye on Gilbert carefully uncurled from his place and pulled the plate closer examining what had been put on it. "Better." Gilbert approved, finishing what was left of his meal. "I'll leave you again for the evening, Birdie. Guten nacht." He nodded towards his harpy and stepped outside.
Finding the familiar patch of grass from the night before, Gilbert settled himself down for the evening. He hoped he was making progress with Birdie. The harpy needed to escape this place. Time would fix the clipped wings and Gilbert could once again say he was able to fulfill his guardian role. The silver wolf rested his head on his paws in thought. Far off, he could make out the laughter of the argopelter and the shouts of the men trying to contain it. It seemed it was going to be a long night.
Reference for Francis's creature gossip:
Vitter: From Northern Sweeden. They are invisible spirits most of the time and tend to live underground and keep cattle. They will leave humans alone, but when angered can be dangerous, generally causing "accidents" to harm/kill you. They say that people have been known to abandon homes or put detours on roads to avoid an area a Vitter has claimed.
Näkki: Finnish water spirit that lives in any amount of water from puddles to rivers. They have human forms and can rise out of the water. Some legends say they join in dancing in midsummer festivals. Can also pull in and drown small children that are trying to look at their reflections.
Argopelter: American creature lives in the trees of northern forests. They move around very quickly and can be difficult to see, but they like to break off bits of trees and throw them at intruders and they are thrown fast enough it would feel like you were shot if they hit you.
