That morning, unlike all other Thursday until then, when the door opened, it wasn't professor Tobias the one who walked in. Instead, a middle aged woman did. She seemed to be in her early thirties and was wearing a lab coat and, as Jacob pointed out, she was indeed wearing shoes. She was wearing glasses, and had her red hair in a ponytail. That day there were only about ten students in class, the rest having decided they didn't really want to spend a wonderful Thursday morning listening to a boy talk about birds. But the few students who were actually there were all focused on this new person.
"Maybe she's here to tell us that the Tobias dude was never actually our teacher" Jacob said. Alex smiled, although he didn't think that was the case.
"Hello everyone, my name is Sarah" the girl said. "I am Tobias' assistant, and I will be the one teaching today"
"What has happened to him?" the same girl who had asked wether it was a joke the first day asked. Alex thought her name was Stephanie, but he wasn't sure. Maybe it was Rachel. Yeah, Rachel, like the Animorph.
"He's just busy at the moment, but he will continue with the classes tomorrow. Today is going to be a special class. You over there, what's your name?" she said, looking at Alex. "Alex", he responded. "Ok Alex, could you open the window?". Alex did as he was told, and before he had completely opened the window, a bird flew in and landed on the screen projector. It was a magnificent red tailed hawk, with beautiful feathers and fierce, brown eyes. The bird looked at each of the students, and then at Sarah.
"As you can probably tell, this is a red tailed hawk." Sarah said. "Today we will be studying this particular bird, which is one of North America's largest hawks. Now, can anyone tell me what genus it belongs to?"
The class remain silent, not wanting to risk getting it wrong. The only noise came from Jacob, who was, as usually, building something out of paper. "Anyone? How about you, Alex?" Sarah continued. "Uhm... is it Accipiter?" Alex answered. "Close, but no. The red tailed hawk's scientific name is Buteo jamaicensis. The birds in the Buteu genus, while also called hawks, are quite different to those in the Accipiter genus. The easiest way to differenciate them is their size, with Buteo being larger. They also behave differently, with Accipiter flapping more, while Buton more usually use thermals to gain altitude, and then glide. There is also a big difference in the wings, with Buton's being much wider and complex". As she said that, the hawk extended its wings, allowing the students to see their size and complexity. It was truly a magnificent specimen. Its feathers were very well taken care of, and it didn't have any scars, or at least none that Alex could see. In addition to that, it seemed very calm to be in a closed space with relatively many people, so Alex thought it had probably been raised in captivity. He wasn't very happy with that, as he had chosen the university specifically because of its fame of treating well animals, but he reasoned it had probably been rescued from somewhere else and couldn't be released back into the wild, for whatever reason.
"Now everyone, please get close. We are going to take a closer look at the hawk so you can see all of its characteristics, Now, these feathers here at the edge are called "remiges". They are used for control during the flight, and..." Sarah continued. For the next hour, the class took notes, except for Jacob, who was working on another paper sculpture. Sarah explained what the different feathers were used for, how the talons were kept sharp, and in general everything about red tailed hawks. As she explained, the hawk extended its wings, turned around, or moved, to allow all of the students to see exactly what the teacher was talking about.
Finally, as the class came to an end, Sarah asked everyone to pay attention, and all of the students (except Jacob who was still working on what seemed to be a wrinkled piece of paper) came closer. "The red tailed hawk's cry has several uses. It can be a warning to other birds in the area, or it can be a mating call, it depends on the context. It is an important part of this bird's life, as it is one of the few ways of communicating it has. Now we are going to listen to it." she said. As she did, the hawk let out a piercing scream: "Tseeeeeer!". To Alex, that scream sounded like liberty, like freedom, but it also sounded sad. Like the freedom it celebrated had come at the cost of loosing everything that mattered, and that made the liberty void, empty.
Once the class was finished, the bird flapped its wings and took off, flying out the window it had come through. Alex followed it with his sight until it flew into the nearby treeline, where it was hidden by the shadows of the forest.
Alex and Jacob lived relatively close to each other, so they both took the same bus. They didn't usually talk much, but today had been an exciting day, with the opportunity to examine a live specimen, so they were more talkative than usual."Hey Jacob, did you finish that paper thing you were working on in class?" "I totally did dude! Look at it!" Jacob responded, pulling out his work. It was an impressively realistic red tailed hawk, made with nothing than a piece of paper folded many times. It was extremely detailed. Every feather was represented, the talons were sharp, and he had even managed to capture the intensity of the hawk's gaze. "Wow"-Alex said-" and here I thought you were not paying attention. Are you going to use it for studying? It is truly impressive.". "Nah dude, once I have done one I can remember the shape, so it is the act of making it that really helps me study." Jacob responded. "Hang on"-Alex interrupted him-"I think you made a mistake here. Let me look at my notes-yes, see? This is different to how Sarah explained it." "Nah dude, your notes are wrong. The bird looked exactly like this. Wanna bet anything?". "Five dollars says it is how my notes say it is!" Alex exclaimed. "Done dude! Let's ask professor Tobias tomorrow, before class, and we can settle it then."
A/N I am really not sure how well I'm doing. I have 0 idea about birds, so if you do know about birds and I make a mistake somether, you can either tell me, so I can fix it, or just assume that in this animorphs universe everything is exactly the way I describe it. Anyways, I will try to upload about once a week and try to keep my chapters over 1000 words. Next episode should start getting interesting, hope you enjoy!
