The main house on the property was about a hundred feet from the road. It was actually surprisingly decent considering the state of everything else on the property. The typical rancher was made of wood, and looked like it needed a new coat of paint, but the bones of the house were obviously in good condition. The girl who had brought Lucy in was looking worriedly out one of the windows. I felt sorry for the girl, and I hoped she would manage to get out of there soon.
Swooping around the house, I almost stopped in my tracks–well, whatever the flying equivalent was–when I saw what was on the back veranda. Chained to a post, lying in the sun was an actual, honest-to-God tiger. It was fully grown, like an absolutely huge kitty, but I knew all too well that wasn’t the case at all. Tigers were wild animals, and if it wanted to, I knew the tiger could cause a lot of damage.
I did another circle around the house just to be sure, but yup, the next time I came around the tiger was still there. It was real. Deciding I needed to know if there were other exotic animals around, I made my way toward a barn about two hundred feet behind the main house. A tiny gap in the wood at the top was the perfect entrance, and I floated elegantly to it, landing on a shaky piece of wood.
Looking down into the barn, I was absolutely amazed.
Most of the barn had been converted into a kind of home for amphibians. I recognized a good handful of them from having seen them in textbooks back in veterinary schooclass="underline" Chinese striped turtles, South American red footed tortoises, Jacksons chameleons and more. Above them, in the rest of the barn, were a number of parrots. I recognized two black cockatoos–an endangered species from Australia–and red parakeets. There was even a kea, a New Zealand mountain parrot.
“Oh my God,” I couldn’t help but say to myself.
“Oh look, Cherie, we have a visitor,” one of the cockatoos said to the other, noticing me. “Welcome, bird native to this land. What brings you to our humble corner of the world today?”
“I’m actually a human, but a human with magical powers who’s taken on a bird form. I’m a veterinarian in the human world, and I was brought a giraffe that came from this property. Do you know anything about that?”
“But of course, you must mean Lucy,” the cockatoo named Cherie told me. “Such a lovely creature, do you know what has happened to her? The young woman, Gemma, came down the other day and took her away, and we haven’t seen her since. I do hope she’s all right. The Bad Man was outraged when he noticed she was gone; he ranted and raved for hours about robbers, and I was worried he would take out his anger on us.”
“She’s fine,” I told the birds. “She’s living with me right now, Gemma was worried something bad might happen to Lucy, so she took her away.”
“What a bright young woman. She’s very thoughtful, she brings us treats when she can. Lucy was let out into the yard about a week ago; she wasn’t eating from the ground and The Bad Man didn’t want her starving to death, so he let her into the yard. Unfortunately, Pericot almost got off his chain in his attempt to hunt her. That must have been what convinced Gemma to take Lucy,” Cherie said.
“Pericot is the tiger?” I asked.
“Yes, the poor creature. Lucy got quite the fright but I still feel awful for poor Pericot. He should be living free, not living on a veranda.”
“Well, Coolidge, it isn’t as though our lives are particularly free either,” Cherie told the other cockatoo.
“While you are correct, Cherie, we at least have the luxury of being able to spread our wings and fly, be it only in this barn or not.”
“Ugh, Coolidge, you’re such an optimist. Our lives in here are awful. There is no stimulation whatsoever. I long to spread my wings and fly free over the mountains of my homeland once more.” My heart ached for the poor kea, who was so obviously miserable.
“What is the point of looking sadly upon our lives, Hehu? These are the lives we have been destined to live, why not look favorably upon them?” Coolidge asked.
“Have you ever tried escaping?” I asked.
“Oh dearie me, yes,” Cherie replied. “However, there is a double door system, if you look to the entrance. And sadly, the hole through which you entered is too small for us to exit from.”
I looked down at the barn door. Sure enough, there was a small chicken wire enclosure built around the door. Whoever entered the barn would come in, close the door to the barn, and then open the door of the chicken wire enclosure, so there was never any exit for the birds. They were permanently imprisoned here.
“And Gemma hasn’t released you?”
“Oh, she would like to, but the poor thing is terrified of her father. If it wasn’t for Lucy being in very real danger, I think she would have left her here as well. We don’t blame the poor girl, however. She does her best for us,” Cherie said.
“She even brings us treats when she can, she’s the one good thing about this place,” Hehu said quietly.
“Listen, I’m going to go back and meet up with my friend again. I promise, I’m going to be back, and I’m going to make sure you get to go back to where you three came from, ok?” I said. Suddenly, I felt a twist in my stomach. Oh no. I’d gotten so carried away talking to the birds that I hadn’t realized the hour was up. I was turning back into a human.
Chapter 12
Unfortunately, the change back to human form was so rapid I didn’t have the chance to fly off from my perch, about twenty feet up. I felt myself plummeting toward the ground, and I landed in a pile of hay with a cry. A shooting pain coursed up my right hand, and I grabbed it with my left with a yelp.
“Are you all right?” I heard Coolidge ask. “I suppose this proves you weren’t lying about being a magical human.”
“I’m fine, I think,” I said, forcing myself to my feet. Luckily, my legs were completely fine. There was only one problem: with my right hand injured, I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to be able to do any magic. I could try with my left, but magic worked a little bit like writing: it was way, way easier to do with your good hand, and I knew if I tried anything more complicated than an unlocking spell with my left, it wouldn’t go well.
To test my right hand I pointed at my shoes. “Color tranfiguria caeruleus,” I said, trying to change them from black to blue. Nothing happened. Sure enough, my magic wasn’t going to work until my hand healed.
“I’m going to guess that wasn’t what you were trying to do,” Hehu said, and I gave the kea a wry smile.
“Good guess. I’m just going to have to get out of here the old fashioned way.”
“Good, you’re making too much shade,” one of the iguanas said from near my feet. I had landed directly in the large pen the amphibians shared, although luckily there had been none resting on the pile of hay I’d fallen off.
“Sorry, I’ll be out of your hair in a minute. Would you all like to escape as well?” I asked. After all, the amphibians hadn’t joined the conversation I’d had with the parrots, and I thought perhaps they’d like the wild.
“Absolutely not,” one of the turtles replied. “It’s warm here, and moving is just so much effort.”
The rest of the reptiles and amphibians murmured their assent.
“Ok,” I told them. “Let me get out of your hair.” I climbed out of the enclosure and into the narrow area in the middle of the barn that separated the amphibians’ dens and the stall that would have been Lucy’s, before Gemma brought her to me.
I looked up at the parrots. “All right, I’m going to open both doors and let you go. My car is parked a few blocks from here, it’s a blue Mazda 3. If you can find it, there should be a girl who has black hair with a streak of purple in it waiting for me. She won’t be able to speak to you, but she will probably recognize you. Stay with her, no matter what. If for whatever reason you can’t find the car, make your way to Willow Bay. The birds there can tell you which house is mine. She might also be parked near the road in front of this place, especially since I was supposed to be back at the car a few minutes ago.”