Sparhawk
Active Member
Fellow
It was a Sunday morning. That was about all Emily could say for the morning. The weather was not hot nor cold nor was it windy, it was not even interesting; like that day when the sun had been shining while it had been pouring with rain and thunder and lightning were rumbling and just when you thought that nothing more could happen, you see that a rainbow had been thrown in for good measure. She was sitting at home hoping that something would happen. Just then the phone rang. Emily stood up from the chair that she was sitting in by the window and walked over to the phone. "Hello?" she said when she had put the phone to her ear.
“Hi Emily! It is me Mary! I have a big surprise for you! Now you will be shocked by what I say next, I bought a bird for you!” Emily stood by the phone in shock. Finally she managed to say in a choked voice,
"What? Did I just hear you say that you bought a bird? for me?" There was silence on the other end of the phone, then Mary said,
“Yes, he was such a dear looking thing and the man in the shop said that he was looking for a home because the people that he had belonged to did not want him any more. The man in the shop would have kept him but he couldn't as he was allergic to birds which; is odd for a pet shop owner. I just could not leave the poor dear there all alone. So I said ‘Hey I may not be a great animal person but I do know someone that is" He said that was great so he helped me get all of the paper work sorted, we packed him up and he is now on his way to you. If I fax through to you all the papers that he needs, all you have to do is go pick him up. The man said his name is Fellow, he really is a dear.”
Now what could she do? Mary had gotten a bird and it was on its way here already with nobody to care for it. So with a sigh she said.
"OK I will do it, Send those papers through to me and tell me where and when to pick the bird up."
And so an hour later Emily found herself driving to the airport to pick up the bird that Mary had bought for her, whom Mary had given the odd name of Fellow. Although Fellow was only going to get here that afternoon, there was so much that she had to do and sort out that she had to be at the airport that morning.
It was a long drive to the airport from her house and she had stopped by a pet food store and had bought a big bag of bird food. It was well into the morning when she pulled the car into a parking bay. Picking up the paper work that she had put next her on the passenger seat, Emily climbed out of her car and after locking the car door, walked towards the, "Animal Arrivals" building.
The building was huge her foot steps echoed emptily around her as she walked over to the front desk. "Hello, I am here to pick up a bird that is flying in later today." The man at the desk looked up at her and then pointed to another door and said "That's where you need to go to sort that stuff out. Emily looked over to where he was pointing, there was a small door off to the side and a long way to the back, there was a sign on the door that said, "New Arrivals and Paperwork"
Seeing the sign Emily hoped that it was just someone with a sense of humour and not the mountains of paperwork that it seemed to imply by its very existence. With papers in hand Emily walked to the door and then walked into a world of paper and things to sign. It was hours later that she staggered out of that small office under the weight of all of the papers that she was carrying, with a superhuman human effort she managed not to drop any of the forms that she was carrying as she made her way to the front desk. The papers made a thump as she dropped them onto the desk.
"Is every thing there?" The man asked as he stood up.
"They should be unless I dropped one on the way here." Emily replied.
The man reached for the first forum and said, "Well let us just check...." So another hour went past as she waited for him to sort out and check every piece of paper. By the end of the pile Emily was starting to lose her patience. "Well it all seems to be in order, with nothing missing. what time did you say the bird that you are here to collect is supposed to arrive?" Emily took a beep breath and looked at her arm, she had written all of the important stuff that she had needed to know on her arm so that she could not lose or forget any of it.
"Well, according to this he is suppose to arrive at two o'clock today."
"Well then I shall send the paperwork through and you came go and sit in the waiting room. As soon as your bird arrives you will be told and you will be able to take it home." And with that he started to put all of the piles of paper into folders and the folder onto what looked like a trolley only it wasn't. Emily paused hoping that he would say where this waiting room was but he did not.
"Well can you tell me where the waiting room is?" She asked The man stopped filing and looked up at her and said,
"What? Oh! Yes! it is just through that door over there." He pointed to a door set across from the his desk. Emily nodded and said,
"Thank you." Emily was just about to start towards the waiting room when the man said,
"Wait I almost forgot, you will be needing these papers." Emily turned around to face him again and saw that he was holding out a folder stuffed to the point of tearing at the seam's with paper. Emily reached out and took the folder and said weakly
"Thank you"
The door to the waiting room swung open and and Emily stepped into a world of yellow. Everything was of different shades of yellow, the chairs were of a rather ill shade of mustard while the walls were butter yellow with dark gold fringing. Emily stood in the door way and stared at the room for a long moment and only noticed that she was not the only one in the room when an old man that was sitting in one of the mustard chairs a sort distance away from her said. "It is a bit of a shock to the old eyes isn't it? You know they haven't changed the colour for the last thirty years? I should know I have been coming here for forty years. But it is much better then the colour that it used to be, which was a puke green colour. Made you woozy just to stand in here for to long."
Emily jumped at the sound of his voice then said, "Yes it is rather a shock." The old man waved at the other chair across from him and said,
"Could I interest you in a seat?" Emily smiled and moved over to the chair and sat.
"Yes thank you, I have been standing by that front desk for an hour."
"Ahhh yes the front desk. I have never understood why they haven't put chairs there for you so that you can at least sit as you wait and fill in far to many forums! Did you have to go to the "New arrivals and Paperwork" office?" Emily nodded,
"Yes and I hope that feeling returns to my hand soon!" The old man chuckled and shook his head,
"Some thing's just never change. Now where is my head, here I have not even introduced myself! My name is George George." George stood up and bowed to her, Emily smiled and said
"It is nice to meet you George, I am Emily." George sat back down in his chair.
"So what brings you to this not mellow yellow room?"
"My friend who has never before stepped into a pet shop walked into one while overseas on holiday and bought me a bird. Without asking me before hand and she had already shipped him over here do what could I do?"
"Ai, it is awful when people do that to you, any number of my friends have done that to me over the years! Do you know what tip of bird it might be? I am most interested in birds, fascinating creatures!" Emily Shook her head,
"No she did not say nor is it anywhere on any of the two hundred things I had to sign. All I know is that she named him Fellow. What brings you here? You did say that you had been coming here for years of my memory is working." George grinned at her and said.
"Well Emily I have the best job in the world. I am the manger of Animal Transport for a few different Zoos. I make sure that animals that are for the Zoo here get onto the right bus and get to where they are meant to be, and if they are only here for a stop over I make sure that there stay is a good one and of course, that they leave on the right plan."
"That must mean a lot of paperwork and more than you fair share of sitting in this room!"
"Ai well, that part I just try to live through." They both had a chuckle over that. Then quiet suddenly the door opened and another person leaned into the room and called out in a loud sing song voice,
"Walrus! Any body here for a walrus!? Tracking number 1189!" George stood up and waved his arm, the man in the door way noticed and disappeared through the door again.
"Well" He said to her, "It has been nice meeting you."
"Yes the same for me. I hope that there is no trouble with the walrus" Then with just a good bye and a thank you, she was left alone to wait. And what a long wait it was. It was closer to half past two o'clock when the man that had called out for George's walrus' opened the door and said,
"A bird anyone here waiting for a bird? Tracking number 6690!" Emily looked at her arm again and read the tracking number that Mary had given her.
"Yes that would be me." she said to the man. He disappeared though the door again as she stood up and picket up the file. She found him waiting for her on the other side of the door, as she walked through he looked at her and held out his hand and said,
"Can I please check your papers, just to see if it is the right bird," Emily handed him her folder, as he read through it he carried on talking. "We had a nasty incident last year. A family was moving here from another country and was shipping there dog out with them but when they took the crate home and opened it up it was a baby hippo not their dog. It was an awful mix up, ended up needing to pay for damages and paying to ship their dog back to them from the Zoo." He looked at her and smiled and pulled a pen out of one of his pockets and signed something all the while saying," There you go it all seem to be in order. Let me just sign here and then that is my copy." he handed her the folder back. "I will go and get your bird for you, if you will just wait here." And with that he was gone out through another door that Emily could not quite remember being there before.
After a rather short wait the man returned with two other men who were pulling a crate behind them. They stopped in front of her and started to dismantle the crate. What was revealed was a simple wire cage with, the most multi coloured bird that she had ever seen, sitting quietly on its perch. The bird sat there and slowly looked around with interest on its face. Emily thanked everyone and then tucked the folder under her arm and picked up the cage and started the walk to her car. It was not a long walk but it took ages and more than a little effort to carry the cage to her car, mostly because every time she got a good grip on the top of the cage Fellow would climb up the bars and carefully nibble her fingers.
Although he was not actually biting her Emily was not going to take the chance, she had a healthy respect of birds and their beaks. She also did not want to drop him because he had bitten her. Once Fellow was safely placed on the back seat of the car and, Emily had made sure that she did in fact have all of her fingers, she started the car and headed for home.
Once at home Emily opened her front gate and then pulled into the drive way, only to then need to open the front door, then greeted her dogs (Asterix and Obelix) who thought that she had been gone for days and days. Once they had calmed down, Emily went back to the car and wrestled Fellow's cage out of the car and into her lounge. She placed him in a nice spot in front of one of the windows, a spot that was both in the shade and also looking out into a tree (something Emily thought that a bird might like). Looking at him Emily decided that the name Fellow suited him. He looked like a Fellow.
Emily closed all of the windows and doors before opening the cage door so that Fellow could climb out and move about on the top of his cage a bit as she filled his water bowl and gave him some food. She came back from filling his water bowl to find Fellow hanging upside down from one of the corners of the cage, staring eye to eye with both Asterix and Obelix, who thought that this was the most exciting/interesting/wonderful thing to happen ever! Fellow seemed to agree with them.
After hovering close, by water in hand, watching dogs and bird meet each other, for quite some time, Emily decided that everyone in fact seemed to be greatest of friends and that she was the only one not having a good time. She put the water in Fellow's cage and then left them on their own as she went to make herself a very late lunch. As Emily made herself some food she thought about Fellow and what she was going to do with him. 'He really was a sweet thing' she thought to herself. She leaned out of the kitchen door so that she could see into the lounge. Seeing how Asterix and Obelix were getting along with Fellow, she knew that the decision had been made for her. Fellow would stay.
The last of the afternoon rolled by and so did the evening with out anything happening. Just before Emily went to bed for the night she called Mary (The time difference was a big one and it was only then morning by Mary) to tell her that she had gotten Fellow and that he had settled in just fine.
It was in fact midnight on the dot when she was woken up by being trampled upon by both of her dogs. Feeling more than a little trampled and crushed she got up and was if she herded to the lounge. Still blinking the sleep from her eyes she looked around to see what had upset them so, that was when she saw Fellow. He was as she had noted when she had first seen him a very bright and multi coloured bird, but right before her eyes he was doing something that she had never heard of a bird doing. His colours where changing and moving around and around rather like a rainbow gone made. Emily ran over to take a closer look at him, looking at him she knew that what ever was up with his colouring was not something that was normal for him, not that she thought that it was normal for any bird.
He was sitting on his perch, feathers ruffled and wings hunched, radiating unhappiness. Emily wasted no time at all picking up the phone to call her vet which was supposed to be open twenty-four hours a day. It was just about right that the the first time that she had needed to call them at some awful hour of the night, that they were closed. Thinking quickly Emily pulled out the phone book and paged through looking for a vet that was open, she tried any number of numbers they ether were close for the night, the vet had gone out on an emergency or the did not care for birds.
Finally on the last page, under the listing of "Mythical Care, All Night Animal Care Centre" She found somewhere that was open. To worried about Fellow to wonder much about the strange name she grabbed her keys and picked up Fellow and carefully carried and put him into her car, not even bothering to change out of her pyjamas. Quickly she pulled out of the drive way and was on her way.
It was not a long drive to the Mythical Care Centre which was only a ten minute drive away from her house. The street lights flickered past as she drove down the street looking for the vet. At the end of the road, the sign board lit up in the light of the head lights of her car. Emily slowed down and pulled into the parking lot. Parking right next to the double doors she climbed out and picked Fellow up. She quickly locked her car and then Fellows cage in hand walked to the doors and opened them and walked into a well lit waiting room. Emily looked around for the front desk, seeing it she walked over and putting Fellow on one of the chairs next the the desk and then turned to the woman behind the desk.
"I called a few minutes ago about my bird." Emily pointed to Fellow as she said this. The woman leaned over the desk and looked at where she was pointing, she raised her eyebrows as she looked at Fellow and then said,
"I shall call the vet right now please have a seat he should be with you now." And with that she disappeared through a door that was behind her. Emily turned around and went to sit next to Fellow. She looked closely at him again to see if the was any change, there was none that she could see. She took a deep breath and tried not to worry about him as much, she had made it to a vet and she hoped that they could do something for him.
For the first time she took a proper look around the waiting room at the other people that were sitting in the other chairs. They were the oddest bunch of people that she had ever seen before. Sitting right in front of her was a man that was dressed up like a pirate, eye patch and all, sitting next to him was an old lady holding what looked like an old jewellery box. Every so often she would hold the box at eye level and peer into it and murmurer to whatever was inside.
And they were not the oddest people that were sitting around her, just two chairs from her there was a man that was holding the end of a leash that disappeared under a blanket that was in front of him. The blanket she noticed was bright purple with pies and pieces of cake all over it. The man had noticed her looking at the blanket covered what ever it was and nodded at it and offered, "She doesn't like the vet. The blanket helps." Emily nodded,
"Sorry for staring, it just looked like you had brought a pile of blankets to the vet."
The man smiled and said,"No worries." He then nodded towards fellow and said, "Having some bird trouble are you?"
Emily nodded and said "Yes, he was fine all day but then sometime in the night this started. I wouldn't even have known anything was wrong without my dogs. They made friends with Fellow today and they came and woke me up. I think he must have picked up some tropical illness when he was being shipped here." She looked at Fellow as she said this. The man said in a surprised voice.
"You let that bird and your dogs be in the same room?"
Emily looked at him and said "Shouldn't I have? They seemed to get along fine, every one seemed to think that it was the most exiting thing to happen ever. Fellow here even hung upside down and looked both of my dogs in the eyes."
This is when the pirate stepped in and said"Arrrggg! You never let the likes of one of them birds near normal creatures, or you be a fool!"
From somewhere in the general area of his feet came a croaky voice that yelled"Treasure! Take thee hands off my gold! Treasure!"
Emily said nothing to this thinking that that was the best move. What were they talking about though? Wasn't Fellow just a bird? True he did not look like any bird that she had heard of but that didn't mean anything. 'There must be thousands of animals that she had never heard of or seen.' Emily thought to herself as she sat and tried not to notice the person that had just walked in carrying what looked like a small version of a dragon that was a shocking shade of pink. Just then a woman dressed like she had just come from a medieval fancy dress party walked into the room from one of the side doors. Emily noted that the woman had on a white lab coat over the medieval style dress that she was wearing.
The Fancy Dress woman walked over to the man sitting next to her and said, "Ah Roger, I will see you and Nee now. If you would just follow me..." And with that they were gone. Emily could not even remember them walking over to the door even though they must have.
From behind her a soft deep voice said "Ah you must be the Lady that phoned about her bird. Is this him?"
Emily turned around and found herself looking at a man dressed far more sanely in jeans and a shirt, with another white lab coat on. The only thing that was not normal about him was the fact that he was wearing pointy shoes and a tall pointy hat that had stars on it. He was looking intently at Fellow.
Emily managed to force her brain into gear and said in a very quiet voice "Yes, that is him."
Pointy Hat Guy (she had no other name for him and it really did stand out) picked Fellow's cage up and said "Well let us just go into my office and can you tell me what has happened with him so far." Emily followed nervously behind him, not knowing what to think about what was happening, if she was not sure that she was awake, she would think that this was all just a very weird dream. To her great relief they walked into a perfectly normal and sane office. There was a wooden desk and more filing cabinets, as well as a door leading into an examination room. He carefully placed Fellow on one of the free tables that were scattered around the room and carried on looking at Fellow.
Emily hesitated and then started to speak. She told him that her friend had bought the bird for her and how he had just come from some far off country, and that he had been just fine all day. It did not take as long as she had thought it would. When she was done he looked up and thoughtfully looked at his book shelf which was filled to over flowing with books that had titles like 'Various Illnesses of Dragons', and 'The How To Book On Treating Large Things With Teeth'. Emily thought that he must have a rather odd taste in books. He walked over to the book shelf and took down a large book and started to page through it. "So you don't actually know what kind of bird it is then?"
"No, Mary did not say nor was it listed anywhere on his shipping forms." Pointy Hat Guy started to page through the book again. Emily could not keep thinking of him as 'Pointy Hat Guy' any more, "I am sorry but what is your name? I can't keep on thinking of you as Pointy Hat Guy. I'm Emily by the way."
Pointy hat guy looked up and blinked at her and then said "Oh! Yes sorry, how rude of me. I am Dr. Hibiscus."
Emily smiled, "Well then Dr. Hibiscus, Do you know what is wrong with Fellow?"
Hibiscus had stopped paging through the book and was now reading a page. "Ah yes it is just as I thought! Emily there is nothing wrong with Fellow here, he is merely got a bad case of jet lag." He snapped the book closed with practised ease.
Emily blinked,"Jet lag? But he is going every shade of colour that there is!"
"Ah yes that is one of the key symptoms of jet lag in this type of phoenix. Most common in fact." Now Emily was convinced that either she was really having a weird dream or everyone here were total fruitcakes. She stood up and was about to say in a firm voice that she thought him mad, when he opened a draw in his desk and pulled out a handful of wood shavings and tossed them at Fellow. There was a flash of blinding light. Stunned and more than a little blinded, Emily found her self blinking Fellow shaped spots out of her eyes.
Emily was quiet for a while, then in a soft voice she said, "Well." There was another pause as she thought frantically. It was well known that there were no such things as phoenixes, but as someone had said once, 'when you have eliminated the impossible, what you are left with, however improbable must be the truth'. So she said, "what is the risk of my house being turned into a cinder?"
Hibiscus smiled, "Why none at all. Contrary to what some people think phoenixes don't just burn things. It is quite safe to touch him and he would not even dream of burning anything he should not. The only thing is I would keep him away from other animals." Emily breathed a sigh of relief, then the last thing he had said caught her attention.
"Why must I keep him from other animals? My two dogs and him got along like a house on fire."
Hibiscus raised his eye brows at this and said "Phoenixes are very funny about other animals being around them. They can get their noses quite out of joint about it in fact, and can go off their food. But if your dogs and Fellow got along fine then I wouldn't worry about it."
"Oh good." She said, then another thought occurred to her, "What do they eat? I mean he ate the bird food that I got for him happily but is there something he needs to eat?"
"No, just bird food is fine. All I would say is maybe buy a bag of wood shavings, it makes a nice treat for them." Emily nodded, still stunned about the fact that there were in fact mythical creatures.
"So he will be fine then? "she asked
"Right as rain, just needs a few days to get over it." Hibiscus went over to the book shelf again and pulled out a few small pamphlet-like books from it and handed them to her. "Here just to help you find your feet. Looking after a mythical creature is a whole new world, and of course welcome to the world of the impossible!" Emily looked at Hibiscus and then down to the books that he had handed to her.
"Thank you." She said and then took a deep breath and shook off her shock. "So this is the place I come if there is another emergency then?" Hibiscus nodded,
"Sure is." he said.
Emily looked at Fellow again "Well it is very late and I have work to do tomorrow, and you have....things to see. Be warned I will be phoning when ever something I don't know how to handle comes up."
"That is why we are open Twenty-Four hours a day!" Hibiscus said, so with only a few more questions from her and a lot more answers from Hibiscus, Emily packed Fellow back into the car and headed home. She was almost sure that when she got home and woke up again this morning, that she would find that this had all been a really weird dream of some sort. She pulled right up to her front door to tired now, that all the need to be up and awake was passed, to carry Fellow far.
She was greeted as she opened the door and there was a moment that she thought that they were all going to end up in a heap on the floor, but she made it through and they safely made it into the lounge. Emily put Fellow back where he had been and checked on him. He seemed to be looking a lot better, his colours were not changing quiet so fast any more and he was looking much happier.
Emily opened the door to his cage and carefully put her hand in, and after only a moments pause, touched Fellow on the head with a finger. He seemed to revive a little more as see did so and in fact turned his head towards her so that she could scratch under his eye. She smiled and stood there for quiet a while. When she could not stand on her feet any more she said goodnight, well it was far more like good morning to everyone and once again went to bed.
Emily was awoken late the next morning not by her alarm as she thought, she found it on the floor, It looked like it had taken a nasty fall the night before and was now beyond rescue. The shrill buzzing nose was still going on though. Bleary eyed she stumbled out of her bedroom and headed towards the sound. She walked into the lounge to find that Fellow was the one making all of the noise. Once he had seen her he stopped making the noise and moved closer to to bars of the cage and turned his head as if to as for another scratch.
The full memory of what had happened last night came to her as she scratched Fellow under the eye. There was no sign of the books that she had been given so maybe it had all been a dream, Fellow certainly looked fine this morning. A thump and the sound of two dogs running at full speed down the hall way made her turn around, Asterix and Obelix burst into the room fighting over a ball, which was dropped at her feet. As Emily bent over to pick the ball up, a pile of books that looked like they had fallen of Fellows table caught her eye.
She picked then up, they were the same books that Hibiscus had given her the night before. It had not been all a dream, With a half hearted toss, she threw the ball, which bounced into the kitchen. With great joy and much bounce the dogs went after the ball, Emily did not pay attention to the sounds of destruction that came from the kitchen as she slowly sat down in one of the chairs by the window.
As she looked outside as she had done yesterday, before the phone call from Mary. Emily knew that her life would never be mundane again.
THE END
. And where is you suspension of disbelief? 