“Tori!” 

“You again?”

“Yep. will you come with me?”

“Where?”

“Everywhere. I’ll feed you and give you shelter!”

“Uh…”

“Please?”

“Uh… how much food?”

“Everything you want. Apparently i need you to grow wings and turn into a sparrow and i'm supposed to have a sparrow with me because… i don't actually know.”

“Uh… sure. I've never met a talking human before.”

“Great! Thanks!” 

Tori flew with her back to her house. They set up a hidden nest and became good friends in a matter of days. Maybe it was the magical bond Poppy talked about. Saturday flew in, and with it Poppy. Poppy took her to Avis.

“They have a place for people like us and our age, who only come saturdays. It's great!”

“What about me? I'm new, i don't know anyone.”

“You know me. Don't worry, I’ll stay with you.”

“Ok…” they flew for ages! Tori and Mango, Poppys hummingbird companion, were with them and it was fun to listen to a conversation between Poppy and Mango, but she was bored. It was only a half hour flight but she had never really flown before so it was exausting. Magic was apperently involved in shortening the trip from Calafornia to wherever the bermuda triangle was. 

Finally they got there. She couldn't stop rubbing her poor giant wings. They were so sore! Absolutly nobody gave her strange looks for having wings. She saw a bunch of birds and people with wings. Suzeme clung to Poppy like a lifeline.

“Where do we go?” so much noise… all the consersations and wordless chatter and squaking birds made her tense.

“Breakfast. Then you’ll get an introdution class and stuff and i get let lose on Avis until lunch- I’ll stay with you, of course!” she added hurriedly when she saw Suzemes eyes widen. “Oh my gosh i wish i could stay here full time.”

“What about your life at home?”

“I… not my place. I belong here. Not there. I wish Avis was only people like us, who get what it's like to not be from here. To have people stare at you when a hummingbird flys to close and you say something to no one in particular. To know what it's like to have to hide.”

“I like real life!”
“That what all the newcomers say. Most, anyway…” Poppy glanced down for a moment and then her bright smile returned. “Right, lets go get some food.”

The cafeteria was packed with people and sound. A boy sat in the corner, dressed in black with pale skin peaking out from under jet black hair. He looked lonely. She headed toward him, Poppy following. 

“Hey, can we sit here?”

“I guess.” he mumbled. 

“What's your name?”

“Ciaran. Raven speaker.”

“No! I thought you were a peacock.” she got a half smile from him.

“Who are you?” he forced the words out.

“Sazeme. I'm a sparrow whatchamacallit. This is Poppy, a hummingbird thing.”

“Speaker. You're a Sparrow Speaker, I’m a Hummingbird Speaker, he’s a raven Speaker. I was confused at first too.” Poppy interjected.

“Yeah, that. Are you ok, Ciaran?” he shrugged. 

Poppy laughed. “Hes a corvid. They’re all goth depressed weirdos.”

“Excuse me?” he glared at her.

“Sorry, should have whispered.” he kept glaring.

“And hummingbirds are all over energetic buzzing socialites with no sense of pol…” he trailed off, the words not working right.

“Thanks.” poppy smiled pointedly at him.

“But what are you thinking about?”

“Were. i was thinking about the attacks.”

“What attacks?”

Poppy answered first. “People have gone missing, bodies found dead.”

“You said Avis was a safe fun place! Why didn't you mention a serial killer?!”

“America has serial killers too. But the targets are full timers. We’re safe.”

Ciaran looked down. His raven crowed something to him. He said something back in raven.

“Uh, what's your ravens name?”

“No, to risky. Er, Dusk. his name is Dusk.”

“Hi Dusk.” Dusk cocked his head at her. Ciaran translated and turned back into himself.

“So where are you from?”

“Avis.” he muttered. 

Poppy looked slightly jealous. “Sazeme, he obviously doesn't want to be disturbed.” she gave Ciaran a pointed look. “See, I am socially intuitive.” she smiled pointedly. He shrugged and turned back to Dusk. they sat in comfortable silence. 

A tall black girl approached the table, holding a book and several notpads and papers. Her breakfast tray balanced precariosly on top and a robin peaked out from under her explosion of hair on her shoulder.

“Here, let me help you.” Suzeme jumped up and took the tray and some of the books. The girl smiled akwardly at her.

“Thanks!” 

“No problem.” she put down her tray on the table. The girl sat and arranged her things.

“What's Poppy doing here?”

“I thought Ciaran looked lonly, and she agreed to stay with me all day.”

“My name is Ryn, nice to meet you. He isn't lonley. We sit here because neither of us want to talk so it's not akward. Our parents make us come to meet people.”

“Suzeme. Why don't you want to meet people?”

“Hes shy, and i would rather be reading or writing or drawing than socailizing.”

“You're an artist?”

“Artistic tendencies. But as you can see, I have too much tendency.” she smiled down at her papers.

“Can you explain the serial killer thing to me? Neither of them made much sense.”

“Uh… sure” she looked up from a sketch of a falling feather in extreme detail. “The Last, as the killer has identified him or herself, has been causing the disappearances of people. Some bodies were found. I'm going to solve the case.”

“No, you aren't. Ryn, have you been reading those murder mystery books again?” Ciaran interrupted.

“...yes. But I know I can do it! The Lost is leaving clues!”

“You're going to make yourself a target.”

“Why does it matter? The authorities will take care of it.” Poppy interrupted.

“Of course.” Ryn and Ciaran turned back to themselves, shy again.

“What's wrong?” Suzeme glanced around, feeling like she was missing something.

“I'm popular. I make them nervous because I'm social. Everybody knows me, they're the outsiders and don't like everybody. I think. Hard to tell.”

“Ok?” 

“Do you mind if I go hang out with my friends? There are only 15 minutes left, I’ll come back then.”

“Sure.” 

Ryn kept sketching, and Ciaran intermittently spoke in raven and thought in silence. “That's really good, Ryn.”

“Thanks! I’m not an artist, I just enjoy sketching.”

“You might be more of an artist than you think.”

“Yeah, sure.” Ryn smiled politely. 

“What's your robin's name?”

“Tia. what's yours?”

“You mean Tori?”

“Shes cute.”

“I think I'm going to not tell her you said that.”

Ryn laughed. “Feisty is she?” 

“You could say that.” 

Ryn laughed. “Belive me, i get it. If Tia heard anyone called her that it would get bloody…” she flipped her hair to cover Tia and whispered, “if she could.” tori got out of the air and Ryn continued seriously and at normal volume. “She would go for the eyes first.” Ryn winked.

“Hey Ryn?”

“Yeah?”

“How come Ciaran speaks in caws but you were talking in English and she could understand?”

“You could choose to speak in sparrow if you wanted to. It's just something you choose. If your speaking to a bird you often intuitively go to their language but they can understand anything you say, and vice versa.”

Ciaran looked up. “I don't like to be eavesdropped on.”

“Why did you switch to English earlier? You were talking to Dusk and then we asked you a question, and you finished saying something to him before you talked to him, but you spoke in English.”

“You caught his attention. He was paying partial attention to you so he automatically switched to English because he's more familiar with it and his attention was divided. He's only 15, he hasn't been talking long.” Ryn said.

“Ok… what happens when someone is born here outside of the zodiac thingy?”

“You mean outside of Sagatarius? The parents often send the child to be adopted mainland, but they can choose to keep them.”

“What happens with the ones they keep? And what about if they turn out to not have bird speaking at 14?”

“Those are called grounders. They live here and are part of our world, but not truly part of us. They're in an awkward situation, they don't entirely have the same rights and certainly not the job opportunities we do. A lot of them move to the mainland.” Ryn kept answering questions so Ciaran turned back to Dusk.

“Like squibs?”

“Oh! Oh oh! That's a Ferry Potter reference! I read that! It's a mainland book!”

“You mean Harry Potter?”

“Yeah, Harry isn't a common name here, it is among bears. Ferry is. I only read it once, and only found a couple books, so i don't remember.”

“You don't know about harry potter?”

“We have our own culture. Why, is it a big thing?”

“...uh, yeah. Literally everyone knows about Harry Potter, even the people who are against it because witchcraft or something.”

“Witchcraft? Oh, that was just a rumor that got started when one of the Cat speakers got caught by humans. They started hunting us down so we made out own homes. The bird and fish speakers moved over here and started causing disturbances to keep others away. The rodents dug a burrow system under Nebraska, only rodents can fit, and they open into wide human-sized caverns deeper on. The weasel family set up in Kansas, and suspiciously close. They tried to team up and share a tunnel system, but the rodents, especially the prairie squirrels, weren't terribly keen on that. The insects-”

“There are insects?” she snorted. “That's useless.”

“Ok, rude, insects can sting and bite and actually have a good deal of power. Arthropods also fall under their jurisdiction, they have poison. Besides, they have numbers. The chances of the gene activating if you're a descendant of their ancestor is almost a hundred percent, and insects are so common and numerous that the chances some variation of their bug lives in the area are much higher. But as I was saying, they moved into a mesa in a desert in America. A lot of us moved to America, at the time it wasn't very well settled. The primates, that doesn't include humans by the way, took up residence in the african jungle. Oh, I forgot. The reptiles live in a nearby mesa to the insects and have a similar symbiotic relationship to what we have with fish. The canines and felines are living in a wild forest in Russia, they have nearby camps, the dogs have a cave system and the cats live mostly in the trees above the dogs. They have a playful rivalry.”

“A city in trees?”

“The monkeys have one too. Anyways, i just have horses, that group nobodies ever managed to pin down(I'm going to find the term for them someday![Ryns saying that, not me.]), and bears left. The bears live in a different part of wild Russia. The horses found an island with nice grass and fields so they took it over, and the group that includes cows and sheep and stuff, which most people call Sarashus because somebody made up the word and people thought it sounded fun so it picked up, used to live in the Falklands, but then people took it over, and they have since been lost track of. We know they're out there and ok, we just don't know where. The popular theory is someplace in Africa.”

“Yeah, and she's going to find them. Ever since she read a book about a person finding them. She's going to do a thousand other things. Because they happened in books.” Ciaran said.

“I am!”
“You live in books. To find them you would have to put down your books.”

“I do sometimes!”

“Yeah! To read or draw. Inside fantasy.”

“You live in your brooding thoughts.”

“Yes, but I don't claim I’ll ever do impossible things. Or a thousand impossible things.”

“It's not impossible!”

“Yep. like how harnessing all the creature blessed powers isn't impossible, because it happened in a crazy science fiction novel. And didn't the character end up unable to control so much power and caused a natural diaster?”

“Yeah. maybe that really did happen the year without summer.”

“Yep.” he mouthed crazy to Suzeme and she laughed. Ryn glowered playfully.

“So, Suzeme, what are your powers?”

“Powers?”

“Yeah. each bird has a power, but I'm not familiar with sparrows. Not many books on them. Ciaran can create and move and stuff with shadows, I can create fire, and Poppy can gt superspeed for about 5 minutes at a time. I know what some exotic birds can do, and birds with a lot of symbolism, mythology, or other hype like ravens, but sparrows are overlooked. I guess that's the beauty of birds like us. Hidden gems…” she trailed off into thought. 

“Uh how is that good?”

“Think about it.” she smiled. “You’ll get it if you think. Anyway-” the bell rang. Poppy ran over.

“Hey! Were you using your power?”

“My- oh, they told you about powers. Nope, just running for the sake of it. But speaking of powers,  you’ll get taught how to use yours soon.”

“And you’ll stay with me?”

“Yes. you only have 4 weeks of class, after that, we can explore and stuff. But i might be shadowing another new speaker next week- I'll send hummy to guide you!” she added before Suzeme could break down into an anxious mess. Mango made angry buzzing sounds and Poppy got carried off making defensive sounds back.