"Oh wow." Was all Kendra could say as they wheeled the huge cage in. There was a bird sitting in it with a regal pose and feathers the color of red blood. It had to be near four feet sitting and had solid black eyes shaped like tear drops. Its tail was nearly as long as the body draping on the bottom of the cage. It had several long royal blue feathers that sprouted from the back of its head and seemed to rise slightly every now and then.
The tips of its wings were marked with black and its six inch talons were a sight to behold. "You got that right. Damn thing was crazy to catch, should have been in the field." Derrick commented and had soot on him.
"It lit a huge portion of land on fire when it came down with the netting. Nearly dropped right on Riley. He has some good sunburn." Kendra smiled because that was amusing.
"How'd you catch it then?"
"It knocked itself out with the impact to the ground and then we doused it with a shit ton of water." Kendel said behind her and moved off.
"What if it decides to go supernova in here?" Kendra asked and Derrick pointed around.
"The whole building is cement, not much to burn."
"Oh." She said and looked at him. "We can burn." That sobered him a little.
"Well it hasn't done it since the field and there appears to be something wrong with him. Looking at him I would say that he is upset." Derrick stated and was taking some notes.
"How do you know, it's a male?"
"The brightness of his plumage. There were descriptions before of phoenix and it varies from this deep red color to a more russet red." Kendra said with a smile.
"Aren't you just phoenix 101." He gave a laugh, and lowered his voice.
"I don't think that captivity suits these birds." He sighed shaking his head.
"Would it suit you?" She asked and moved to where they placed the large bird. She instantly felt the unease coming from it, and what she would have guessed to have been worry. Very odd, but in this line of work she'd learn that intelligence and awareness came in many shapes and forms.
Conroy came over and had a pack that he was going to take samples from the bird, but the second that he got close the bird let out a loud piercing screech and the temperature in the room shot up fast. Kendra reached in and touched the bird.
It jumped from her scared of her at first. Then it moved back toward her hand and was making odd sounds its head up toward the ceiling and scooted around the caged area staying out of Conroy's reach.
"Kendra get it to cooperate." He snapped.
"I simply calm them, I do not control." She said annoyed and moved around the enclosure that the phoenix was now in. This whole level was made up of cells, four along each wall and then three in the center with space to move in between. Kendra moved to where it had taken a perch on a bed, it was making a very sorrowful sound and wouldn't stop.
"What is wrong with it?" Riley asked, the sound was almost painful to hear. It seemed to reach into a person. This was a mythical creature they were dealing with.
"I don't know." Derrick said but seemed concerned. Kendra reached in slowly not wanting to startle it and cause a fire to start. She touched his back and the song grew softer but just as tearful and after a moment Kendra gasped and her eyes went blank for a moment.
It was a flash of vision, there was a remote forested area. She felt the rush of air under her wings, and the joy as she swooped down and caught the prey it was aiming for. Nothing seemed off, nothing seemed wrong, and the world was peaceful, but then something hit her right out of the sky. It felt like a wall spinning around her and she panicked setting aflame.
She saw humans below and became even more terrified and the prey that she had held was now burned away. Pain settled in her chest because she wasn't going to make it home with the food, they were going to starve. She caught the image of another bird a bit duller in color and it was sitting high up in the hollow of a tree.
This was the oddest feeling in the world, her thoughts and emotions were not like a human's at all. Yet she understood worry, and pain and loss. There were no words, just pictures and feelings, images kept piling in of this phoenix flying off from this tree to go hunt and bringing it back. Of hunting with another phoenix, in all of these she never saw any more but the two.
However they were content and happy and living far from humans. Living free unlike a few others of their kind. She saw the duller colored one go into the tree and then she landed and a joy was in her, for behold! Eggs! So he was to be the provider now until they were born, his female could not leave them. They needed the heat from her body constantly.
"Kendra, Kendra!" Someone said next to her shaking her a bit. She blinked and the room was back in focus and she looked around. She was sitting on the ground and the phoenix was quiet. His black eyes burning into hers. Asking her, asking her to let him go, and pleading. Kendra just found herself nodding and then shook her head moving to stand.
"I... I don't know what happened. I just suddenly wasn't there anymore, I saw him get hit with the net and go down, it was traumatic for him." She said to their questioning on what just happened. The trance she seemed to go into.
She kept all the rest to herself. What if they went there to get the other one and the eggs? What if they damaged them by trying to move them? She didn't want to be part of that at all. Kendra straightened herself and the phoenix went back to its sad song.
"Alright no one touch the bird for obvious reasons." Riley said and Conroy looked at him.
"I need samples."
"The samples can wait until the animal calms down. We have to prepare the wolves for transport." He said moving off to where the three animals were pacing their cell. "Kendra make sure that they behave again." He said and then moved off. Kendra narrowed her eyes at Riley. Such an ass.
Kendra briefly spoke to the wolves and they were rather hostile toward her but then started asking questions about the phoenix. None of them had ever seen the bird before and they were in just as much awe about it as she was. Kendra left them and moved outside and it was dark now. She looked up toward the building and then heard a vehicle coming toward her from down the road.
As she turned her head she caught movement from the corner of her eye. It was a fast movement but she saw it. She turned back around and scanned the area and whistled for Bryce and Riley who were standing not too far away. Kendra knew trouble when she saw it.
"Something is here." She said. She didn't feel anything, but she knew.
"Where?" Riley asked looking around.
"I don't know, I just saw something move very fast over there." She said and Riley looked down toward the truck. "I want this to go smoothly, go make sure that it was nothing. If it wasn't, kill it." Riley said to them and grabbed a weapon himself. Kendra didn't go with the small group and Riley looked at her.
"Go with them."
"No I want to stay here. I'm not one for killing, and you need me with the werewolves." Kendra said. She had a bad feeling that something was going to go very wrong. She glanced up at the stars, but they were being veiled by clouds. It made her feel that tides might be turning. Kendra shook her head and moved forward. They were fools to think that they could keep doing this and not pay for it.
"Very well, we'll do this fast then." Riley said and the transport came up and backed up to the opening with the door open. Kendra was already inside the building and moving toward the wolves, she stopped to look at the phoenix who was sitting on the bench in the cell with a regal but sad pose.
She was thinking about how to solve this problem. The phoenix could not stay, but Kendra was at a loss. They would stop her. Besides she was there to help move the werewolves who were human looking and wearing cuffs behind their backs. This way if they tried to shift, their legs would be pulled out of socket.
Mirage the lead female wolf stood at the front and had a deadly look about her. Kendra felt an eagerness to Mirage. Kendra wasn't sure she liked that, but she kept her observations to herself. Hindsight maybe she should have said something. However Kendra truly was growing tired of this and was starting to doubt the real reasons they captured creatures. As Kendra thought, they moved to the vehicle that was waiting for the wolves. They got within ten feet and there was an explosion. Clearly someone else had come for the wolves.