Wonders in the Trees

I probably shouldn't have done that... Ehhh, it's in the past now anyways. Nothing I can do about it.

I peaked through the boxes I currently hid in and swore under my breath when Chris turned the door handle. I curled my tail against myself and put myself in a defensive position. A handful of scientists came into the room. They moved through the room with equipment and set them up on the table. One woman with noteworthy cascading hair that looked with the pitch black sea left the group and started to examine Chris' wounds, and he winced slightly. I curled up my wings next to my body and stared at them from my vantage point high above the shelves.

"We told you to inform us when she woke up" The woman who was bandaging Chris told him disappointedly. "Get her information now that we're here" She nodded to a man.

A man who was staring at my hiding spot nodded back and reached into the shelf to reach for me, speaking into a recorder, "Specimen D5846 - Katelyn Bloom. Female, 15 years old. Part of artistic and intelligence specification groups. Collected on July twenty-ninth with the use of injected tranquilizer blend C3. Metaforming was completed on September eighth. Egg case finished formation on January thirteenth. Hatching method C4 was used. Hatching occurred late evening on March twenty-first."

His fingers wrapped around me, and I dug my teeth into his fingers and rolled my eyes in annoyance when I saw that only a white line appeared on the thick plastic. What, are these made of steel? Actually there might be a chance of that, but let's ignore that! I thought with an unhealthy amount of artificial cheerfulness.

She moved my limbs around and extended my wings. I laid there in her hands calmly and stared at her with unbreakable focus as the man started to voice his fascination about me in his recorder. "Indifferent, tame and calm personality" The woman turned me upside down and I squawked. "Turquoise scales. This color has never appeared before. Beautiful blue underside. It fades into dark blue on the wing tips and tail. She should be carefully monitored for her rare colors."

The woman put me down on a scale-like silvery plate and I was left shivering on the cold metal. "2 pounds and 6 ounces, or 1.1 kilograms," he said. "She stands 16 centimeters tall, or 6 inches, at the shoulder. Extremely underweight and small in size. Growth will be carefully monitored." I was put back under the heat lamp, and I blinked at the somewhat nice feeling of warmth that didn't hurt or itch.

The man continued speaking on the recorder, "Before collection, specimen D5846 was noted to have preferred fight over flight. These traits don't seem to have transferred over. Current actions don't seem to relate to past personality. Potential of being tamed after metaphorming."

I simply blinked. I didn't even know I had a past like that. Thanks for the information I guess? The woman set me down and I burrowed into the sand, gathering my thoughts. The other scientists and Chris, who was watching the procedure from the door with bandages on his face, left, leaving me with the man with the recorder. The soft and warm grains seeped into my scales, swooshing around like a gentle lullaby.

Then I immediately got bored and opened my eyes in resignation. It was inevitable that I wanted to do something extremely risky and also with the potential to get me killed. The thought bounced around in my head, screeching in my ear until I agreed.

I flapped my wings in a departure posture and, with a burst of air, I launched myself into the sky. It felt oddly natural as my wings shot open and my flight adjusted itself into a slow glide.

I landed on the window sill, almost crashing into the plastic netting in the process. Still gotta work on that landing. My ear tufts twitched and looked outside the window. There were gigantic trees and I perched on one of them, a bluejay. Upon seeing the bird, I was reminded of wild animal hunting instincts and crouched down.