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I knew immediately where we were. Long ago, I was here with Jeremy to find Damien. We found him before we left, but it didn't answer any of my questions. Before my final changes, I heard on TV that the efforts to bring back the Ivory Billed Woodpecker had started to show hope. The sign at the door seemed to say it was going well now.

Of what I could vaguely remember of the visitor's center, things seemed to have changed. None of it was familiar until a lady in a polo greeted Eli.

"Was wondering if I was going to see you today." Her face beamed with a large smile. "And that can't be Romeo. Or am I that far behind?"

Eli held me slightly higher, "No, this is Lyall. He was down at Elizabeth's, but I told her I would work with him before they sent him off."

She looked slightly confused. "Is this the one she tried to send off to us?" Eli nodded. "So he's a... was a human?" she asked.

Eli held me closer to her, "He's in his twenties. Local kid before it all went down. Oddest hawk I've ever worked with."

She chuckled. "Darren isn't too different from any Osprey we've had before. Damien... well, I don't know what to think of him or Jesse. Not many have been around an Ivory before now."

I looked down at the name. "Heather," it read in bold letters. She seemed familiar, but I couldn't quite place her. She looked back at me and seemed to notice something. I looked down and saw nothing but my feathered body.

"Heh, he does have a personality to him."

"Yeah, the first time I've heard of someone keeping their personality after it all," Eli said, returning his hand to rest.

"Oh, so he's one of the..."

"Well, he sure doesn't act like a regular ole hawk. I thought I was going crazy driving him to my place. I haven't ever talked to a bird that responds back." Eli laughed.

"So he can talk?" She asked.

"No, but he nods and the like."

Heather continued to stare at me to the point I was starting to grow uncomfortable. I turned my head to look at her with one of my eyes, and she smirked. She adjusted her hair and looked back at a small group walking into the display area.

"If you promise he is well-behaved, you can walk him about if you would like," Heather shrugged. "Just keep a good hold of him."

Eli asked me, "You want to take a peek before we go?"

I waited before nodding. I didn't want to seem overly excited, but I was eager to see an old friend. Eli checked the time on the clock hanging in the room before agreeing, "All right, we have a little time." As Eli started walking toward the door to the displays, Heather yelled back.

"See ya round, hawk boy." The woman's face still burned into my head. But with her remark, it started to make a little more sense.

Out in the displays, everything seemed familiar to what I remembered. A few birds had moved around, but it was the same general layout with the large wooden structures along the stone path. Multiple benches and engraved stone slabs littered the area. On the front of each of the displays was a plaque with information about the displayed bird. Off in the distance, I saw the two areas I remembered most: the aviary and the indoor building Damien resided in.

We continued to walk down the path, but I kept my eyes glued to the building ahead. I noticed nothing until Eli stopped and slowly turned to face one of the wooden display cages. I looked at Eli and then at the cage, wondering why he had stopped.

"Look, another Redtail. She does look quite a bit like ya, Lyall," Eli said, pointing at the hawk perched on a wooden rod.

I had been in the spot before when I came here with Jeremy. I remembered this bird, although her name slipped my mind long ago. I could see more that differentiated her from me even though we were the same species. She stared back at me, probably wondering why I was there.

The plaque in front of her read:

Buteo jamaicensis

Red-Tailed Hawk

Injured in a motor vehicle accident

Oddly, I was in a position not too different from her all this time later. I didn't know if it was a break terrible enough she couldn't fly or if the interactions with humans made her unable to be released. All this time ago, I thought she looked like a mirror of what I would be in the future. Maybe I was a little too right about that assumption.

"I've never gotten the pleasure of meeting Sunny out of her cage. Maybe I'll catch a day she wants out and is agreeable." Eli shrugged, "I am lucky enough to work with you and Romeo, though."

Sunny.

It's weird now that I've spent so long as a hawk and hearing names given to the birds. Neither Romeo nor Sunny probably understand the concept of a name like humans use. When it came to my partner, I knew who she was after we paired up. I could visually tell her from any other bird, but we never spoke or had any symbol or word for each other. Communication was more through action and body language than anything. The occasional call to one another asking them to come to you or alerting the other of danger. Imagine marrying someone without knowing their name, just their feathers and calls to tell them from the rest of the world. I didn't know what Sunny's world was like before her accident.

Sunny's leg band was a simple gray color with some hard-to-read text embossed on it. I didn't know if the gray meant anything, but I could only assume she was hatched as a hawk, not some weird amalgamation of human and bird like myself.

Eli continued walking down the path until we reached a familiar door. The door was locked the last time I was here, but now it was proudly propped open with an image of a woodpecker printed on its inside surface. The bird on the door was at least the same species as Damien if not his actual photo. We walked inside, and the previously under-construction room was very much completed. The walls were covered in informational graphics about the history of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker—everything from its discovery in America to its population declines and eventual extinction. From what I could see as it got towards the end, it put my fears to rest. In a square outlined box, it mentioned him by name.

"The revival efforts of the species are due to two people's unfortunate and kind choices. Damien Evans and Jesse Grey were impacted by the 2018 Anima virus, bringing them to the form you can see today. In agreement with what reviving the species could mean for humanity, they volunteered to be the start of a new population of a previously extinct bird. Thanks to their help, the population of the Ivory is now in the double digits."

Below was a small back square with white chalk writing out "21," followed by a decal stating "and counting." I don't know how excited Damien would be to be surrounded by walls of things congratulating his existence. As I looked towards the far wall, the enclosure was filled with greenery. Eli was slowly working his way closer to the window, and I searched for movement in the room. Suddenly, a bird landed on a branch, clearly visible from my perspective. Its leg had a yellow band around it, which I assumed meant it wasn't Damien or Jesse but rather one of their children.

I saw another bird land on the branch, and another soon joined. They had various colored bands, but none seemed right until I saw one woodpecker land on a log in the back. Although far away, I could see the black and gold band around its leg as it searched the ground. I tried to find any way to tell if that was Damien or Jesse. I didn't have to wonder longer when another bird with a matching band landed next to it.

I wanted to shout and scream, but I tried my best to restrain the urges. Eli seemed to take notice when he tried to turn to face me away from the cage.

"You alright, Lyall? Are you feeling good right now, or should I..."

I tried to force my head around Eli to look at the window. I bobbed my head toward the window, and Eli slowly walked me closer, confused if I was in control or the hawk was taking over. I crept closer until my beak made contact with the glass. The birds meandered seemingly randomly across the ground until one of them looked up and turned its eye to face us. It held still before slightly bobbing its head and taking off out of sight.

"I can't imagine being in their place and being remembered for saving an entire species. I think I would be happy to be remembered like that," Eli said, staring into the cage. "It would have been cool to meet and get to know them before they turned."

Again, this was one of the times I wished I could speak. I wish I could tell Eli what Damien was to me and how great of a person he was. I couldn't look away as I searched and searched, hoping to get one more glimpse of Damien. My head darted around, causing Eli to chuckle at my eagerness.

"I figured I'd find you here, hawk-boy," Heather said as she entered through the little door. "Is Damien giving you a good show?"

I gave a half-hearted nod before going back to searching. Eli was confused by the interaction and stuttered. "What now?"

Heather slapped her hand to her thigh, saying, " Lyall and I have a little history. Not the only one here with some history with that hawk."

"Oh, you knew him?" Eli asked.

"He came up here with another friend to visit some of the birds. I remembered that name; I just had to put a human face to him. Last I saw, he was a little more human than he is now." Heather walked over to look into the enclosure. "Must be you in there, Lyall. I haven't seen anyone that excited over Damien in a while."

Eli was perplexed by this point. "So Lyall was here before when Damien was here?"

Heather laughed, "You don't know his history that well, do ya? Lyall here lived with Damien before his changes finished up. Lyall was friends with the man."

Eli's eyes shot open, and his face turned pink, "Oh, well, yeah, I guess that explains it a little." Eli's eyes trailed back to the enclosure. He stared blankly at the glass while the birds within continued, unaware of our presence.

I climbed off of Eli's hand and onto the window's ledge. The ledge was just large enough to fit me but left my beak in constant contact with the glass. I continued to search for Damien again but could hear Eli step away to talk with Heather. I tried listening to what was being said but couldn't find the words. I was too distracted in my search for Damien to put much effort into listening anyway.

I couldn't miss hearing the loud footsteps on the hard floor, thunking that got louder before a man's voice asked for a child to slow down. I ignored the new voice as I was too focused on the enclosure. It wasn't until I heard the child's voice that I turned to look.

"Woah, is she lost?" The child called out, pointing to me.

Behind me was a young girl and an adult man. The man grabbed the child's hand and pulled them away from me. He seemed nervous that I was there, and his eyes darted to Heather and asked, "Is that supposed to be out here?"

Heather's eyes shot wide when she remembered I was on the ledge. Eli quickly ran over and brought his hand down to me. I climbed on, and he lifted me away from the glass. The man and the child moved to where I stood and looked through the glass.

Something about the interaction sat weird with me. Sure, the man was genuinely concerned that a predator bird was just out without a handler, but the nervousness he showed and not knowing what I was... Maybe being around only people who understood me gave me false ideas, but to him, I was just another bird among the displays.

"What's that one's name?" the child asked the man.

He stepped back and looked at the plaques in front of the window. He quickly read over the text before saying, "I don't think they have names like the others."

Were they referring to the hatched birds? Or were they referring to Damien and Jesse? I wanted to shout the names, but I could not speak. I opened my beak and let out a light yell at the man, not knowing why I did, but I needed to tell him how they were. They were not just wild birds, and he was my friend. Eli raised his hand and placed it on my chest as if holding me back.

"What is the matter with you, Lyall?" Eli said, irritated when he turned to face me away from the people.

I felt a wave of cold wash over me and once again started to feel that tired drift. The last I saw was the child pushing herself against the wall, startled. My vision faded, and as quickly as it happened, I felt jostled awake. Now, we were walking to the van and away from the building. Eli was talking, but I was still getting my bearings straight.

"...after that, we will return to my house, alright?" Eli asked. I didn't pick up on what he said before but nodded. "Now you decide to give me some feedback, eh? I'm not mad at you for what you did in there, but next time, we need to stay quiet around people, alright?" Eli pressed a button on his key fob, and the van lights flashed. "They don't understand you, but that's alright. I get you."

Eli opened the passenger door and placed me on the seat. I was still dazed by what had transpired and didn't want to leave. I looked around frantically, thinking of how to return inside, but I couldn't open a door without my hands. Eli sat in the driver's seat and roared the van to life. We began to pull away from the center and back onto the road. This may have been my last chance to see Damien, even if Damien wasn't aware of me.

I tried to remember what happened in the space of blacking out and reaching the van, but all I could remember was the quick, dark blur. It felt almost instantaneous, but something had happened. Eli seemed unfazed by everything, making me think he didn't realize it had happened. Was Eli aware I had issues with my control? Surely, Alex had made mention of it.

Before long, Eli pulled the van into an empty park. It looked to be a picnic area near the lake. While the site had tables and fire rings, I couldn't see any other humans. Eli got into the back of the van, removed the leather belt and pouches, and strapped it around his hip. He removed a tall metal and wood "T" very similar to the one Alex had used with me. I was worried at first, seeing him remove the equipment. After the incident today, I was afraid of losing control again. Some of that fear was relieved when I saw a spool of string, which I assume was to act as a tether.

Eli tied the end of the spool to the base of the perch and unwound the rest of the string. With the perch stabbed into the ground and the string fully unspooled, he returned for me. Eli brought me up to the perch and allowed me to step down. He attached the string to my leg without delay and scratched my head.

"So, like I said, I've never worked with a shifty before in this manner. So we are goin' to do this like I do for all the other birds. I'm sorry if this seems dumb, but it's the way I know." Eli lifted a whistle to his mouth and held it with his teeth. "'Hen I low this histle, I 'ant you to come to e." Eli gave the whistle a blow. He waited before pulling it from his mouth and laughing, "That means now, Lyall."

He blew the whistle again, and I leaped from the perch and flapped my wings. I saw his hand as I sped up to an actual flying speed and prepared myself to grab the glove. With a flare of my wings, my feet grabbed the glove, and I stopped. Eli held a small piece of red meat to me, and without thinking, I grabbed it with my beak. I didn't expect that I was going to be treated like an animal or pet, but those thoughts melted away when I realized it was not a cold mouse but lukewarm meat. While still not what I was used to, it was many steps above what I was given.

"Well, that was surprisingly easy. Normally, I'd spend all day trying to get to this point with a wild bird." Eli laughed while I finished my treat. "Now, when I say, I want you to return to the stand and wait for my whistle. Got it?"

I nodded.

"Alright, go back and wait for me." He said, and I didn't hesitate this time and flew over to the stand. I eagerly awaited his whistle so I could get another bite of food. I hadn't felt like that before, but it had been a while since I had eaten. I assumed Eli's purpose was to try and make this easier.

When the whistle blew again, I took off and tried to get to Eli quickly. I flapped as hard as possible, but instead of directing myself up through the air, I forced myself forward as fast as possible. My fast forward speed made my flare difficult as I tried to slow down rapidly. With my talons out, I grabbed the glove, moving too quickly. Landing roughly on his hand, to which he brought up his hand to try and catch me if I had fallen.

"Woah there, no need to rush anything." Eli then handed me a small piece of the meat from the pouch, and it itched something in my head. Something about this arrangement was satisfying and made me want to do more. It wasn't like I was losing control, but I could feel the hawk's instincts in the back of my mind, encouraging the actions. I hadn't felt it since I was out living on my own, and it felt fantastic. My focus seemed to sharpen, and we repeated the same dance for the next few hours, Eli moving further and further away.

Eventually, Eli sat me on the ground and told me to wait while he did something to the stand. While he was over there, I waited eagerly for him to return. But soon, I heard the whistle, and without thinking, I took off and flew toward his outstretched hand. I maneuvered around the perch and landed cleanly on his gloved fist. My mind was focused on one thing and one thing only, but I couldn't help but feel that while I didn't feel out of control, I also felt like the hawk had its influence on my actions.

Once Eli offered me the small bit of meat, I didn't think any more of it. Both the hawk and myself were satisfied.