Birds of a Feather

Victoria moved slowly as she looked at the room. She felt so much like Alice when she fell down that rabbit hole into another world. This room was like a collection of all the things that fell into the hole too. She grabbed a jar of light bugs, fascinated by them she looked at them a moment before she held the light closer to the map. He repeated her curiously, clearly not having heard of the 'tales' she was referring to. But she didn't answer him right away. She was more intimidating by there being more 'harpies'.

Efron's question of 'tales' returned to her mind and she looked back up at him and gave an awkward smile. "Um yes. Tales... You see uh Efron... Where I come from... Things er people like you don't exist. That bat thing... I've never seen anything like it." She placed the jar on a table and sighed as she looked around. "The local people told us that no one had even come to this island and returned. But they told of a sacred place were all kinds of birds lived."

Caught up in her tale she continued. "My professor and my... best friend..." Her voice dropped as she remembered the two that didn't make it. She looked at Efron a long moment as her eyes started to water. "We... We all wanted to come here..." She quickly looked away as she placed her hand over her mouth. A tear rolling down her cheek as she remembered them. "I'm sorry." She said abruptly as she quickly wiped away the tear.