Do You Know Why The Caged Bird Sings?

As she left the bathroom once again, she sent a silent prayer towards the unseen sky, a small thank you to whatever God or Goddess who resided up among those white clouds and had taken the time to look down at her. The bath had been blissfully perfect, thank Whoever, and that meant that Tyta got to leave with only a bloody nose. A smile etched her lips, for her arms and her brown-spotted wings remained untouched and unbroken. She remembered the last time her arm had been broken, and she had had to do all her work with one hand. She also remembered the last time her wing had been broken. It was horrible, although it interfered much less than her arm. It had been like the reality of being unable to fly had crashed down upon her, as if what she had before had been slightly less obvious. Of course, it was not like she could fly anyways, for whenever she stepped foot outside she was shackled with heavy iron cuffs that weighed her down too much. Still, the broken wing had simply made that reality so much more painful and, well, real. So that explained the whole grin behind the bloody nose.</SPAN>

As she walked into the living room, the area she had to clean next, she suddenly realized the problem that arose with a bloody nose. How was she to clean the white-carpeted room when red slowly dripped down her face to stain? She began with dusting, one hand cupped under her face to catch any stray droplets of blood, as another Avian slave entered. The older woman took one look at Tyta's bleeding face and rushed away, returning with a damp sponge. The woman approached Tyta, and offered her the sponge, which she held gratefully to her face, staining the yellow material with droplets of red. "Thank you Sunniva," She mumbled to the maternally bird.</SPAN>

Sunniva clucked her tongue at Tyta. "You wish for a whipping? Why are you still cleaning this place with that nose?" Tyta opened her mouth to answer, a slight salty twang on it from some of the escaped blood, but she was interrupted. "And don't you dare say because it's your job. You know perfectly well I am willing to help. So you go rest, it's my break time, and I will clean this up for you."</SPAN>

Tyta protested, but was hushed by the woman. "Now, I don't want your life to be any more horrible than it is. Let an old woman be happy, and rest to save your youth." Tyta placed a kiss upon the other woman's cheek, a thank you, before she headed off to her room.</SPAN>
 
"Of course, sir." She siad simply as she went about preparing the customers drink.

It was obvious that she had done this before as she skillfully mixed up the White Russian and put it into a stylish glass. She then set the drink in front of him, though she had to reach a bit even though she was on the stool. One night even question why such a short person had been hired as a bartender until they remembered she was an avian, she wasn't restricted to the ground like humans were. If she wanted she could flutter up to the top shelf to grab the liquor without having to get onto a ladder. She just used the stool so she could see over the bar and such.

"There you are." She said, smiling a bit at him politely before looking over the bar once more to make sure no one was being ignored.
 
The sound of glass breaking sounded through the small cafe, instantly alerting Amella. Her head jerked up instinctively and she quickly set down the plate she was preparing and dashed into the back room, where she found a poor girl trying to clean up broken glass. Upon hearing her enter, the girl's wings fluttered nervously, knocking over another small jar nearby. She gasped and looked pleadingly at Mel, trying to stop any movement lest she break something else. "I-I'm so sorry, Miss Black! I-I tripped a-and—" the girl stuttered, almost in tears. She gestured to the mess helplessly. "It's okay, hun!" Amella assured. She bent down and started picking up the glass, gently moving the flustered girl out of the way. "You should have seen what I did yesterday. Did I tell you how I got this bruise on my face?" The girl shook her head. "Well, I was carrying a tray out to the floor and ran into the door!" she said, laughing. The story reassured the girl, and soon they had the glass cleaned up.

"Take the rest of the day off. I feel like closing early today anyways,"she said. The girl left and Amella took care of the rest of the cafe, waiting until there was a lull in the small crowd so she could close up. In about an hour, she was completely done, and only one of her friends remained, waiting with some "juicy gossip." She locked the door and started walking down the street with her friend, wandering aimlessly as she listened to her friend talk. Finally, the good part came up. "There's this old house downtown, practically falling apart. Looks abandoned, except for maybe a few homeless that squat there occasionally. But I'm sure you wouldn't be interested in that," her friend teased, knowing that Mel was indeed very interested. One of her little hobbies was exploring new parts of town. Sometimes she would find little trinkets; worthless pieces of junk that no one else found interesting, like a pretty rock or an old gold compact. "Okay, now you have to tell me!" she said. Her friend gave her directions, which she immediately set off towards, saying goodbye to seemingly exasperated friend.

When she got to the house, she let out a low whistle. "Decrepit" was a good word for the place. Amella studied it for a second, then went inside, entering through what used to be a doorway. The door itself was long gone. She started exploring, occasionally eyeing the ceiling warily. She had been in worse places, but she had developed a healthy paranoia after one incident where a piece of ceiling fell on her head. The first floor yielded almost nothing but trash and used condoms, which she carefully stepped around, so she started on the second floor, taking the steps carefully. Here, there were more rooms to explore, which she set about eagerly.
 
"Maybe that would be a good idea," Sol said. If the avian's name was known it would be smarter to not flagg it in the open for anyone to hear. "But if you want to I can call you Teesa when there are no one around." She offered, smiling slightly askew.

Listening to Teesa talk gave Sol so many ideas over how those homes could look like, high places where the wind could whisper at them and where avians could get peace and be alone from humans when they wished. After all didn't birds feel better sleeping in trees, which bird capable of flight would sleep near the ground? "It sounds amazing, to have a place like this but better decorated and less rundown out of reach and with the elements nearby," she said dreamily. "But a lot would have to happen for that to be possible," she added with a frown.

"Honestly I hadn't either," she chuckled slightly. "It was my mother who was the brain all the time back then." If her mother was free, not to mention still alive, then she would be a great help to this cause, Sol was sure that if her mother could help her escape then she could help the avians escape their chackled fate. That thought was influenced by her childish memories though.

"As a start we need more avians to help us," she said rustling her wings slightly. "Just us two alone have practically no chance but if we found more people then we can take back our freedom, I know it. Then we can free your father as well." Sol's voice was strong and full of hope, true she was quite negative sometimes but she was dead set on this succeeding that she refused to influence herself negatively.

Thats when she heard a low sound from the lower floors, normally it hadn't been possible to hear sounds like that but the building was so destroyed outwardly and between the floors, the utter silence below them also intensified the sound. It was probably just yet another human doing something illegal or looking around but caution had allowed her to keep her small freedom. "Did you hear that?" She asked Teesa, looking at the avian, wondering if she really was too paranoid.
 
Joshua took the drink gracefully and looked at the cream coloured drink. Smiling he took a swig and sighed, he was satisfied with the drink. "Excuse me miss, may I ask your name?" he asked obviously talking to the bartender in his slight accent. He was naturally curious and she was cute so what harm would be done knowing her name? 'None' the chinaman confirmed in his mind nodding slightly. He took another gulp of the drink it now half finished. Joshua applauded her in his mind for what a job well done she did making his drink. Smiling he watched her look around for other people to attend too.
 
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Teesa listened quietly to Sol as she spoke, smiling slightly when she had offered to call her by her preferred name when they weren't in public. it brought her a slight amount of comfort to be here with this other Avian, knowing that she could at least trust her own kind. Her wings fluttered slightly, the feathers spreading slightly, stretching. How could she even go out with everything that was going on? She looked at the ground as Sol reacted to her words about the housing, her smile growing a little wider, not expecting such a reply.

They needed more avians.... Sol had said it, and though Teesa agreed, she was worried. What if people started to notice a small trickle of avians only going to one place? What if people caught on, and tried to stop it? What if they found her?

It was an impossible decision, to lay low, or to try and gather her kin to try and fight against this ridiculous behavior from the humans- and possibly free her father. Her father, who had raised her from a hatchling all on his own while dealing with the death of his mate, who kept her out of trouble and taught her how to fly. Who had mean bones in his body reserved only for his job as a historian, and making sure she got her job done right. He had never been unkind to her, and now he was locked up, because of her.

He had the pieces of her egg hidden somewhere in their house, in a box of things that he held dear.... along with a ring, a simple silver ring, that had been her mother's, and a picture of her parents together, the picture must have been taken from the ground, because they were flying, holding hands, the wind rustling through their hair and their clothes- frozen in what appeared to be a fit of laughter. Happiness.

She missed those things.... and wanted to get them before any human police could grab it up as some kind of "evidence".

She almost didn't hear Sol's concern over some noise from the lower levels.

"I didn't hear anything, but I was.... distracted, let's check, no flying, we're fast, but just flapping them makes a pretty recognizable sound... where can we sneak down to check on what's going on?" Teesa asked quietly, folding her wings up against her back.[/DASH]
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Una looked at the man for a moment, his question having caught her attention and put it back on him for a moment.

"My name is Una, Sir." She said simply, still in business mode.

It wasn't that she didn't want to be friendly to anyone but it was her first night, she didn't want to make a bad impression on her bosses by making it look like she was chatting up the customers instead of selling them the alcohol. Also, she was never much of a social bird anyway and had mostly kept to herself both during and outside of her work.
 
"No need to be so serious Una," Joshua said with a slight laugh taking another swig of his drink "Word of advice: people are more likely to buy from someone who is friendly towards them." He finished off his drink and placed the empty glass down in front of him before wiping off the white on his lips left over.

"I know it's probably not in my place to tell you though, or ask you your name, but I can't seem to care." He shrugged leaned against the counter a smirk adorning his face. Alcohol always did this to him, cause him to become cocky and full of himself.
 
"Oh...Well, thank you for the advice." She said simply as she looked at him. "Would you like another?"

She grabbed onto his empty glass and set it close by as she waited for his replay, seeming to know it as she started to pull out the required items to make another White Russian for him to consume. She still waited though, not need to wait the items if he did not wan t it.
 
"Yeah I'll have another one." He said with a smile. As Una made the drink he watched with a somewhat disinterested face. He growing bored waiting he looked around the room to see if anyone he knew was here. Not a soul, sighing he turned back and watched her finish up the drink and pour it in the glass.
 
Una was quick with making the new drink, placing it in front of him without much trouble. It looked just like the drink before it, almost a perfect copy in appearance. If anyone had just glanced they might think that he was still on his first one. She smiled politely at him before looking around the bar again. There were plenty of people but many of them seemed more interested in their talks than their drinks...looked like it would be a long shift today.

"Here you go." She said with a small grin.
 
Sol nodded in agreement. "Follow me, there is a way down, at least about half way down where the floor is quite safe to walk on," she said in a low voice. Folding up her blue wings tightly against her back as she showed Teesa the safer way. "Just watch where you set down your foot and be prepared to use your wings and it shouldn't be too hard." Sol was glad avians had a lighter skeleton and weighed less than humans, it made it a lot easier to walk on unstable places, like this old building.

Carefully making her way down Sol kept her senses on alert, dark eyes darting to take in every shadow and possible hiding place, it wasn't so likely that a human had made it this far up but you could never know, and anticipation was the key to survival. "What do you think we should do if there is someone there Teesa?" Sol asked quietly, looking at the other avian briefly. When she was working with Teesa she didn't want to take charge of all the decisions jsut because she lived here.

Moving down another flight of stairs Sol placed her foot wrong and the floor creaked dangerously but it held, though the sound would have been heard if anyone was nearby. Cursing under her breath Sol glared at the floor as if it should feel sorry for betraying her and alerting who ever it was she had heard. If she had heard anyone at all, the further down she and Teesa made it the more Sol wondered if paranoia had taken over her mind. Then, she heard a scuffle just one or two flight of stair further down. Turning to Teesa she pointed down the staircase and mouthed the words, 'down there'. Her heart beat a bit faster than she liked to admit and she wondered who was down there.
 
Amella wandered around, going room to room searching for things. Occasionally, she found evidence of homeless people living here; bed rolls and other miscellanea. She left that stuff alone; she didn't want to take things that belonged to someone that didn't have much. It'd just be wrong and cruel. After exploring a few more rooms, she was thinking that the place had already been picked clean. That happened sometimes, especially when homeless people lived in them. She sighed in disappointment, but was determined to search the rest of the house. Maybe she'd find a book, even. There had to be something interesting here! She felt it; this house held something, some kind of secret that the rest of the world was oblivious to. And she was going to find it out today.

Suddenly, she tripped. Not paying attention to her feet, Amella had tripped on a door jamb that had gotten warped upward. With a cry, she fell, crashing loudly to the floor. She sat up, rubbing her hands and muttering to herself about how stupid she was. Well, at the least place was empty. There was no one to witness her stupidity. She groaned as she got up, checking herself for any injuries. She didn't want to have to get another tetanus shot. Thankfully, there was nothing but a few scrapes and her wounded pride. She brushed herself off and walked to the other end of the building, near another set of stairs. She entered one of the rooms there and sat in the corner, bringing a water bottle out of her bag to sip on while she thought about abandoning her search. Today was not her day, and she didn't want to end up injured or anything like that.
 
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Teesa nodded quietly in response, her wings rustled as she followed Sol, though was surprised to be asked what they should do, if they find someone rummaging through the house- though Teesa wasn't sure either. It really depended on who was in the house- and... she supposed motive had a factor, too. Why would someone be poking around in this place anyways?

The avian grimaced as she heard the creak of the floor boards under Sol's feet, and the fear of making a sound as well caused her to just barely flap her wings and hover over that one squeaky piece of wood. It was near that time that she heard a bit of a scuffle below them as Sol pointed downwards to where she thought the intruder might be.

"I'm afraid..." She murmured, her wings folding up tightly to her back as she followed Sol, though a misstep caused her to trip, only stopping herself from falling by flapping her wings hard, the gust created by the movement was in no means quiet, and she grimaced, firing an apologetic look in Sol's direction. What could they do now? Surely now the intruder knew that something else was in the house. She had given them away.... what now.... what now?

Teesa was more than just frightened- she was scared that perhaps the police were checking out any place that rebels might be hiding out.

"Maybe... maybe we should just escape....." She whimpered out, cowardice coming out in full force, something that she had never experienced before in such magnitude. Teesa looked to Sol for strength, hoping for answers.[/DASH]
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Hearing the strong flapping of wings Sol looked back to see Teesa managing to avoid falling to the floor, though the sound must have alerted the intruder. Listening to her speak Sol saw the logic in the other avians words, it would be risky continuing further considering who it was below them but she had always been curious to a fault and she wanted to see if this intruder was dangerous enough so they would have to relocate or just some curious bypasser. "I just want to take a look," she whispered, showing nothing of her own hesitation, from an early age Sol had stopped showing many emotions outwardly.

"It's unneccessary to move to another location if this is no threat. If there is someone posing danger we'll leave okay?" Sol continued with a small, encouraging smile. Taking care of where she put her feet Sol moved over the floor and reached the staircase without sound, her wings spread out to help her keep her balance and a light step.Both excited and nervous Sol bent down to the hole left by the almost destroyed staircase, looking down to see any movement.

A sudden yelp startled Sol and she almost lost her balance but she could see nothing about the person from this angle so she lay down flat on her stomach and inched closer to the gap, this gave her a better view of the floor below, a human was walking around the room until she came over the stairs were Sol looked down. Holding her breath she tried to make herself invisible as the human girl sat down right below her.

It didn't seem like a threat, just a girl who was curious about an old building, but you couldn't be too careful after all so Sol stayed still not daring to rise up or say something to Teesa in fear of alerting the human. As it was starting to get uncomfortable Sol's long black hair fell over her shoulders, dangling beside her face, brushing lightly over her skin, tickling her immensly, squirming slowly Sol tried to ignore the feeling without succeeding.
 
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