Chapter 17

"You're back late" said Tori as Taylor entered the house.

"Buddy got into a bit of a scuffle at the park, so we took him to the vet to make sure he's okay"

"He fought with another dog?"

"Don't know, he just ran off as usual and when he came back he was covered in scratches. By the way weren't you supposed to be going out?"

"Blake canceled, his brother's in town for the weekend so they're gone riding, and I'm as so bored" she said crashing into the couch.

"Where are the others?" Taylor asked leaning against the door frame of their living room.

"Maddie's at work and Z's out trying her new camera, so it's just us"

"Actually there's somewhere I've wanted to go ever since I got back, you're welcome to come along"

"Sure it's not like I have anything better to do"

15 minutes later they were both sitting in Tori's van driving towards the edge of town.

Tori sighed and turned to her companion

"I'm sorry I'm being so sour it's just that well…"

"You planned your whole day out and now it's all washed out" said Taylor smiling

"Yeah, pretty much" said Tori almost laughing

Taylor turned to look out of the window, her chin resting in the palm of her hand as looking out at the familiar scenery pass by.

"So where are we going anyways? We're almost out of town and I'm pretty sure the woods are somewhere down here"

"That's right just turn left here and we'll be there"

Tori took a sharp left and entered a large parking lot, she parked in the nearest available spot and then followed Taylor down to a large building with what looked like huge glass domes behind it.

The signboard on the front bore the legend 'The Animarium'

"The Animarium" whispered Tori as walked through the glass front doors

"What is this place?"

"It's a nature preserve center. I used to come here all the time"

"It looks amazing"

"You haven't even seen the best part yet"

"How may I help you?" the receptionist asked them as the walked towards her desk

"Taylor?"

The three of them turned to see a tall woman with light brown curly hair walk towards them wearing a greenish brown suit.

"Mrs. Masters" said Taylor shaking her hand "It's nice to see you again"

"Yes it is, it's been a long time since you last came here"

"A very long time, uh… this is my friend Tori; Tor Mrs. Masters runs this place"

"It's nice to meet you, this is place is amazing"

"Thank you, but just wait till Taylor shows you the rest of this place"

"Uh… excuse me m'am but…'

"Oh yes excuse me girls I have a meeting to get to, but you go ahead and take a look around, and Taylor if your planning on coming back to us do let me know we could use your help"

"Sure"

"Oh and Trey and Maya are with the birds" she called as she hurried down the corridor"

"What did she mean by that?" asked Tori after they had gotten their visitors badges and were now walking past several exhibit halls.

"I used to come and volunteer around here when I was in junior high but I think she just offered me a job"

"And…"

"And what?"

"Are you going to do it?"

"Don't know"

"So where are we anyways?"

"We just passed the exhibit halls that's the information centre" she gestured through the window to building that resembled a threes storey house.

"Wow" said Tori as they stepped out of an elevator onto a skywalk overlooking the entire property

"It looks just like a real forest, in a snow globe that is"

"That's because it is. This place is right at the edge of the woods of the plants here were part of it, except for the botanical gardens over there" she gestured to one of the other domes.

"So what's with the domes?"

"They regulate the environment, especially keeping the pollution away, that's why there are five of them the Aquarium, Avery, reptiles, wild animals and the Botanical gardens" she pointed out each in turn

"And even the containment units within each dome has regulators so that the environment of the animals isn't disturbed especially for those that thy release back into the wild, the aquarium is even connected to the harbor"

"That's really cool, can we go there"

Taylor smiled "sure after we say hello to some old friends of mine"

Soon they were walking along a path through the Avery, every now and then a bird would fly past.

"I thought they'd all be in cages"

"No, different species of birds have their nests in the same areas, where their fed but most of them fly around for the most part a few of them who prefer a certain kind of climate"

"You sure know a lot about this place"

"I've been coming here ever since I was a kid and this was one of my most favorite places"

"Why am I not surprised"

"Hey I don't think we're supposed to go off the path" yelled Tori as Taylor walked straight into the woods ignoring the winding path

"Its fine, come on" she called

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Tori asked after they had been walking through the woods for a couple of minutes

"Of course I do"

At that moment a beautiful golden brown eagle came flying through the trees making Tori duck

"What was that?"

"An eagle"

"Don't they prefer heights or something?"

"They do" said Taylor as she walked towards the tree where the eagle was now perched "but that doesn't mean they can't come down here if they want to"

"Suppose so, that one did scare the heck out of me but I have to admit it is a beauty"

"That he is and he seems very familiar"

"Hey" they someone shout

The girls turn to see a boy coming towards them, he was tall well built and had light brown hair. He wore brown cargo pants with a black T-shirt with an unbuttoned yellow shirt which had the animarium logo on the left and an Id around his neck.

"You're not…. Supposed… to… be here" he said in between pants.

"Looks like someone's way out of shape huh Trey"

The boy stared at her and she stared back folding her arms in front of her while Tori looked from one to the other

"Taylor?"

"Yes"

"It is you" he said smiling as he walked over to give her a hug

"Who did you think it was?"

"Oh just some other crazy kid who thought it would be fun to go walking through the woods and decided to drag her friend along with her"

"Very funny. Trey Tori, Tori Trey"

"Its nice to meet you" he said as he shook her hand and Tori nodded.

"So what are you doing here?" he turned back to Taylor

"Can't a girl drop in to say hi to her friends?"

"And that's why you're here ….right, well come on then Maya's waiting"

He turned to leave but stopped

"You coming Egan?"

"Egan" repeated Taylor immediately turning to look at the eagle again who screeched happily before taking off and flying ahead of them.

"Was that really him?"

"Why else do you think he came out here?"

"But shouldn't he be gone by now"

"Thing is he won't "

"Huh"

Trey shrugged "You get a weird one in every bunch… ah here we are"

He lead the way into clearing surrounded by extremely tall trees, in the very center was a large cage with a small tree growing through it.

"What took you so long?" asked a woman, she had long messy light brown hair and amber eyes. She wore a beige tank top under her yellow shirt over black pants.

"Taylor?"

"Hey Maya" she said as she gave the older woman a hug.

"It's been a long time hasn't it"

"Too long, I've really missed this place"

"And we've missed you, especially Egan"

"Wow this place is really something"

"Whose you're friend?"

"Maya this is Tori, Tori Maya"

"Nice to meet you Tori"

"You too"

"Who's that guy?" she asked pointing out to an eagle that was flying around the tree in the cage

"We don't name the eagles" Trey answered

" Huh"

"The eagles here are the ones that have been hurt and rescued, once their deemed fit enough their released back into the wild, so there's no sense in naming them, their just tagged so that they can be identified" Taylor explained

"But what about…"

"This one" said Maya referring to Egan who had now perched himself on her gloved hand "He's special, his kind isn't commonly found in these parts, but somehow he ended up with a crushed wing down by the stream in the woods and Taylor's the one who found him and brought him here. He was in a pretty bad state and took a while to heal, Taylor came to see him almost everyday and she and Trey named him and he's grew fond of her"

Egan screeched and flew over to Taylor who accepted the glove Maya handed her and let him perch on her hand as she stroked his feathers.

"By the time he was fully healed" she continued "Taylor had already left and when we took him out along with the others he refused to leave, we even tried locking him out, he just std there till we let him back in so no now he's our only permanent resident eagle."

"So that's why he's the only one with a name?"

"Yeah, naming them increases familiarity so we try not to name the ones that we release back into the wild that way they don't get attached"

"By the way Tay did you run into Mrs. M?"

"Yeah when we first came in"

"Did she offer you a job yet?"

"How did you…"

"She's been looking for someone for a while, ever since Sera quit"

"Yeah all the new applicants we got filled up the other sections their afraid the birds will dive bomb them"

"So are you going to do it or what?"

"Can't think of a reason not to"

Egan screeched and they all laughed

"Okay guys, we're gonna go see the fish" said Taylor as she raised her arm letting Egan fly off and handed the glove back to Maya

"I'll see you around okay"

"See ya"

"So long, it was nice to meet you guys and you too Egan

"Come back anytime Tori"

"Thanks" said Tori as they left the dome surrounding the Avery and headed down a passage towards the aquarium where they were greeted by people in blue shirts.

"Are those their uniforms?"

"Yeah, each section has a different color, it's yellow for the avery, blue for the aquarium, red for the gardens, green for the reptiles, black for the animals, the guys in the clinic wear white and the administration wears brown and everyone gets their name printed on the back"

"Cool"

"So where do you want to go first"

"Do they have dolphins?"

"They used to"

"Then what are we waiting for, let's go"

I hope you like it. Pease review.