Life had certainly gotten a little busier at the Meyer farm as of late.
“Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!”
Not to mention louder. In the week since she’d hatched, Leona has grown quite a bit, having nearly tripled in size. Her formerly naked front half is know covered in an appropriately puffy mass of grayish-white down feathers, and she is no longer restricted to crawling around in terms of movement, being perfectly capable of holding herself up.
“Chiiirp! Chiiirp! Chiiirp!”, the tiny cat-bird squeaks out once again, each vocalization louder than the last.
“Okay, okay, I hear you loud and clear, girl. I’ll get you your food in just a second.”
Chris thought to himself that he certainly wasn’t expecting the critter to have quite this voracious of an appetite. Through trial and error he learned that Leona got hungry every few hours or so, and if not fed would make herself known. Loudly.
Taking some more pork out of the fridge, and cutting it up into manageable cubes, Chris began feeding little griffin. As he held each tiny cube in front of Leona, she eagerly snatched them up and gobbled them down. Chris had to admit, that he found her pretty cute.
And so the routine continued for another week or so, when another pivotal change took place in the Meyer household.
Chris woke up to the sound of his alarm clock, which struck him as odd as soon as the haze of sleep began to lift. Usually he’d wake up at least 10 minutes earlier than his alarm to the sound of Leona demanding food, but no such sounds could be heard this morning. He made his way over to the corner of his bedroom, where he’d set up Leona’s pen and nest. She was perfectly fine and awake by all apperances, and merely stared up at Chris attentively as he approached.
His thought began to turn to worry, as he considered if she’s gotten sick somehow, or there was something else wrong with her, but before he could ruminate on such thoughts longer, he heard something which completely shook him from his contemplation.
“Papa!”
For a moment, what he’d heard didn’t quite register, and he merely stared down at Leona, who was now looking up at him with what could only be described as complete adoration.
“Leona… did you just say something?”, Chris wondered out loud.
“Papa! Liebe!” Came the answer.
‘Holy shit’, thought Chris, ‘Leona was already at the point at which she could talk?’
Chris wonderment was shaken once more, as Leona continued to speak at him.
“Papa! Hungrig!”
She was clearly speaking German, even if at the level of a young child, which Chris supposed she was. I suppose it made sense for a German product to speak German, but that only muddled the circumstances of her being here. If her mother was a runaway from a batch intended for the American market, why was she speaking German, and not English?
With no answers forthcoming, and with Leona continuing to complain about being hungry, Chris went about feeding her breakfast in the usual manner. It soon became apparent however, that her sudden increase in communicative ability was merely one facet of an overall increase in cognition compared to just a few days ago.
While Leona’s behavior up until now had consisted of largely sleeping and eating, now she was engaged in a whole new swath of activities. The most immediately concerning of which was her newfound desire to explore her surroundings.
Chris could only watch in exasperation as the pen he’d set up was entirely unsuited to containing her. It really should have been obvious in hindsight, why did he ever think a pen, barely a foot high, could contain a creature who’s primary genetic influences were feline and avian?
And so for the first day since she began to speak, Chris spent an inordinate amount of time keeping an eye on Leona’s escape attempts, and capturing her whenever she engaged in one.
Leona for her part found this all incredibly amusing, probably assuming it was some sort of game. And she giggled happily as she ran away from Chris.
Eventually she got tuckered out from the chasing game, and after being brought back to her nest one last time, settled in for a nap.
Chris was relieved, but also exasperated as he’d spent almost an entire day trying to wrangle his suddenly hyperactive pet. He stared down at the sleeping figure of Leona in her nest, with a rather tired expression.
“Papa… Liebe…” Muttered Leona through her sleep.
‘Well… I guess it was kinda fun.’ thought Chris, as he pulled a blanket over Leona.