**TRIGGER WARNING: Physical abuse**
What was once tomorrow became today, and I was roused awake by an all too familiar voice reprimanding someone nearby. The owner of the voice was also the owner of my voice in a way: the man who bought me when I was still young enough he thought he could tame me. One of my trainers, not the woman from the previous night, but one of the men, was already in the room, preparing to prepare me. The small wooden table was supporting the weight of a chain leash as well as a gag and custom-made gloves designed to cover my “feet.” In the trainer’s hands was an outfit that the owner undoubtedly wanted me to wear when I performed. It was also custom-made, as poisonbirds’ unique anatomy made it hard for typical human clothes to fit.
In general, my kind are human-sized and vaguely humanoid, but we grow wings which stretch from the middle of our backs and curl forward to meet with where a human's arms would be. Our bodies in general are similar to humans’ besides our wings and legs. Our legs are thicker and more powerful than humans’ and are scaled from around our equivalent of knees to the tips of our toes. Our feet end in four long toes, which closely resemble a bird's but even longer proportionally. Our heads don’t differ from humans’ besides our fangs, which simply replaced human canine teeth, although the fangs are straw-like in order to be able to inject our poison. The name poisonbird stemmed from the poison that our fangs, wings, and talons secrete in addition to our highly toxic diet. Although many debate this fact, poisonbirds are also just as intelligent if not more intelligent than humans, and keeping us in captivity in order to oggle at our feathers and listen to our singing voice that we don’t willingly provide is not only an insult but a violation of basic rights that we should have.
In any case, I was intimately familiar with the process of getting ready for performances, but this trainer was new and awkward. I hated that this man was deemed an acceptable caretaker for me. Even if he wasn’t familiar with my own specific habits and preferences, he acted as if he’d never worked with a poisonbird before, stumbling over himself, almost forgetting to wear gloves, occasionally even accidentally leaving bindings loose or the bars to my room unlocked before realising and rushing back.
As I sat up from the bed, I moved slowly, and he didn’t seem to notice me. When I was upright, I greeted him with a half-hearted hiss, which caused him to visibly jump. I cracked a victorious but lazy smile, likely flashing my fangs, before presenting my "feet" to be gloved. The man hesitated, glancing between me and his instruction sheet, clearly weighing whether he should put on the gloves before or after the outfit. On one hand, at this moment I was actually cooperating and there was low risk of him getting scratched later trying to put my gloves on when I wasn’t cooperating. On the other hand, I knew with 100% certainty his instruction sheet specifically told him NOT to put on the gloves first. He opted to anyways. Of course the correct answer would’ve been to follow the instructions and prioritize the outfit. As he focused on making sure the gloves were on properly, I thrusted my neck forward, aiming my fangs for his neck. His instincts saved him as he jerked back, although I noted that he didn’t throw his arm up like most people’s instincts would default to, he merely moved away.
The logical conclusion from this was either that his arms were paralyzed—obviously not the case as he was using them a second ago—or he had actually worked with poisonbirds before and knew his shit.
“Name,” I spoke to him for the first time. I couldn’t remember, but I was fairly certain that he wasn’t a trainer during my last performance, so I doubted he had yet heard me form real words. Even so, he didn’t seem surprised at the sound of my voice—another sign he was familiar with poisonbirds and their voices. He stared at me, seemingly in disbelief.
“You want my name? I’m Kairen. Did you, uh, did you just try to kill me?”
I shrugged, then stood up from the bed and approached the bars on the south side of the room. There was no one out in the hallways, but I could hear voices of people in nearby rooms, including that I could still pick out the owner’s voice over most of the others.
“Kairen will come back at night to talk. Kairen will bring a hotdog and a strawberry. I will behave for now,” I instructed him.
“Is the hotdog for me or you? You shouldn’t eat human foods, right?”
I shrugged again. He was tentative in reapproaching me, but ultimately he got the gloves back off, the outfit on, then the gloves on again.
“Some of the other trainers told me about what you do. Why do you cooperate sometimes but totally ignore them others?”
I turned my head, ignoring his question. With little time left until I would be expected to perform, he was supposed to urge me to sing and check that I was properly bound so that there wouldn’t be any mishaps. Instead, he sat by himself in the corner playing with one of the glowing rectangles I sometimes saw humans with. I flapped my wings to stretch them out, then flew to the top of the perch in the room. A bit later there was a small flash of light, and I looked towards the source to see Kairen’s glowing rectangle.
I tilted my head, “What is that?”
He looked up at me, startled that I had instigated a conversation, “…It’s a phone?”
“And what is a phone?”
“Umm, well, it’s an electronic device that lets you talk to people who are far away, either by voice or by text, although most phones, like this one, do more than that now in these days.”
“What was the light?”
“Well, that was the camera’s flash, so that when you take a picture the lighting is good.”
I narrowed my eyes, “You aren’t supposed to take pictures. Kairen is breaking rules,” I grinned.
“… I guess so? I don’t think you talk to people enough to tattle on me, though.”
I was suspicious of Kairen, after all he was clearly hiding the fact that he knew how to deal with poisonbirds, but he also seemed intriguing at least compared to the other humans I had come into contact with. I was curious about how he would react to the “motivation” that would soon occur on stage.
I didn’t have to be curious long, as it was only another moment later that his “phone” made a strange noise and he stood and grabbed the chain leash and gag. I willingly opened my mouth for the gag and raised my chin for him to attach the leash, and I waited patiently for him to open the gate and lead me out to the stage. Once on stage, we were met by another of the male trainers, a larger man that seemed the type to be violent during his training, but was actually one of the most gentle. I hadn’t bothered learning his name.
The trainer was already on stage and seemed to be hyping the crowd, and by his reactions and the cheers coming from the crowd I knew it was one of the larger sized audiences. When the trainer introduced me, Kairen pulled me forward onto the stage and passed the leash off to the trainer, who proceeded to remove the gag. I faced the audience, planted my feet, and then did nothing. The trainer looked at both Kairen and me, but he also seemed to be expecting it. He lashed me with his whip once, now that it was in front of a crowd, hard enough to leave a harsh stinging line down my back. Once again, I didn’t react. He kept trying the whip a few times, and as I continued to refuse to sing, a few members of the audience stood to leave.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please wait! We promised a show and a show we shall provide! If this doesn’t work, we have other more proven methods of making him sing.”
And with those words I knew what was coming, but I still could never get used to the feeling. The trainer’s gloved hand wrapped around a small cluster of my feathers and yanked. His tug was hard enough to rip out the handful of feathers, warranting a scream. Another handful came out, but it was the third that did the trick, as I gave in and sang the first of the songs off their list. After the first song was over, I stopped and looked around. The trainer looked the same as always, playing interested but actually bored, the audience was the standard mix of impressed— from those who had heard a poisonbird’s song before— and completely hypnotized and awestruck— from those who were hearing it for the first time. Kairen, on the other hand, was shifting his weight between his two legs, visibly upset over the damage to my wings.
Without being prompted again, I went into the next song, and then the next, and so on until I was through the songs the owner consistently made me sing. The trainer quickly shoved the gag back into my mouth, which somewhat knocked me off balance, and passed the leash to Kairen, who proceeded to drop the chain. It took him a second to regain a grip on the leash, long enough that if I was crazy enough to try I probably could’ve just flown away. The trainer sent Kairen a harsh glare, so Kairen rushed off the stage, dragging me behind him.
When he had gotten me back to the room, perhaps two or three hours after we had initially left the room, he loudly shouted, “What the hell was that?” and grabbed my wing to assess the damage. I shook my wing out of his hands and batted uselessly at the gag and leash, also drawing attention to the gloves. He got me out of the bindings and helped me remove the outfit and change back into my regular attire. As soon as I felt back to normal, I shook out my wings, and carefully flew to the top of the perch to preen.
I looked down to Kairen, “Kairen will come tonight. Kairen will bring a hotdog, a strawberry, and disinfectant spray.”
He tilted his head, “Why do you talk like that?”
I shrugged. He sighed.
“I’ll come tonight, then, I guess.”
Comments (0)
See all