Jannah led us to another, larger room farther down the same hallway, inside which the people who were going to talk to me on live television were staring at a device that reminded me of the “phone’” that Kairen had taught me about, but bigger. I could hear noises from the device but couldn’t devote attention to the visuals because of the crowd of people watching. I glanced to Krim, but he was just waiting like I was, looking slightly uncomfortable. Jannah cleared her throat loudly, and every face in the room turned to us.

“Y’all, these guys are Krim and Eclipse. Yer interviewing them when we go on, right, remember?”

“Yes, Jannah,” one of the men said in an exasperated tone while rolling his eyes, “You can go, we’ll get set up.”

With that, Jannah seemed satisfied and left.

The man who had replied to Jannah outstretched his hand to Krim, “Nice to meet you, I’m Daniel, Daniel Cliffe.”

“Krim Harley, nice to meet you too,” Krim said, grabbing Daniel’s hand back.

“This is Eclipse then? He’s pretty impressive,” Daniel replied, looking me up and down. I cooed softly, trying to express thanks.

“Aww, that noise was adorable! Does he normally do that? What did that mean?”

“That’s not an uncommon noise, I would guess he was thanking you for the compliment.”

“Oh! Well, you’re welcome then!” Daniel said with a sincere laugh, “So… Jannah said we’re interviewing both of you, and that’s what it says in our general script, but he, like, really understands us? They’re intelligent?”

“Yeah, poisonbirds have shown just as much capability towards communicating in and understanding human languages as us humans do. It’s a safety risk to remove his gag until it’s actually time for him to talk for the show, but they communicate just like us but with additional ranges of sounds. Their voices are also widely considered soothing and they aren’t quite the same as a human voice, so that’s why they were most commonly expected to sing as opposed to any of their other skills, like flying.”

“That’s incredible. Back to preparing for the show, you’ll be on the recording floor with me and Terrai. Terrai, come here and introduce yourself.”

A woman approached and held her hand out to Krim just like Daniel had, “I’m Maxine Terrai, but most people, including myself, like my last name better. Glad to be working with you two. Was Daniel explaining what was going to happen when we go live?”

Krim nodded while taking her hand, which prompted Daniel to resume talking, “I was just telling them they’d be on with you and me. I haven’t gotten any farther than that yet. In general, we’ll just ask both of you about Eclipse. There are some questions directly aimed at Eclipse’s perspective of life, some aimed at Mr. Harley’s perspective of raising poisonbirds and some more factual questions about what poisonbirds actually are, and some vaguer questions aimed at both of you. We’re already going to be out on the stage when the cameras go live, but if something is wrong, just step outside of the camera’s range and get someone’s attention. You guys have any questions?”

I couldn’t ask them even if I did had questions, and Krim shook his head.

“Great, we should be on in like 10 minutes now, right? I can have Jannah come back and show you to the stage now, or you can wait here with us while we finish up.”

“We wouldn’t want to bother anyone, whatever is easier is fine.”

With that, Daniel called for Jannah, and she showed us to the stage, where she took the time to point out the cameras. On the stage, there were “couches” positioned across from the cameras. Krim sat me down on the “couch” closer to the outside of the stage, and sat down in the “couch” next to mine. The “couch” was nice to sit on and more comfortable than my bed. Shortly after we were seated, Daniel and Terrai entered the room and took their seats on the remaining “couches.”

“Only a few minutes, everyone feeling okay? No nerves?” Terrai asked.

Krim chuckled and told them we were fine. I tapped his arm to get his attention, then gestured at the gag and the gloves. Sighing, Krim got up and unstrapped everything but the leash. I stretched my jaw and toes. Daniel and Terrai seemed to flinch.

“So that was what those were for. Damn, those teeth and nails are kinda scary,” Daniel said.

An assistant from behind the cameras started to call out a thirty second countdown.