Zosk POV:

Much time has passed. Many cycles for sure. I must be around 15 years old or so. If I kept any true track of time, I would know.

I missed my family dearly as I did my friends back home. I had to wonder what they thought or felt.

I’ve seen a few missing persons posters in a few places in my travels. I didn’t see my own face on any of them. I’m sure I’m missed by now.

I missed being able to interact with others. But then I’ve gotten very accustomed to being alone. I still steal and I still look into towns that I pass by. Wondering what people were upto….

Guess I’ll stop rambling by now.

I flew over the forest like I have many times before, circling around looking for a place to land. I soon saw a clear enough place that I thought I could land in. Was a stream not too far from it and I felt like I could use a refresher.

I swooped in low, coming in for a landing. I was already back-winging when I saw a net strewn across the path. It was hanging from tree to tree, high on a branch and low on the ground on both sides of it. The sort of net designed to catch hawks or other large birds.

I couldn’t stop myself nor did I have enough room or time to gain any height in my flight to avoid the net. Instead, I ended up plowing right into it. I pulled it from it’s hangings as it was designed to be pulled in such a way, till it was tangled neatly around my body. I was also crashed into the ground where I lay for a moment, winded.

Once I caught my breath, I started to wiggle and squirm around in the net. It had pulled my wings in just a little but not too much. I couldn’t flare them enough to maybe strain on the rope of the net to try to snap it. The net had also tangled around itself some at my feet to help prevent me from opening it easily. The net had some weights on it to help keep it down to the ground. It was these weights that had tangled around each other.

The most I could do and even that was difficult was to sit upright. But I hurt my wings in the process. I wouldn’t really give up though as I wiggled around in the net.

I also looked around to see if I could maybe find a sharp rock or stick I could maybe reach to cut at the rope of the net. All I knew was that I needed to get out of the net and out of the location as quickly as I could.

I wasn’t quick enough though. I first felt it than I saw him. The man who had put the net where it was.

He came right up to my location, where I was caught in the net, about a half hour after I had first got caught in it.

“You going to stand there and stare at me or you going to help me out of this thing?” I asked, in a bit of a cold hard voice, when I noticed the stranger was just standing there, staring at me.

The man did not answer me for a long time. I kind of glared up at him as he just stood there, looking at me. He made no reaction whatsoever to my glaring, just staring right back at me the whole while.

Not sure how much time passed, it was at least 10 to 15 min or so, he still never answered me. Instead, he turned and walked away. I glared at him and even yelled at him to come back to no avail.

He did come back a little later, coming right up to where I was struggling in the net still. I turned to glare at him and he almost smiled as he lowered himself down to the ground.

That’s when I realized what he had in his hand. He had a length of rope and a blanket. He threw the blanket over me, blinding me for a moment before pouncing on me. Pushing the blanket as hard as he could all the way around my body as much as he could. Even pushing my wings into the covering. He didn’t cover my head, leaving that exposed. He wanted to cover me as much as he could, to hide me from the world I guess.

He then took the rope he had and started to wind it around my covered form. I did struggle with the stranger in all of this as much as I could but he was too strong to overcome.

He made some loops in the rope where it would meet up with itself in varying locations on my body. Kind of just double tying me before cinching up the rope tightly. Even more bound than I was before, I still struggled.

He than hefted me up like I was nothing and carried me through the trees over his shoulder. I screamed, begged and struggled the whole while.

Eventually, he reached a pick up truck where he put me into the bed. He then took some small sections of rope, tying the ropes to a few sections of the rope around me. Then tying the loose ends of those ropes to tie down points in the truck. To keep me from slipping off either by struggling or just being bounced around by the truck. I was pinned neatly to the bed of the truck.

I screamed some more but started to lose my voice. The stranger got into the truck, started it up and started to drive off.

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(To just before Zosk gets caught in the net)

Stranger POV:

This is my last day of attempting to catch an exotic pet for my family. They've been pestering me for a while to get one. They didn't want something you could easily get at the pet store. They wanted something unique. It was more for my son than it was for me and my wife. He wanted a hawk or an eagle. So after having done some research into it, I had decided to set up a few nets to try to catch one. I also decided to camp out for a few days, as I didn't need to be home for a while.

I had spotted a large bird flying around a couple days before but it didn't come down near where I had set up the traps. A lot of what I would have to do was just simply wait. Least that's what I read in my research... that it was mostly time and a lot of luck. As birds were very difficult to catch.

I also had to do my best to cover my tracks, to keep those who work with fish and game from finding out what I was doing. Catching a hawk or eagle, outside of for falconry use, which is highly regulated, was considered illegal in this area.

Once I caught the bird and got it home, it'd be easier to keep cause we live pretty distant from others. Very few people would discover that we, or rather my son, had a pet hawk or eagle.

He had been a good boy, kept his grades up in school, kept out of trouble, least so I've been told. So I wanted him to have something special though he had to provide the care and keeping.

He bought a cage, large enough for an eagle, a few days ago and some other supplies. Including some gloves that were needed for handling the bird. And a few falconry supplies as well. He was pretty well much ready, we just needed to get the bird.

I would have brought my son with me on this trip. But he had school he could not miss. Plus I wanted it to be a big surprise for him. My wife just wished me well and good luck on the hunt.

So here I was, just waiting for a hawk or eagle to get caught in one of the nets I had set up. I did have some bait out to help lure a bird to one of the nets. Though one of the nets I didn't bait, just to try my luck there. It was near a stream so I thought maybe I can catch a bird in the off chance it was headed to the stream.

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A few hours after setting the net traps, I heard a sound. The sound I had been waiting for, least I hoped. Kind of a rustling of branches, where the net was hung from, as it caught something.

I was half expecting to hear a loud squawk from whatever it caught but I didn't hear that. Instead, I heard this 'oof' sound as well as a thump of landing that was much heavier than a bird.

I could hear it struggling in the net, some distance from me but never any sounds like a bird would make. Least not any that I expected it to make. I waited for a bit before I would go see what I caught.... just to see if it had made any sounds. While I waited, I took down the other nets. I only wanted one bird.

I knew the net should hold the bird till I got there. I had rigged it so its weighted ends would wrap around each other in a bit of a twist. Which is what it did when I saw the net.

I also saw what was in the net. I was about to rush up and help get the strange man out of the net. But that wasn't until I saw the wings. This strange man had wings. I knew it had to be him cause I've never seen wings so big. Sure some birds can get some really big wings but his, were slightly larger and longer than an albatross. They were a beautiful golden brown.

I stood there, staring at this winged man, not able to really formulate any words. I was pretty awe struck for sure. An angel, a true angel. No wait, it couldn't be. An angel would have been able to get out of the net pretty quick. This winged man was caught in it much like any other animal or even person would.

Soon, the winged man spoke, I heard the words he said. So I knew he had to be intelligent to some respect. But I just stared at him. He even glared at me, which I thought was kinda cute.

I was deciding on what I was going to do with this winged man. I had many choices for sure. I could help him out of the net and let him go, like he had asked me to do so. I wasn't going to do that. Option 2, turn him into the science researchers who would pay dearly for his discovery. I didn't need the money. Both me and my wife made plenty. Option 3, take the winged man home and keep him as a pet.

Alas, I had my choice, and my son would have his pet. A pet that I don't think anyone would have or ever will have in a long time. The winged man was a one of a kind, a very rare being.

So I turned to go back to my truck, to get some things. I also used the time to consider how we're going to keep this winged man, as no cage would be big enough for him. Sure, could make a big cell in one of the rooms and keep the winged man in that. But that would not really suffice. Not for me nor my boy. I put the extra nets into the cab in a box where I kept everything for this trip.

Guess I'll figure out what to do with the winged man on the way home. For now though I had to tie him up more. The net would hold but I wanted more. Plus I wanted to make sure no one else could see him while I headed home.

I had a large blanket and some rope that I collected and made my way back to the winged man. There, I tossed the blanket over the winged man, wrapped it around him to get him covered up, including his wings. Then I struggled to bind him into the ropes. I did this so the blanket would not come off the winged man as well as keep him tied up even more.

I lifted him up, he didn't weigh much and took him to the truck. I was more amused by his screaming, begging and struggling he did.

I got back to the truck again. I put the winged man into the bed of the truck and began to tie him down to the bed of the truck. Didn't want him falling off or being able to get out. He was screaming more too while we struggled for a bit. But I soon got him tied down on his side in a slightly curled position hoping it would help him to relax a little.

He was getting really horse in his voice as I hopped into the cab. I doubted he would be able to scream much more as I started the truck up and started to drive home.