Tooth and Claw

Chapter Two

I change quickly and return the the aviary lobby where Jax is already talking to the crowd. He waves me over to talk to the woman standing next to him.

"Hello." I wave.

"Hi. The show was brilliant, even if it was not what we were expecting. Are all of the shows like this?" She asks.

"None of the other dinosaur shows are set up this way, and not even all of the pteranodon shows are. Every other half hour there's a show that's just facts about the pteranodons and the animals doing tricks for treats that's just called 'pteranodon show' on the schedule. This one is called 'aviary show' and that's how you can tell the difference." I explain.

"Oh, wonderful. We may just see the other show as well later. Also, just out of curiosity, was the bite part of the show? Did you actually get hurt?" She asks.

I explain to her that it was part of the show and that Sill has been trained to bite me in a specific way so that her teeth don't actually clamp down on my arm. She nods, we talk for another minute or two and then she smiles before walking out of the aviary.

Out of nowhere, my parents swoop down on me and there's no hope of escape. I sigh, having almost forgotten about what happened.

"A little warning would have been nice." My mother speaks first, tear stains still on her cheeks as she pulls me into a hug.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know that you guys were here yet until you started screaming." I apologize honestly, staring at my hands awkwardly.

"You never brought this up over the phone." My dad says, voice shaking with anger or sadness, or possibly both.

"Not all the shows are like that one, so I didn't see the need to?" I say as if it's a question. "I swear I never would have let you watch the aviary show without warning you, though."

My dads sighs. "All right, we'll let it go for now, but you have to warn us about these things in future."

"I will." I agree instantly, happy to have gotten out of that relatively easily. "I guess I should probably tell you what Connor's been up to then." I all but whisper the last part, and they don't hear me, so I don't give them another chance to.

"So, you said over the phone that you got us a hotel room, do you want to show us where that is so we can drop off our bags?" My dad asks, his arm around my still-shaking mother. My little sister Lia pats our mom on the shoulder gently.

"Yeah I booked you a room but you're here early, so you can't check in for another couple of hours. I've got about half an hour before the next show. I can take you to my apartment, and you can put your stuff there for the time being." I sigh. "Mom, I'm sorry. I swear I would have told you before you had the chance to come to the show, I didn't know you were coming so early. Please stop shaking, I'm fine."

She nods and pulls me into another hug. My father and sister join in this time.

"Okay," I say, when I pull away from the hug. "I'm going to go tell Jax, my coworker, that I'm going to leave."

*

"This is it, 173. I say, unlocking the door and stepping into my familiar apartment. Connor's next door in 171." I say, handing my mom my spare key. "You can leave your bags here for now and wander around the park. I get off work at 3, so by that time you should be able to check into the hotel."

"Thank you sweetheart." Mom smiles.

"I'll see you guys later." I nod, before leaving the building. I only have about ten minutes left to get back to the aviary and reset.