Lilly

Chapter 27

"Holy crap! I can't believe we haven't noticed this before," Elyse said.

"What?" Steve asked.

"It's been right in front of us the whole time," she said, but didn't explain.

"What are you talking about?" Jake asked.

Rather than reply, she went through files at a fast pace, even doing searches through archived news reports. After a while of this, she sat up, and looked at the two men with her.

"She's been telling the truth. She can't read our minds. At least I don't think she can," she told them.

"Then how do you explain the readings we're getting from her?" Steve asked.

"She has telepathy alright, but not what we would've thought to look for," she said. Looking at them, she knew they were confused, but they remained silent, staring at her. They were giving her the opportunity to explain. She turned the computer to them and let them watch an old news report.

"In an odd event today, it appears a lot of birds rescued a young girl. According to witnesses, the girl was on the losing end of an altercation with a schoolmate, when a large flock of birds swooped down on the unsuspecting boy. Although the boy received many cuts, school officials stated there were no life threatening injuries. Several local witnesses posted recordings of the odd event on social media. One witness said he became aware of the incident when the girl let out what he described as a 'horrific' scream prompting him to investigate," the reporter said.

A recording then played, showing an undulating mass, and a little distance away, a small girl sitting like a statue. Even in the grainy video, she looked almost white, and they could tell it was a much younger Priscilla.

"How old would you say she is there?" Steve asked, prompting Elyse to pause the video.

"Maybe five or six, considering she's in school, but we could find out. What interests me is that a lot of birds rescued her. Kind of coincidental, don't you think?" Elyse said, then resumed playing the video.

"The witness recording the incident began recording only moments after coming on the scene. As you can see, the birds had already come to the girl's rescue," and he paused. Then, "Are those snakes beside the girl?" he asked, leaning toward a monitor. "I think they are. Oh my, this was more serious than I thought. It's amazing she wasn't bitten!"

He regained his composure and looked to his side, where the camera brought into view a woman dressed in a business suit, with her light brown hair held in a bun. "With us today is premiere ornithologist, Dr. Natalie Havaland, from the University of Georgia."

"Stan, it was already serious. Those birds could've done real damage to the boy, or her if they had attacked her," the woman beside him said.

"Dr. Havaland, is this kind of behavior normal?" he asked.

"In all my years studying raptors, and other birds, I've witnessed nothing like this. There have been cases of birds attacking humans, even a few in concert, such as the magpies in Australia, but this is unprecedented. I can count at least five different varieties of birds in that mass, and there may be more," she replied.

"What could have caused them to attack this way" he asked.

"Although this is conjecture, there's the possibility her scream touched the right tone to evoke a defense instinct in the birds, although that is a stretch. Each species would have a different vocal trigger. Birds tend not to come to the aid of other birds, even of their own species, and many not even in aid of their own young. And I can't even speculate on the snakes you noticed. I'm curious what type they are," she said, then seemed to be looked at the small monitor beside her. "That's a golden eagle. He's lucky he only received a bunch of cuts and scratches."