The Story of Tiberius

Chapter 17

One Year Later...

"These are quite beautiful eagles you have here," a young man remarked, bent over so he could get a better look at the two birds inside. Seeing his sister Rain shake as he stared at them, Thunder growled before slamming his shoulder against the door of the cage. Jumping back, the man merely laughed it off as he stated, "And it appears this one's a little feisty." Standing off to the side, Phil quietly chuckled though there was a nervous ring in it. He flashed a warning glance at Thunder to pull his act together. Straightening up, the man asked, "How much do you want for them?" The two young hawks looked up at him expectantly. Wiping his hands off on the apron he wore, Phil informed him, "Six hundred bucks."

The man was gone before one could say New York City.

Scowling as he heard the bell ringing over the door, Phil turned towards the young hawks. Pointing a finger accusingly at Thunder, he snarled, "This is your fault. You scared him away!" Walking away, he added, "Don't expect much steak tonight because of your actions." Rolling his eyes, Thunder turned to Rain. His sister looked up at him with sad eyes. In an attempt to cheer her up, the hawk pulled off the best imitation of Phil's voice he could make and stated, "Don't expect much steak tonight because of your actions." His sister giggled while he huffed and muttered, "I don't even think that stuff is steak. And he probably scared that man off with that price."

"It's a good thing you have that muzzle on! You could've made things worse for yourselves!" the tiny bird, as Thunder and Rain have learned was called a parakeet, snickered. His pals laughed so hard behind him that one was rolling on the ground while the other was throwing up. They were soon joined by a chorus of parakeets, a macaw, two parrots and a cockatoo. Snarling, Thunder rammed his shoulder against the cage and hissed, "How bout you shut up ya mangy pieces of filth before I disembowel you and feed ya to the crows outside?!" The laughing only grew louder until a shout from Phil quieted them down. Huffing, the young hawk curled up into a ball beside Rain. The pair tried to take a nap.

Now at the age of thirteen months, Thunder and Rain had been at the pet store for a little over a year now. And each passing day became the new worst day of their lives. The birds in the corner of the store they were in came and went. The ones who remained continued to pick on the two hawks. Being only fed tiny slivers of steak at night and cramped in a birdcage not meant to hold them, the hawks weren't exactly the size of hawks their age. In other words, they were malnourished. Yet Thunder still had enough strength to frighten people off whenever they tried touching Rain. At the end of the day, he would be covered in bruises and sore all over while his temper flared on like a wildfire. At least the horrible muzzle that was now much too small for him would be taken off. Rain would always do her best to calm her brother down but the torture would start up all over again the next day. At this point, there was no way either of them were gonna get out.

Hearing something outside their cage, Thunder lifted his head to find a young basset hound, approximately three years old. Taking one look at the hawk, the canine whirled around and cried, "TOM! THEY HAVE MAN KILLING EAGLES HERE NOW!" The basset hound ran as fast as he could, tripping over his long ears along the way. Watching him go, Thunder grumbled, "Hawk." The parakeets, meanwhile, had enjoyed watching the scene as one sneered, "Perfect! You're even scaring full grown dogs now!"

Laying his head down with his back to the cage door, Thunder tried to go back to sleep when he heard footsteps approaching quietly...