The Main Path

[sloweko]

Lara watched as the geese flew overhead. She couldn't wait for the time when she would be able to fly with them. Being a falcon was going to be great.
She knew what she was going to be, becasue of the traits that she was begining to develop, good eyesight and astonoshing speed, and she had never been much of a runner.

Lara was inside the bird hide, trying to get as close to the birds as she could with her long lens, to take a half decent photo. Not that she expected much, the estary was miles away.

The geese had gone now, and Lara decided to pack up. After a good two hours worth of hard filming, she was tired, and needed to get back home.

As she walked back down the path, Lara saw a figure in the distance. 'Funny, no-one comes out at this time of day, it's only just become light' she thought to herself 'must be some other enthusiastic birdwatcher coming out before other people have the chance to scare them away.'
The figure got nearer, and Lara thought about talking to them. Her parents had told her to never talk to strangers, but a fellow bird enthusiast? What harm could it do?

[Dirk-]

Dirk was enjoying his early walk. He thought about
Lottie, and smiled at how defiant she had been at
him walking her home after the attack, and how
she had fussed over a simply bruise.

He took his hands out of his pockets and stared
at the bruise, glaring at it. As if death stares were
going to make it jump off his skin, and it heart like
hell.

He noticed someone in the distance and his
falcon eyes automatically adjusted to see the figure.
He smiled, a girl.
"Sie sind früh aufgestanden," he laughed
as he approached her and then grimaced.
"Eh... sorry. I said, you're up early. I usually
don't see anyone here this time of morning."
Though she would probably question why he
was out so early, too.
He glanced up at the geese. "Photographer?"
He asked her, one eyebrow raised inquisitively.

[sloweko]

"Yup, you guessed it" Lara realised that he wasn't a fellow bird watcher, but still, he seemed nice enough, and it felt good to be defing her parents for once.
"I'm Lara, what's your name?"
She asked him, somewhat awkwardly. Making friends wasn't the easiest thing for her, so she added:
"And thanks for the translation, I dont speak much German. I do French at school." 'Unfortunatly' she thought. She found French boring, and thought that German sounded alot more interesting. Besides, the trip to Germany was to an Adventure park, and to France? To a mueseum.
"Hey, you go to my school, don't you?"

[Dirk-]

Dirk shook his head, smiling. His blonde hair
fell over his eyes.
"Nein, I'm eighteen. I am hoping my parents
will help me pay for tuition at medical school, so
I can go on to be a physio and mental therapist."

He sighed and stared up at the sky.
"It is hard times for them though, with my sister
leaving school, it is competition between us two
who gets the funds to go on to uni, not that I wouldn't
try and pay for it myself, hmm?"

He wondered if he should tell Lottie about his
ambition. She wouldn't laugh, hopefully.
"If I can't go on to medical school, I'm sure I can
find good money in the forces. I'd be the first male
in my family not to have some career in the army,
if I didn't." Dirk's smile grew so it creased his
eyes and he rubbed his neck.

"Uh... my name is Deiderik, Dirk to all who know
me. I think I may have gone to your school. Hele's?
I was an exchange student and decided to come
back after I left my school. French huh? I could never
be bothered to learn it, too complicated, and not
spoken widely enough," Dirk frowned and stared
at the bird hide.
"Have you seen the falcons at Plymbridge?"
He asked her.

[sloweko]

"Oh, I dont know where I got that from then, but did I really need the life story?" She joked, hoping that it wouldn't go the wrong way. She wasn't a mean person, and didn't intend to be.

"You know, I'd like to do medical stuff, but I can't be a doctor or surgen because I can't look at all the blood and stuff, and that's all I'm interensted in. Typical me, always controversial!"
Lara could remember the last time she had encountered 'blood and stuff'. She was in a Science lesson and the teacher had disected a pair of lungs. Lara had fainted on the spot.

"Lara", she said, holding out her hand for him to shake. "Pleased to meet you Dirk. And you're right, French is complicated." Lara frowned, she never had liked French much.

When Dirk asked about the Falcons, Lara was shocked. "Are you psychic or something? To answer your question, yes, I have. I've been reading upi about them for a few days now, all in preperation for my becoming of one."
'Now it's your turn to look shocked' She thought to herself.

[Dirk-]

Dirk gave a shy half-smile at her comment about
his 'life-story'. He hoped she meant it as a joke.

When she answered his question about the falcons
at Plymbridge he raised an eyebrow.
"Oh yeah? Beat you to it," he grinned and
frowned at sparrows flying in a group from tree to
tree. "Aren't you a little young to be out so
early on your own?"

Dirk sat down on the becnh by the path, hands
in pockets. It was cold, but nothing new for Britain.
Though, weather back home wasn't entirely brilliant
either.

[sloweko]

Lara stared at Dirk.
"You mean, you're infected with the falcon cell too?" Lara had so many questions to ask him. Before she had no one that knew what she was going to happen, nor what was going to be like. Now she had someone that could answer this with reasonable acuaracy.
So many questions, and yet no way of asking them. However hard she tried, Lara could not think of the right way to put them.
Lara laughed at Dirk when he said that she was 'a little too young to be out on her own', and was glad of a distraction from the previous subject. Suddenly it clicked, and she finally knew how to find out what she wanted.
"Could you show me?" She asked. "Your falcon form, I mean."

[Addy]

Dirk smiled at her. "Yes, I suppose so."
Dirk's smile broadened when she laughed.
Girls laughed weird.

When she asked to see his falcon form he
stared up at the clouds then grinned back
at her. "No problem."

Then he disappeared.

Above in the sky was a large dark grey falcon,
riding the wind with its wings held out motionless.
The air current was enough to keep Dirk up
without having to move too much. He closed his
eyes, enjoying the feel of the cool air on his
feathers.

[sloweko]

Lara stared as Dirk rode the wind, his wings moving slightly to keep him up. It was amazing. Not that Lara hadn't seen birds do this before, but that was DIRK. One second she had been talking to a man, and the next, he had gone, his body changed and in the air. She longed for the day when she could do that.
She watched him for a good ten minutes. Lara loved the way his feathers ruffled in the wind like leaves. She laughed at it, though she didn't know why.
Lara wanted to ask him more questions, but he was in the air, and wouldn't hear her over the wind.
"Dirk, you can come down now!" She shouted up at him, hoping he would hear her.