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"Sure. I'll talk to you later then."

Xavier flew off. Maybe he'd be able to find Hichiro or the wingless Jungle Folk. Yeah that's what he'd do. He'd go find the wingless Jungle Folk now and talk to them. He was confident that he'd be able to convince them to stop destroying their home.

He flew quite awhile before he got tired and had to rest a bit. He looked around. Ok maybe this wasn't such a good idea. He had now clue where he was. Hopefully he'd be able to find his way back.

Kibum sat on a tree branch and squinted his eyes. He was like a sloth... He has been there for quiet a while. Just sitting there, waiting for something exciting to happen. He began to chirp, but then it faded, getting tired. His eyes felt like they were going to give up on him if nothing happened right then and there. 'Damn... What's gonna happen to me if I keep staying like this?'

Watching a small fly buzz around him, his eye twitched in annoyance. When it came close to his mouth, he quickly ate it, swallowing it with a smirk. Victory was his! That wasn't the thing though. He needed to find himself a mate. All the other birds have gotten themselves some cuties. What about him? Will he always be alone?

Tayo. So that was the Eagle’s name.

“I was listening for a fair amount of time. However, I did miss the beginning of the conversation. I arrived about the time the argument over fighting against them or speaking with them started.” Shiro answered, gazing off into the distance.

“As for ideas, I’m afraid the only one I can think of is the one I mentioned earlier: monitoring them. Everything else seems much too dangerous at the moment. Unless, of course, we could get one on its own. Talking to them would be much easier if there were only one instead of many…” Shiro trailed off, unsure of what to say next. He glanced back at Tayo and was surprised to find him looking tired. Although, now that he thought about it, he didn’t feel so great himself.

His eyes wandered back to the trees again, and he bit his lip lightly. He felt incredibly useless. Everything had seemed so much more certain when there had been many others in the clearing. It was impossible for any of them to do anything if they insisted on working alone. If they truly wanted to protect their jungle home, everyone was going to have to work together. Surely, with their combined strengths and talents, they could accomplish something. Still, that kind of teamwork seemed far-off, like an unreachable goal. With all the bickering that had occurred, could they really function as a group? Any way you looked at it, creating anything like that was going to take some serious time and work.

“There’s strength in numbers,” Shiro began hesitantly, rooting for the right words, “If we truly want to save the jungle, none of us are going to be able to do it alone. With all of our information and ideas, there’s got to be some way to put a stop to this. However, after seeing the scene today, I‘m not sure that working together is even possible. Not without everyone becoming somewhat comfortable with each other first.”

He continued, in a softer voice, ”I can’t help but fear that someone is going to do something rash. But maybe, for now, it’s best for everyone sort it out on their own. With those wingless creatures destroying the jungle, we’re going to be forced into a smaller space. That means, like it or not, we're all going to be seeing a lot more of each other. We can only hope that if everyone starts learning more about each other, things will become a little less hostile and everyone will be more willing to protect the jungle together.”

Then again, everything could come back and blow up in their faces…but Shiro didn’t feel like speaking this aloud. At any other time the thought of having to interact with other Jungle Folk would have irked him, but he figured that having a place to live was a little more important.

"It's certainly not the be all and end all, but, as much as I hate to admit it, it's really all we can do for now. What about you? Do you think there is anything else we can do?"

Tayo didn't respond right away. He looked at Shiro as though trying to discern whether his suggestion of monitoring them would be the best. He had to admit, he quite liked the idea. Perhaps before letting them be seen by these wingless beings, observing them closely would be wisest. Perhaps some among them weren't violent or aggressive. They could only hope.

"I don't know," he admitted. He was finally going to confess his indecisiveness and helplessness to this total stranger. In these times of uncertainty, Tayo found it increasingly difficult to keep his stoic nature in check. The world he had always known was slowly collapsing around him. It wasn't apparent yet, but it was coming.

"Part of me wants to kill them all, what my Harpy Eagle instincts want to do. On the other hand, I want to take my siblings and fly into the mountains, but they would die there."

He leaned his head against a tree trunk and closed his eyes for a moment. He wish these strangers would simply go back from where they came from and leave him alone. His fervent wishes wouldn't happen, but it gave him a moment of respite, just leaning there against cool moss and bark.

"Your idea seems the best to me," he said, opening his eyes suddenly. "I want to see these things. I want to know why they are cutting down our home. Perhaps we should observe them and see if all of them are ruthless and evil."

After a short rest Xavier was back in the air. He figured if he kept flying straight he shouldn't get lost. Then he spotted smoke. Maybe it was them. He flew over. He sat on a branch making sure he was hidden. It was them. He figured he'd sit there and watch a bit efore talking. He didn't want to talk to them if they were mean.

Tayo narrowed his eyes in thought. "That depends whether the others ever want to meet each other again after that fight."

He flicked his braid behind his shoulder and gave Shiro a nod. "Alright then. Let's split up and search for them."

He opened his dark gray wings, flapped them once, twice, and flew off into the sky. He circled the forest, searching for any smoke or noise that might alert him to where these folk may be.

Finally, after a good while of looking, he flew down to rest his wings for a bit. As luck would have it, he landed in front of a waterfall and noticed a little Jungle Folk sitting in a tree, crying. Coming closer, Tayo recognized the little Cockatoo who had lost his temper in a most uncommon way for Cockatoos.

He stopped in front of the tree and put his spear down on the ground. He hesitantly reached out and put his hand on the little one's knee, just as he always did with one of his siblings when they were crying.

Huffing he looked back at the sky just in time for his stomach to growl again. With an irritated twitch his wings moved. The mind was thrown back to just awhile before and the horrid job he did of cooking the fish. Maybe he should just go find some fruit to nibble on. It wasn't as good as the meat he so enjoyed but maybe it would shut his gut up. But with a putter he didn't move instead he just watched a few clouds roll by. Sitting here like this it was easy to forget that their forest, their way of life, and their own existance was in danger.