[OVR] Unconventional Entertainment

Uhane was bored. And it was never a good thing when Uhane was bored. The Hawaiian crow looked around her large territory, listening to the strange flightless birds that walked on the other side of the strange, cold, glinting barrier. She liked watching them, as much as they liked watching her and her mate. Today though? She was bored. The crow crouched briefly, eyes scanning everything, looking for something to do, her wings adjusting and shifting. Maybe some food?

Uhane shifted her weight, using the momentum to leave her perch - the strange glinting thing that made curious noises as it turned and always seemed to be watching. The flightless ones who made sure they had food and had bright purple feathers often called it a ‘camera’ or something like that when they chased her or Ikaiki off of it. As the adrenaline coursed in her veins, she felt weightless, and she made a noise of utter happiness, before her wings spread wide, catching the air with deftly positioned feathers, allowing her to glide across the territory towards the stand where rare treats were left by their flightless flock members. They were good foragers, and she was proud of them for that. Uhane’s tucked feet came forward, gripping the wood that made the empty nest box where peanuts were scattered, fresh and just waiting for her to get into them.

Her eyes sparkled, eager for the treat… but her belly wasn’t empty. Her dark eyes caught sight of movement and she looked up, watching a brown blur zip out of sight. Curious, Uhane hopped over to the edge of the platform and looked down, watching the brown shape with black stripes zip away toward the barrier. It stopped short at the wall and looked back, its own brown eyes wide as it stared at her. Uhane hadn’t meant to scare the little creature! She looked around for a means to make it right, when her eyes fell on the peanuts in the tray she was perched in. The bird leaned over and grabbed one, making a muffled caw to try and get its attention. She then dropped the peanut and watched.

The little creature paused for a long moment before darting forward again, grabbing the peanut and stuffing it in its beakless mouth. Its cheek bulged. Delightful! How cute! Quickly she dropped another one, and the little creature shoved it in the other cheek! How funny! 

“Hey, uh… Lukas, you see this?” The man blinked from where he was working, prepping fresh food for the Hawaiian crows. His co-worker was watching the stream the zoo had set up that showcased the birds. His incredulous tone had Lukas curious and he set down his knife and walked over, leaning down to get a look at the picture playing out.

“One of them admiring themselves again?” He asked curiously, though without even hearing an answer, the young man could tell that wasn’t what was going on. No, what was going on was worse. Way worse. “Are those… are those chipmunks?”

“I think so… what do we do?”

“I’ll deal with it.” The young man sighed, shaking his head as he pushed off the desk and walked to the nearby flight run. The heavy door creaked slightly as it swung open (the joys of a refurbished tiger exhibit) and he glanced in to try and spot where the crows were. Both were on the peanut platform on the far side of the room… and there were far more chipmunks then he had initially thought. “You little…”

He carefully slid the door shut, before he hurried toward the invasion of rodents, waving his arms and hollering as he did. It spooked the birds, and he felt bad about it, but they needed to figure out how the chipmunks had gotten in. All the little boogers spooked and took off, scattering throughout the enclosure, but some… took off for a hole in the chain link fence where it connected with the wall, and he cursed. He’d have to get maintenance to fix that. Once he’d gotten most of them gone, he turned to the two Hawaiian crows.

“You proud of yourself?” All he got in return was a caw, and it took everything he had not to attribute a smirk to the bird’s expression. Lukas shook his head and turned to leave. He still had to finish their food after all.