The trees passed by in a blur as the night sky made it difficult to see anything at all besides what was provided by the moon’s soft luminescence.

After a few hours of flying, they still had not reached their destination.

“Yea a few miles east,” Tom thought sarcastically. However, he was glad nothing major had happened since seeing the man. Everything was going fine until it went terribly wrong when Arthur fell from the sky.

Tom only had a second to be shocked before his shock multiplied as a much larger bird appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Arthur from his fall.

The bird, which Tom guessed was a peregrine falcon, continued flying and it turned its head to stare at Tom with one eye.

Tom realized he had a choice between flying away or following. “Ha, who am I kidding? I have no choice but to follow this guy,” he thought after a second. Tom bobbed his head in an affirmative manner to which the other bird responded by facing forward.

Tom was left alone with his thoughts for the next few hours of flight and which summed up to three questions.

“Who is this guy? Why did Arthur fall and did this guy make it happen? Is there anything to eat around here?”

At what Tom estimated to be 1 a.m. the bird did a nosedive into the trees.

Doubting his ability to do a nosedive without serious injury, Tom followed slowly and with more caution.

After fighting through the branches, Tom was met with the naked form of the trenchcoat man and a new question, “how did this guy change already.”

Tom estimated it only took him fifteen seconds or so to make it through the trees. The man was holding Arthur in the form of a goldfinch. Tom landed on the ground and looked up at the man who had plucked a feather on Arthurs right-wing before setting him on the ground.

Tom decided he might as well shift before the man did it for him. After a minute or so, An unconscious Arthur and a standing Tom were in a new more human form.

Tom noticed that the man had seemed to become more impatient as the shift occurred.

Tom waited patiently for the man to say something and knowing his best option would be to wait for him to speak instead of yelling and risking pissing off Mr. Trench coat.

The man opened and closed his mouth a few times before saying, "alright kid, I'm going to make this short and sweet since I don’t think you like me very much considering you think that I injured your friend."

Tom nodded in agreement before the man continued saying, "First off, your friend is fine. I am not going to hurt you or him and if I had not interfered he would have likely been injured from the fall."

Tom absorbed the information before questioning, "why were you following us in the first place and why did you force us to shift in some random forest."

The man responded, "I can't answer the first question but as for the second I did not want you to run off while I got supplies. There should be some gear and clothes around here somewhere. You thought I stopped in the middle of nowhere for no reason?"

Tom figured the man was going to have them dig their own graves before killing them but supplies were good too.

The man continued saying, "Even though I could catch you as a man or a bird, It's much easier to stop a kid running through a dense forest in the dark than a small bird.

Anyway, try not to run while I find the spot with the gear." Tom nodded and figured he might as well be a good captive for now considering he did not know where he was and had no food.

The man began walking around and eventually stopped a little way away in front of a moss-covered rock.

He then got on one knee and grabbed the underside of the boulder before flipping it in one fell swoop.

Watching the spectacle, Tom congratulated himself for the correct decision to not piss off the man who could lift a likely thousand-pound boulder with ease.

In the place that the rock once stood was a steel hatch. The man bent down and gripped both hands on the handle and heaved with all his strength to open the rusted door.

After fighting the handle for a few seconds, it finally opening and underneath was a rusty ladder leading into darkness.

After making sure the rock would not move back into place, the man looked over to Tom and said, "You go down first and I'll get your friend."

Without responding, Tom stood up and walked over to the ladder and put his hands on the rungs to test the ladder’s strength with a small push.

When he deemed it would not fall under his weight, Tom placed his bare feet onto the metal careful to avoid cutting them on the rust and having to worry about updating his Tetanus shots.

After making it down the 15-foot ladder, Tom was surrounded by darkness much thicker than the forest dark illuminated by the moon.

Tom looked around and could see nothing. Taking a deep breath led him to notice the stale and dusty quality of the air.

He heard the overcoat man beginning to make his way down the rickety ladder and quickly jumped away in case the ladder gave way.

The man made it down the ladder before setting Arthur against the wall.

He then turned away from both of them and began moving his hands against the wall further into the darkness.

The man found a kerosine lamp and eventually returned to the moonlight illuminated area where Tom and an unconscious Arthur waited.

He grabbed a box of matches sitting on the lantern and lit it before holding it high in the air for more visibility.

The man walked over to the now obvious three other lanterns and lit all of them.

Tom looked around the room and noticed it was around the size of a shipping crate.

One small wall was dominated by the ladder while the two adjacent walls were filled with cabinets, a table with chairs, and lockers. The final wall was occupied by three bunk beds.

The man walked over to the side with lockers and began opening them.

After the fourth locker, he reached inside and pulled out a box with the word "cloths" neatly written in faded black ink.

The man wiped a thick layer of dust off the box before he opened it and pulled out sealed bags of shirts and pants.

The man tossed a set of clothes at both Tom and the still unconscious Arthur.

Tom ripped open the packs and looked at the clothes before smirking. Tom commenting saying, "I've never held a tie-dye shirt before. It's like looking at a piece of history.”

The man sighed before continuing to put on the clothes. When both were fully clothed, they moved Arthur over to one of the bunk beds and put the clothes at his feet.

The man then went over to one of the opened lockers and pulled out a box labeled “stove” along with another labeled “canned goods”.

Moving over to the table the man sat down both boxes before working on setting up the stove.

He looked over to Tom and told him, "look for something edible in that box."

Tom opened the box and coughed from the large cloud of dust coming from inside.

Looking at the box, he began to pull out cans and set them on the table according to name.

Tom’s morale began decreasing rapidly after he saw the fourth can labeled simply "meat".

In total, he had four cans each of "meat, beans, corn, and bread".

Tom's face paled as he realized his bowels would be creating nothing but bricks for at least a week.

The man noticed Tom's expression and chuckled before saying, "at least it will be warm," and turning on the stove.

Tom then began opening two cans of each variety with a can opener found in the bottom of the box and handing the opened cans to the man who began heating them.

The man reached under the table and grabbed a chair for both him and Tom before sitting down and leaning back in the chair.

"Alright then, introduction time. My name is Vincent and my job is to find kids like you and help bring them somewhere they can learn."

Tom responded, "My name is Tom and the guy over there is Arthur."

"I'll start with what happened to Arthur. He passed out because he ran out of energy. In fact, I’m surprised he was still flying at all. What he did was very dangerous. He could have shifted in mid-air and if I had not been there he could have died due to the fall. His body should have forced him to land much sooner but instead, I guess he had the willpower to push through the pain."

Tom absorbed the information before asking, "Why did he run out of energy while I still felt like I could keep flying?"

Vincent responded, "My guess is that he does not have a very high energy base. A comparison would be that he is like a triple a battery while most people are like a d battery. It could be anything but that is my guess."

Tom frowned at this considering Arthur was much better at all parts of the transformation process and had taught him everything he knew about it.

Tom was further confused by the fact Arthur had never passed out before and although this was the farthest they had ever traveled, Arthur never showed signs of weakness after traveling prior long distances.

Tom asked, "How long will he be out?"

Vincent responded, " It's difficult to say but I would estimate at least twenty-four hours."

Tom nodded at this and opened his mouth to ask another question before being cut off by Vincent who said, "I understand you must have a lot of questions but let’s save it for when your friend is awake to prevent having to explain things twice.”

Tom nodded again before standing and grabbing two cans of heated food and bringing them over to where Arthur lay sleeping.

Tom sat down on the wall next to Arthur's bed and finished both cans of food before he started whistling.

Arthur and Tom had spent years practicing random skills with their bodies considering their extensive free time and no easy access to TV or video games.

Their talents ranged from whistling to playing instruments and standing on their hands.

Living in various places and being around many different people had allowed them to pick up various tricks.

One of Tom's favorite things to do was whistle and he practiced whenever he could due to its ability to both calm him down and pass the time.

He whistled whatever came to his mind and jumped between genres with a Christmas song followed by a folk tune with plenty of rhythm but little reason.

As he sat against the wall whistling, Tom only wondered if Arthur would be alright.