“Because…… this is a canteen and its lunchtime,” Nathan said holding up his watch which showed 3:00 “I am feeling a little hungry, you can wait here if you aren’t hungry,” he said and went inside.

Seth looked at her and raised an eyebrow and Xenia smiled sheepishly, both of them ran to catch up with him.

They went to sit at the table as Nathan went and ordered the lunch, he came back with three plates of a sandwich and a thick soup.
He passed the plates to the others and soon they were all sitting and talking while they eat.

“We should have asked the others to join us too,” Seth told the other while he took a bite of his Bagnet- that was what the sandwich was called.

“They wouldn’t have able to make it anyways,” Nathan said drinking some water.

“Why? ” Seth asked.

“They all must be at work, they wouldn’t be able to come here even if they wanted to,” Xenia said remembering.

“They all do jobs,” Seth asked astonished.

“Yep, only Christine is the exception. She is still young to do any job” Nathan said taking the last bite of his Bagnet.

“Where do they work?” Seth asked, taking a sip of his Ratatouille- soup from the spoon.

“Vera works at the library here in eze, whereas Ken and John work at a café” Xenia answered.

“Ken and John also help the people with their pets” Nathan added.

“I see,” Nathan said understanding.

They soon finished and went to the jeep to go to the training facility. Nathan started the engine and sped it forward.

“Slow down a little, will you” xenia shouted.

“Sorry, guess I am too energized after the lunch” Nathan apologized.

“It's okay, just see to it that we reach the training facility in one piece” Seth requested and wasn’t assured by the enthusiastic nod he got from Nathan.

Despite everything, they reached the facility safely. Nathan parked the car in the parking area. The facility was not like the museum or the canteen it was a well-built training area with security as well as a parking area.

“There's even more” Nathan quipped seeing Seth's amazed expression.

They all went past the ticket booth into the facility. The room that they had entered into had many glass cabinets, eight according to Seth's count. There were two doors one at the very back of the room and one just beside a cabinet. The whole room was made with steel walls, that didn’t make any sound when they would walk.

Nathan moved towards the door beside the cabinet and they followed, they started hearing the screech as soon as the door opened. The room had many caged eagles and falcon, some that Seth had seen in the museum were there too.

Nathan opened the nearest cage and took out a mountain hawk, closing the cage he motioned them to follow him. They went into one of the glass cabinets.

“Okay, here we go then. You both better stay back a little” Nathan said while he went to the drawer and took out a pack of meat. He jerked his hand and the mountain eagle flew and landed on the hanging bar ahead.

Nathan threw a piece of meat towards the eagle and the eagle lurched to take it,

“vow!” Xenia squealed.

Nathan smiled towards them, then turning to the eagle he whistled. Holding out his hands with a piece of meat, the eagle flew at his hands and took the piece in the beak. Nathan showed a few more tricks like this, every time the eagle got a piece of meat as a reward.

After that, Nathan called to the eagle and it landed on his shoulder. He went towards Xenia and Seth who were both standing amazed.

“That was, sooo… good” Xenia said excitedly.

“Man, how do you do that… this sure was a little devil,” Seth said looking at the eagle perched on Nathan's shoulder.

“This was just the beginning, follow me I will show you something more exciting,” Nathan said and then went outside the cabinet, they went to the door at the far end.

Nathan opened the door and they went past it into the open ground behind. The ground had boundary markings and was stretched over a mile.

“Amazing…” both Xenia and Seth exclaimed together.

“Yep, this is where we train the eagles,” he said and jerked his hands, letting the eagle fly.

It flew above high as if it had done it a hundred times before. It flew in a circle over them, sometimes tilting and slicing through the air, other times doing sharp dives and rotation. It took a sharp back turn and came towards them very fast, it turned upwards just when Xenia thought that it would crash with them.

It came back on Nathan's shoulder when he called again. Nathan gave it a piece of meat and stroked its head proudly.

“So, this is how they are trained,” Xenia said dazed.

“What they did was truly amazing” Seth exclaimed enthralled.

“Thanks… any of you want to try to feed it” Nathan offered still stroking its head.

Xenia said that she would like to and moved ahead to stroke its head, but as soon as she touched its head, the bird jerked its head and bit her finger.

“Ouch…” Xenia exclaimed and pulled back her hand.

“This boy doesn’t like you” Nathan chided her, while again stroking its head “Do you want to take a chance, Seth”

Seth nodded a little hesitant, and moved towards the eagle maintaining eye contact with it,

“Careful, Seth” Xenia warned, stroking her bitten finger.

Seth touched the bird's head and it bit his fingers but, instead of taking back his hands Seth slowly stroked its head. The bird bowed her head after long starring into his eyes.

Seth held up his other hand and Nathan gave him a piece of meat, Seth threw it up and the eagle took it in a flash, landing back on his shoulder.

“Dude is there anything that you can't do,” Nathan said impressed, Seth merely shrugged.

After spending some time with the eagle they all returned back into the facility and Nathan took the bird back into the cage. After that, they all went outside to the parking and got back into the jeep.

“Now I will leave you both at the entrance and you can go back home,” Nathan said as they drove over a bridge.

“You aren’t coming,” Xenia asked, looking down at the river below.

“Nope, I still have some work to do” Nathan answered.

They reached the entrance and got down from the jeep, Seth checked the watch, it showed 5:07. They all went inside the door and into the waiting room, the guard was not there.

“So, did you both enjoyed it?” Nathan asked.

“Well, the museum did impress me but, after that, it was all known to me, so…… what about you Seth,” Xenia asked turning to look at him.

“The day was a total blast, I enjoyed it very much. Thanks a lot” Seth replied.

“No probs, man. Good to hear that” Nathan said and went back to his jeep, while they went outside the entrance and started walking down.

“Zee you go ahead, I will come later. I have something to do” Seth said suddenly stopping.

************************************

Game time:

My sis who is an army general?