A Peregrine's Peculiar

Chapter Six

The days soon passed, quickly and then those days turned into weeks and before Toria knew she'd been spending three months worth of Thursdays with her Peregrine friend and now it was clearer then ever to Toria that this particular Peregrine Falcon was far more than just a bird. Their guessing game had continued though the topic of the birds name never came back into conversation, instead Toria enjoyed asking questions that were more to do with herself rather then her winged friend.

Sometimes Toria would even sneak an extra snack out of the house for the Peregrine, it took some time to find out what exactly she enjoyed to eat but Toria soon realised that bits of apple weren't to bad of an option and so they were now always added to the weekly shopping list by Toria's request.

Toria in the beginning though still tried to make an effort to keep doing her homework on her Thursdays down at the beach but it was that first month into her friendship with the blue bird that she realised homework would have to be done on a Monday alongside chess club, so she could spend more time playing with the bird.

Yet Toria always made sure to bring to things down with her to the beach alongside her snack and water, her sketch pad still remained a constant and it didn't take to long for Toria to realise that the feathered miss of bird actually enjoyed helping her with her Maths homework.

Each week Toria would let the Peregrine choose the answer to two of her questions and then when she'd received the marked homework back the next week, those two questions always came back with full maths.

Alongside their guessing Toria would tell her friend of all the school gossip, the blue bird particular taking an interest in the new shipment of books the school library had received. Toria had even said that if she could give the bird one of the books then she would but she'd get in so much trouble if the book ended up washing up on the beach practically destroyed and so the book topic was soon dropped.

"You know what I just realised," Toria exclaimed to the bird during a particularly long stretch of silence, as the girl had been sat stroking the Falcons feather her index and middle finger. The bird soon looked up at the grinning eleven year old missing the contact of Toria's fingers against her feather. "I never guessed your actual name."

The Peregrine peeked her head up at that her blue eyes looking directly at Toria's green ones, "So why don't I try now." Toria soon became very excited at the idea but patiently waited for the bird to bow her head in agreement, once Toria got the thumbs up she began her guessing by going through the alphabet.

She didn't care how long this would take she'd go through each letter of the alphabet as many times as she needed to know her friends name, so could start to referring to her as something other than 'Pretty Bird' the Toria doubted she'd ever stop calling her that.

"Does the first letter of your name begin with an A?" Toria began asking, starting with the first letter of the alphabet. The Peregrine Falcon had been instructed that all she need to do was simply lift her right wing if the girl was correct. Then on her first try a right wing was lifted.

"Really? Perfect," Toria was spurred on with getting it right on the first try, then she continued on for the second letter not receiving right wing until she reached the letter L and that's how the game of guessing the birds name continued until her the entirety of her first name had been guessed.

"So your first names Alma then?" Toria asked waiting for the final confirmation of the guessing game and when the Peregrine began to flap both her wings and caw happily Toria knew she was indeed correct. "That's such a beautiful name," Toria was quick to compliment and she continued to test out the sound of the name by constantly referring to her by her first name.

"Well Pretty Bird, I guess it's onto your second name now," The bird stopped her happy flapping when Toria called her 'Pretty Bird' and instead looked at her inquisitively. "Yes I'm still calling you Pretty Bird, it's your designated nickname from now on Alma," Toria quickly cleared up Alma's confusion.

"Now should I try the alphabet method again?" Toria asked giving Alma a light stroke on the top of her feathered head before the bird quickly pulled back. "No, why not?" Toria then asked when she received a shake of the head from Alma who then decided to jump off Toria's lap and began to nudge the girl off the stone surface she was upon.

"Okay, okay Alma I'm getting off!" toria spoke quickly as she got herself off the boulder and onto the sand as Alma the blue bird took centre stage on the stone. The Peregrine then began to move her wings in a way so that they were pointing at herself and then it was Toria's turn to look on in confusion.

"I don't understand Alma, why are pointing at yourself?" Toria's brows began to knot together in confusion as she tried to rack her brain around what in the world her bird friend was trying to tell her.

"Does it have something to do with your second name?" Toria then asked hoping she was indeed correct because if she wasn't she would never be able to guess what Alma was trying to tell her. The blue Peregrine then quickly moved her head up and down trying to avoid her beak from hitting against the stone as she answered.

"Right, so your trying to tell me your last name and your pointing at yourself," Toria tapped her chin as she began to think about the possible answer. "Wait your pointing at yourself and your a bird, so is your last name bird? Alma Bird?" Toria asked hopeful but judging by the almost disgusted look she receive from the Falcon she knew immediately that she was wrong.

"So it's not bird," Toria spoke plainly and slouched her shoulders in disappointment. The bird now tried a new set of actions, trying as best as she could to make it look like she was gesturing to herself.

"Wait your pointing at yourself but I already guessed bird, is it Bird?" Alma then hid her face in her wing in annoyance, how was the girl just not getting it. In one last attempt, Alma not only gestured to herself but brought her beak to one of her loose feathers and pulled it free and then began hopping over to Toria to hand the girl the feather.

"Why are you handing me one of your feathers?" Toria asked holding the feather gently in her hand, it wasn't a very small feather so it fit quite nicely in her hand.

"The pattern, it's unique to your breed isn't it?" Toria was now seriously thinking, the answer on the tip of tongue,  "Your last name isn't Bird but you continued to gesture to yourself and now you've given one of your feather's."

"Alma..." Toria began to say.

"Alma Blue.... No that's not right,"

"Alma feather......" Alma grimaced at that one, "No wrong again."

"Wait, your a Flacon.... A Peregrine Falcon...... Alma Falcon" Toria knew that wasn't right and then it all clicked into place as she she twirled the feather between her fingers.

"I've got it... It's Alma Peregrine! Miss Alma Peregrine! Miss Peregrine!" And Toria had hit gold and the joy wasn't just felt by the girl but also by the Miss Peregrine in question who had flown over to Toria's should and cawed in delight.

"Why hello there Miss Peregrine," Toria smiled in delight towards Miss Peregrine.
___________________
Hey everyone and finally Toria has been successful in guessing Miss P's name, took her time with the clue though. Until next time fellow readers.