[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

He remained enthusiastic and undaunted, even despite the apparent lack of interest - his first group consisted of a werecain couple, a child doing a school project on birds and their parent, and a pretty young woman with a large sketchbook.

"Okay, excellent, welcome to the tour everyone. I am Crawford, and I will be your guide today - it's a nice clear, warm day, so we should see plenty of activity while we're out and about." He beamed, and looked around the room trying to catch everyone's eye.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

The male werecain raised a hand, and Crawford smiled brightly at him; how wonderful that they were so keen, they were already asking questions, he thought.

"Yes, you Sir - how may I help you?" he asked, pointing his index finger at the male in question.

"Well, I just wanted to say I'd seen a bird." The male spoke slowly, with a mischivous tone to his voice, and the female beside him giggled and tried to stifle it with a hand over her mouth.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

"Excellent! Marvellous!" Cried Crawford, rubbing his hands together in glee. "Why don't you describe what you saw to everyone in the group?"

The male smirked, and the female giggled, but Crawford stood there unperturbed; as long as someone was engaging in his favourite hobby, he was quite happy to ignore any slight personality or behaviour issues, and so he waited with excitement pooling in his chest. His first tour seemed to be off to a flying start, with no pun intended, and he hoped the rest of the day would continue to be as smooth.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

The male was openly grinning now, but Crawford still didn't suspect anything was amiss.

"Well" he said, slyly looking down at the female beside him. "It was big, and it had feathers that were black, white and red, and a huge long beak". He paused, and Crawford clapped his hands.

"Marvellous!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm. "Were you able to see it take off or land? Was it in flight? What was it doing when you saw it?" he asked, and the male snickered as the female giggled.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

"It was standing here, giving us a stupid presentation about what birds are!" The male threw his head back and guffawed, and the female began to snort between giggles. The child at the back was also giggling at the joke, and although their parent tried to hush them, Crawford could see they too had a smile on their face. The only one who seemed unaffected and still attentive was the female, and it struck Crawford that perhaps his Mother had been right about other people's lack of interest.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

"I see, oh yes, that was a rather good joke" he said, passive smile on his face and hands held out to the sides, as if he intended to walk forward and embrace them. "Would you care to share another? Or perhaps you would prefer not to join us for the rest of the session?" He held his left hand out to indicate the path back to the shops, and the male and female werecain took the opportunity to leave, though their barking cries of laughter could be clearly heard for some time afterwards.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crawford watched them until they were out of sight, and then he turned back to what remained of the small group. The child fidgeted nervously, and the parent was wistfully eyeing the path as if they did not wish to prolong their stay. Only the young woman seemed unruffled, and Crawford tried to draw strength from her steady gaze, though it would be fair to say that his confidence had been shaken. He shook his head, and drew himself up, trying to work up the enthusiasm he had felt before.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

"Ok, well, we're going to make our way through the park now - remember, loud noises and sudden movements can scare the birds away, so please don't shout or run. If you spot a bird, calmly point it out so we can identify it and mark it off out lists."

He forced a smile, which quickly became a grimace as the child raised her hand with a bored look on her face.

"And how may I help you, young one?" He asked, glancing at the parent which accompanied her.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

"Hey Mister, can you help me identify the birds on my homework? I want to go play in the park." Crawford winced at the child's innocent request, and sighed, the smile falling from his face.

Her parent hushed her, and began apologising to Crawford, but he held up a hand to stop them; it was clear to him that the child had no real interest in birdwatching, and the parent forcing them to go along with it would only put the child off more.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

He forced as kind of a smile as he could, and beckoned for the child to come forward.

"How many birds do you have to identify, dear?" He asked, as she let go of her parent's hand and stepped towards him, before handing him the plastic folder with her worksheets inside.

"Just these ones here" she mumbled, as she pointed to the groups of images.

Crawford sighed, and shot a glance at the patient young woman who was standing beside the child's parent.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

He smiled slightly as he caught her eye. "I'm sorry - this should only take a minute or two" he muttered, trying to keep himself upbeat.

The pretty young woman laughed, and waved her hand. "Don't worry, go ahead" she murmured, a sweet smile on her face, and Crawford found himself returning a genuine smile in response.

He turned his head to look at the child, and offered the most gentle smile he could. "Okay, let's see what we have to do here" he murmured.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

In truth, he spent more than the intended few minutes helping the child, as rather than give her the answer he decided to teach her a little about birds and birdwatching while he had the chance, making sure she reached the right answer with her own conclusions.

As he bid the child and their parent goodbye, he glanced up at the lazy summer sun, and squinted; it was later in the afternoon than he had intended, but there were still a couple of hours of daylight left.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Crawford sighed, and attempted to smile at the pretty young woman, though he was sure it came out as more of a grimace.

"We still have a couple of hours left, if you want to take a walk with me and see what hasn't been scared off, or we could head back for dinner if you would prefer - I fear it may be rather boring for you to have me warbling on at you with nobody else to buffer or intervene, and I would hate to give you such a poor impression of what I truly consider an interesting and rewarding pastime. If I haven't already, that is."

[Wild Pet Found]