The car was driving in a consistent speed on the highway and Meryl was slowly drifting into sleep by the constant noise it was giving out. It sounded just like the crickets back home in her forest did just when the sun was going down. Her forest, were she had spend almost all her life, and where all her falcon friends still were living. They had been her family, since her human parents hadn't wanted her anymore, and they had taught her all about what a bird needs to survive. One special couple of falcons, Kwiq and Qwuib-Qwuib, had been like a father and mother to her, taking care of her when she was younger. They were the ones who had taught her how to fly, and without them she would never have survived through her first year in the forest. Suddenly a voice struck through her sleeping: "Hey you, young lady, we are in the city now"<br/>Meryl opened her eyes and moved a little in the carseat to wake up properly. Her gaze suddenly caught site of the tall buildings that were all around them, reaching up towards the morning sky. Even though it was starting to get pretty light outside, there were still lights everywhere, on every wall, over ever door and on all the billboards.<br/>"Wow..." that was all she managed to get out of her.<br/>"What, you've never been to New York before?" the driver asked.<br/>Meryl looked at him. He was an old man, not to old to not be able to drive safely, but still very old. He had stopped when she had been standing a bit outside Washington D.C. trying to get a lift up to the city of New York.<br/>"No" she answered quietly, "I had never been to America before this morning" she added.<br/>And that was the truth. She had never even had the thought of going her until a few weeks back, when the rumours had come with the birds, of people talking in the town about how there had been mysterious creatures in the U.S.A, creatures like herself, or at least that's what the sparrows had said that the rats coming in with the ships had told of.<br/>Meryl had known that she had to go there, to find out for herself. She had been thinking about how to get to the land beyond the sea, and a group of swifts had suggested the idea that she'd fly over it, as they did when every year travelling to Africa. She tried to explain to the swifts that this was a much larger sea than the one they used to cross, but she knew they wouldn't understand.<br/>She had finally decided to take a plane from London all the way to Washington D.C, the capitol of this new land, as that would be the fastest way to get over, and with the flight she could plan so that it wouldn't collide with the fullmoon either.<br/>And then when she had gotten to D.C, there had been news of the sightings of a dragon in New York, and she knew that she had to investigate it.<br/>And now she was here. As she suddenly saw the small forest, that people her called the central park, she quickly asked the man to drop her off.<br/>"Are you sure you'll be fine now, young lady?" the man asked kindly, and Meryl said that she would and thanked him so kindly for driving him all the way.<br/>"No problem, I was going her anyway." he just brushed off and smiled at her, before driving away, leaving her there by the beginning of the park.<br/>Meryl turned around, took a deep breath, and started walking into the park, thinking that whatever brought her here must eventually find her if she followed its path.