An excited flutter raced through Trevor’s heart. Right there in front of him was a big white number fourteen. He’d won!
“Sweet!” he exclaimed
“And the lucky guy wins a raptor transformation,” Clark announced. “So, what it’ll be, Mr…?”
“Oh, um, Wilkinson. Trevor Wilkinson,” he finally spurted out. In the excitement he’d nearly forgotten his name. “And I think I’m going to go with the golden eagle.”
“Got it,” Clark said matter of factly, typing up Trevor’s information on his computer. “And how long were you planning on staying here?”
“Just a week.”
“Okay.”
After Clark finished typing up Trevor’s reservation and species choice, he reached into a refrigerator behind him and pulled out a bottle with a picture of a golden eagle’s head on it. Trevor could hardly believe this was about to happen. Before handing him the bottle, though, Clark reached into drawer and pulled out a strip of leather that looked like a miniature belt.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a tracking band,” Clark explained. “It’s got a little GPS unit built into it. As you probably know, visitors aren’t allowed to leave whatever district they’ve transformed in as long as they’re still in animal form. Most of the time this isn’t a problem since we’ve got electric fences set up around the borders of each district. But, since birds outside of The Flight Dome could easily just fly over these fences, we have to use these instead. If you cross over the border of Deep Desert, this band will emit an audio warning. You’ll have a minute to turn around and get back on the right side of the fence.”
“And after a minute?” Trevor asked nervously.
“You won’t enjoy it,” Clark said ominously. “But suffice it to say, you won’t be leaving the island – ever. Got it?”
“Yeah,” Clark said shakily, instantly thinking back to the conversation he’d had on the van ride over here.
“Okay, so take this with you,” Clark said, handing the golden eagle formula to Trevor, “And then head back to one of the transformation rooms at the end of this hallway to the right. Once you’re inside, put your clothes and your belongings in one of the bins in the room and then drink the formula in the bottle. Your transformation should take about a minute and should be relatively painless.”
“Relatively?”
“You’ll feel it, but it doesn’t really hurt,” Clark said. “At least that’s how it was when I became a dingo during orientation. Anyway, after you’re done, just press the button at the base of the door at the back of the transformation room. I’ll be waiting there to tag you before you can fly off in to the desert. You try to fly off first and one of our guys will be ready with a trank gun. Got it?”
“Got it,” Trevor echoed.
A few seconds later, he was walking down the hall to the transformation room.