Adjusting to being an Animalian wasn't too hard in that it wasn't something that Arcelia couldn't do. In fact she handled many things very well, and in many ways did even better than Compy did, though that was likely the fact Compy had been a pretty standard farm chicken while Arcelia had been a family pet. This meant that she had far more social interaction before her uplifting than Compy did which served to elevate an already intelligent mind. This seemed to be pretty standard though as far as the Animalia Virus's effects were concerned. It'd long been noted that animals that either had a lot of contact with people or were at least close enough hear human conversations gained a lot of intelligence when they were uplifted.
It was for this reason that Judy had been able to from being a mundane Mountain Cottontail, with her burrow close to where Horizon's staff often came outside for lunch during the summer and spring months in the past, to an Animalian with the mental skills that were on par with any of Horizon's scientists. It was for this reason that many attributed Samson's calmness and modesty, particularly around Abby and why Malice had also gained a lot more than would have been expected otherwise. They'd gained a lot from their owners that seemed to imprint on them. The same seemed to be true for Arcelia, which made Rex, Sal, and Gerry's job a lot easier.
"So... this Animalia is a community of anthropomorphic Animals with their own sort of Ten Commandments and has been living peacefully with humanity?" Arcelia asked as she finished dressing, partially surprised that they had clothing that would fit her already.
"Yeah," Sal nodded, "It's been around for about two years now... though I think the original accident that created it was more toward July... I can't remember now."
"It was an accident?" Arcelia asked, actually sounding suspicious.
"Hey... it was one of those GOOD accidents," Sal said, "Like the finding of Penicillin and so on. It may have been an accident, but the results are good."
"Depending on your point of view," Gerry commented, with his mind on the present US government which despite having super-majorities in both houses and a President of the same party, about the only word that seemed to describe it was "chaos."
"El presidente es muy estúpido," Arcelia grumbled with narrowed eyes and frustration, obviously aimed at the administration's habit of accusing Hispanics of every possible crime and trying to deny them legal protection at nearly every turn. Gerry and Sal expected this, as they knew that while the Perez family had legally immigrated to the US a long time ago, that didn't mean that the present administration and its supporters weren't going to accept that.
"Él, o la gente, vendrá a tiempo," Rex said slowly, essentially saying that things would come around in time, which made Arcelia look up to him in surprise rather than fear.
"You're Hispanic!" Arcelia said to him with wide eyes and returning to English.
"My family has lived in Texas since before the Texas Revolution and even before the first "Americans" moved into the state," Rex nodded, "One ancestor died at the Alamo and the other took part in the Battle of San Jacinto, and they remained in Texas through thick and thin."
Gerry and Sal both nodded, remembering Rex's surname of Ramos. They figured that might help Arcelia accept a few things more easily as they would have things to share. Of course, they also knew that there could be potential issues in that while much of the Latin world had similarities to each other, they were not clones of each other. And they knew that Rex's family never at any point moved south of the Rio Grande River while the Perez family with Arcelia had legally immigrated at some point in the 20th Century from Mexico to the US.
"But you're not the soldierly type," Arcelia commented, to which Rex nodded.
"Correct," Rex nodded, "I've been more interested in science and paleontology than fighting. Learning about the animals of the prehistoric world, particularly the dinosaurs and their avian relatives."
"Avian relatives?" Arcelia asked, tilting her head and sounding very intrigued.
"Yes," Rex nodded with a smile, "Modern birds evolved out of the Theropod Dinosaurs, and most specifically the small dinosaurs that made up the Coelurosaurs, with some evolving into the raptors like Velociraptor, and others evolving into giant Tyrannosaurs like T Rex, while others..."
"Would evolve into birds?" Arcelia asked, still intrigued and curious.
"They're grouped specifically under Maniraptora and even more specifically Avialae," Rex nodded with a smile, "some paleontologists when your new species, Archaeopteryx, was among the first birds because the fossils included impressions of its feathers that were preserved."
"Though hasn't that changed a bit?" Gerry wondered, "that Archaeopteryx isn't a direct ancestor to birds?"
"I've heard of the argument, but even if it isn't a direct ancestor it's still closely related to the dinosaur that would be the direct ancestor to birds."
"Interesting," Arcelia smiled, "I can't wait to tell the Perez family! They would be most excited to hear that a humble bird is the evolutionary descendant of the mighty dinosaurs."
"They did leave a phone number that you could call them at," Gerry commented as he bent down and offered a slip of paper to Arcelia, which she took and read the numbers on it.
And she smiled at that. Like many other uplifted pets, she saw the Perez family as family and as an Animalian, she understood their pain and sadness at why they had to let her go. The family had treated her well and had been very kind, which Arcelia liked to the point where she saw them as brothers and sisters now that she'd been uplifted and she would miss them very much. But the new apartment didn't allow pets and while as an Animalian she might be allowed to enter as a tenant, she'd still need to go through her own acclimation classes and see if she could still fly. That would take time and she would miss them in that time, but talking with them on the phone would be okay.
"Thank you," she said to Gerry.
"It's no problem," Gerry smiled.
"So, why don't we head out and see if you can still fly," Sal commented, "You do have your wings on your back which would fit way Bird Animalians so... to a degree you should be able to fly."
"To a degree?" Arcelia wondered.
"The paleontologists that have worked more with the evolution of birds than I have, have had the opinion that Archaeopteryx couldn't sustain fully powered flight in the way modern birds can," Rex commented, "Which in theory would be in line with the evolutionary process of something that cannot fly at all into something that can fly. The transitional phase... as Archaeopteryx would be... would likely be able to manage some parts of flight but wouldn't be quite as good as modern birds."
"I see," Arcelia said slowly with some skepticism and figured that she would reserve her judgement until after things were fully tested.
The tests actually went fairly well. Arcelia did find that her new wings wouldn't allow for the full range of motion that she'd had before in the sense of having a strong upward motion when flapping her wings, but she found that her down beats were very strong and could help propel her upward if need be. In this, provided it was for a modest distance and in a straight line, she could achieve flight. It wasn't quite as easy as before, but it was still there. She also found that her legs were also much stronger now and could effectively take off from the ground in what was a combined jump and then downbeat with her wings. It wasn't quite as easy as before, but still workable, which came as a relief to the pair of Eagle Animalians that were mostly there in case anything went wrong.
But nothing really went wrong. Getting height was a bit harder than before, but Arcelia found that once she'd gotten to a certain altitude, keeping it was rather easy as her strong down beats could propel her up and her longer flight feathers on both her wings and long tail provided a lot of lift. In this, she could actually glide extremely well and the occasional down stroke would be enough to keep her in the air. And in her glides, she found that she could still pivot in the air quite well and turn remarkably quick. She thought she heard Rex say something about someone wanting to see this and guessed it was another paleontologist, but she didn't recognize the name and didn't know for sure. As she came in for a landing before Rex and his co-workers, she really didn't care about that. While "flying" would be a bit different now than it was in the past, it wasn't bad and there would be other things that would be thee to learn... Things like the acclimation classes and so on, which Arcelia accepted, but the thing she wanted to do most was call her family... the Perez family, tell them she was okay, she was happy and hoped they were, and share with them all the amazing things she'd found out already.