As January was giving way to February, things were getting busier in Animalia. Groundhog Day isn't considered particularly important these days, unless there's time loops involved. But the real excitement will be starting next weekend. First there will be the beginning of the Lunar New Year Festival, which is expected to last most of the next week. Then the Superbowl would be on Sunday, which would attract plenty enough attention on its own. But this year, it was being held in Las Vegas so Animalians were going to be part of the halftime show, along with the Animalia Cheer Squad making their big debut. The Tuesday after that would be Mardi Gras, which was bound to stir up even more festiveness. And this year, Valentine's Day would be the day right after that. So the first half of February was expected to quite packed and be keeping Animalia very busy.
Of course, that was mostly a concern for Animalians who were still in Nevada. There were plenty of Animalians who have migrated to warmer climates for the winter, mostly birds and reptiles. They could still watch the activities online or on TV, but they didn't have to get involved in it. Quite often, most of the migrating birds headed down to Vilcabamba where it would be summery and there would be large trees to perch in.
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Henry knew he was acting atypical of his new species. For starters, bald eagles don't migrate. They stick through the winter and still hunt and fish. Not that being down here wasn't pleasant, but he didn't need to come. It was his girlfriends who mainly wanted to go. And that was the real issue. It was used to thought that bald eagles mated for life. But studies have shown that they do find other mates if their previous mates have died. But as far as Henry knew, eagles are typically monogamous by nature.
And Henry had good reason to like both of them. Beatrice helped him adjust to Animalia and realize how wrong militarizing them would be wrong. And yet, Henry was finding more in common with Antonia. Spending more time with her as allowed her to overcome a lot of her self-loathing issues from being Korean. She even stopped insisting on being called Susan B. Anthony, at least offstage. And the two have a lot more similar interests with their former military careers. While neither of them were getting possessive of him, Henry had the feeling that eventually he'll have to choose one of them to his bond-mate and he wasn't sure which one he should choose.
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Unable to really think of which one to choose, Henry decided to air his woes the old-fashioned way; to a bartender. Henry wasn't sure if a degree in psychology was a requirement to being a bartender, but they can come up with pretty sage advice. The fact that the bartender was a toucan barely batted an eye.
"So sooner or later, I have to choose which one I want to keep," said Henry, "It's not like there aren't other bald eagles out there for them, but I'm finding it hard to pick between them."
"Are you sure you're aren't overthinking things?" asked the bartender, "Open relationships seem to be pretty common among Animalians."
"I think that's mostly for the benefit of animal species like lions who don't have just one mate," said Henry, "If Animalia wasn't founded in Mormon territory, they wouldn't have been able to make that allowance."
"I don't think it's just restricted to just lions," said the bartender, "And from what you've said, neither of them mind sharing you."
"But is that fair?" asked Henry, "I didn't ask to have a harem or whatever I can call it."
"By the sounds of it, the only one with a problem about it is you," said the bartender, "So unless they tell you to pick one of them or some other eagle tries to take them both, I wouldn't worry about it."
"Gee, there's real sage advice for the ages," said Henry dryly.
"Would ancient sages have predicted this kind of scenario?" replied the bartender.
"Highly unlikely," said Henry.
"It's a new world now. New wisdom is needed to understand it," said the bartender.
"That's...not too bad," said Henry.
The bartender shrugged and said, "I have my moments."