Bird Lithfie

"Bird Lithfie, begging Rance to stay away."

- Rance... I don't know what it is you don't like about me, but please leave me alone from now on.

About
Bird Lithfie is an extremely unlucky adventurer with a talent for charming women. He has crossed paths with the warrior Rance numerous times throughout his travels, with each encounter inevitably ending with Bird losing his female companions, as well as some of his dignity.

During the events of Rance 02, Bird, along with a party made up of his then-girlfriend Nay Wrong and two other adventurers known as South and Kernel accepted a job request from Gazel Gode, mayor of the Free City of Kathtom, to save the city from the Four Witches who had been causing havoc throughout it after becoming corrupted by the power of the mysterious Phil Rings.

While investigating Kathtom, Bird met and befriended Kyouko Yoshikawa, who developed a crush on him and agreed to assist his group in defeating the witches. The party quickly became separated from each other, however, after encountering one of the water statues that Maria Custard, a member of the four witches, had enchanted to guard the entrance of her maze. The statue fired a teleportation wave at the party, which caused each member to be sent to a different one of the four witches' dungeons. Bird was sent to the living dungeon of Eleanor Ran, where he quickly became overwhelmed by Monsters and pushed to the brink of death.

Bird's unconscious body was later discovered by Sill Plain, who had similarly become separated from her master Rance while battling a water statue and sent to the living dungeon. Using her healing magic, Sill was able to restore Bird's health and save his life. Bird immediately became enamored with Sill and, after learning that they shared a common goal, offered to assist her in escaping from the dungeon.

Bird made several romantic advances towards Sill while the two traveled together. While Sill was flattered by Bird's sweet words, she was not romantically interested in him and, to his great frustration, repeatedly rejected him. In a final effort to win her love, Bird asked Sill to abandon Rance, who he believed was abusing her, and marry him. Before Sill was able to respond, the pair was found by Kyouko, who had entered the living dungeon in an effort to rescue Bird. Heartbroken from seeing Bird with another woman, Kyouko ran away crying, causing Bird to momentarily lose focus on his proposal to Sill.

Eventually, Bird and Sill succeeded in reaching Eleanor Ran's location at the center of the dungeon. Engaging Eleanor in combat, Bird attempted to overcome the mage’s powerful hypnotizing magic by by closing his eyes and walking towards her, believing her to be incapable of defending herself at a close range. This proved to be a critical mistake, however, as Eleanor revealed herself to be a skilled swordswoman in addition to a mage, allowing her to easily cut off the optically-compromised Bird’s left arm when he approached her. Severely injured, Bird became incapacitated for the remainder of the fight, leaving both Sill and himself at the mercy of the corrupted witch. The pair were miraculously rescued by Rance, who, aided by Maria and the female warrior Milli Yorks, successfully managed to defeat Eleanor and free her from her ring's influence.

Following Eleanor's defeat, Bird approached Rance and demanded to speak with him privately, which Rance agreed to. Moving behind a large rock where they could not be seen or heard, Bird confronted Rance over his poor treatment of Sill, and attempted to challenge him to a duel for her love. Rance responded with mockery, pointing out that Bird would likely soon die from blood loss, and dismissively told him to go away. Unable to deny the other man's observation, Bird was forced to exit the dungeon in shame, swearing that he would one day free Sill from Rance after his injury had healed.

Upon exiting the living dungeon, Bird attempted to apologize to Kyouko, only to learn that she had left Kathtom in order to go on a journey to find herself. Seemingly completely forgetting that he was already in a relationship with Nay, Bird also left the city in order to find and be together with Kyouko. Rance and Sill later learned of Bird's actions from Kyouko's sister Machiko Yoshikawa, prompting Rance to declare Bird to be a playboy with a hero complex.

Following his adventure in Kathtom, Bird acquired a cybernetic prosthetic to replace his lost arm. While it is unclear what exactly happened between the two, Bird seemingly abandoned his search for Kyouko after some time and returned to his career as an adventurer. While out completing a job request, Bird crossed paths with Kisara Copri, a young woman who had become an adventurer in order to raise the funds needed to buy her sister, Rebecca Copri, out of sexual slavery. Bird immediately became infatuated with Kisara, and offered to become her partner in order to assist in raising the money, to which she agreed. During the events events of Rance 4.1, Bird and Kisara accepted a job request from Doharas Happiness, the president of the drug conglomerate Happiness Pharmaceutical, to investigate the mysterious monster-infested cavern that had appeared beneath the company's main office. The duo soon encountered Rance, who, accompanied by his pet Athena 2.0, had also taken the job. While Bird attempted to act cordially towards Rance, he was largely ignored by his rival, who instead took an immediate interest in Kisara. Rance demanded that Kisara leave Bird, telling her that he was a serial womanizer who had tried to steal his slave from him, and that he would likely cheat on her with other women. Kisara was unaffected by Rance's claims, firmly stating that by attempting to slander Bird he had proven himself to be the lesser man. Rance was deeply annoyed by this rejection, and made it a priority to find a way of taking Kisara from Bird.

During their investigation, Bird and Kisara formed an alliance with Arnie Rolento, another adventurer who had also taken the job of exploring the cave. Arnie claimed to know the location of a powerful weapon that was capable of easily defeating Summon-chan, the rare Gal Monster responsible for filling the cave with monsters, but that she was unable to get on her own due to it being guarded by several powerful enemies. Arnie later used this information to also gain the assistance of Rance, who was otherwise against the notion of working together with Bird.

Upon arriving at the location of the supposed weapon, however, Bird and Kisara became trapped within a large pitfall. Arnie revealed herself to actually be a high-ranking member of the Angel Army, the pro-monster rights terrorist group responsible for constructing the cave, who was merely posing as an adventurer in order to prevent the group's activities from being discovered by actual adventurers. With no visible means of escape, Bird and Kisara appeared to be doomed to die within the pitfall. Taking advantage of the frantic situation, Bird proclaimed his love for Kisara, embracing her in his arms and telling her that he did not want to die with any regrets. Kisara, thrown into a frantic state by their situation, quickly complied with Bird's advances, and the two began kissing passionately. Their kissing was unknowingly observed by Rance and Athena, who had succeeded in escaping from their own trap. Outraged at seeing the two together, Rance hurriedly conceived Operation Pervert Bird, a somewhat convoluted plan that involved knocking Bird unconscious, impersonating him and savagely raping Kisara in order to destroy her opinion of him. The plan succeeded without issue, causing the disgusted Kisara to abandon the very confused Bird. Depressed by Kisara's sudden rejection, Bird chose to end his investigation of the cave, allowing Rance to make Kisara his, foil the Angel Army and complete the mission for himself.

Some time following his breakup with Kisara, Bird encountered the wandering fortune teller Copandon Dott in a city in Leazas. Copandon was in search of a man in possession of great luck in order to become a couple with him and find Paraiso, the fabled "land of happiness", in hopes of attaining vast wealth. Bird had his fortune told by Copandon, where he seemingly obtained the reading "great luck", causing Copandon to begin dating him under the belief that he was the man that she sought. Together, Bird and Copandon traveled the world in search of the legendary country.

During the events of Rance 5D, Bird and Copandon became lost deep within a vast cave somewhere along the outskirts of the Free Cities. While searching for a way out, the pair ran into Rance and Sill, who had also become lost inside the cave. Believing Rance to have had something to do with Kisara breaking up with him, Bird acted extremely defensively towards Rance, refusing to work together with him and hurriedly trying to flee the scene with Copandon. Before Bird succeeded in convincing her to leave with him, however, Copandon was persuaded by Rance to tell his fortune, where he also received the reading of "great luck". Despite Rance also meeting the requirements for her desired partner, Copandon chose to remain with Bird due to finding him to be more attractive.

After separating from Rance and Sill, Bird and Copandon continued to search for a means of exiting the cave. During their search, Bird came upon a large chest containing the rare gal monster Lil Avenger, who offered to assassinate any one person of Bird's choosing. Seemingly entirely on impulse, Bird blurted out Rance's name, causing the rare gal monster to leave in pursuit of the other man. While Bird insisted to Copandon that he held no grudge against Rance, he also rationalized his actions to himself with his belief that the world would be a better place with the perverted adventurer dead. Despite their continued efforts, Bird and Copandon failed to find any way of leaving the cave. Over time, Copandon began to steadily lose interest in Bird, growing tired of his poor navigational skills and tendency to passive-aggressively pout whenever she acted even slightly annoyed at him. This growing dissatisfaction eventual led Copandon to attempt to break up with Bird, who insisted that she stay with him by reminding her of his status as the "great luck guy" who would bring her good fortune. At Bird's urging, Copandon re-read his fortune, where she once again drew a lot reading "great luck". Upon a closer examination of the lot she continued to draw for Bird, however, Copandon discovered that it was actually one reading "bad luck" that she had once drawn for herself as a child and wrote "great luck" over in anger. Completely disillusioned after realizing her mistake, Copandon eagerly began looking for a means of leaving Bird without endangering her own safety by adventuring through the cave alone.

Bird and Copandon were eventually reunited with Rance, who had tracked down their location by feigning his death in front of Lil Avenger and following her when she reported her success back to them. In need of another living Human to exchange for Sill, who had become trapped in Genbu Castle, a mysterious pocket Dimension located within the depths of the cave, Rance beat Bird to the point of unconsciousness and dragged his near-lifeless body back to the castle to use in her place. Using Bird as a sacrifice, Rance succeeded in escaping from Genbu Castle and the cave it was contained in with both Sill and Rizna Lanfbitt, a young woman who had become trapped inside of the castle decades before. In addition, Copandon chose to abandon Bird in favor of accompanying Rance, who she remembered had also receive a "great luck" fortune and seemed to be significantly more competent.

Trapped alone inside of Genbu Castle, Bird unsuccessfully attempted to exit the pocket dimension 68 times, but continuously found himself stopped by an invisible force. He was eventually approached by Waka, an incredibly realistic living doll created in the image of the woman Genbu Castle was created for, who informed him that escape was impossible. Bird instantly became enchanted by the doll’s beauty, and resigned himself to his fate in order to be with her.

Bird was briefly mentioned by Rance during the events of Rance VI after the warrior opened a chest containing Lil Avenger. Rance recognized the gal monster as being the same one that Bird has sent to kill him earlier, and annoyance at being reminded of the memory. Rance later used Bird’s name during a fantasy he had while masturbating of himself having sex with his personal Level Goddess Willis Fujisaki. In his fantasy, Rance imagined himself as a delinquent high school student who had caught Willis, his class representative, masturbating on a desk after class while thinking about Bird, and used this information to blackmail her into sex.

During the events of Sengoku Rance, Genbu Castle was visited by its creator, the Apostle Madou, shortly after he had been unsealed from his human prison. Upon returning to his castle, Madou was shocked to find the Waka doll, intended for his use only, in the hands of Bird. Outraged by the sight, Madou destroyed the Waka doll and savagely beat Bird up before kicking him out of the pocket dimension.

After returning to The Continent, Bird resumed his career as an adventurer. During this time, he met and fell in love with the monster-hunting adventurer Arms Arc, who had made a considerable name for herself during the time he had spent trapped within Genbu Castle through her outstanding strength, skill and beauty. Despite Bird’s interest in her, Arms remained completely oblivious to him due to his unimpressive abilities, causing his attempts at wooing her to go unnoticed.

Some time after this, Bird encountered Matilda Mateury, a young martial artist who dreamed of some day becoming a hero of justice. Bird’s good looks and polite words convinced Matilda that he was one such hero, causing her to begin idolizing him. Not wanting to waste an opportunity to have another girlfriend, Bird played along with Matilda’s fantasy, causing the two to travel the world together in search of evil to exterminate.

During the events of Rance Quest, Bird adventured through Eureka Cave with Matilda, where he was once again reunited with Rance, who Matilda had attacked under the belief that he was an agent of evil. Upon recognizing Rance, Bird immediately attempted to leave with Matilda before being seen by the other man, but was quickly noticed and stopped by Rance. While Rance was initially confused as to how Bird was able to escape from Genbu Castle, he swiftly became more interested in Matilda, stating bluntly to her that all of Bird’s women were fated to eventually become his. While Matilda was infuriated by this claim, Bird was able to successfully convince her to exit the cave with him before she could provoke Rance further, meekly telling Rance to leave him alone before doing so.

Bird and Matilda continued to travel the world together following this, training to become stronger all the while. During their travels, they continuously ran into Rance, who Matilda, despite Bird’s protests, repeatedly challenged to fights. The duo inevitably lost each of these encounters, with Rance knocking Bird unconscious before attempting to have his way with Matilda after his victories.

Over time, Matilda grew frustrated with Bird’s constant reluctance to fight against Rance. This frustration only increased as their training progressed, where she found him to steadily become unable to keep up with her as she grew stronger. Eventually, Matilda declared Bird to be a weakling who had no right to call himself a hero, and abandoned him to travel on her own. Depressed by Matilda’s abandonment, Bird turned to alcohol for comfort. Fed up with his life, Bird largely gave up adventuring in favor of drifting aimlessly from bar to bar. During this time, he allowed his long standing resentment of Rance to grow, to the point where he began to blame all of his failures on the other man, regardless of his actual level of involvement in them. He lost interest in attempting to find love again, preferring to instead wallow in self pity and complain about Rance, and became a shell of the person he once was.

Some time later, Rance encountered a very drunk Bird while visiting the McCart Bar. Too drunk to recognize his nemesis, Bird asked Rance to allow him to tell him his troubles, which the amused Rance agreed to. Bird rambled about his repeated failures with women, declaring each of them to be Rance’s fault, before admitting that he would just once like to be able to do dirty things with a nice girl. Upon finishing his rant, Bird realized, to his horror, that he had been speaking to Rance the entire time. Humiliated, Bird attempted to flee the bar, only to trip over himself and pass out on the floor pathetically.

In the year LP0007, the human territories of the Continent were invaded by the forces of the Monster Realm, sparking the beginning of the 2nd Dark Lord War, a monumental event that would determine the future of the entire world. Rather than assist in the war effort, Bird chose to continue brooding over Rance. At the conclusion of the war, where humanity proved victorious, Bird learned that an enormous celebration was being held in honor of Rance, who had, through various circumstances, become the leader of the United Human Army and was now being recognized as the world’s greatest hero. Disgusted at the notion of his hated enemy becoming a beloved hero to the rest of the world, Bird’s mind became twisted with an overwhelming desire for revenge.

During the events of Rance X, Bird appeared unexpectedly during the United Human Army's victory party at Rance Castle, where he calmly and quietly approached Sill. Bird began speaking to Sill of his amazement at Rance’s heroism, stating plainly that he was jealous that Rance was able to become the hero that he had always wanted to be but never could. While Sill was initially happy to see Bird again, she quickly began to feel uneasy in his presence, detecting a certain strangeness in his mannerisms. Sill made multiple attempts at ending the conversation, but was prevented from leaving by Bird. The two were eventually noticed by Rance, who angrily told Bird to stay away from his slave. Upon seeing Rance again, Bird donned a terrifying expression and coldly told him that he had no right to act as if he had defeated all of his enemies while he was still around. Mere moments after saying this, Bird placed his mechanical arm, which had been equipped with a small ray gun that could fire concentrated Magical energy, onto Sill’s stomach and fired it at her. To the horror of everyone else in attendance, Sill was nearly bisected by the attack and mortally wounded. Bird began laughing hysterically to himself after doing this, loudly declaring to Rance that he had finally won before gleefully fleeing the scene. His status following this is unknown.

While Bird’s actions were brief, they proved to have monumental consequences for the future of the Continent. Shortly after Sill’s lethal injury, Kurusu Miki, the then-Demon King of the system, began losing control over her powers. With seemingly no other options beyond Miki’s death or the destruction of humanity, the heartbroken Rance volunteered to take in her blood and become the Demon King himself in order to keep the monsters from attacking the Human Realm any further, ending the LP Era and beginning the RA Era. During the events of Toushin Toshi, set approximately 22 years after the end of the Rance Series, Bird participated in the 27th Toushin Tournament. During the tournament’s first round, Bird fought against a warrior named Reinard, where he won quite easily. In the tournament’s second round, Bird defeated a warrior named Saurus by utilizing a hidden weapon in his mechanical arm. In the tournament’s third round, Bird fought against the powerful female warrior Morris, where, unable to bring himself to harm a woman, he lost. The canonicity of Bird’s appearance in this game is debatable.

Personality and Appearance
Bird is a young man of above-average height with shoulder-length blue hair, matching blue eyes and a lean build. His clothing consists of gold plate armor worn over a blue-colored tunic and a brown headband. Following his brief clash with Eleanor Ran, Bird acquired a mechanical prosthetic for his left arm, which is shown at various points equipped with a variety of different attachments, most frequently a two-pronged claw. Bird is often noted to be quite handsome, with many women describing him as “cool-looking” and even Rance claiming that his “decent face” is his only positive quality.

Bird is a polite and well-spoken inidvidual with a serious-yet-friendly demeanor. He generally always makes an effort to act in a compassionate and altruistic manner, and never hesitates to try and come to the aid of any endangered women he encounters in his travels. In conjunction with his good looks, these traits allow Bird to be naturally popular with the opposite sex, who tend to find him to be both charming and reliable upon first meeting him, with Matilda Mateury in particular going so far as to declare him to be the ideal hero that she wished to emulate immediately after making his acquaintance. At the same time, however, this behavior has led to Bird often being accused of possessing a hero complex by his detractors, who claim that he is more interested in being viewed as a savior by women than he is in actually helping them resolve their problems. Bird himself admits this to be the case during his final appearance, confirming it to be at least partially true.

Beneath his outwardly upstanding character, Bird is repeatedly shown to possess several negative qualities that completely undermine his image. In particular, he is prone to being indecisive when under pressure, causing him fumble or hesitate during critical moments. In addition, Bird is frequently rather passive-aggressive, and often quietly sulks to himself when he is criticized by others until he is able to guilt them into apologizing to him. These flaws often result in the very same women who were initially attracted to him to become steadily disenchanted with Bird, to the point of eventually finding the same behavior that drew them towards him in the first place to be manufactured and grating. When confronted directly about his personal flaws, Bird acts evasive and often attempts to shift the blame onto others, but is unable to outright deny them.

Perhaps more damning than any of Bird’s other character flaws is the repeated suggestion that he is something of a womanizer. Despite often loudly objecting to the behaviors of men such as Rance for lusting after multiple women, Bird has no problem with declaring his love for any woman who attracts his attention, even when he is already in a relationship with an entirely different one. This has resulted in him doing such things as completely forgetting his relationship with Nay Wrong after becoming enamored with Kyouko Yoshikawa and later Sill Plain and falling in love with the Waka Doll immediately upon seeing it, despite having vowed to rescue Copandon Dott just a short while earlier, simply because it had the appearance of a beautiful woman. Similarly, Bird often attempts to initiate sexual contact with women at the first sign of intimacy, regardless of how small it may be, such as when he began groping Copandon after receiving a light kiss from her. Bird further reinforced his status as a closeted pervert during his drunken rant to Rance during the events of Rance Quest, where he confessed that he desired to do “dirty things” with a nice girl.

Bird has maintained an intense grudge against Rance since before their first meeting. After learning that Sill, who he had fallen for, worked under Rance as a slave, Bird declared Rance to be a terrible person that he needed to rescue her from. Upon first encountering Rance in person, Bird attempted to challenge him to a duel for Sill’s freedom, but was convinced to back down upon realizing that he would likely die from blood loss if he did not have the injury left by his missing arm treated. Bird’s hatred of Rance was furthered after their second meeting, where he correctly deduced that the other man was responsible for Kisara Copri’s sudden disgust with him. Bird became much more wary of Rance following this, causing him to actively try to avoid him in each of their later encounters, as well as instinctively wish for his death when asked if there was a person that he wanted revenge against by Lil’ Avenger. Over time, Bird allowed his hatred of Rance to overtake every other aspect of his existence, giving up on pursuing new women in favor of stewing over his contempt for him. This caused Bird to begin utilizing Rance as a scapegoat for his problems, choosing to blame all of the misfortune he experienced in life on the other man in order to avoid confronting his own failings. By the time of his final encounter with Rance, Bird had become driven to madness by his grudge, and showed only a single-minded desire to hurt his enemy no matter the cost.

While Rance reciprocates Bird’s hatred to a certain degree, calling him “scum” and a “loser” countless times for his supposedly hypocritical and dishonest actions, he does not attribute nearly the same degree of weight to their rivalry. Having taken notice of Bird’s skill at drawing beautiful women towards himself only to have them inevitably lose interest in him, Rance views every encounter that he has with Bird to be an opportunity to have sex with new women, causing him to enjoy crossing paths with him. This belief has caused Bird to be one of the few men that Rance is able to consistently remember the name of, as, in his words, “Bird’s women are [his] women”. Though the full extent of Rance’s feelings towards Bird following his murder of Sill are not gone into, the fact that he remembers his name 15 years later suggests that Bird now occupies a permanent space in his mind because of it.

Bird seems to hold a particular place in his heart for Sill Plain, who saved him from death while the two of them were trapped inside the organic dungeon of Eleanor Ran. Bird made multiple attempts at wooing Sill throughout their time adventuring together, even going so far as to ask her to marry him. While Bird was able to rather quickly move on from Sill after being separated from her by Rance, she continued to remain on his mind long afterwards, causing him to bring her up in each of his following encounters with Rance, regardless of whether or not she was present during them. Over time, however, Bird allowed his hatred of Rance to taint even his feelings for Sill, eventually reaching the conclusion that she was to blame for Rance entering his life in the first place. This growing resentment reached its apex at the conclusion of the 2nd Dark Lord War, where Bird chose to murder Sill for the sake of emotionally-attacking Rance, with his last words to her coldly stating that he wished that they had never met.

Since the time of their first meeting, Sill has held a high opinion of Bird, calling him a "good person" and being extremely grateful for his assistance in traversing Ran's maze. These feelings are entirely platonic, however, as Sill found herself uncomfortable when Bird made his advances more overtly romantic. During their final encounter with each other, Sill was initially very happy to see Bird again, but grew steadily unnerved as he continued talking to her and his lethal intent became more clear.

Abilities
Bird is a fairly talented adventurer of decent, but largely unremarkable ability. He possesses both the Sword Combat Lv1 and Adventurer Lv1 Skill Levels, giving him a substantial amount of potential as an adventurer and warrior. He is listed as being at the above-average Level of 32 during the events of the 2nd Dark Lord War, which is presumed, but not confirmed, to be his Level Cap, once again bestowing him with a considerable amount of combat potential.

In spite of his above-average capabilities, Bird is frequently shown to be prone to making clumsy and poorly-thought out decisions when in battle, most notably attempting to fight Eleanor Ran, a Spell-blader of considerable skill, with his eyes closed. In addition, Bird appears to have a poor sense of direction, becoming completely lost inside of a cave during the events of Rance 5D and only managing to escape through the assistance of others. These traits severely limit Bird's potential as an adventurer, and often cause him to make mistakes that he easily could have avoided. Following the loss of his arm, Bird gained a mechanical replacement that he is able to launch at his enemies for a powerful ranged attack. He is not particularly good at aiming this attack, however, and frequently misses his target as a result. Bird is also stated to possess a drill attachment for his arm, though he has never been shown using it, making its abilities unclear. By the time of Rance X, Bird acquired a third attachment for his arm in the form of a cannon that can fire a small concentrated beam of magical energy. The beam is said to be of comparable power to a White Destruction Beam, making it a very powerful attack. Bird requires several seconds to charge the beam, however, and as he is only shown using it at point-blank range, its actual effectiveness in battle is unclear.

Bird's character card in Rance X features the ability "negative thoughts", which allows him to channel his immense hatred of Rance to place a curse on his enemies. It is unknown if he actually possesses this ability or if it was merely given to him for the sake of making his character card more unique in combat.

In-Game
For more in-depth gameplay information for each of this character's appearances, refer to:
 * Bird Lithfie/Rance 02

Trivia

 * Bird's birthday is September 9th.
 * While Bird is one year older than Rance, as he spent three years trapped in Genbu Castle, where time does not pass, he is physically two years younger than him.
 * Bird's character card in Rance X is affiliated with the Helman faction, though whether this is meant to suggest that Bird is originally from Helman is unknown.
 * Bird came in 11th place in the "Males" category of the Rance Quest Popularity Poll and 29th place in the "Males" category of the Rance X Popularity Poll.
 * Bird was the first male playable character besides Rance himself to ever appear in the Rance series. He has notably never been playable again after his debut outside of non-canon bonus content despite appearing several times.
 * Bird's current list of known girlfriends and their reasons for leaving him includes:
 * Nay Wrong: Bird forgot about her.
 * Kyouko Yoshikawa: Caught Bird trying to seduce Sill.
 * Kisara Copri: Tricked by Rance into thinking that Bird raped her.
 * Copandon Dott: Realized that Bird's fortune was "Bad Luck", not "Great Luck", and lost interest.
 * Matilda Mateury: Got bored with Bird after he couldn't keep up with her during training.