I didn't hear him approach. I stood beneath the single bulb outside of the park's bathrooms, scrolling on my phone. I started to scroll faster, afraid he wouldn't show, that we had had our last encounter without me realizing it.
The moon was full and yellow between the naked branches of the trees reaching for it. My heart skipped a beat, seeing large yellow eyes staring down at me from the branches. Then I smiled, knowing he was there.
The eyes blinked away, the wings they were on flapping silently. He landed in front of me, just outside the light's reach. His actual eyes were round, cherry-red, the smaller eyes within them gleaming in the light. He towered above me, even slightly bent as he was when standing on two legs.
Up close I could see his wings were tattered at the edges. He must have seen me notice in what rough shape they were. He lifted one of his forelegs, extending its hooked "hand". I placed mine inside of it and he pulled me close. I buried my face in the fur of his abdomen. I took a deep breath, smelling the wilderness on him mixing with his own musk. There was a heaviness to him, a sluggishness that made me know he didn't have long left.
He seemed to fold down around me, taking me up in his legs. I had started to cry, but couldn't keep from laughing as his wings propelled us up and off the ground. We clung to each other tightly as he weaved through the trunks and branches. Eventually he slowed and alighted in a clear meadow among the trees.