Talisman's Folly
By Aria Breuer
Disclaimers: All material from The Lord of the Rings book trilogy and the Appendices belong to J.R.R. Tolkien. All original material belongs to the author of this fan fiction one-shot chapter story.
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Welcome to the third prequel in the Item Insertion Parody Anthology!
Talisman's Folly, this story, is a companion piece to Kindred's Strife, mostly because they each have events running into each other's story. Also, since Clockwise tells a different story, from what he remembers, in Reader's Retribution, this story will bring about the missing pieces to his tale. So now that that's said, let's begin the tale. :)
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Prologue, One-Shot
Dawn broke the horizon.
Loud machinery stampeded across the rainforest. The animals hadn't expected this to invade their homeland, and their usual spots. The machinery wasn't the only part of the forest they had to worry about and fear. Men in orange and yellow construction suits stopped by the trees, sawing them with their heavy machines and chopping them down.
Many animals fled the scene with their young. The birds were prepared, grabbing their nests and flying in the same direction as the animals. Although, flying into the deeper parts of the forest wasn't what they had in mind, they had no choice. It was survival of the fittest. Speed was more important in this case.
Mating season was over a season ago. The macaws weren't too pleased about leaving their homes. Still, the calls and chirps worked, for the birds moved away, heading for a new home. Among the birds, there was a family of scarlet macaws. Roland was the leader of his family. He kept lookout for his mate Clarisse and their two daughters, Arina and Ava. Roland's brother Rerin, a blue-and-gold macaw, flew on ahead to warn his mate and children about the machinery.
Rerin had not returned since first light. Roland was worried and tense. Surely his brother would return by now.
"We're ready, Roland! Should we fly now?" Clarisse asked, startling her husband.
"Will we ever see that green countryside, Papa?" Ava asked, growing excited.
"I hope so. If we ever find that Tonkinese cat that spoke of Middle-earth – never mind," Roland said, shaking off the thought. "For now, we should take flight and hope to find safe ground."
"Watch out!" Arina cried, as a tall tree nearly impaled her and her family.
"Come on! Let's fly!" Roland said, taking flight almost immediately.
Roland's family followed him at top speed. They were seconds into their flight when Arina looked down, just in time to see a blue-and-gold macaw captured by construction workers. No. Arina cawed in despair. She nearly rushed down when Ava blocked her path, doing her best to calm her sister. Roland looked around as well. Realization struck him. The blue-and-gold macaw was his brother Rerin. He was unconscious. Roland spun around, only to witness Arina fly down be caught in a cage, a few inches apart from Rerin.
"There's nothing you can do for either of them!" Clarisse told Ava, serious. "Let's fly away from here, before they capture us too!" Clarisse turned to Roland, asking him sharply, "Roland?"
"My brother's down there! We can't just leave them to those men! They might do something – they could kill them if we don't…"
"Roland, there isn't anything we can do for them," Clarisse said in a calm, trembling voice. "Come on." She told both Ava and Roland, "The both of you. We must move or we'll never escape. Come on!" It was the encouragement Roland and Ava needed to fly away from the work zone, as more trees fell to the forest floor.
o-o-o
The three scarlet macaws flew until sundown.
Amongst the crowd of macaws, Roland managed to find Rerin's wife, two daughters and his son. They asked Roland what became of Rerin, at which the parrot told them the truth.
"I'm sorry. He was taken by construction workers," Roland said. He added, "My daughter Arina is amongst the macaws that were taken."
"Roland, I'm so sorry," Rerin's wife said, saddened by the news.
Roland turned his gaze to the crowd of macaws, telling them, "We need to be careful. I fear more construction workers will come."
"Who speaks that way?" one of the macaws asked.
"Forgive me. I know about Middle-earth." Roland admitted, "I…" but his mind was interrupted by another sound.
His gaze turned towards a brown and cream-colored cat, with blue eyes that met his own. Roland was stunned, ignoring the rest of the birds. However, by the time he leapt down to a few more branches, the cat had vanished into the forest.
He returned to the present in time to tell the birds, "We need to keep a lookout, and make sure we're not caught up in deforestation again."
"What should we do?" another macaw asked.
"Right now, we sleep. We'll come up with a plan by morning," Roland said, already formulating a plan.
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Thanks for reading. :)