Chapter 4- Otis and his group reunites with Nigel

In Tulio's Aviary, Tulio and his team were up to their usual tasks of caring for the injured and sick birds in the main medical room and releasing them when they were well enough to return to the wild. Around the room, birds of various species wore bandages on their wings, legs or other parts of their body dotted the worktops being cared for by the vets. While the vets helped to care for the birds, Tulio and his main team were in a discussion room, talking about their trip into the Sanctuary de Amazon to study the recently discovered glaucous macaw flock. Tulio was in front of the other people who were seated in rows of seats, watching while he talked about the glaucous macaw and the project using a projector and a screen. Among the seated team members were Susan, Lucy and Linda, and they watched intently as Tulio continued discussing the project ahead. Many of the other men and women present also found this talk interesting but a few were dozing. All the members of the audience were nonetheless looking forward to going out into the Sanctuary de Amazon to study the only glaucous macaw flock in the entire world. However, not all of them had the same genuine ambition in this task. In the back row, one of the scientists wore an intrigued smile on his face. However, this was no excited smile, but one of scheming but he managed to conceal the scheming attitude with a façade of excitement. He had his eyes glues on the screen and ears pinned on Tulio's speech as he continued talking.

"We will be estimating the population size of this glaucous macaw flock," said Tulio, gesturing to the picture of some of the birds taken by one of the ornithologists that had visited the habitat some other day, "And once that is done, we will be estimating their reproductive output in the present time which will be the starting point of the population study of this flock including monitoring their rate of reproduction each month…"

The scientist with the scheming attitude under the pseudo-excited smile widened the corners of his mouth further up his face.

"Brilliant," he said in a very low voice so that none of the others' suspicion was roused, "Our boss Lysandre will be looking forward to hearing about this…"

"Also, while we are out in the Amazon," continued Tulio, "Some of us will be studying the Spix macaw flock, the Lear's macaw flock and the flock of green macaws and gathering data about those macaws as well, such as their population size, estimated reproductive output in the present time…"

The scientist uttered silent titters with glee. He clearly was planning something. However, this scientist was not a genuine scientist. He had been sent into Tulio's Aviary under the guise of one by his boss who was planning something illegal, and had been given the task of spying on Tulio and his team and bringing back reports to his boss and his team. The man had dark brown hair, was fairly slim and had green eyes. He was dressed like the other members in the room, in the same uniform as them but this was just a disguise, but none of the others in the room, not even Tulio himself, were aware that he was something suspicious. Then as soon as Tulio had finished coming to the end of his talk with his team, he dismissed the meeting and began to pack up his equipment. While the others all stood up and moved around to chat, the man who had a gleeful and scheming smile on his face then began to carefully make his way to outside. Being careful not to rouse suspicion of the genuine scientists in the rooms, the guy exited via the back door and quickly made his way to a spot so that he was out of sight and earshot of the workers in and around the Aviary. As soon as he had made sure that he was well away and hidden from everyone else, he pulled out a mobile phone, also called a cellphone, and began to contact his boss.

In another place somewhere in the city of Rio, a figure cloaked by shadow sat at a desk. Beside the figure was a smaller shady bird-like figure. Suddenly, a small rodent, a mouse, scurried along and climbed up one of the legs of the table. As it made its way to the table top, its nose wriggling as it sniffed the air for a scent of something to eat, a talon suddenly slammed down onto it. This talon was bright yellow with four toes, three out the front and two out the back. On the end of each toe was a long, curled black claw, lethal and sharp like daggers. The mouse squeaked and squirmed helplessly under the talon until its movements diminished as the pressure on its tiny body overwhelmed it. Then the four toes closed around the now dead rodent and picked it up off the table. The rodent was carried to a lethally sharp, hooked beak which then closed onto the body as the owner of the talon and beak, a falcon, began to eat it. The falcon had a slate grey back and bone white front. Its belly and upper legs were speckled with blackish bands. Its wings were long and pointy, like in all falcons and its tail was short and chisel-shaped, rather than long like a macaw's, and its body was sleek and aerodynamic. On the end of the falcon's head was a bright yellow, greyish tipped beak, hooked and cruel, clearly designed for tearing the flesh out of its prey. Its lower legs were also yellow and on the end of those legs were four toes, each armed with a black, dagger like claw, also designed for dispatching and ripping apart prey. Behind the beak was a pair of large eyes, piercing and cruel. The eyes were filled with delight as the falcon tasted the flesh of the freshly killed mouse. It looked up evilly at the figure in the shadows and smiled, but it was not the only falcon on the table. With it were several more falcons, all with the same piercing eyes, cruel dagger-like talons, sleek bodies and hooked beaks. The other falcons were stood in a row along the length of the table top, like soldiers ready to take orders. Then a hand emerged out of the cloak of darkness and began to pet the first falcon's head. The falcon squeaked and accepted the strokes pleasurably.

"Don't worry, Cazador," said the person in the shadows, "You, your minions and your raven grunts will soon be put into action shortly…"

The falcon continued chirping as it nuzzled against its master's hand. Just then, some human footsteps sounded in the dark room.

"Boss Lysandre," said one of the humans. The person in the darkness looked up and saw three of the humans walk towards him. The first falcon and the others with it followed their owner's gaze. The human then handed something to the person named Lysandre and said, "Ernesto is on the phone."

At this, Lysandre, with an evil smile on his face, took the phone and answered it.

"Hi, Ernesto," he said, "Any news on the trip out into the Sanctuary de Amazon yet?"

"Not yet, sir," said the man whose name was Ernesto, the same guy who had been to Tulio's meeting, "But Tulio has just had a meeting with his team and had talked about the tasks of the trip, but no date of departure to the Amazon yet."

"Good," said Lysandre, his mouth creased into a wicked smile, "Make sure you keep a close eye on that group okay? And when Tulio does give the date of departure, ring us and let us know so that we can prepare to go out into the Amazon with them as well."

"Yes, I will, sir," said Ernesto, "I will keep you informed of any important updates. I'll talk to you again soon."

Then after the two men had said goodbye, they hung up and Ernesto put his phone away before returning to Tulio's Aviary to continue his phony ornithologist disguise. Lysandre then handed his mobile phone back to the human who had given it to him before sitting back down. His eyes, coloured blue, glittered with scheming and glee in the darkness, his face completely veiled by the blackness of the shadow. He continued petting the first falcon as he gazed at three of his accomplices.

"Have the cages and other equipment been prepared, John?" he asked the first human, a man.

"Yes, sir," said the man named John, "We are also training our ravens to work with our falcons in catching and hauling back captured birds."

"Excellent," crooned Lysandre as he leaned back in his seat. His feet came up and rested on the table, one over the other. "Soon, we will be infiltrating the Sanctuary de Amazon using this new technique which will hopefully fool even the well-trained security guards and once we're in, we're going to be capturing as many of those rare Spix, Lear's and glaucous macaws as possible to smuggle out of Brazil."

He began to fantasize about how much money would come from selling those highly prized and tenaciously protected birds while three of his accomplices looked on and smiled. The first falcon named Cazador smiled alongside the other falcons, five in total as they looked forward to this illegal task with the ravens. However, one of them wore a fake smile as though it was not looking forward to it at all.

Ever since the Spix macaw flock's habitat, alongside the habitat of the other macaw flocks had been set up as a sanctuary, with the green and Lear's macaws being added shortly after, poaching and logging in the areas had been outlawed. However, this did not stop this group of poachers devising an ingenious plan in sneaking past these security defences disguised as ecologists and into the sanctuary, and their leader, Lysandre, was hoping that it would work. If all goes well, the plan would be a success. However, they had to wait for the signal first, and that signal was Tulio giving out the date of departure into the Sanctuary de Amazon, and Ernesto had that job of keeping an eye out for that.

Meanwhile

Otis and his gang continued jumping from roof to roof, leaping across the narrowest gaps to prevent from falling to earth. They had been doing this for about an hour now, and Otis had kept track of their location by looking down at the busy streets. However, the cats, including Otis himself, were beginning to think that this idea was turning into a wild goose chase after Veggie and Catina. Despite thinking that searching for the two cats from above rather in the streets was a good idea in the first place, that glimmer of hope had faded after the group had spent an hour hopelessly searching for the two cats to execute their plan of revenge on them. After another while of this, some of the cats began to complain.

"Do we have to continue with this pointless search, Otis," muttered Adriana as she breathed rapidly from exhaustion.

"This is honestly very dangerous," said Hopper.

"As is fruitless," complained the white Persian cat. Otis was beginning to feel agreement bubble within him. Then after hearing more complaints from his comrades, he began to call off the search.

"Let's find another alleyway to settle in and rest," he said at last, much to the other cats' relief. Then after a few more leaps between houses, they found another alley to hide in. Like the previous one Otis and his gang had settled in, this one was untidy and looked like a rubbish dump, but it was a perfect place to hide. Otis then searched for a pipe leading to the gutter on the current building his group was on and once he had located it, he led the other cats to it. Then the cats began to climb down to the ground one by one. After Adriana, who had been the last to make the descent, had touched down on the ground, Otis led his group among the pile of discarded waste. However, before Otis could hide himself amongst the heap of trash with his comrades, he froze.

"What is it, now, Otis?" asked Tom slightly irritated. Otis raised a paw telling him to be quiet as he began to listen to a distant sound. Tom, with a perplexed look on his face, shared a look with Moggy and Adriana while Hopper, Paws and Tom organised the other, unnamed cats.

"Do you hear that sound?" asked Otis. Tom, Moggy and Adriana then cocked their ears and began to try and listen to the sound Otis had picked up. At first they heard nothing but then they heard what sounded like dreary groaning and growling, but it wasn't that of a dog.

"Sounds like a parrot having a bad day," said Adriana as she listened.

"A parrot?" repeated Moggy. Then Otis felt a hint of recognition bubble within him and he rushed off towards the entrance of the alley, which opened into the street filled with passing humans to see if it were true. Moggy, Adriana and Tom followed.

"Otis!" growled Tom but the black and white cat ignored him and continued running for the entrance. Otis then screeched to a halt and cocked his ear again to listen to the groans. Tom, Moggy and Adriana skidded to a halt just behind him. Adriana was wary of the passers-by.

"Honestly, I don't feel safe out here," she muttered in a low voice, "If we're spotted by any of those humans…"

"Shh!" commanded Otis, a paw raised to reinforce his message. Adriana reluctantly obeyed as the other three cats began to listen. The sounds that Otis had heard had increased in volume but it was too distant or too quiet for the four cats to pick out meaningful words, but the voice sounded familiar.

"Isn't that…?" began Tom. Then Otis carefully inched his head out of the entrance and peered around the corner to trace the sounds' sources. At first all he saw was a flurry of humans' legs but through a gap in the flurry, Otis saw a flash of grey-white before more legs concealed it. However, Otis had managed to get a glimpse of a pale yellow set of feathers on the form's head.

"It's Nigel," he gasped in shock. Moggy, Adriana and Tom reacted as surprise washed over them.

"Nigel!?" snapped Moggy incredulously.

"B-b-but I thought he has died," said Adriana.

"How can he still be alive?" added Tom. Otis then devised a plan as the greyish-white and yellow form flashed into view again. "We're going to lure that cockatoo here and catch him," he said, "I have a lot to ask."

He then turned to the other three and said, "Can you three help me in this please?"

Tom, Moggy and Adriana nodded in agreement.

"I'd be obliged," said Adriana, a smile replacing the surprise, "We haven't seen that cockatoo for years."

"There was something different about him though," said Tom.

"We'll see about that when we catch him and reunite with him," said Otis. Then he ordered the other three cats to prepare to lure Nigel towards their hiding place. At this moment, not too far away, Nigel continued trudging through the street. His feathers were still covered in the stains of the decaying fruit after Catina had knocked him into a pile of it earlier, and he was in a worse mood than ever.

"Just WAIT until I get my talons on that MISERABLE blue bird again!" he snarled, kicking a discarded can away. It was a surprise that nobody noticed him. Then Nigel began to spew out all kinds of awful things about what he would like to do to Blu and Jewel when he came across them again. as he continued to spit out these disgusting words, a squawk was heard.

"Hey, feather head," it snarled, "Can you shout that profanity somewhere else? We've got sensitive members of our group around here!"

At this, Nigel looked up and saw six pairs of tiny eyes belonging to six small grey birds glare at him from a ridge above a shop's sign. Those eyes were flooded with disgust. Nigel spat at the floor and trudged on.

"Pesky pigeons," he snarled, kicking a water hydrant which sent sharp pain sparking in his foot. Nigel grunted and held his talon briefly before continuing, but chirpy laughter sounded from above the same shop. At this, the cockatoo shot a glare in the direction and saw the same six pigeons laugh at him. Nigel let loose a snarl.

"How worse can my day get!?" he shouted and stormed off in a rage. Nigel soon neared the alleyway's entrance, unaware that some old feline friends of his were hiding.

"This has been like this EVERY DAY!" he screeched, "I'm starving in the streets struggling to find food, birds keep laughing at me, that traitorous calico making a fool out of me and forsaking the life as a smugglers' cat… this is just so insulting!"

Nigel then leaned back against the wall and slumped down, ranting and railing some more. However, he was in for a bit of a shock. As Nigel sat on the floor, he saw something out the corner of his eye. At this, he turned to see what it was. To his surprise, it was a white sheet extending out of the entrance to the alleyway, moving up and down.

"What…?" murmured the cockatoo in puzzlement. He then began to trudge towards it. However, he was unaware that it was one of his cat friends, Tom who was waving the white sheet up and down as a way to grab the cockatoo's attention. As Nigel paced towards the corner, Adriana, Otis and Moggy prepared to make the grab. Then as soon as Nigel was close to the corner where the wall turned at a right angle and extended into the alleyway, his eyes on the white sheet as it continued waving up and down like a flag, three pairs of cat paws appeared and grabbed him. Then the next thing Nigel knew he was pulled around the corner. Nigel cried out in shock, his crest raised but then a cat paw was slammed over his mouth.

"Don't be alarmed, it's us," said the owner of the cat paw, a black and white cat. At this, Nigel lowered his alertness as recognition crept into him when he examined the cat's face, and the faces of two more cats, plus a fourth, the one that had the white sheet. Just then, more cats came in and gathered around Otis, Moggy, Tom and Adriana. The all-black cat widened his eyes as they flooded with shock.

"Is that who I think it is?" he told the others.

"That cockatoo and the former star bird," said another cat, an all-brown one.

"Nigel," said Hopper. Then as the other cats gathered around their four comrades, Nigel stood up and scanned each cat with his brown eyes. There was a moment of confusion amongst them but then Nigel broke through it in joy.

"Otis, Moggy, cats!" he cried out jubilantly and with that, he hugged Otis and Moggy so tightly that they were almost chocked. Moggy raised a paw to pry Nigel's wing away from her neck but Nigel broke the hug with them and went round to hug his other feline friends. After this, the cats took Nigel away to the back of the alley and out of the sight of the passers-by.

"So, where have you been all this time?" asked Otis.

"I was gonna ask the same question," said Nigel. Then Otis decided to answer Nigel's question first.

"We've been in a pet's rehoming centre," he admitted, "But we've escaped after around three years."

Then Nigel noticed that one of the cats, the one well-known and infamous for his volcanic temper that always turned him feral was missing. "Where's Brutus?"

At this, the cats including Otis exchanged sombre looks with each other before Adriana finally answered the question.

"He's dead, Nigel," she said flatly. At this, Nigel's look fell to one of sadness and shock.

"He died while we were being taken to that pets' rehoming centre," added Moggy, "Shortly after our owners got arrested. Brutus managed to escape but he ran out into the road at the wrong time, and a car fatally struck him. We've been mourning for him ever since."

The other cats also bowed their heads with ears lowered, the grief of losing their leader overtaking them. Nigel also wore a saddened facial expression.

"I'm…" he said in a low voice, "So sorry to hear that."

The other cats didn't reply and continued bowing their heads, paying their respect to their former leader Brutus. After this, Tom took his turn in asking Nigel. His eyes landed on the green and yellow vest around Nigel's torso.

"What's with that vest around your body?" he asked. At this, Nigel sheepishly covered it with his tattered wings.

"And what's happened to your wings and crest?" asked Adriana.

"It's a long story," Nigel said, "But to cut it short, I, with my owners Marcel and those two dumb accomplices Tipa and Armando were flying with some caught birds out of Rio when we saw that those rotten birds had escaped their cages. I was sent in to stop them but only Blu and Jewel were left. After a fight, that miserable Blu sent me flying out of the plane with a fire extinguisher, directly in the path of one of the propellers…"

The cats all flinched upon hearing this.

"Good grief," gasped Adriana.

"That's got to be gruesome," said Tom. The other cats nodded in agreement.

"And you survived that!?" added Otis, "That's incredible."

Nigel sighed and raised his tattered wings. "But that came at a price. That propeller's spinning blades have destroyed my wing flight feathers such that I could no longer fly. Not to mention the mess of my plumage on my torso and crest."

Nigel then began to boil in anger as he continued. "And now I've been trying to find that miserable blue bird so that I can avenge him for the loss of my ability to fly and the miserable life that followed. I tried doing just that by following that wretched blue macaw and his pretty mate and three chicks into the Amazon…"

This was met by a shocked reaction from the cats.

"You… you went out into the Amazon!?" asked Otis incredulously.

"How did you manage to enter that dangerous place and come out alive, especially since you can no longer fly?" asked Hopper. Nigel was about to reply but then he had a second thought. He did not go into the jungle alone but with an anteater named Charlie and a frog named Gabi, the latter who was madly in love with him and after it was revealed that she was not poisonous, things took a turn for the greater embarrassment for poor Nigel. When Nigel remembered that and how the cats might react, he decided to tell them only part of the truth.

"I didn't go into the jungle alone," he explained, "I went with an anteater and a frog, but we were caught and brought back here, but that plan of revenge had failed."

"Did you come across that Spix macaw flock while you were in the Amazon?" asked Hopper. Nigel shot him a surprised look. "How did you know about that flock of blue macaws?"

"We heard about it while we were in that animals' rehoming centre," said Moggy, "There was a newspaper entitled 'Spix macaws found in the Amazon'."

"And then later, news about a flock of Lear's and glaucous macaws came out," said Otis, "Which surprised us greatly, especially the glaucous macaws because we thought those two macaws, one by the name of Pluto, were the last pair of glaucous macaws in the world."

"You've encountered two glaucous macaws!?" retorted Nigel in disbelief. The cats all nodded.

"Huh, wish I had encountered one," muttered Nigel, "But that's not important. All I want is to find that disgusting Blu and get my revenge on him for all the misery and humiliation he has put me through."

"Oh, that's brilliant," said Otis, "We were planning on getting revenge on one of our former group members, Catina the calico, for the death of Brutus and the loss of our future as well."

Nigel shot Otis a surprised glare. "That calico was the one who turned you in?" he asked.

"You've come across her?" asked Tom. Nigel then kicked a piece of cardboard as rage exploded within him again.

"That calico is just as bad as that rotten blue macaw," he shouted, "She's told me, to my face, that she has abandoned the life as a smuggler's cat in exchange for a housecat's life and threatened me to stay away from any exotic bird including Blu and his family. When I tried attacking her, she knocked me into a pile of rotting fruit and walked away, with another cat which I believe was a tabby cat."

Adriana's nose caught a whiff of the smell of rotting fruit from Nigel's feathers. At this, she flinched.

"Oh, yeah," she said repulsively, "You do smell like you've been swimming around in a pile of rotting fruit."

Nigel shot her a glare. "Well, I hope to dump Blu and that calico into a pile when we get our clutches on them."

Then Otis intervened and said, "Well, I think that's enough catching up, folks."

Nigel, at this, closed his beak. "I think it's time we resumed our search for Catina and her friends to avenge."

The other cats all groaned and reluctantly agreed to it. turning to Nigel, Otis said, "As for Blu, Nigel, sorry to dash your hopes but I'm afraid he might still be in the Amazon, so avenging him for your loss of flight I'm afraid, is out of reach."

Nigel breathed a frustrated sigh. It was true, Blu and his family could still be in the Amazon, but they were unaware that they had returned to Rio to spend the summer. Changing the subject, Nigel asked, "Do you know where Catina lives?"

This was met by the shakes of the cats' heads. None of them knew where Catina lived.

"I'm afraid we don't know," said Otis sadly, "We've tried searching from the rooftops but after an hour of that, we had no luck."

Nigel looked around until he saw a large cardboard box. At this, he went over to it and had a look at it. It was big enough to cover five cats and Nigel, like them, was determined to find Catina to avenge for her forsaking of her life as a smugglers' cat to become a housecat.

"Then we'll continue tour search on the ground," said the cockatoo, ahis beak creased into a wicked smile, "Using these as cover."

"But Nigel, we'd only have limited view of our surroundings," protested Otis.

"We wouldn't see much," said Adriana.

"But it'll disguise our presence from those humans," said Nigel insistently. He then got four more large cardboard boxes and passed them to the cats.

"Come on, start making holes in those things with your claws," he said, "I can't wait to get going."

Otis, at this, looked at the other cats. "Well, I guess it's back to the original movement on the ground," he muttered and began to distribute the boxes to his comrades and they clicked their claws to scratch out holes in them, having decided to go along with Nigel's plans of searching for Catina and Veggie on foot. After all, searching from the rooftops was dangerous.