So there was exactly two weeks till Nico and Pedro's big night. They had a lot to do, not only invent the words for the song, but also some kind of choreography. For sure they were going to dance and move to the beat! They had rather good start, but still lot to go. Days went by as they speculated the words and tried new dance moves. Well, it wasn't that serious job for them. They were that kind of duo that you could order to do some work, but as soon as you'd look away, they'd be joking and having fun.
"That's a good one Pedro!"
"Oh ya mean this?"
"Ha, ha! Do it again!"
Pedro repeated his previous dance move and tried to bend his back down without falling -and without succeeding. Nico ended up chuckling. "Hey! I'm thinking that you just said that so you could get good laughs!" Pedro noted from the floor. Nico was about to protest when suddenly a loud bang interrupted him. "What was that?"
"I don't know man."
"Pedro don't tell me you..."
"No way, man! I haven't been eating any human's junk food today!"
They both laughed, but only for a second as they heard a new bang.
"It's coming from outside..." Nico realized, and he didn't even get to blink before Pedro was heading towards the entrance. "No don't go! Jeez, you can't stay still for a minute..." Nico hurried after his friend and pulled him from the wing. His eyes were telling the same as his beak: "Don't go. Not without me."
Pedro smiled gently at his friend and they peeked outside. There was no-one in sight. Suddenly they heard a third bang, only this time lot louder. And then it began to rain.
"See Nico, it's only little thunderstorm."
"I can see that," Nico said, "but my instincts were sure it would be something else."
"You and your instincts. C'mon, lets take a rain-flight. Lets drop by a terrace, see if some people headed inside and left their food there." Nico quickly put his instincts aside thanks to his empty stomach. The tasty leftovers at terraces were inviting them for a well deserved work break.
"Phew! What a rainfall!" Nico said, puffing his feathers dry as they enjoyed some snacks of the empty terrace, "But all this food is worth it! I was so hungry I didn't even notice."
Pedro didn't have time to answer, his mouth was full of potato chips. Good thing that they actually found whole basket of chips and tacos. Who silly human would leave their food like that? Whoever it was Nico and Pedro were so thankful to him or her.
The weather was getting worse. What started as a little rain turned to be quite a downpour. Palm trees were swaying in the wind, thunder was approaching threateningly and people were running for shelter. "We should probably be heading home, too." Nico suggested, grapping one more chip and dipping it in salsa sauce. Pedro glanced at the weather, then Nico. "Aw man, I was having fun eating." But he got up however, and the duo spread their wings.
When they arrived at the side of the jungle, they heard another bang like before. Nico startled, but continued flying. Right after that there was a different bang -this time Nico and Pedro noticed it came from a different direction as well. The first one come from the jungle, the second one came from the sky.
"Pedro... I don't have a good feeling about this..."
"Nuh-uh, you were totally right. That second one was gun-like bang! Lets back up..." They slowly started retreating in the shelter of the trees, when a powerful wind got them. Too powerful. They lost their capability to fly for a second and decided that they'd have to land.
The ground was wet and air moist. The two friends were standing back to back, listening and looking as the sounds grew stronger, and then disappeared.
What followed was a loud bark and rustling from the bushes. Nico quickly hid behind his bottle cap and Pedro turned around, facing the direction where the sound was coming. They didn't have any time to get away, as a huge hound dog jumped from the bush.
"AAAAAAAH!" Nico and Pedro yelled in unison. The dog opened his mouth, revealing many sharp -not too clean- teeth. "Don't!" Pedro shouted trying to order the dog, "We're practically related!"
Dog tilted his head. "No we're not?"
"But we are a little...?"
"Pedro, we're not." Nico had to jump in.
"Oh... well, still don't even think eating us!" Pedro continued, stepping protectively in front of his little Canary friend.
Dog let out impatient laugh and explained: "I don't wanna eat you, I'm vegetarian. But I have to get you in my mouth so I can carry you to Papa. Now, hop on boys."
He opened his mouth even more, breath smelling like garbage. "That's just disgusting, man!" Pedro shouted, holding his beak and waving his wing, hoping to get the smell go where it came from.
"Yeah, I don't know what's going on, but you'll never get us to-" Nico was cut off as the now even more impatient dog attacked towards them. Luckily they managed to dodge, being finally able to fly. "Pedro, follow me! Promise to follow!" Nico said firmly when he saw the dog still running after them. Nico took off with as full speed as he could in the storm. He looked back just to make sure and just before Pedro warned him, he bumped into a tree and fell to the ground. And everything went black.
