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The sun was setting, The Red Baron had searched the forest from top to bottom, yet found no sign of his son. Red Bird's friends were getting tired from searching, yet they were no where near as tired as his father. After many hours of searching, the old bird sat down up against the tree. He can no longer go on, his osteoarthritis was making his suffering worse. The Red Baron took a deep breath and closed his eyes, soon the memories came back to him.

When Red Bird was just 4 years old, The Red Baron took him to oversee a pig siege skirmish. The chick was all but fascinated, which surprised The Red Baron at the time. Normally the youngsters enjoy seeing birds launching themselves at the pig castles, crushing and crumbling them until they fall apart. Red Bird was all but impressed, the look on his face says it all.

"What's wrong, son?" asked The Red Baron.

"Its the slingshot," said Red Bird, "Its barbaric, and I'm not sure if it makes any sense."

"What do you mean?"

"Why not storm the castle and take the eggs?"

No bird had ever questioned the slingshot in Angry Birds history, ever. It was ironic that the leader's own son would ever questioned it. The Red Baron realized that his son was right, it doesn't make any sense at all. In fact, birds were killed from using this method, all in an effort to reclaim a few priceless eggs. He had never thought of it before when he first used the slingshot, but when his son brought it up, he wondered what he had seen what he missed.

The Red Baron had his eyes off of his son for a moment, focused on the pigs inside their god forbidding castle. They were either laughing, or watching. They kept their snouts out of the window sills which was smart, since the blue birds have a habit of aiming for the windows. After a few more launches, The Red Baron glanced where Red Bird once stood. He was gone.

He panicked, he frantically looked around and realized he was no where in sight. Had he gone to the bathroom? Or went home? Whatever the reason, the fact that he was gone didn't sit well in The Red Baron's mind. Suddenly, without warning, there he was. Red Bird came walking around the back of the castle, carrying with him the three eggs the Angry Birds were after.

The Red Baron's jaw dropped when his son approached the group and presented the eggs before them, they all cheered in joy. The pigs inside the castle who saw what had taken place were just as stumped as The Red Baron. He approached his son and asked: "How did you get the eggs?"

"I broke in through the back door," he explained, "The pigs weren't even paying attention, so I snatched the eggs awhile their backs were turned."

Red Bird took advantage of the moment, and won. Even though that was twenty-something years ago, the memory was still fresh in The Red Baron's mind. His son had forgotten that day, yet he rediscovered the tactic when in hard times. What Red Bird said about the slingshot was barbaric didn't sink in until his brother died, that's where The Red Baron fully understood what he meant. When the old bird was diagnosed with osteoarthritis, it finally all makes sense to him.

"Sir?" said a voice, "Red Bird Sr.?"

The Red Baron opened his eyes and saw Black Bird before him, "Its getting late," he said, "We have to call the search off until morning."

"Very well," said The Red Baron as he gets back up, "Thank you for your help youngins, I appreciate it."

"Your welcome." said White Bird.

"I just wondered if he was managing well, my son could be dead from a fall that high, I can easily picture scavengers eating his body as we speak."

"There aren't any scavengers around here." said Yellow Bird.

"That's relieving," said The Red Baron, "He could be hurt, maybe a rib broken. I hope he would hang in there till tomorrow."

The Red Baron and the Angry Birds soon head back for home, once the flock was out of the woods, all the bird depart for home. As the old bird head home, he sensed someone was still following him. He turned around and saw the blue bird trio and Orange Bird not that far behind. "Hey kids," said The Red Baron, "It's getting late, you should get home before dark."

"We know," said Orange Bird, "We're just following you because you look like you're going to break down."

Always with young people spotting things he would inevitably missed. In fact, the doctor told The Red Baron not to travel alone due to his condition. He sighed, and nods: "Okay then."

He continued for home with the kids following not far from behind, when he reached his home the kids began to depart, "Bye Mister!" said the blue bird trio in unison.

"See you kids later." said The Red Baron in return.

As the kids leave, The Red Baron opened his front door and stepped inside. His mate was sitting in the nest, she appeared worried and was on the verge of depression. "I couldn't find him, honey." said The Red Baron.

"At least you tried." said his mate.

"Just going through that forest," said The Red Baron as he cuddled next to his mate, "I mean, it's like marching for miles. I'm too old for this, I'm tired, I feel so worn out."

"We're old now baby, Red Bird knows how to survive out there on his own. He'd done it before without much problem."

"I know. I just wanted him to have my support awhile we're still around. He's an adult now, but he's not fully mature yet. Tomorrow, I'll see if Big Brother Bird would help in looking for him."

"He's always protective of Red Bird, makes sense to get him involved."

"In fact, that what he always wanted to do, he told me that himself. No wonder he named himself Big Brother Bird. Adopting him was well worth it, but there is so much we could do."

"I couldn't understand how our son got lost in the first place, what did you find awhile you're out there?"

"From what his friends told me, he was launched through the air and into the forest. From the height he fell from, he could be severely injured from the fall, maybe killed."

"Now I see why everyone was so worried, this is not good to hear."

"He had fell down to earth from a great height before honey, broke almost every bone in his body upon impact."

"If you weren't there, he would've been long gone."

"I know. I just hope history don't repeat itself."

. . .

The trail took a long time to follow, yet Red Bird kept pace with the pigs. Night had finally fell and Red Bird was barely keeping up with the pigs in the dark. The faint glow of their flashlights make it easy for Red Bird to lock on to them. After following them for about an hour, he reached what appeared to be a large pig encampment. Red Bird hid in the bushes and watched as the pig convoy drop their bags in a pile.

The encampment was somewhat big, it looked like there was some sort of operation taking place here. There were machines, hooks, and ovens, lined up in a certain order. There were carts and rails leading out of the encampment, probably they were shipping the final product out. Whatever they were working on, it wasn't good.

Red Bird saw a couple of pigs wearing goggles as they grabbed a couple of the bags and opened them, he was petrified when he saw them dumped out actual birds came out of the bags. The birds were dead, the life literally beaten out of them. As more birds were dumped onto a conveyor belt, the more gruesome they appear. Some of which were covered in their own blood, others had horribly disfigured faces, making them unrecognizable. One bird didn't even look like a bird at all, just a blob of feathers.

That fear that was bugging him when he found that feather grew, it was screaming at him to run away, yet he held his ground. Red Bird must see this through.

The dead birds were taken along on the conveyor belt where a team of pigs grabbed onto them and began plucking their feathers, grabbing handfuls of them and ripping them off their skin. Once they were plucked naked, they were dropped back onto the conveyor belt where another team of pigs cut their bellies open and removed all of their organs. They even removed the eyes, and also bashed their skulls open to remove the brain. All of these organs were placed in a wastebasket before the pigs set them back down onto the conveyor belt and send them off.

The next team washed them from the blood and gore, removing most of the pathogens that came from their own digestive tract. Red Bird had to admit that they were doing a good job at cleaning up the birds, they even washed out their mouths. They washed them for at least a couple of minutes before they were rinsed off and send down the conveyor belt for the final process.

This final process is where the pigs grabbed the birds and impaled them through a metal rods, once the rods were full of birds they were suspended over a burning fire where they are cooked.

Oh my god, thought Red Bird, They're cooking birds so they could eat them.

That fear that was bugging Red Bird for awhile was now boiling over the top, Red Bird realized it was the fear of being eaten as someone's meal. He suddenly began to feel dizzy, Red Bird rushed back into the forest until he got a comfortable distance from the pigs' camp, where he regurgitated for a few seconds. Groaning and moaning, Red Bird flopped backwards and laid on his back. His brain tried in vain to process the horror he had just scene awhile trying to make sense of it all.

Looks like they were moving on from the eggs, now they were after the birds themselves. Red Bird imagined the pigs farming the birds until they were fat and plump, then slaughtered for Thanksgiving dinner. He hadn't seen any terror like this since the 2nd Angry Birds war, where the pigs were experimenting with hens so they would lay eggs for them. This was no where close to what Red Bird had saw, and he was disturbed by it.

What should he do? He thought about rushing back home to where he would tell his friends and family about the pig's butchering operation, then have a dramatic battle to where they were able to free captured birds and defeat the mastermind who made it all possible. Yeah, that's the way to go, yet Red Bird had no idea which way was home, and he doubted the pigs back there would even help him.

He thought about this, thought about it hard as he stared up into the darkness above him. He couldn't make up his mind, seeing how much work he had to do was attacking his ability to make a decision. Luckily for Red Bird though, a baseball bat that came out of nowhere and hit him hard on his head made his choice for him.

TO BE CONTINUED...