Angry Birds Reunite - Chapter 5 - Their First Date
Hal and Bubbles had happened to approached a deserted area and silence around the atmosphere. There were no signs of birds around, but there were some damages left on the grass. Bubbles snapped out of himself from falling into Hal's idea and stared at him angrily.
"I KNEW I SHOULDN'T HAVE LISTEN TO YOU!" Bubbles scolded. "You were wrong that Red and his Flock were here! I told you so about your consequences of leaving the group and I was the one to help you all this time! Now look at the mess."
But Hal denied the fact about his bad idea. "I don't think so, Bubbles. Matilda walked long way to my home from here and she is part of the Flock. Meaning that they were here before we arrived."
"So what!?" Bubbles yelled. "Just because she is 'part of the Flock', doesn't mean the Flock was here. Most of the times, the Flock were separated to do their things. Your argument is invalid."
"Let's not talk about this, amigo. We have no proof yet," said Hal. "How about we examine this area to find some clues of what actually happened."
"I prefer to do things my way," Bubbles interjected. "I'm going to find Mother Matilda myself while you do your own thing."
"Okay, fine," Hal reluctantly agreed. "I'm just offering your help, that's all."
Bubbles already walked away from Hal before he could say goodbye to him. Hal ignored the signs of dislike from the orange oriole as he moved on to his investigation on the whole area. He searched around everything for a short while until he found the first clue, which looked weird to him. He found something that looked as if a small-sized meteor had crashed onto a place, only that it had thin ice covering about three-quarter of it. As he noticed the three colourful caps left in the middle of the chunk, he came into his realisation.
"Those three caps looked like they can fit the heads of three eggs! This must have mean the Flock were here all along!" Hal concluded. "But where is the slingshot?"
He continued on searching for clues, until he found a slingshot from just a short distance. Yet another abnormal thing is the same thin ice frozen on the rubber band.
"Where did that ice came from?" Hal wondered as he focused very closely on the ice part. "I must tell Bubbles and Miss Matilda about all this. Maybe they know about this."
Meanwhile, Bubbles was running back to where Matilda was supposedly located, but the speed was slower than usual due to strong sunburn on him, giving heavy panting and lots of sweats on his forehead. As the speed level already exceeded to its limit, Bubbles stopped running from loss of energy. He dislikes exercising outdoors and now that he ate candy too much in the past, he felt unfit for such activities. He could no longer activate his inflate power to breathe in more air, as it became useless as well. He laid down on the surface, but it burned his back for a split second, making him jumped out of the ground as if he was on fire.
Bubbles could not believe the fact that he couldn't forget about everything he left behind him and became more furious about his wrongdoings on talking smack to Hal. Before he could even think more about it, he was patted on head by someone behind me. He turned around 180 degrees, only to get surprised by Matilda's sudden presence.
"Oh, I thought you were a goner," Bubbles cried in relief. "What happened to you, Mommy?"
"I just went unconscious," Matilda replied without reasonings. "Why did you and Hal leave me alone?"
Bubbles' face turned red. "Hal gave an idea of finding your teammates but they weren't actually there."
Matilda became confused upon hearing that. "I do remember that Red and the others were there when I started to leave to go to Hal's home. I even promised Bomb not to go somewhere else even if they are in danger."
Bubbles broke down in regret. "Oh, Hal was right all along! I think I did the wrong thing!"
Matilda hugged Bubbles to calm him down. "Don't think negative about yourself. You did what you were trying to do. Anyways, how come they suddenly disappear?"
Bubbles shook his head, which made Matilda upset about the fact that her teammates left her alone. But she thought that the birds were off to find their eggs, so she ignored the topic.
"We shall wait for them to come back. We have a lot of things to do," said a self-assured Matilda.
"I suppose you can do that tomorrow morning, since I just ran out of energy," Bubbles told her with dark bags under his eyes. "We need to take a rest at that place where you usually slept on the hammock."
"Okay then," Matilda agreed. "Let's go back to my homeland."
As they arrived back to the short hill, Bubbles saw Hal being prepared to see him again. Hal sighed in relief when he saw Matilda being recovered from unconscious state. But just as he looked at Bubbles, he noticed the guilt on his face.
"I'm sorry for misunderstanding you," Bubbles apologised with still shame taking over his feelings. "Matilda told me everything I need to know."
"No time for that!" Hal interrupted Bubbles' apology. "I found two clues that I cannot understand of!"
Hal pointed his beak towards the two clues that had ice covered on them, much to both Bubbles and Matilda's confusion.
"I thought that usually happen during the month of Halloween," said Bubbles, "you know, supernatural powers and monsters around the places."
"Well, anything can happen anytime," said Hal. "And that goes into my book about fate."
Matilda's eyelid twitch upon seeing strange ice coverings. "How did this happen? Don't tell me the Flock got frozen to death!"
"Or they got caught by icy blue monsters!" Bubbles added.
Hal laughed. "There's no such thing as icy blue monsters!" he said with a chuckle.
"Yes there is! Ever heard of Werepigs?" Bubbles tested on Hal's mind.
"Oh yeah," Hal recalled, "I seen them near my home once during full moon in one of those Halloween days. I dragged Red into this since he likes to see furry pigs and werewolves. And he was like 'AHHHH! SCARY HAIRY MONSTER PIGS!' and he fainted. And my dear friendly hairy dudes and I laughed all night long! Then I threw water on Red and he woke up to see them again and asked me 'Why did you pull me to all this!?' and I answered 'Because you like them so much! You should be happy that you finally get your wish from childhood!' It was a great night and he slept on the fur of one of the Werepigs. He told me he actually enjoyed it with a wide smile on his beak!"
Matilda wasn't delighted on listening to his story. "That's very bad of you! You not supposed to give people heart attack when you pull them to dangerous things."
Hal still chuckled a bit, only with his cheeks turning red slowly. He then turned serious. "Anyways, these clues might hint the fact that they don't look like the ones from the Pigs. Why would the Pigs give us clues that they did something with the birds? This makes no sense."
"Correct," said Matilda. "Enemies cannot expose their evidence on their enemies. It's like giving a message for us to save them."
"So the pigs are out of question," said Bubbles while thinking, "but we still have no idea what happened to our friends."
"Whatever these clues really mean, I think we should wait for the birds to come back. Who knows, we never get the answers until we find out," Hal indicated.
Later at night, Matilda and Bubbles were sharing on one hammock and Hal lying on another hammock above them playing calm music on his banjo. Bubbles felt like he was unable to sleep, due to bad memories coming back to him. As a child, he felt that another good story from Matilda may help him to sleep. Once again, he looked up to Matilda. Matilda looked like as if she hadn't got any sleep for days.
"Mommy, aren't you supposed to sleep?" Bubbles asked.
Despite some bad thoughts about the Flock in her, Matilda made a small smile and replied, "I will sleep when I'm okay."
"Tell me a story," Bubbles nagged her. Matilda, at first glance, shook her head over the fact that she might continue on her story, considering the fact that she was keeping a TOP secret of Chuck's mystical powers. She then think of what kind of story would she tell to the child. She remembered that most of her time before the big fight in between birds and pigs, she was always on her date with Bomb. It took a long time for her to tell Bubbles her date story since she had been left alone with him and Hal from Red and his Flock, until she finally decided to do it for Bubbles' sake.
"Back in my time when the five children grew up to young adult age," Matilda started telling her story.
Past Time
It was the first year of the children already graduated and grown up into young adult age. Silver, being the youngest, then at age 18, stopped wearing her orange fluffy headphones and moved on into staying at her own tree house located in a forest, a little far from Piggy Town. Hockey, three years older than Silver, packed up his things and told his friends that he would leave to follow up his dreams as a hockey player. The rest of the birds, Chuck, Red and Hal, decided to stay on the area, all being at age 22.
Chuck, Red and Hal kept their relationship as best friends and at this time, they had a discussion about their future. Bomb, who had his appearance slightly changing with his eyes getting smaller, and Matilda, who still kept her pink eyes and rose on her top feather and tail, were watching the three young men talking to each other.
"I already have my plans set up," said an excited Red, who kept some of his childhood traits as a joyful kid. "I'm gonna be a father!"
"Cool," Hal and Chuck expressed with proud faces, "so who's gonna be your lover?"
"I don't need lovers for children," Red replied. "But I will find a way of getting children. Anybody can give me a suggestion?"
"Adopting bird eggs," Chuck suggested, "duh!"
"That is a great idea!" Red and Hal agreed happily. Red continued on, "Once I get my hands on those eggs, I will tell everyone of my friends, including the pigs, to celebrate a party of "Expectant Father"! What do you think, Mother Matilda?"
Matilda nodded. "But before you can adopt bird eggs, you need to read the guide book on how to become a good parent," she reminded him. "Also, from now on, you can call me Miss Matilda."
"Okay, Miss Matilda," he said. As the best friends moved back to their private conversation, Bomb and Matilda went somewhere alone to have their good time.
It was finally their first date ever! Bomb had kept his promise for the right time to start their love relationship. They had been getting more information of their past for long time as partners of Terence and now that he stopped administering his business, it was time that the dark red Cardinal, turning from a medium-sized bird to a large-sized bird with face staying at where it was, looking more serious than ever, retired from his occupation. Because of that, they need to refresh their life to a better one.
They went to a classic French restaurant, where Bomb and Terence used to work at, and noticed in the interior that there were less customers. An oval-looking pig with a Chef hat and a curly moustache approached them with his menu held.
"What can I do for you, oiseau?" asked the waiter with a French accent. "Are you having a date?" (Oiseau means bird in French)
"Yes," Bomb replied. "It's our first time."
"Wonderful," the pig exclaimed. "I can lead you lovebirds to a place of beauty so you can spend a great time together!"
The couple followed the pig to the area, which his description of the place was actually right. The place had a well-decorated patterned-cloth on table suitable for a date with red rose on a glass vase and two plates fully-prepared with forks and spoons. It even had two chairs that had white sheets covering on them. The walls were patterned with colourful roses and the floor looked very smooth and clean. A ceiling lamp was facing straight above the red rose.
He thanked the French Pig for showing them the way to a place appropriate for romantic moments. He responded the thanks by saying "Je vous en prie." (A main way of saying "You're welcome" in French.)
As they got onto the seats, they were given with one classic looking menu, which Bomb thought it was a Chinese menu.
"A Chinese menu?" he said in terror. "I thought werewolves would get their hand-claws on these!"
"Imbecile!" Chef Pig screamed in rage. "We do not serve Chinese food by Chinese menu! Looks like you have forgotten about the day when you and your tough-looking partner work with my job!"
Matilda defended Bomb from the irritated pig. "Pardon me, sir. He just didn't know there are many kinds of languages other than Chinese and Japanese."
"Oh, hah!" Chef Pig scoffed of the pretty lady being loyal to an idiot. "You're smarter than this, woman! Teach him about the world outside. He must be very satisfied!"
As he walked away from the birds, Matilda hugged Bomb to cheer him up. "I'm sorry that you're being limited to this one place. I found this place amazing. So maybe one day I can bring you to my original homeland, Golden Island. That island is full of wonderful things."
"Wonderful?" Bomb's mood didn't improved. "I won't leave my homeland, m'lady! You can do so many things in your life. But my life is no similar to yours. After all, I have to take care of future children."
Matilda gave him an advice. "Take a break from the déjà vu, dear. Your old students are all grown up now. Hockey will become the hockey player, Silver will have her adventures and is fine with Red, Red will become a father, Chuck will follow his dreams like Hockey, only as a racer and Hal….will take care of himself since his ability to stay balanced had improved. Don't worry about Terence, he's still living healthy but one day, his living soul might give up and let him go to afterlife. As for us, it isn't too late to learn something new and get ourselves a new life as a family. Besides, it's not even late to visit different islands out there."
Bomb seems to be happy again. "I'm okay now, Matilda. You're full of inspiration not only to me, but to those five youngsters."
"Now we need to take an order to eat," she reminded him. "Let's take turns on looking at the menu."
They were on their seats, looking at each other. They were both filled with uncertainties. Without thinking, Bomb made the usual knock-knock joke that he used since the second day of Matilda's stay in Piggy Island. He asked, "Knock knock!"
"Who's there?" his lover joined in the joke.
"I am…." he continued.
"I am who?"
"I am not sure what to say, except I'm un-Chef-tain about this!" Bomb yelped.
Matilda giggled on it, even though it sounds like a bad pun joke. "Me too, Bomb. I'm 'pretty' sure we got ourselves on a 'bed' time", she said, pointing at little number of customers snoring on tables.
Bomb laughed as if it was a clever pun. The pun jokes from the date couple never stop!
A minute later, the same Chef Pig arrived with the spaghetti, carrot soup and ice cream. Bomb had his interest of eating the spaghetti and he loved to eat ice cream as that is his favourite dessert while Matilda simply have no other choice but to choose carrot soup, since she eat carrots before. As the chef put the food on the table, he glared at Matilda.
"I bet you had all the fun with your future husband! I used to work with him and big Ter-Ter and all I get from them is disgust!" Chef Pig said with a naughty smile on his face.
Matilda tried her best to ignore his insults on Bomb and Terence.
"Ignoring me, eh?" he asked. "I hope not because I know it in my eyes that you may lose your temper like those two birds! Birds really are stupid in anger management!"
As he openly said that to bully the birds, he got confronted by a medium-sized pig who happened to be a postman.
"Leave them alone, sir," he told him politely. "They're normal people, like us! Just because that lady is a 'bird', doesn't make the fact that she is an angry bird. Basically, you lose temper as well. Doesn't that make you an 'Angry Pig'?"
Steams came out of Chef Pig's ears. "How dare you insult one of your kind!? You just compared me with different species!"
"I did not insult you," the postman pig corrected him. "I'm just here to remind you to not make fun of people that aren't our species. This is a fight-free restaurant. Do you understand now, sir?"
Chef Pig look frustrated upon hearing that. He never fought a pig shorter than him before. Humiliated, he walked back to the kitchen as quick as a cheetah. The customers just woke up of shock without any clue of what was going on with the scene.
The postman pig came to Matilda and Bomb to apologise for the outrage. "That kind of guy had a huge history with birds. Luckily, I stopped him from picking you two as his victims."
The birds nodded in acknowledgement and appreciated his help. The postman pig had a response of giving them a wink, as if he knew that they were on a date, and went back to his seat.
Half an hour later, the two birds went on a short journey to a beach, now Hal's home, where everything was crystal clear with sunset shining on ocean and nobody was around except the couple standing on the sand. Bomb found a stick lying just beside him and picked it up to draw a circle around them so that they won't go anywhere during the beautiful scenery. Matilda asked Bomb to give the stick to her, in which he did what she asked him. She used the stick to write on the sand, written 'BombxMatilda'.
"Now that is what I call a 'perfect date for relaxing on the rough sand'," Bomb commented.
As they watch the sun going down, Bomb stood up to confess something to his lover. "Matilda, my lady. I have something to tell you."
"Okay. What is it?" asked Matilda, which he then responded by telling her to stand up. As she stood up, Bomb bowed down and took something out of his back. Matilda saw that it was a box, but when he opened it to reveal a gold ring that could fit in the hair piece, she became surprised.
"Will you marry me?" Bomb questioned to wait for her answer.
Matilda, with tears of joy, hugged him with a wide smile. "I do! I really, really do!"
Just as the sun disappeared, all of a sudden, Matilda fainted with heart attack. The moment before everything turned pitch black, she could barely see a horrified Bomb going around seeking help. The last thing she hear was her last breath.
"Ugh, where am I?" The voice of Matilda's consciousness said. "Why can't I see anything here? Am I….dead?"
A light sparked, transporting her to a realm where it felt more like a dream than reality. Matilda, in a vision world, found herself on a grass ground.
"Where am I? I thought I was on a beach. Am I dreaming?"
As soon as she was thinking about the strange world, she saw the blurry sight of colourful birds coming out of nowhere. It didn't took that long to reveal those 'birds' when it became sharp enough to clearly identify them.
She recognised most of these birds, Terence, Bomb, Red and Chuck. But she was confused upon seeing the three blue birds. They looked like young birdlings. As she closely examine them, she saw yet another bird on the unacknowledged slingshot. That bird looked like an ice cube, making her bewildered about the fact that there weren't any kind of birds that looked like an object. Still thinking of the sight as a dream, she ignored the looks of the strange bird.
Just as she back off the stranger, she felt another strange thing behind her. When she looked back, this time, it was a HUMONGOUS purple-to-white wormhole up on the sky. The unexpected view sends chills down her spine, despite the fact that it looked more unbelievable than the ice bird. The moment she saw it, she also noticed the birds queuing up the slingshot.
"Ugh!" The ice bird growled. "The Eggsteroid had never been stolen by these pig machines before! I need to give them their own medicine!"
The ice bird then flung himself off the slingshot to the portal, leaving parts of his icy body stuck on the rubber band.
Matilda walked to Bomb, whose eyes looked even smaller than the Bomb she had a date with. She tried to talk to the in-dream-world bird. But her voice was full of echoes instead.
"Bomb, can you see me? It's me, Matilda."
"…."
There was no response.
Then, she saw Red and Chuck in confused faces while looking at the blank sky. She had another attempt to talk to them.
"My little Red and Chuck, can you two young ones hear me?"
They hadn't reply either.
As she walked to Terence, he responded by looking at her, unlike the other birds she known. Noticing her distress, Terence turned to face towards her, as if he was the real Terence. This Terence looked larger, making his face seem smaller. His almost looked emotionless and had forehead wrinkles.
Matilda spoke, now with normal voice, "Terence, what is going on? I was on a date with Bomb and then all of a sudden, I just faint. This feels like a dream."
"Ah, I see," Terence said in acknowledgement. "I bet this is actually the vision of the future prediction. But time goes short, you don't know when this will happen."
"Do you know when will this happen?" Matilda asked, which Terence just shrugged it off.
"Even I don't know when will that time come. I doubt even myself in your timeline would know this. What you looking at right now is the warning from the future. That's all I could tell you now."
A loud yell came out from one of the birds, but all she heard was babbling and mumbling.
"What did these birds say?" asked Matilda. Terence told her he didn't want to 'spoil the reveal'.
Just as the birds went onto the slingshot, the big red cardinal mentioned that he had to go with them. But the white chicken was full of curiosity and questioned him with one word. "Why?"
"It's how fate happens. Who you're talking to is the subconscious of your Terence. The one following the birds is the consciousness of the future Terence who just saw what was in his eyes and did what he had to do," he explained. "I'm sorry you have to hear that, Bomb's lady."
As Terence was the last one to use the slingshot to enter the wormhole, everything turned black again, bringing her back to reality.
Matilda opened her eyes, only to find herself on the same location where she and Bomb were relaxing. It was already nighttime and there were her current company surrounding her with torchlights.
"You're okay now, Bomb's lady," a younger Terence said with a smile.
Bomb sighed happily. "Oh, I thought you were going to turn-"
"Cut that out!" Red yelled in annoyance. "Yes, I do like 'them', but that doesn't you have to say that twice!"
Chuck and Hal giggled while trying to cover their beak from their irritated yet glad friend.
"Anyways," Red's mood swing back to joy, "I got some exciting news for you!"
The canary and toucanet stepped aside from their positions to reveal three blue birdlings with red eyelids.
Matilda jumped in shock to see those birds from her vision. The future Terence was right all along.
"Whoa there, Mommy!" Chuck caught her reaction. "You know these triplets?"
Matilda tried to answer, but Terence took over her anyway.
"While she was unconscious, she was in a vision of seeing her future," he replied. "So that is, in fact, a yes."
Chuck stared at Terence in his usual way, just because the big bird was so unpredictable.
"He knows stuff we don't know," Bomb and Red said together.
"Guys, go back to where we stay," Terence ordered them. "I have a secret conversation with Matilda."
The birds did what he told them to do. Before the group disappeared, Chuck gave him his last glare with his right eye popped out, showing the signs of jealousy in him. Terence somehow ignored him so he could focus on Matilda.
"How is it going with your 'dream world'?" He asked with a smirk.
"Dear god, Terence," Matilda spoke in disappointment. "Why do you always start conversations by displeasing me?"
Terence laughed and admitted, "that's the way I do when I converse with beautiful ladies like you. Sorry, I can't help it."
Matilda sighed disapprovingly. "What is it this time, mister 'Tough Guy who likes to make woman angry'?"
Terence's facial expression, once again, became serious. "I'm going to somewhere else from now on."
Matilda's eyebrow raised in confusion. This was rather odd, considering the good life of the birds living in Piggy Island.
Terence quickly shifted into sadness. "I want to go somewhere out there to achieve my goal; deafness."
"What!?" Matilda inconveniently wailed. "Why would you do that? Your little brother is already going to have a family and you have the choice of losing one of your five senses? What are you thinking about?"
Terence didn't said any word out for a while. This had really made Matilda upset, taking into consideration of their bird friends already having a good life. Terence moaned and briefed something that Matilda never forgot about then.
"I won't tell you why. You can research that in a history book in the library, but I respect your choice of staying with your friends and your engaged boyfriend. But remember this, when I come back on that day, we will meet again in a place where it feels like hell. For now….just do whatever you want, Matilda. You got that?"
Matilda skeptically nodded without saying anything nor even looking at Terence. It sounded like as if something bad was going to happen. It doesn't make sense in her vision prediction either. The last time she saw Terence was him strolling away from her in long distance under the crescent moon. In the end, Matilda walked back to the birds' home without another more prediction about Terence meeting the birds again.
Present Time
As Matilda finished her story, Bubbles and Hal became silent. Hal stopped playing his banjo and Bubbles glanced at him to see his reaction.
"Miss Matilda, you never told me or Red about Terence's farewell?" Hal interrogated.
"Terence never told me anything. It took long to figure it out when pigs started stealing eggs from Red since that "Expectant Father" party," Matilda reflected and sighed in dismay. "I should have known earlier before that happened."
Bubbles stood up and concluded, "This have something to do with not only the start of the egg war, but the disappearance of the Flock as well!"
Matilda and Hal looked at Bubbles in a need for explanation. Bubbles went on, "Mother Matilda, your vision of the future prediction is actually true. It is the reason why they actually were gone without you; the wormhole! Hal, did you see that purple-coloured hole in the sky?"
Hal began to be surprised. "I thought I was dreaming, kid! So I ignored it as an imagination?"
"Did you forget, Hal?" Bubbles refreshed Hal's memory. "Anything can happen anytime! It eventually goes into your book about fate."
"How could I not know this?" Matilda queried. "You're telling me that they went…...INTO SPACE!?"
"Mhmm," Bubbles replied, nodding his head like being correct.
Matilda now understood why she fainted twice in her past, Red's Flock not being here and previously 'supposed' future prediction in vision. They all lead everything to this. Once again, that Terence in her vision was right. Now that she knew the answer, she need something to get herself and the remaining birds inserted to space. But the problem was that there weren't any functioning rockets left around the place. The Pigs' Town might have those rockets, but then again, the birds and the pigs never trusted each other and that was why the birds had to protect the eggs.
Hal had a solution. "Revisit our old friends. I'll go to Silver and Hockey to ask for help, while you do the same thing with Red's big cousin and old friends."
"I'll follow Matilda on her way," Bubbles proposed. "You go on your own."
Hal still wondered why Bubbles decided to go with Matilda instead of him, considering his apologies. "I'm okay with that," Hal said without thinking more about him."
"Then the plan is settled," Matilda finished Hal's words, "but we need to take a rest. When the sun rises, we will do according to your proposal."
"Yes, ma'am!" Bubbles and Hal soluted like soildiers.
Matilda smiled. As the two birds went to sleep, she kissed on the orange oriole and said something before she went to sleep as well.
"Good night."
End of Chapter 5.