"The Giut council is ready to meet with you. Please follow me."
Blu released his grip of Stanford and got out of bed. The pain was infinitely more bearable thanks to whatever pain medication they gave him. Why they wanted him to meet with this council as soon as he woke up was odd, but it must be important.
So, Blu and the Finch walked down the medbay hall. They hung a right after entering the auditorium from last night. It was really quiet there now, just a few birds walking through, like Blu, on their way somewhere else. They walked up a few flights of stairs, and soon found themselves in a much nicer part of the building. It looked like some sort of reception area. Lots of small birds, mostly finches and canaries, ran around with papers and other documents. It was like a little city, with the birds traveling on roads, not deviating from their path in the slightest.
"Please keep up Blu, you'll have time to sightsee later." Blu's finch commented without even looking back at him. Blu was impressed at the level of organization on this level. Its neat appearance was a stark contrast from the dungeon of the medbay. The two birds walked up to a big, fancy door ornamented with precious metals such as gold and silver.
"How can they afford to get all this? It's not like birds can walk up to a store and order everything." Blu pondered the ridiculousness of this, but shrugged it off because from everything that's happened to him recently, the shock of the strange and odd has begun to numb.
"Now Please be on good behavior, ok?" The Finch insisted.
"O-ok?" Blue replied, becoming very interested.
"Well then, I am pleased to introduce you to the grand and lustrous 32nd grand Giut council."
The doors swung open as smooth as butter and what was before them was a wonderful sight. A fancily decorated room with a long table in the center. It reminded Blu of the French hall of mirrors in Versailles. Of course, he's never been there, but being an educated avian he has read about it online. The thought of that many mirrors in one place always intrigued him, wondering how the people never ran into a wall of some sort or got lost in the labyrinth. While the council's room hardly had any mirrors, the overall atmosphere and architecture still gave him that feeling of a royal hall.
At the table were 8 seats, but only 6 of them were occupied. The Finch directed Blu to a chair near the front end of the table.
"This is yours." He stated, pointing at a folded card on the table which read "BLU".
Blu slid into his seat and awkwardly look around the table. It wasn't too long until the adjacent member of the council said something to him.
"Oh, hey you're that blue guy from last night. Don't worry son, I didn't give lazy Stanford too much of a beating. Har har." The old military macaw chuckled to himself. He seemed much friendlier now than last night.
"I guess I should introduce you to the council since you're new to all this bureaucracy silliness."
"So to my right is Haley. She is in charge of Finance."
Haley was a brown sparrow. She nodded, "How do you do?"
The macaw continued, "Next to her is Jake, he is our head of education."
Jake, a white and black tern, gave the peace sign, "Yo, man, like, good vibes."
"Across from Jake is our lead doctor of medicince, Gerald."
Gerald, a swift, rolled his eyes, "Dr. Gerald to you sir, heh." He said jokingly.
"To the left of Gerald is our top Engineer, Mike. Mike was a Falcon.
"Hey, thanks for coming." Mike greeted.
"And finally, is Michelle, head of Diplomacy and goody two-shoes affairs."
The female Crimson Rosella snorted.
"Wha? Still bummed from losing trivia night eh?" She retorted.
Michelle turned to Blu.
"And this over here is a crusty old wardog. He also goes by Sergeant Andrew. He's the top bird in our military, not that it means much with the shape it's in."
Andrew was about to rebuff, but someone else entered the room.
"Alright, that's enough you two." She said laughing.
The female green and red Turaco had a commanding presence.
"I still have to introduce myself to Blu." She said smiling and took her seat at the head of the table.
"I'm Sarah, the leader of the Giuts. And I call this meeting of the 32nd grand Giut council to begin."
Everyone stiffened up and payed close attention.
"Now, while we normally meet to discuss improving our way of live through civil means, despite exhausting all peaceful routes, we still are no closer to a resolution on the issue at hand. We all know that these confrontations with the Vidori are becoming too frequent. If we don't act soon we may face another war."
Andrew stood up.
"Right ma'am. And THAT is why I suggest we devote all resources to finding their hideout, and mount a full on frontal ASSAULT on their base of operations." Andrew slammed the table with his curled-up wing.
"SIT DOWN! You are speaking out of turn Sergeant! Let's at least keep some form of government?" Sara reprimanded.
Andrew fell back into his seat, mumbling to himself.
"I do not enjoy condoning this type of aggressive behavior to any enemy if we can help it. Michelle, do you have any peaceful suggestions left?" Sarah sighed, and sat down.
Michelle stood up.
"Thank you, leader. Unfortunately, however, I have exhausted all peaceful means and at this point and must defer to forced negotiations between our two states. But we must do so tactfully, remember there still are POWs from our side." Michelle elaborated, with a somewhat despondent tone due to having to resort to violence. She sat down, feeling defeated as she always hopes that animals can get along without fighting.
"Hm, very well. Mike? Is there a way to engineer a weapon that can stop an enemy without causing unnecessary causalities?" Sarah inquired.
Mike stood up.
"Yeah, that's a question since the beginning of time. But I've had my team working on a project of mine. It's sort of like a Bio-EMP superweapon. That's actually probably not the best description, but I need a little more time to run tests and make sure its capable of what I think it is. If my design works the same in practice as it does on paper, then we might have a reasonable solution here." He explained, nodding, before taking his seat.
"Very well, how long will the tests take?" Sarah asked.
"It's in the final phase, I start projects for almost any scenario so we have something to work off of. I'd say..probably…about a week." Mike replied, rubbing his neck.
"Very well, we will meet here again in a week. Blu, you will become important at that point. Meeting adjourned." Sarah said with a powerful tone.
She looked at Blu.
"Blu, come with me, we have some things to talk about."
"Oh, yeah sure." He nodded.
Blu and Sarah walked to a single door at the end of the room and entered a smaller room. It had a desk and a few tables.
"Please, have a seat." Sarah kindly gestured to a bird-sized chair at the front of the desk. She took her seat behind the desk.
"Now, I'm sure you are very confused at this point. We don't usually have non-members during a council meeting, especially during a high profile one such as this. But you are an exception Macaw." She explained while looking with curious eyes at Blu.
"Now." She continued.
Sarah opened a drawer and pulled out a book.
"Let's begin…"
Chapter 1: A Long-Ago Feud
Long ago, there existed two brothers. One was kind and gentle, the other strong and cunning. They played off of each other's strengths well and could do anything they set their minds to. However, as they grew older, their views on the world drifted farther apart. The younger brother loved humans. He loved that they took care of weaker birds instead of letting them die if they were injured or couldn't fly. He loved science and technology and wanted to learn about the world. He longed for a world where all animals lived happily together in peace. His older brother however, was much more cynical of the world. He saw the hardships and toils. The sweat and tears. The pain of living. The pain of being weak. He felt that if you couldn't ensure your own survival, then you either were at the mercy of fate or needed to live under the rule of someone who could. "The strong must prevail over the weak." He would often say, as this was the rule he lived his life by. His younger brother did not agree of course. "A better world is not made just by the strong, but by cooperation between all." Eventually, the two brothers fell apart. The eldest forming a tribe of only the strongest, enslaving the weak for their ultimate 'protection'. This tribe was called the Vidori. The younger saw the intentions of his elder and found like-minded birds to join his cause. To protect strong and weak, from the perils that existed for each. This group was called the Giut. The Vidori and Giut would fight, each for their cause.
Chapter 2: The Peace Agreement
At some point in time after years of small skirmishes, both sides decided that they only wanted peace. So, an agreement was forged that protected the rights of both entities. Birds were free to choose either the Vidori or the Giut. If a bird thought that the Vidori would offer better protection then they were offered the benefits and bound by the rules of the Vidori. The same applied for the Giut. Birds were also free to choose neither, as many viewed both systems flawed and corrupt and would rather find safety in family and friends. For this period of time the great peace prevailed, however, it was not to last forever.
Chapter 3: The Great War
Time moves forward and leaders change. The ideologies and practices of both groups and their members evolved. As they did, the Vidori changed in unsettling ways. They grew resentful and felt restrained by the peace agreement. Vance the terrible came to power in the Vidori camp based on his claims to bring the Vidori back to their roots. Bring them back to great power. Armies were formed under the peace agreement, which was a practice condemned by the forest. The Vidordi did so quickly thanks to dark indoctrination techniques to pull any bird, regardless of their belief to the Vidori. Eventually, the Giut learned of the Vidori's plans and raised their own army. Despite years of peace, war was quick to start anew. The inevitable happened and the two armies clashed. The battles were fierce and many lives were lost, in the Giut, Vidori and unaligned parties. By the end of the many years war, the Vidori were defeated, but it was not a decisive victory. A few elite Vidori members escaped into the forest. However, for the time being, peace was returned to the forest. And, for the first time, the Giut ruled as the sole superpower. They controlled all in the forest, to ensure that no evil power rose again. It became the Giut's heavy burden to protect the birds of the forest.
Chapter 4: Darkness Looms
In the time since the great war, not much has occurred and the people of the forest were quick to forget. The Giut fell into the background as an invisible shield around the inhabitants which they protected. Only those inside the system know it exists. For in order to protect the weak, the Giut must do its dealing in secret to prevent another uprising and qualm rebellions or powerful gangs. Peace is a fragile thing, so it is up to the un-thanked few to ensure its continued existence.
"Blu, the Vidori have returned. They have a new leader and a new motive. We aren't sure how much they know about the Giuts infrastructure. We have done our best to stay in the shadows and only meddle with birds if absolutely needed. But they have started abducting innocent birds. They have taken our own. While we do not want war, I'm afraid they already are waging it. There was a trigger event that really escalated all of this. The new Vidori leader was close to a certain bird who was killed. Now the Vidori use this as an excuse for war. They seek vengeance for their brother, and for the forest they lost during the Great War." Sarah explained with a serious tone.
"But," Blu was taking this all in.
"But, what did I do?"
Sarah sighed.
"You're more part of this than you know Blu. For one…"
…
"You killed his brother, you killed Nigel."
Two back to back chapters! Yeah, this is cool. That's all for today. Thanks for stopping by!
