Chapter 10- Venus has a bad dream
Meanwhile, at Tulio and Linda's house, Tulio, Linda and Fernando had also finished their dinner and were just relaxing for the evening. Outside their cottage on their birdhouse, Blu and Jewel stood side by side, Jewel leaning against Blu's shoulder with Blu lovingly learning onto Jewel's crown with a wing draped over her back. They had put Carla, Bia and Tiago to bed as well and had decided to spend some lone time together. The couple was watching Linda and Tulio through the window of their cottage. Tulio was working through some papers while Linda tidied up the table and had washed and put away the plates, knives and forks. Blu had noticed something a little different about his former owner but still human companion. Linda's belly seemed to be bigger than the last time he had seen her. However, Blu had noticed something else. There were several things dotting the kitchen and living room: baby toys, a baby chair seated at the table, and a few other things associated with human babies. From these objects and from Linda's bump, Blu could only deduce one thing. As he thought about this, Jewel's voice pierced his daydream.
"What a beautiful night, Blu," crooned his cerulean teal-eyed mate lovingly. Blu shook his head to snap back to reality and looked down at Jewel as she lovingly snuggled up to him.
"Yeah, it sure is, Jewel," replied Blu as he also scanned the star-studded sky. He then returned his attention to Linda.
"Have you noticed something different about Linda in there?" he asked Jewel. Jewel looked at him confused.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well, um…" Blu was going to say 'Linda's got a bigger tummy' but felt that it was too disrespectful to say that about his owner so he decided to put it another way. "I've noticed that the house has several toys designed for human babies, and that little chair at the table designed to seat a human baby," he said to insinuate to Jewel about Linda's possible condition. Jewel shot him a gaze.
"You mean Linda could be…?" she asked. Blu nodded. Jewel then smiled as memories of seeing Venus and Zephyr's chicks for the first time bubbled within her mind.
"Do you remember seeing Jupiter and his group's chicks for the first time?" crooned Jewel lovingly, her head resting on her mate's shoulder once again.
"Yes I do," said Blu, "I think the first couple to have eggs in the nest were Ceres and Cobalto, but to see Zephyr and Venus with their four eggs was amazing. It was the first time I had ever seen the eggs belonging to another Spix macaw couple in my life. Not to mention seeing a clutch of glaucous macaw eggs when Pluto and Lapis Lazuli finally went ahead with breeding."
"I remember seeing the excited look on Tulio's face," said Jewel, "It was the same look he had in his face when we had our three eggs that hatched into Carla, Bia and Tiago."
"I'm not surprised," said Blu, "It is sheer joy for the ornithologists when they see the last pair of a near-extinct species of bird breed and have eggs, giving their species hope in the new generation…"
Jewel sighed in slight irritation. She clearly did not like having chicks just to save the Spix macaw species from going extinct. Zephyr, Sapphire and Lapis Lazuli also had the exact same view, which they had made clear to Venus, Mercury and Pluto when the six first met. But after spending a lot of time getting to know each other, then falling in love and becoming mates, and also taking up the role of babysitting the chicks of other parent birds on the Blu Bird Sanctuary such as Venus with Carla, Bia and Tiago when they were younger, having chicks had been a better experience as the macaws had become better prepared for it. Blu knew that Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Ceres and Pluto had particularly strong bonds with their respective mates Sapphire, Zephyr, Chiquitita, Ruby, Orquidea, Esmeralda, Ultramarine, Cobalto and Lapis Lazuli, especially Zephyr and Venus. Those two were sometimes observed with enormous waves of love hearts splashing over them like the waves of a rough sea splashing against a rocky shoreline. It was possible that these two Spix macaws' bond was as strong as Blu and Jewel's, with that of Jupiter and Ruby, Mars and Chiquitita and the other six couples, and Travis and Sunset not far behind. Blu and Jewel then resumed observing Linda, Tulio and Fernando as they prepared for bed, and another working day tomorrow morning. However, the Spix macaw couple were unaware that a shady figure was watching them from the shadows in the trees. Not too far away, a pair of large eyes glowed sinisterly as they glared at Blu and Jewel.
"That's gotta be the other breeding Spix macaw pair," said the eyes' owner, "I've gotta remember that this is where they live," the beak under the two glowing eyes then creased into a wickedly gleeful smile, "Well, looks like my task is complete, so it's time to return to my owners' base and bring back the report on the Blu Bird Sanctuary's Spix, Lear's and glaucous macaws' locations."
Then with an evil titter escaping its throat, the spy disappeared, flapping noises filling the air.
Meanwhile
A while later, it was late at night, and the activities in Rio had largely reduced except for those of the humans on nightshift jobs, such as the patrollers and guards at Tulio's Aviary, who made sure that no troublesome burglar dare intrude into the building. In the slums of Rio, people living there had either gone to bed or stayed up late to watch a late night movie or soccer or other programme. In the large ramshackle building, Lysandre stood by one of the broken windows, waiting for Swoop to return. His underlings and other pets were still eating their dinner. Some of the human grunts sat on the floor, eating their dinner from plates set on their laps while the others sat at a table. The crows, Cometa, Xerosic, Cazador, Bryony and Aliana, Nigel and the cats were eating from the food bowls set down by their owners. The falcons were eating rodents and other types of meat, the crows ate a variety of fruit and nuts and some meat while the cats ate fish. Nigel's meal was also fruit and a few nuts. However, unlike the crows who clearly enjoyed the fruit and nuts, Nigel glared at the bowl filled with the brightly coloured food and brown seed-like pods with distain. He glared at the fruit and nuts in his own bowl and then rolled his eyes in the direction of the food bowls of the falcons and the cats.
"Oh, I really wish I could eat some of their food," murmured Nigel under his breath, distain-saturated eyes gazing down on the food in front of him. "This fruit is disgusting."
As the other five falcons continued eating their mice, Cometa looked up at Cazador. "When is Swoop due to return?" she asked, "He's been gone a while now."
"Just eat your dinner, Cometa," snapped Cazador as he swallowed another mouse. Cometa, at this, made a soulful look and looked down at the dead mouse in her talon.
"You know something," she murmured uncertainly, "I've been thinking about the plan ahead once Ernesto gives us the signal once Tulio names the date that his team will be going into the Sanctuary de Amazon."
Cazador stopped eating and shot the doubtful falcon a glare. "What about it, Cometa?"
Cometa looked at her leader with doubtful eyes. "I still don't think this is a good idea," she said, "You see, that area where the Spix macaw flock and the other flocks live is protected and…"
Suddenly, a slam of a falcon foot cut Cometa off. Cazador had stomped a foot down onto the table. "Look, what has Lysandre said about sneaking by security?" he growled. Cometa flinched, seeing the irritation and anger burn in Cazador's eyes piercing her like lasers.
"That our owners will be disguising as ecologists and sneaking into the Sanctuary de Amazon, divert Tulio and his team's attention and then set to work in capturing birds especially the Spix, glaucous and Lear's macaws, with us smuggled into the nature reserve," she immediately and timidly answered. Cazador's anger cooled.
"That is right," he said, "We've been over this DOZENS of TIMES! You should know it by now. Now get back to eating your dinner!"
Cometa nodded and did so. Cazador did the same. Bryony shot Cometa an irritated glare.
"You know something, Cazador," she whispered into her leader's ear, "I think that falcon has some cowardice issues."
"Huh, tell me about it," replied Cazador as he ate another mouse. Bryony then shot Cometa a bitter glare before returning to her meal making Cometa's eyes flash with hurt. As the five falcons continued to eat, Nigel continued gazing disdainfully at his food bowl filled with fruit and nuts, before swivelling his eyes onto the fish of the cats' food bowls, and the mice in the falcons' food bowls. Then an idea, an extremely unpleasant one, entered his head.
"I would love to sample a mouse," crooned the disgusting cockatoo hungrily. Otis shot him a glare.
"Just eat your meal, Nigel," he snapped.
"But I don't like fruit and nuts," snapped Nigel, "It's fit for vermin. Pretty bird vermin, that is. I want meat, like chicken or sommat."
"Tough," snapped Otis curtly as he swallowed some of his fish, "You're gonna eat that meal whether you like it or not. Now eat it."
"But…" began Nigel but Moggy brusquely cut him off.
"Don't disappoint our new owners, Nigel," she said, "Now get your beak into that and start eating. You haven't even touched it since it was sat down before you."
Nigel let loose a frustrated huff in reply. He clearly wanted to have meat in his beak and clearly despised the brightly coloured food and hard seed pods set down before him. After gazing one final time at the fruit and nuts sitting there in his bowl, Nigel swivelled his eyes toward Aliana's food bowl. A wicked smile crept into his beak.
"I think I'm gonna try something… a little new," he crooned and with that, he walked away from his bowl, slowly at first but then leapt at Aliana's bowl before any of the cats could leap in and stop him.
"Nigel…!" shouted Otis but then what happened next shocked… and disgusted… everyone. Cries of total revulsion erupted from the falcons and crows' beaks, and the cats' mouths as the group watched in total repugnance as Nigel buried his face into Aliana's bowl, much to the latter's irritation.
"Hey!" shouted Aliana angrily as the disgusting cockatoo pigged on her food, "That's MY bowl!"
Cazador, Cometa, Bryony and Xerosic looked on with faces creased into repulsed expressions as Nigel then took his head out of the bowl, swallowing down a mouse like a gannet. Some of the crows and the cats including Otis also looked on with repulsed faces. After Nigel had shoved the mouse down his throat, his eyes lit up in disgusting enlightenment.
"Dee-licious," shouted the gross cockatoo and with that, he shoved his face back into Aliana's food bowl to chow down more mice. The group looked on with faces creased into revulsion in different ways. Bryony had her tongue hanging out, Xerosic's lower jaw was hanging open, and Cometa, Aliana and Cazador, especially Aliana just looked on in shock. Otis, Moggy and some of the other cats also wore disgusted faces, as did the crows.
"That cockatoo is GROSS!" shouted one.
"He's the most disgusting cockatoo I had ever seen," muttered another. The other crows also groaned in agreement. Then Cometa's stomach began to feel like it had insects crawling in it. With a wing slowly moving over her belly, Cometa murmured, "I think I'm gonna be…"
And with that, she took off in a blink of an eye and rocketed off somewhere to disgorge her meal. The sight of Nigel shovelling the mice down his throat had made her stomach turn so much that nausea had washed over Cometa. Moggy then felt the same feeling consume her. A paw flew to her mouth and her cheeks puffed out as though she was blowing into them. Then the cat rushed off, followed by two or three of the other cats. Then when Nigel had finished gorging himself on Aliana's mice, he leapt over to Moggy's abandoned dish and began to gorge himself like an absolute gannet, much to the utter shock of the remaining cats. Cazador looked on again in shock before shooting the cats a confrontational glare.
"Has that cockatoo always been like that?" he shouted. At first none of the cats replied but then Otis took up the role.
"Possibly since he joined us in smuggling birds," he murmured, a still disgusted-tinted expression marking his face, "He must have picked up the desire to gorge himself on meat from us."
Cazador did not reply. He couldn't understand Nigel's eating habits and had never seen a cockatoo eat a piece of meat before, much less mice. However, Cazador did not know that parrots can sometimes, and are able to, consume meat, but he did not like how Nigel was eating Moggy's dinner. Then Cazador decided to intervene.
"Get your beak out of there and eat your own food," he shouted, his wings clasped onto Nigel's hips and pulling. However, Nigel resisted and continued stuffing his face on Moggy's dinner. He lifted his head out of the bowl and looked at Cazador, his face smeared in fish and meat but with a lot more fish and meat shoved greedily into his beak. His cheeks were grotesquely bulging out from so much food stuffed in his mouth at one time, like a chipmunk that had shoved a lot of nuts into its mouth. Furthermore, Nigel's beak was partially closed, so what he was eating showed through much to Cazador's revulsion.
"What's wrong, falcon?" asked the cockatoo through a completely full beak. Cazador didn't reply and began to command the cockatoo to return to his food bowl. But the command just went into one ear and out of the other as Nigel then reburied his face into another cat's bowl, this time, Otis's.
"OOIII!" screeched Otis as Nigel then began to shovel huge amounts of his food into his mouth. Just then a few footstep sounds reached the ears of the group. Cazador and Otis looked around and saw three of the humans walk in and backed away.
"What is going on?" asked John angrily but when he saw what Nigel was eating, his jaw dropped open. Gale, another assistant then ran in and whisked the cockatoo away from Otis's food bowl as Lysandre walked in, Swoop on his shoulder. At this moment, Cometa and Moggy had returned after their nausea had subsided, but the look of the same feeling still marked their faces. When Lysandre with Swoop on his shoulder appeared, he looked on with a frown on his face, especially when his eyes saw the untouched bowl of fruit and nuts intended for Nigel and a group of shocked crows, cats and falcons gazing at Gale as she restrained Nigel. Then a fishy whiff entered Gal's nostrils and she flinched in slight revulsion.
"Ugh, what HAS this cockatoo been eating?" she asked. Nigel didn't care and maintained an evil smirk on his face.
"That meat, fish and those mice were absolutely delicious!" he crooned wickedly.
"Delicious nothing," snapped Cazador as Gale then irritably walked over to Nigel's fruit bowl and slammed the cockatoo down in front of it.
"Now you will EAT from your OWN FOOD BOWL, you naughty cockatoo, or you'll not be participating in our upcoming plan!" snarled Gale to Nigel's childish chagrin. "UNDERSTAND!?"
Nigel reluctantly nodded and set to eating his fruit and nuts. Cazador came by and shot the grumbly cockatoo a glare before moving on to meeting Swoop. Cometa and Moggy then moaned, a nauseated look still colouring their face.
"As for us, we're no longer hungry," moaned Cometa.
"I can't believe that Nigel would be so disgusting," muttered Moggy as she left. Nigel just creased his beak into an evil smile, obviously liking this statement. He loved being disgusting, but under the watchful glare of John, he half-heartedly set to eating his fruit and nuts. Then as soon as everything had calmed down and the animals returning to eating their meals, Swoop began to give the report.
"So, did you find the four ultra-valuable macaw families, Swoop?" asked Cazador.
"Indeed I did," said Swoop with a gleeful smile on his face. As he said this, Nigel tuned his ears to listen to what Swoop had to say while he continued to disdainfully eat his fruit and nuts.
"One of the Spix macaw families," said Swoop, "And the Lear's macaw and glaucous macaw families are staying in the attic of one house while the other Spix macaw family is staying in a birdhouse at another house. I didn't get a glimpse of the chicks but I did see the couples, from which I deduced the chicks must be somewhere nearby…"
"Brilliant, Swoop," said Cazador with a proud smile.
"Did you get a glimpse of a calico cat in the house where you saw the Spix, the glaucous and the Lear's macaw families are staying?" asked Otis. He flinched when he was met by two glares from the falcons.
"What's so important in finding a calico cat, cat?" asked Cazador irritably. Nigel continued to listen.
"What's more important is the macaws," added Swoop, "Not some individual cat you are looking for. Now shut your mouth and eat your dinner!"
Otis rolled his eyes and obeyed. Then Lysandre knelt down and asked Swoop, "Did you find the four valuable macaw families?"
Swoop replied with a confirmatory squeak. Lysandre smiled. "Brilliant. We will send you guys and the cats out to locate those macaws to catch, cage and bring here. Then we'll prepare for our trip into the Sanctuary de Amazon once Ernesto hears Tulio giving the date of departure."
Nigel, at this looked up. "Could one of the Spix macaw families be my most detested blue macaw and his mate and chicks?" he asked himself.
"EAT YOUR DINNER, COCKATOO!" snarled someone, jolting Nigel into finishing his meal. As the animals continued feeding, Lysandre stood up and rubbed his hands with glee.
"I look forward to seein' those precious macaw families believed to be the last Spix and glaucous macaws and the first Lear's macaws to live on the Blu Bird Sanctuary," he crooned wickedly, "Those birds shall certainly cost a fortune."
Nigel continued eating. However, inside, he was hoping that one of the Spix macaw families was definitely Blu and his family for the desire to get revenge on him still burned as intensely as a forest fire. 'When I meet those rotten blue macaws again' he thought, 'I am gonna torture and abuse them and then execute my plan once this is over.'
Nigel then looked up and saw John, his face twisted in an expecting expression and his arms crossed gaze down at him, before resuming his meal.
Meanwhile
Back in Susan and Lucy's house, Susan and Lucy had gone to bed, as had Dash, Ginger, Catina, Veggie and their offspring, and also the adult macaws, Travis and Sunset. Travis and Sunset had returned to their birdhouse while the others had returned to the attic, where they climbed into their makeshift nests to snuggle down to sleep. Now the attic air was flooded with small snores or quiet breathing from nine different species of macaws. Mercury and Sapphire were still in their nests, Sapphire snuggled up beside Mercury with the latter's wing draped over her back while Phoebe, Jasmine and Annette were snuggled in their nest against each other like a litter of puppies. Mars and Chiquitita were also snuggled together, Mars snoring slightly but Chiquitita breathing quietly and occasionally stirring. Phobos, Deimos and Alexandre also slept soundly, Alexandre wriggling a bit as he dreamt. Next to them, Jupiter, Ruby, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto also slept in deep slumber in their baskets. Saturn, Orquidea, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titans and Iapetus were the same, as were Uranus and Esmeralda, and Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon. Next to the great green macaws, Neptune, Ultramarine, Indigo and Triton were also sound asleep. Pluto, Lapis Lazuli, Blueberry, Charon, Flor and Quincy, and Ceres, Cobalto, Wilbur, Aurelio and Azul were also in a deep sleep, as were Zephyr and Venus's chicks Justin, Charlotte, Matilda and Virgil. Some of the chicks were dreaming. Matilda was murmuring something about hanging out with Tiago and setting up more pranks, while Ganymede murmured various scientific facts. Charlotte and Callisto dreamt about soccer while Io hummed to the songs she had been listening to in her sleep. Miranda also murmured something about colourful things and painting, Ariel dreamt about nature, Umbriel dreamt about insects, Titania dreamt about flowers while Oberon dreamt about soccer and nature. Some of Saturn and Orquidea's chicks dreamt about dancing and brightly coloured insects like butterflies while the other chicks seemed quiet or dreamt about various things with no particular focus on a specific subject. The adults also dreamt about various things. Mercury dreamt about playing with his daughters, while Jupiter had dreams of London, his home city in the UK. But there was one adult macaw who was not having a very good dream at all. Zephyr and Venus were also asleep in their nest; Venus snuggled against Zephyr's side with his wing draped over her back. However, Venus was squirming and moaning as her dream played.
In Venus's dream, Venus found herself in some sort of dark alleyway-like maze. The maze split off into two opposing directions and into infinity, but along the way, more paths joined perpendicularly to the main one, meeting in the same way crossroads met. Venus was in the middle of one such crossroad-like split, the two joining alleys each running off into the distance at right angles to the main path, getting darker the further away. The walls on the sides of the path were made of bone white, solid bricks and they extended infinitely into the sky, fading into white above Venus. Venus's yellow eyes were swollen with terror as she examined the frightening surroundings. She then heard a distant voice. At this, Venus froze and began to listen to it. The distant voice sounded in distress and familiar. Venus flooded with dread as the voice's owner's identity formulated in her mind, began to feel the urge to follow the sound, so she did. She opened her wings and took off to trace the voice's owner. As Venus flew on, more side alleys appeared and disappeared as they flowed by.
"Zephyr!" Venus called, looking around the bare but rather creepy-looking walled maze and its passageways. "Zephyr, where are you!?"
The voice, which belonged to Zephyr's then increased in soundness to the point that Venus could now deduce whole and meaningful words.
"Venus!" the voice called, "Venus! Help us!"
Then some more additional voices, with pitches higher than Zephyr's, correlating to the pitch of a young chicks' voice sounded.
"Mommy!" cried these additional voices. Venus, upon hearing these cried out, "Justin, Charlotte, Matilda, Virgil!"
And with that, she accelerated on, following the direction of the distressed cries, one belonging to an adult male macaw and the others belonging to four frightened chicks. Venus continued flying on, the sounds of the voices getting louder and louder, but then another voice, one more wicked than the other seven, sounded in the form of an evil cackle, sending chills down Venus's spine. Propelled by this, Venus accelerated her flight more, screeching the names of her kids and mate. She then stopped into a hover, looked this way and that down a pair of opposing paths that stretched into the darkness of infinity, before choosing a path based on the voices' direction. Then Venus shot off like a rocket down her chosen path. Her wing muscles crawled with ache and her lungs were gasping for more air. Her heart was beating ten to the dozen while chills turned her blood to ice and her nerves and skin to prickly static. As Venus flew on, the voices got louder and louder but the louder they got, the greater the fire of panic within her. Venus continued yelling Zephyr and her chicks' names until finally; she braked sharply into a hover, but what she saw sent horror exploding through her like a shockwave. Zephyr, Justin, Charlotte, Matilda and Virgil were all in a tight cage, and Zephyr was covered in bleeding claw marks and blood was trickling from his injuries, bald patches where feathers had been torn out, and black and blue blooms indicating bruises, including one around his left eye. Zephyr's eyes were filled with terror and desperation while the chicks' eyes were flooded with immense fright. The look of fright in their eyes sent shivers down Venus's spine for she had never seen such enormous fright in the eyes of her chicks before, but the fright of the chicks was far more extreme than Venus could imagine. It was though they had had a whirlwind of black fear consuming them. Behind the cage holding Venus's mate and four chicks, macaw carcases dotted the floor in front of the black background, all with gashes and ripped out feathers streaking and dotting their bodies. Venus glared hard at them and realised that these bodies belonged to her friends, and she winced when she saw the body of a muscular scarlet macaw with vermillion feathers lying near Zephyr and the chicks' cage, his brown eyes glassy like those of a plastic doll. The other bodies were either scarlet, green-winged, Lear's, blue-throated, blue-and-gold, great green, glaucous or hyacinth macaws, adults and chicks, but none were Spix macaws or cockatoos for Venus could not identify Blu, Jewel, Carla, Bia and Tiago, or Travis, Sunset, Eustace, Milo and Rosa among the bodies.
"Venus, help UUUUSSS!" cried Zephyr desperately while the chicks screamed, snapping Venus out of her horrified trance at the corpses. Venus then rocketed forward but then something appeared behind her and latched onto her wings and body, stopping her in her tracks. At this, Venus shot a glance behind and saw that the restraining was caused by shadowy black arms resembling the front legs and paws of cats. The paws were hooked around Venus's wings and body and they prevented her from flying towards her caged family. Desperately, she began to struggle in the shadowy paws' grasp, but to no avail. When she saw that she was getting nowhere and that the grip of the paws had tightened on her wings and body, Venus looked up at her family, their eyes full of untold terror and pleading. Then a menacing laughter erupted from the blackness in the background behind Venus's caged family and the macaw carcases, sending even more chills coursing down Venus's spine like an impulse travelling along a nerve. That laughter sounded familiar. Then Venus looked up and to her horror, a figure melted out of the blackness of the shadowy background and sauntered like a hunter towards Zephyr and the chicks in the tight cage who began to struggle, desperate to get out of the cage. The figure stepped over Jupiter's dead body and then approached the cage. The figure was in silhouette except for a pair of glistening eyes, but Venus could easily make out its shape. The figure had a definitive head. On top of the head was a crest of feathers, like those of Travis and Sunset but longer and more tatty. The figure's head widened but then narrowed into a neck, before widening again into a barrel-shaped body. On either sides of the body were a pair of wings spread out while below the body were a pair of talons. On the head of the figure were glistening, umber brown eyes but the glistening was no positive sparkle, like the sparkle in the eyes of someone full of hope or happiness. These eyes' sparkle was one of pure evil, menace, malice and sadism, and they were directed at the caged and helpless Zephyr and the four chicks.
Venus continued to struggle in the shadowy cats' paws but the paws did not loosen their grip on her wings and body, forcing her to only look on as the shadowy figure then shot her a thorny, poisonous glare. A beak, barely visible on the black figure's face below the eyes, then widened into an evil smile as the figure saw the horrified look on Venus's face. Then an icy-cold and cruel sentence emanated from the figure in the most bone-chilling way. "Hello, pretty bird? Remember me? I've got your beloved family caught in this cage and I have killed all your friends including their chicks."
Venus shuddered as the shadowy figure then turned its icy gaze in Zephyr and the chicks' direction, before advancing toward the cage and opening the door. The chicks all squealed and backed away towards the petrified Zephyr who wrapped his wings around the four chicks and writhed against the corner of the cage, with Venus only looking on in utter terror. Zephyr shot Venus a pleading and desperate look, screeching help but Venus, no matter how hard she struggled in the shadowy cats' paws, could not free her wings and body. It was as though she was attached to an extremely strong restraining device with no hope of writhing herself free. Then once the shadowy figure was in the cage, it shot Venus a wicked glare once again, but then it began to change colour, much to Venus's immense terror. The figure melted from a black silhouette into a grey-white figure with a pale yellow crest and a black beak. Zephyr and the chicks continued writhing in the corner of the cage, crying and wailing in desperation and fright as the figure towered over them. Venus instantly recognised the figure based on its revealed features.
"I am Nigel, the one who killed your precious little parents and sisters when you were little and the one who smuggled you outa Brazil, pretty blue macaw with pigtails," crooned the sadistic cockatoo figure. Venus looked on, mortified but then that changed to utter horror as she saw what the cockatoo was about to do to Zephyr and the chicks who began to scream and wail like crazy. Venus began to struggle and writhe in the cats' paws like a fish in the jaws of the predator, desperately trying to convince the figure to spare Zephyr and her chicks.
"Please, Nigel, don't do it!" she shouted, "They haven't done anything wrong!"
She struggled and struggled to get free form the cats' paws but the paws' grip remained iron-tight, while her cries and protests fell on deaf ears. The cockatoo figure then knocked Zephyr down and raised a talon, claws ready. Venus looked on and screamed as her mate's cries of terror then turned into cries of immense agony, accompanied by the screams of terrified chicks and the maniacal cachinnating (loud laughter) of the cockatoo. Venus screamed loudly and screeched, "NOOOOO! ZEPHYYYYRR…"
Then through the cacophony of frightening screams and laughter, Venus heard another voice shout her name. Confusingly, it was very similar to the one owned by the male macaw in the cage.
Back in reality, Zephyr was shouting Venus's name, his wings tightly wrapped around her sides and shaking her awake.
"Venus," he cried, "Venus, wake up! You're having a bad dream."
Venus didn't stir for the nightmare had had a tight grip on her, and she continued writhing and squawking loudly.
"No, Nigel, Don't! NOOOO!" she cried. Zephyr then shot his wary looks at the other sleeping macaws, going from one basket containing a couple of macaws or group of chicks to another, including the basket holding his own and Venus's four chicks and began to take drastic action when his cries and shakes didn't bring Venus out of the nightmare trapping her. However, he began to feel regret at this idea but he had no other choice. Venus's petrified cries could wake up the other macaws.
"I'm sorry if this hurts, Venus," he moaned and began to implement the idea. Raising a wing, he began to slap Venus on the cheek in a desperate attempt to wake her up and bring her out of the nightmare's vice-grip. He kept slapping her cheek until finally, the sharp pain from the slaps dragged Venus from the nightmare and back into reality through the gate of waking up. As soon as Venus's yellow eyes opened, Zephyr stopped slapping her face. It took a while for Venus to register where she was, for she was clouded by confusion at first. But after shooting confused gazes in different directions at her surroundings and realising that she was back in the attic, Venus calmed down and found herself gazing into a pair of green eyes plastered with concern.
"Wh-wh-where am I?" she murmured.
"You were having a bad nightmare," explained Zephyr, "When you started writhing quite violently beside me and squawking, I became concerned and tried to shout and shake you awake but when that didn't work, I resorted to slapping your face to get you out of that nightmare."
Venus, at this, looked at him. Then she felt a bit of stinging pain emanating from her cheek, so she raised a wing and touched it where Zephyr had slapped her.
"Look, I'm sorry for slapping you but I didn't know what else to do," said Zephyr, "And since I didn't want the other macaws to be interrupted from their sleep, I had to resort to something drastic to wake you up quickly."
Venus then felt a wave of horror and fright, caused by the shock of her nightmare, wash over her and she slumped against Zephyr's side.
"Oh, it was a horrible dream," she whimpered, shaking slightly.
"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Zephyr. Venus shot him a dreaded look, not wanting to tell him about the nightmare. However, based on the concern-saturated gaze from Zephyr's face, she decided to.
A while later, Zephyr and Venus were outside on the roof under the star-studded sky lacking any clouds, so that they did not disturb the other macaws, and Venus told Zephyr everything that she had seen in her nightmare, right down to the finest detail. She told her mate about how she had seen him, covered in cuts, bruises and bald patches from torn out feathers, locked in a very tight cage with Justin, Charlotte, Matilda and Virgil, all with overflowing terror in their faces. She told him about the dead bodies of their friends including Jupiter, and about the figure of Nigel and what he did to those seven macaws, his behaviour including his evil laughs and sadistic gazes at the frightened chicks and the battered Zephyr in her dream, how she had been unable to save them, and so on. After Venus had finished explaining her bone-chilling nightmare, Zephyr was left horrified. However, reassurance squirmed under the cover of horror.
"That must have been horrible and frightening," he said, with Venus, a tear running down her cheek, nodding in agreement, "Could this connect to the trauma you had suffered at the clutches of that cockatoo?"
"I don't know but it seems like it," murmured Venus timidly, looking around as though Nigel was lurking in the darkness, about to pounce on the couple any moment. "I guess it must have come from Veggie and Catina's encounter with that cockatoo the other day."
Zephyr put a wing around Venus's back, reassurance finally forcing its way in front of horror at Venus's dream.
"Look, Veggie and Catina had issued that cockatoo a strong warning not to lay a claw on any of us or other exotic bird," he said firmly, "And if he does not listen, he will face serious consequences. As far as him threatening our family or friends is concerned, I will not hesitate to jump to their defence, especially you and our chicks, and you know what Blu and Jewel would do if they ever come across that foul cockatoo."
Venus nodded. She knew that Blu and Jewel despised Nigel with a burning passion and would hate to think if that cockatoo ever clashed with those two Spix macaws. Blu, Jewel and Nigel absolutely DON'T mix, much like water and electricity, boiling oil and cold water, or an often-unheard-of metal called caesium and water. The latter two would be the best description for the relationship between the Spix macaw couple and the cockatoo, for Venus knew what always happened if cold water was poured into a pan of boiling oil, or when a piece of caesium was dropped into a bowl of water. Like how caesium would explode violently in water, Blu and Jewel's meeting of Nigel would almost always explode violently as well, especially now that they have three chicks by their sides. Then Venus felt her fears of the chances of Nigel finding the group melt away as Zephyr's reassuring words thawed them. After this, she wrapped her wings around Zephyr and dragged him into a close embrace, crying her eyes out. Zephyr returned the hug and allowed her to cry into his shoulder. The pair of Spix macaws continued staying on the roof until finally, they left for the hole and returned into the attic to go back to sleep.