Chapter 10-Beware the Handsome Pig

The group continued to trudge through the jungle, tired and having no clue where they were going. Red and Chuck trailed in the front.

"ARGH! You know what?In situations like this, most people usually consume the biggest one in the group in order to survive", Chuck quickly said, "How do you think Bomb tastes?"

Red gazed at Chuck, creeped out, when he quickly turned around and looked up, clearly startled.

"What's up?", Chuck asked.

"That's weird. Thought I heard something", Red muttered. He continued to walk as something moved in the branches above them, unknown to the birds.

The Blues hopped around the area, giggling. One of them tripped on the ground and, as he got up, felt as though he was being watched. He looked back but saw no one and decided to keep walking.

Matilda was at the back when she noticed a cute flower on the ground and bent over to pick it up. Suddenly, she heard something whizz by her. She looked up but saw no one near her. She ran up to the front

"Hey, guys, do you get the feeling that we're not alone?", Matilda whispered to Red.

'Yeah, I think we're being watched", Red agreed.

"What do we do?", Matilda whispered, now frightened.

"I don't know", Red replied, "Maybe they're friendly?"

Chuck gasped, "Maybe they're the other birds! OH my gosh!" He ran back and began to yell as loud as he can.

"HEY, GUYS! YOU CAN COME OUT NOW! BOY, WERE WE WORRIED!", Chuck yelled.

"Chuck, shut up!", Red whispered angrily, "We don't know if they're even birds!"

Chuck scoffed, "Well, what else could they be, bro?"

Suddenly, an arrow landed right between the two, scaring the living daylight out of them. Out of the bushes and from the trees came a group of green pigs, laughing their heads off with guns and arrows aimed at the group.

Chuck muttered, "...Or they could be pigs...Course." The birds huddled together as their enemies drew closer to them.

From the crowd of pigs came a smaller pig, supposedly their leader. The thing that stood out about him was the large golden wig he was wearing over his head. Why he needed it was anyone's guess. He walked up to Red and chuckled evilly.

"Well, well, what have we here?", the leader chuckled.

"Umm...a group of birds, sir", one of the minions answered.

"Uh, no, no, I meant...I was trying to sound, you know, sinister, and you..ah,whatever", the leader muttered, "Anywho, you are trespassing upon Golden Island, the prized territory of King Mudbeard himself!"

"Actually", the same minion began, "The King considers us the scorn of the kingdom. THat's why he sends us here!"

The leader sighed, pinching his eyes in frustration, "Dude, umm, not helping right now. SOrt a'...sort o' putting me down right now, bro."

"Sorry, sir", the minion apologized. The birds looked at one another, confused by both the fact that there were pigs on the island and the argument between the leader and his lackeys.

"Okay, okay, head in game. All is good", the leader said to himself before continuing his speech, "You arrive here, enemies of the kingdom, and dare to attack one of our forts! Well, I must say, you have incurred the wrath of…!"

"Listen here, buddy", Red interrupted, earning him a surprised look from the leader, "I don't know who you are or whatever, but we're not in the mood right now."

"Excuse me?!", the leader gasped, "You dare-?!"

"Yeah, I dare", Red interrupted, "I dare to walk right out of here and not care about your problems. Nice talk, bye-bye."

The leader looked furious, his thick eyebrows furrowing in anger. Red's friends began to sweat nervously as the pigs' weapons drew closer to them. Before he left, Red turned back, a sarcastic smile on his face.

"Oh, and by the way, if you could, could you text me your hair stylist's address. That'd be great, thanks."

He began to turn around when suddenly, an arrow hit the tree right next to Red, barely missing his head and causing him to fall down in shock. He turned to see the blonde-haired pig with a bow in hand and a quiver full of arrows.

"RED!", his friends yelled out. The leader walked up to Red, aiming an arrow right between his eyes.

"You do not mock the Handsome Pig and expect to live", the leader threatened.

"Actually", the minion began, "behind your back, most of us…"

"SHUSH!", the leader yelled before calming down, "I'm gonna ignore that." He pointed the arrow tip right at Red's forehead.

"RED, NO! PLEASE!", Chuck pleaded. Bomb began to tear up as Matilda covered the Blues' eyes, her tearing up as well. But they could do nothing they knew that if they tried anything, the pigs would quickly fire their weapons.

Red closed his eyes in fear, praying for it to be quick. Out of nowhere, he heard a loud thud and the scream of the Handsome Pig. He opened his eyes to see the Handsome Pig being crushed as sitting on top of him was…

"TERENCE!" Matilda cheered as her boyfriend appeared...pretty much out of nowhere, and was sitting on top of the blonde-haired fiend. The cardinal grabbed the leader's bow and arrows and snapped them with his bare hands. The other pigs cowered before regaining their courage and aiming their weapons at Terence.

"Um, I'm sorry, how did he even get here?", Chuck questioned, confused as to where Terence came from and how he showed up.

"Trust me, you're better off not asking", said a voice from above the group. They saw an orange blur drop from the sky, land in front of them, and quickly grow in size, pushing the other pigs to the ground and crushing them. "DON'TMESSWITHBUBBLES!", he quickly shouted before quickly running to the flock of birds.

"Oh my gosh! You're alive!", Red yelled.

"Aww! Thanks for your concern!", Bubbles cheerfully said.

"That wasn't concern! That was legitimate shock and confusion! How are you alive?!"

" 'Oh, thank you, fellas, for saving my life'", someone mocked Red's voice from behind him. He looked up to see Hal helping him up, "Anyways, we gotta go! Come on!"

Hal and Bubbles were guiding the flock away from the pigs. Terence finally knocked down the last pig before running off to join the others. As he ran alongside the group, Matilda hopped onto his back, giving her boyfriend a huge kiss on the cheek.

"You really know how to make an entrance, don't you?", she cheered.

The Handsome Pig finally woke up and began brushing off the dust, staring at where the trespassers escaped.

"AFTER THEM! GET UP AND GO AFTER THEM!", he yelled. THe horde of pigs chased after the birds, one of the minions lifting up their leader and putting him on their back.

Arrows and boxing gloves began darting past the birds. Bomb was carrying the Blues in his wings as he struggled to run as fast as the others.

"Hurry hurry hurry! Faster!", Chuck yelled, darting around his taller friend.

"Easy for you to say! WHOA!" Bomb tripped and began to roll down the hill like a ball, crushing Chuck and dragging the speed demon along with him. They continued to roll down the hill, steering to avoid being hit by the arrows. The blues hopped onto Bomb's back and ran across it to prevent being rolled off of it, similar to logrolling. They helped steer the large loon towards the others, laughing all the way downhill. Terence was surprisingly quick on his feet, carrying Matilda on his back and grabbing Red, Hal, and Bubbles in his wings.

"LOOK OUT!", Red pointed at the cliff that they were heading towards, trying to warn the larger bird to stop running. Terence saw the cliff and stopped right before the group could fall off.

"Phew!", Red sighed, "You know for a minute there, I thought we were gonna-"

He was interrupted when Bomb crashed into Terence, knocking the entire flock off of the cliff and into a deep cavern.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! AAARRRGGGGHHH!", Red yelled, wondering how he was gonna pummel Bomb if they survived the fall.

The pigs reached the edge of the cliff and watched as the birds fell. The Handsome Pig chortled, "HA! See?! Told you! No one survives if they mock me: THE HANDSOME PIG! HA HA HA!"

One of his soldiers looked like he was about to say something when Handsome Pig interrupted him in a deadpan tone, "Say something and I toss you off of the cliff myself."

….

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

The group yelled as they fell down the cliff. Bomb even tried to flap his wings in order to fly.

"Come on! Come on! Come on! Nope, still can't fly. AAAAAAAHHHHH!", Bomb yelled. Chuck was even hugging Terence!

"Notlikethis!Notlikethis!NotlikeTHIIIIIIIIIISSS!", the canary yelled. They eventually hit one of the ledges of the cliff and began to tumble down the cliffside, eventually rolling onto the ground without any serious injuries.

"Ow", Bomb groaned, "Is everyone okay? Chuck, you there?"

He heard a muffled voice from underneath him and got up, seeing Chuck flattened on the ground.

"CHUCK! BUDDY! You okay?!", he cried out, picking up his friend.

"Don't worry, dude. I'm fine. Nothing serious. Also, when were there two of you?", Chuck groaned, disoriented from the fall.

"Well, great. Now, where are we?", Red grumbled. The group got up to see that they were in a massive cavern, no exit anywhere near her. They could see nothing but darkness inside and it didn't seem like there was anything or anyone in it. The group cautiously looked around the cavern, staying close to one another.

"ECHO!", Chuck yelled in the cavern, chuckling as he heard the echo of his voice. Red shushed them as he scoped the area curiously, "Okay, stay close, guys! We have no idea what's in this place."

"Um, Red, are we not at all gonna talk about what happened up there?", Matilda spoke up.

"What do ya' mean?"

"Well", she began, "Those pigs said that we destroyed one of their forts!"

"Yeah, well, they're pigs. Not exactly the sharpest knives in the...wherever knives are kept", Chuck pointed out.

"Destroyed their fort, huh", Red repeated. He looked in Terence's direction suspiciously.

"Hey, don't look at us!", Hal shouted defensively, "We didn't even know there were pigs on the island before running into you guys!"

"Red, are you thinking what I'm thinking?", Matilda asked. Red thought for a minute and then realized what she meant.

"There are other birds on the island!", Red yelled, "We're not alone! The others must have found this place too!"

"Well, we gotta go find them! Who knows what those green freaks will do them!", Bubbles pointed out.

"HEY!", Hal yelled.

"No, I'm not talking about y...I meant the...Nevermind, freak. Let's go", Bubbles gave up trying to explain.

"Okay, follow me", Red ordered, "There's gotta be a way out of this cave."

The group followed him, surprised by how stoic the guy was after nearly being killed. Honestly, the guy was freaked out. After all the crap that happened this week, he had no idea what was gonna happen to him and his friends.

'Let's hope that the worst is behind us' Red thought, '….oh, who am I kidding.'

I'm baaaack!

Sorry for taking so long. Just hit a bit of a writer's block. Anyways, it was fun writing for Handsome Pig in this chapter and it is interesting to see why he and the other pigs are 'the scorn of the kingdom'. More to come soon!