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Red Bird found himself in a void of darkness, he couldn't move nor blink. He wondered where he was and how did he got there, Red Bird thought he was going to bird heaven at the moment. The darkness soon organized itself into something familiar, a large open savanna. When color was added, Red Bird saw a red cardinal heading home, carrying a brown sack over its shoulder.
He wanted to call out to him, but he couldn't do anything. Red Bird found himself being pulled by him, without his knowledge. Red Bird soon realized this was a recap of what happened after the cardinal failed to get his eggs back from the pigs.
Examining the cardinal's features, he appeared sad. Red Bird thought being dropped 200 meters into a lake was bad enough but maybe the cardinal here had been through a more, personal and yet, horrifying experience. He watches as the cardinal approached his small stick and mud hut, the cardinal opened the door and walked inside. After a few seconds, he heard his mate scream.
Must have shown here the bad news, thought Red Bird, I wish I could see what's going on in there.
After a few moments, fire came out of the chimney before the cardinal was thrown outside. Red Bird was shocked as the female cardinal kicked her mate out of the house, the sound of the door shutting and locking said otherwise. Red Bird watched as the cardinal gets back up and heads off to the night, the force keeping him tethered to him made sure he followed along.
The cardinal's head was down, he could see traces of blood on the grass behind him. Red Bird noticed it was his broken beak, the cardinal needs help but there was no one to help him. Red Bird might do something, persuade the female cardinal to take him back in, if only he could move. Red Bird wished he could do something and helped the poor fellow, every attempt to move was futile, and after a moment he gave up.
For hours, Red Bird fixated his eyes at the cardinal. Watching him walk for many miles awhile ignoring everything else, seeing how sensitive he was to his own imagination wondered if he might loose his mind.
Finally the cardinal stopped at a lake and took a drink of water before looking at himself in the lake, seeing his own reflection made him cry in misery. When he heard the cries, a sharp pain erupted in Red Bird's head. It wasn't much, the pain was mild and it went away as fast as it came. Red Bird soon realized that this was a flashback, the cardinal was actually his past self and the female cardinal who kicked him out was his mate.
Remembering this, brought on a whole barrage of memories. Red Bird struggled to stay focus when the pain returned, with the full force of a freight trained. He remembered weeks of recovery, and remembered retaliating on the octagonal castle with the help of his friends. He remembered being captured and tortured by King Pig, including the weeks he spent in that small, cramped room, surrounded by the graffiti of the previous occupant who went insane.
All the memories had returned, Red Bird remembered who he was and his friends, completely everything. Red Bird started to become angry but stopped himself, seeing his past self relived that moment of his life, caused him to realize something. He did not wanna be that bird anymore, all Red Bird wanted was a family of his own. But the pigs destroyed his so they could support their own, and realizing the pig's true nature wondered what Red Bird really accomplished.
I accomplished nothing, he thought, It was all just a waste of time, my friends missed me and I missed them. King Pig, what had you done to me?
A bright light suddenly engulfed Red Bird, he found himself able to move again. But every time he shift himself, pain struck him hard. The light subsides and Red Bird opened his eyes, he felt like he'd been abducted by aliens from outer space.
It looked like he was in a small nursery clinic, numerous life support systems were hooked up to him from numerous machines. A breathing tube was shoved down his beak and sits into his throat, pumping fresh air into his battered lungs. Several sensors were placed over his chest to monitor his heart rate, tubes were coming out of his back as they pump out blood and running it through a large machine before pumping it back in. And finally a huge tube was inserted into his rear, which felt the most uncomfortable.
Several bandages wrapped up Red Bird's chest and belly, something under there was irritating him, he didn't wanna find out. He was a mess, already a mess. Somewhere in a crude medical clinic that had walls made out of stone slabs and concrete floor, it wasn't a pig design, Red Bird could tell. Whoever saved him must have loved him a lot, he could see several get well cards, including a gift basket, sitting on the table that the corner of the room.
A part of him felt loved, yet another part of him feel revolted. These two emotions caused Red Bird to not wanna know who saved him, or who sent the cards and gifts. Red Bird wanna be alone, he needed time to think.
The door to the room propped open and Red Bird shuts his eyes, he didn't wanna look at whoever was coming in nor let them know he was awake. However, he could do nothing to cover his ears. He heard birds, and lots of them, chirping all at once. Red Bird recognized each and every tone of voice he heard, they were friends and family. Their presence did nothing to cheer Red Bird up, only made him worse.
"SQUAWK!" a loud chirp blared into his ear.
Red Bird's eyes shot open, and saw his friends before him. Black Bird, Yellow Bird, the Blue Bird trio, and White Bird were present. He looked to his side and saw who squawked in his ear, it was Big Brother Bird. Now he wasn't surprised, who else can make a squawk that loud? He could ignore his friend's parents, until someone came through the door. An old cardinal came walking through, followed by a slightly younger female cardinal.
Oh great, he thought, Mom and Dad.
The Red Baron and his made approached their son, realizing that he was not happy to see them gave them a hint of what he'd been through. Red Bird's father touched his side and he relaxed, even though he wasn't happy to see his friends The Red Baron's presence was enough to calm him down. That kind of love, from a parent, made Red Bird wanna start his own family. Realizing he'll get nowhere when fighting King Pig, he's going to have to make peace with him, somehow.
The doctor soon came into the room, he appeared to be White Bird's grandfather, A.K.A., the same doctor who treated him for his broken beak months earlier. He placed an print-out from an MRI scan onto a light-board for all to see, on it showed Red Bird's skeleton and some of his internal organs in fine detail. His skeleton looked like broken glass, the MRI scan showed that Red Bird had broken several ribs several segments in the front and shattered a shoulder blade. The doctor had put up a difficult time stapling all those ribs back together, including stapling the shoulder blades back in place.
The MRI scan print out showed his kidneys were bruised, swollen to twice their size. The bruising was so bad that Red Bird was placed on hemodialysis, which explains the tubes sticking into his back. As bad as Red Bird's injuries were, they were worse than any injury he had in the past.
What do you know, he thought, I'm the most unhealthiest bird in the world, my insurance will probably not cover everything this time.
That's not all they found, the doctor placed a print-out of Red Bird's brain scan on the light-board. It showed parts of his brain had been damaged. The frontal lobe, the part of the brain that processes conscious and thought, had some parts not functioning. The hippocampus, the part of the brain essential for long-term memory, was also damaged but was still functioning. Even these were past injuries, they explained Red Bird's anger and his amnesia.
The doctor also took delivery at scanning Red Bird's brain signals to see if everything was working normally, he found that the part of Red Bird that was responsible for empathy had been damaged and was flaring on and off. It explained why he wasn't happy to see his friends, the expressions on their faces showed shame. If only they could do more for Red Bird.
Seeing how his friends discovering the damage, made Red Bird convinced that a treaty with King Pig must be signed. He did not wanna perform a similar job as his father, what he did was too selfish. The treaty he had signed with King Pig when he was only just a few days under the crown, ensured peace, but left the pigs with nothing. Pure selfishness, the Angry Bird's team got all of the eggs stolen from them returned, only to discover that many of the eggs had been boiled, broken, and unfertilized.
Red Bird didn't wanna follow The Red Baron's example, he wanted to make his own.
The doctor left Red Bird's scans up as he leaves the room, his friends all looked at him awhile murmuring to each other. Red Bird looked up at the ceiling and moaned, then his friends started to leave one by one. His mother and eldest brother soon followed suit, The Red Baron was the last to leave since he and Red Bird were close. Despite being close, a part of Red Bird was ashamed of him for passing down an unstable relationship with the pigs to him. He didn't entirely blame him, he knew that The Red Baron couldn't solve everything. That was Red Bird's responsibility, a responsibility he was now eager to get done.
The Red Baron soon left the room and shuts the door behind him, leaving Red Bird alone.
I have a lot of homework to do, he thought, But in the meantime, I have to get well again.
Red Bird shifts around for a comfortable spot, then rests. He wished that he had a blanket to cover him, because the room was quite cold.
TO BE CONTINUED...
