Ok new chapter 12, and soon to be BRAND new chapter 13. I hope you like!
Chapter 12
Safety
Then I heard it; the sound of my rescue! Both Selena and Phillip froze in midflight, and stood ram-rod straight when they heard the whir of my friends' wings. "The Calvary's a-comin'!" I heard someone shout joyfully, and trumpet their charge.
"We're here!" I jumped up and down, despite the agonizing fire in my chest, and waved my wings around like a maniac. Immediately I saw Nico's elated face somewhere in the lead. He waved to both the quetzal and I. I blew him a kiss which he caught with a funny maneuver that made me smile.
Then Selena returned to the job close at hand, and took another step towards the indigo heathen. He retaliated, and jumped at her, swiping his claws at her throat. She jumped back, bumped me, and was able to keep me out of the current with a twist of her wing. Althogh while she was focused on me, Phillip shot over her head and was in the air.
"Nico!" The macaw roared, and I gasped, "You're mine!" Then he flapped with all possible speed right at Nico, a murderous gleam in his deranged eyes.
"NO!" I screamed and tried to fly off the rock, but only succeeded in falling into the water.
"For the love of samba…" I barely heard Selena sigh exasperatedly, and took off after me. Just as I fell over the edge of the falls, she snagged my wing and hauled me up to another rock, closer to the edge. "DON'T do that again." She hissed in my ear.
"Sorry!" I gasped and started to shiver. Then I heard a shout, and turned back around, just to want to launch myself off the rock again. Phillip reached Nico and nicked him a couple of times to get my sunbeam off balance then he spiraled above a very disoriented canary. Then my heart stopped as the macaw dove, full out, at Nico; he wrapped his talons around the back of his yellow neck. Nico kicked and squirmed, but he couldn't seem to loosen Phillip's grip.
Holding Nico's neck in his talons, Phillip raised the cloth, which was formerly meant for me, pressed, and held it to Nico's face. My brave little sunshine struggled, and kicked, trying not to breathe, and get free, but it was no use. Soon his bright yellow body went completely limp, and my heart froze as Phillip dropped Nico into the churning waters hundreds of feet below us.
"Enough!" Selena shrieked and flew off the top of the waterfall, leaving the distraught female canary behind her. She grabbed the indigo macaw by his throat, and her momentum slammed them into the cliff face. Phillip's back snapped with a crunch as he hit the cliff directly.
"I know I loved you." Phillip choked as his lungs began to fill with blood. He knew it was over for him, but he had to try and crack into her emotions.
"No Phillip. You didn't love me." Selena snarled and shook her head, "All you wanted was the jealousy of all those other birds just because you had me on your wing. I never wanted it to come to this, but this is what must be done." Selena's heart was a cold stone of justice and disappointment. She felt no pity for this lawless, selfish, all around horrible bird.
"You're right. That was all I wanted." Then he was able to smile a bit, "You know that your father was sent after me too…" Selena's eyes flashed and she felt fury build up within her.
"Don't speak of my father!" She shook him, but he continued.
"When he found my base, and all of the birds I was smuggling out of this good for nothing city, I killed him." The quetzal gasped, and nearly dropped the Hyacinth. "I was the bird that murdered your father; the one you could never find no matter how hard you looked." He chuckled, "But now you will have to live with the fact that you killed me." With his dying strength Phillip swiped a claw across Sel's crimson chest. She shrieked in pain, mental and physical, and dropped him. He fell like an old rag and plunged to his death in the destructive waters at the base of the waterfall.
"Goodbye Phillip." Selena murmured, her quest to avenge her father complete, and soared to the top of the cliff where the rest of the birds were waiting.
"NOOOOO!" I shrieked, after Selena took off, and dove off the rock after Nico. I knew I couldn't fly us both out of there in my weakened state, but I was not going to watch my only love fall to his death. It was hard to even hear myself think, as I cut through the gloomy mist. No! It can't end like this! I thought while frantically searching for that tell-tale flash of yellow. Nothing but the spray of the waterfall, until…There! I spied Nico's bright yellow feathers and spread my wings to soar to him. "Nico! Nico! Please don't be dead!" I cried to whoever was listening.
Just as I wrapped my wing around Nico's still body, "Sonny!" I thought I heard a voice. "Sonny! Grab this!" I did hear somebird! I looked up to see Jewel, Tia, Angelica, Consuela, Lattie, and Fiona diving after me with a strong vine in their claws. I double checked my hold on Nico, and grabbed the vine from Fiona's wing. We were jerked to a stop and I almost dropped my poor sunbeam.
"Pull!" Tia shouted, flying back towards the light. I heard grunts, and squawks and we were hefted upwards. "Pull!" The drill was repeated until we could see the bright blue sky again. By the time Nico and I were hauled over the edge of the precipice, we were soaked to the bone. With the addition of the water Nico's body started to get heavier, and my wings felt like they weighed a ton on their own. I wobbled for a few steps, after setting Nico down, and collapsed in a heap of sunny yellow feathers and a shell, my head on his slowly breathing chest.
"Give them some air. Come on guys. You'll get to see them again later." My girls were shooing everyone back, so I wasn't pounded with words. I smiled and my exhaustion finally hit me. My eyes fluttered closed, and the sound of Nico's breathing making me feel all warm and tingly on the inside.
Just as I was about to fall into a deep sleep, I received a soft shake. I opened my eyes to see Selena standing there. I furrowed my brow and opened my beak to speak, but she shushed me with a wave of her wing. "Phillip is no longer a threat to anyone. You and Nico are free to live your lives in peace now." She murmured kindly. I beamed at her, and sat up.
"Thank you for everything." I tell her, "You saved both our lives." I stood quietly and gestured to my heap of feathers and bottle cap.
"You know they're right," A teasing grin played on the quetzal's emerald green face, "The bottle cap is a nice touch." We shared a quiet laugh.
"I'm glad you think so." I replied with a gasp. I had forgotten about my chest.
"Are you hurt?" She wrapped a wing protectively around me as I faltered.
"I think Phillip broke my breast-bone." I wheezed as the pain subsided, "I'm not leaving Nico in this state though." I settled back next to him, pulling his head onto my lap.
"That cloth had chloroform on it," She informed me, "I've seen similar at every one of my crime scenes." The beautiful bird sat next to me, still smiling.
"The same thing was used on me. I didn't wake up for about a day." I explained.
"I'm sure. A day to two days is the average time that birds are out."
"I just hope he doesn't lose his memory. I could smell that stuff and Phillip was about two feet from me." I sighed and stroked Nico's handsome face with my flight feather.
"He'll be fine. Nico's stronger than you think." Selena informed me.
"I know." I kissed him gently, and sat back up, "I still can't fathom all he's gone through for me. He was captured by a smuggler, aka Phillip. He found me that night six years ago, he kept himself away from me for three years after that. Now this." I sighed.
"That's just how much he loves you." The quetzal said, showing emotion I didn't know she had. I looked at her and we were both grinning, "After he met you I talked to him once before joining the F.N. He seemed happier than normal, and I asked him what had gotten into him." She chuckled softly. "He told me that he had met the most wonderful, beautiful, incredible bird in the world." She stood and acted the way Nico would have; walking around and making dramatic gestures with her wings.
"'The first time I saw her I knew she was the one for me. I watched her dance and sing up on that stage, and the whole time she couldn't take her bright smile off her wonderful face. Then we went to the beach, and there was a magical glow around her that enraptured me. The way she danced turned something on inside me. As she sang on the sugar sand, I danced with her, and at the end of her song, she slapped this on my head.'" Selena gestured to Nico's cap. "'I'll never take it off.'"
"I knew he loved me, but back then I thought it was just a heartthrob type thing." I told the quetzal, and kissed Nico's cheek again. There was a pause as I thought what we didn't need to say, But now, it's really love.
After a while of watching him sleep, I yawned, and Selena took a breath, "I should probably make sure you both get home safely; part of the job you know." Selena stood and hovered over my sleeping sunbeam. Ever so gently she secured him in her talons, and followed my lead back to Canary Corner. It felt good to land on the front branch and open the door I hadn't seen for so long. She soared through the wide open door and laid Nico on the floor.
"If you wouldn't mind setting him in the nest; you would be saving me a lot of trouble." I motioned to the enticing bed of moss and feather that Nico and I shared.
"There we go." Selena mumbled setting Nico in the bowl like he had settled there to go to sleep. "Well, I suppose I should get out of your feathers. Good luck." She held out a beautiful green-gold wing for me to shake.
"Thank you for everything." I ignored her wing completely and wrapped her in a thankful hug. "If you ever need anything you know where to find us." I told her from the hug.
"I might have to take you up on that offer sometime." She smiled and walked to the door. "You're both very lucky to have so many true friends."
"I'll tell you one thing," I smiled at her, "You've got me for life, girlie."
"Thank you Sonora." With one last smile Selena leapt out the door and soared back in the direction of the crime scene.
Walking back into my room I smiled at the mere sight of Nico sacked out with his bottle cap nearly falling off his poor head. I took off my necklace and placed it on its usual hook. "It's good to be home." I mumbled and tucked myself under Nico's wing. I fell asleep to the sound of his heart beating, and it was the best feeling in the universe.
The next morning the sun woke to the sound of Sonora humming the tune of the first song she ever sang for Nico: I Won't Say I'm in Love. Just as she finished the song with a golden note, she heard the rustle of feathers coming from her room. This was accompanied by a groan then a small yelp. With a smile to herself, she picked up a bag of crushed ice, and walked through the doorway.
"Mornin' Sleeping Beauty." She teased her partner as he sat up in the nest.
"Sonny?" He gasped. The last thing Nico remembered was her screaming, and then his world going black.
"Yea. I made sure you got home ok." She came to sit down beside him with the bag of crushed ice still in her wing.
"I must be dead then," The bottle cap wearing canary said taking the ice from her and placing it on his head. Sonora cocked her eyebrow in a questioning way, and he continued "Because I see an angel, and she's sitting right beside me." He smiled as she blushed.
"You're too sweet." Sonny kissed him softly and pulled him into a hug.
