Chapter 29- Aurora's nightmare continues
On the island in the middle of the Amazon River, the animals that had taken refuge here had begun to disembark for the mainland. They had seen that the fire had died down and that it was now safe to return to the forest. However, these animals were in a hurry. Mammals such as capybaras and monkeys quickly swam across the Amazon River, which had begun to rise in depths with the rains and will soon become too turbulent to swim in, those with babies carrying their young on their backs, and hastily scrabbled onto the banks to get out of the rain while birds had flown quickly from the island and to the forest. Reptiles such as snakes and amphibians such as tree frogs also made a hasty swim across the river from the island to the forest. Aurora, who had been sheltering on the island as well, had also flown back to the forest as soon as the rain had become very heavy. Rain was indeed pelting down from the cloud-filled sky, and lightning flashed once in a while. The moment Aurora had returned to the forest, she was greeted by a disaster zone. The charred tree trunks and skeletal structures that once were ferns and shrubs had sent horror coursing through her. Everything was black, stripped of their greenery and colour, and smoke rose lazily from the burned plants. There were a few small fires still flickering lazily here and there on the forest floor, remnants of the much larger fire that will soon burn themselves out as well. Aurora then flew on through the forest, tearing her gaze away from the devastated surroundings. Her top priority was finding help so she began to look around for any flash of coloured feathers, indicating the presence of macaws or other birds such as parakeets, through the blackened and dark forest. However, to her sadness and dismay, there wasn't any. However, Aurora was compelled to keep going. She had to find help, and quickly.
Aurora kept out of the rain by flying through the shelter of the canopy. Eduardo had taught her how to fly through the canopy when the weather was rainy for macaws could not fly well with wet feathers, but that training had only been done in the day time and when it had been sunny. Here, it was dark and Aurora was not used to flying through a cluttered environment at night and in the rain. Several times she narrowly avoided colliding with a burned tree trunk or flying into a web of blackened vine tendrils, but Aurora didn't care. She wanted to find help as soon as possible but as she continued flying through the forest, she quivered as she examined the burned trees and ferns. But her quivering was not just because of what the fire had reduced the foliage to, but the shapes of the blackened tree branches and trunks. The appendages of the plants, such as branches seemed to resemble frightening animals with gnarled and twisted claws and creepy looking shapes. Aurora remembered getting lost in an English forest once when she lived with Susan, Lucy, Blake, Drake and Jake, and the other macaws, Travis, Sunset, Dash and Veggie in England. They had visited Susan and Lucy's grandparents whose cottage was in the middle of a forest, and Aurora had wandered off into the forest and had got lost while it was getting dark. The shapes of the branches and tree trunks seemed to have taken on the appearance of frightening beasts which scared Aurora greatly. Thankfully her owners and her friends had managed to find her and bring her back to the safety of the cottage. Since then, Aurora had avoided flying through the jungle at night alone. But here and now, she had no other choice but to do this.
Aurora continued flying through the frightening scenery of the blackened forest for another half an hour. The forest appeared more terrifying when the occasional flash of lightning lit up the blackened vegetation in a few split-second blinks, making Aurora flinch and cry in fright. Despite being frightened by the creepy looking surroundings, Aurora continued, looking and calling for help. But to her utter dismay and despair, she could not find any bird within sight or earshot. Aurora then passed by a large nest built under a large cluster of leaves which like everything else in the surroundings, was reduced to an ashen mess. It was the biggest nest she had seen in her life but when she saw that the nest, which appeared to be abandoned, contained a few slivers of blackened objects in the shape of the anatomical parts Aurora had seen on animal skeletons in a natural history museum, as well as in Bia and Poinsettia's science books on animal anatomy, she quivered all the more as recognition and deduction of what the burned remains were washed over her. Blu had once told Aurora about how harpy eagle nests were often littered with bones of the prey the massive birds had eaten or fed their chicks. As Aurora remembered this fact, she flapped harder to put some distance between herself and the nest as quickly as possible. She had never come across a harpy eagle before but based on the stories she had heard from some of her tribemates and the macaws of the neighbouring tribes and clans, such as Felipe of the red tribe who had been attacked by a harpy eagle at least once in their lives, Aurora shuddered and could not bear to imagine herself coming face to face with one of those monstrous birds. Harpy eagles were the apex air predator of the rainforest, armed with lethally enormous beaks and talons capable of disembowelling a macaw with one slash, and macaws were on their menu sometimes. Massive birds, as well, far bigger than a hyacinth macaw. Not even flashing a second's glance back at the charred nest containing the burned bones and skulls, Aurora flew on. However, she was not clear of any danger yet. Further, there were some creatures that lived in the rainforest that were sometimes far more frightening than even a harpy eagle.
As Aurora continued flying on through the blackened night forest and avoiding the rain, rhythmic whooshing sounds began to sound in her ears. This made Aurora look around and pinch herself with a talon to make sure that she was not hearing things. But the rhythmic whooshing sounds, which were caused by flapping wings, were indeed very real, and it was NOT from the wind as it gusted through the blackened trees and made them waver. Furthermore, there was not one pair of flapping wings, but several, and based on the different frequencies, some of the wings sounded large, with a slower beat, while a few others sounded small with a quicker wingbeat. Aurora shuddered as she imagined what other predator besides the harpy eagle could fly. She had read in a book about the Amazon rainforest in Linda's new bookstore in Rio and had read that other predatory birds, such as smaller eagle species and forest falcons, also lived in the Amazon but those birds rarely hunted macaws, with the demise of Maximillian's mate and Turquesa's father being one such case. Aurora then gulped and decided to look around again to see where those wing flapping sounds were coming from. As she examined her surroundings, she finally found the owners of the flapping wings, but the moment her eyes landed on them, she managed to stifle a horrified scream.
Aurora was definitely not alone. The flapping sounds did indeed come from the wings of the owners, but those wings were not feathered as Aurora thought and hoped they would be. Instead of feathers, the wings were made of skin supported by four very long digits; giving the wings a similar shape to a human object Aurora had seen called an umbrella. A large piece of skin stretched between the fourth digit and the body and legs, and the four long digits themselves converged to a common point where a hook emerged. What looked like an arm emerged from the digits and hook's joining point and joined the body of these creatures with a kink formed half way down the arm: an elbow. Another, smaller piece of skin stretched between the shoulder and the hook on each wing, ahead of the arm. The bodies of the creatures were not covered in feathers, but fur. This fur was coloured either dark brown, light brown, orange or reddish with some of the furred creatures bearing white markings on their bellies and faces, and the wing membranes were a dark colour to black, like the colour of the burned trees and ferns, but Aurora noticed that the pelage, or the fur coat, of some of these creatures were streaked with bare skin resembling the claw marks jaguars sometimes made on tree trunks, and that skin was made of scar tissue. The faces, bodies and backs of those creatures were crisscrossed with hideous scars, and the sight of them made Aurora feel her stomach turn. Those creatures must have been in a series of fights and savage ones as well, to earn those scars.
The creatures did not have talons or beaks. Instead, the creatures' faces had mouths full of teeth. Two forward positioned eyes were set above a conical snout ending in a nose while on the tops of the creatures' heads, two pointy ears stood erect. These features reminded Aurora of a certain breed of dog called a husky, or a species of doglike creature native to England that had reddish fur, a bushy tail and often hunted rabbits. The creatures' large feet were clawed and they appeared to lack tails though they had a small piece of black membrane behind their legs. The creatures were enormous but then Aurora saw that some of them appeared small, no bigger than a Spix macaw. But the largest ones were much larger, and they clearly outsized Aurora in height and wingspan which measured around a metre and a half long when fully opened. Aurora then immediately recognised these furry animals. Flying foxes! The eyes of these flying foxes, both from the biggest ones which appeared to be adults, and the smaller ones which appeared to be youngsters called pups, as well as the intermediate height ones which appeared to be adolescents or young adults, were saturated with scorn and mockery. And these eyes beamed at Aurora like lethal lasers, converging on their target as they examined the lone and vulnerable feathered form flying desperately through the charred and smouldered forest in the rain. Their mouths were also all widened into wicked grins with their teeth showing. Aurora then noticed that the feet of some of the large bats were clutching something but they were too far in the dark to be seen clearly. Then she flinched as one of the bats spoke, its voice as saturated with mockery as its face.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here, folks?" cackled that bat, a big dark brown, muscular male with hideous scars streaking his face, torso and back. His wings also looked somewhat scarred and tattered and yet he was still able to fly. It seemed he had definitely been in a series of serious fights to come out scarred like this, "A filthy blue-feathered straggler flutterin' around after that fire, hmmm?"
"Seems like it, Voldemort," crooned another of the large bats, a lighter brown female as she eyed Aurora with a toxic and sadistic look. She then examined Aurora closely and as she did so, a wicked grin crept into her mouth.
"Looks like one of them Spix macaws," she crooned, "Those tacky cerulean feathered slugs with the blue-white facial markings and black or dark grey beaks."
Aurora flinched harshly at this insult and felt like retorting but she was too afraid to do so, as fear at the sight of these ugly creatures blocked her flow of words. Beside the female, two young bats tittered as though the whole thing was funny. Then another adult flying fox, a reddish furred male, said, "Spix macaw? I thought that flock of blue-feathered balls of slime had been burned alive in the fire years and years ago when Bruto and Sombra led our colony."
"Yeah, alongside the other flocks of lowly feathered pests including the blue, yellow and green winged, red feral pigeons," said the brown female. Then the group of flying foxes burst out laughing, but Aurora did not find this at all funny.
"I sure hope that the vultures and other scavengers will have feasted on their toasted carcasses," said the first muscular male named Voldemort, "But I would love to see a macaw eaten alive by a predator."
"Yeah, it would certainly be a fun show," said another bat with a sadism-saturated voice, "Watching those disgusting feather-balls die in agony that way!"
And with that the entire group of bats laughed again. Finally, Aurora snapped and found something to say.
"Can't you lot just return to your colony and take that offensive talk with you!?" she shouted. However she immediately regretted saying this, especially as a scornful laugh escaped Voldemort's throat and mouth.
"My, my, my, feisty aren't we," he crooned nastily, "For such a stupid blue-feathered slime worm with a stupid looking set of head feathers!"
"Yeah," said a dark brown furred female scornfully, "It looks like a harpy eagle has torn her head feathers into two with its talons!"
"Or the fire might have burned some of her head feathers away," said another bat, "I wonder if that's what had happened to the Spix macaw tribe and their neighbours during that last fire?"
"Yeah, burned alive like how those humans would cook what they would call burgers and sausages?" cackled another bat. And with that, the whole group of flying foxes burst out into another fit of sadistic laughter. That did it. The volcano of rage boiling within Aurora finally exploded and she lost control of her temper.
"You flying furballs sure are a bunch of numskulls saying those VILE things," she screeched, her feathers on end with rage and her amber eyes ablaze with fury, "If Eduardo or Felipe ever heard you say that about their tribes or their friends, they'll surely claw your hair out and…"
Then a lava flow of caustic acid exploded from Aurora's beak. Aurora had never said such scathing comments in her life and she would never do so but because she was so furious at these bats' attitude towards the Spix macaw tribe and their neighbours and how the fire had caused them great heartbreak and devastation, she had become blinded by anger to control her tongue. Aurora was sometimes had a tongue like a spitting cobra when she got extremely angry, especially when after someone insulted her friends and family. However, this was a totally foolish move for it only provoked the group of mocking flying foxes further. Then Voldemort moved in, his sadism-saturated eyes fixed menacingly onto Aurora.
"Guys," he called his friends, "Let's show our pups how we deal with stupid feathered jungle rats called birds such as this one."
The other adult flying foxes and their pups watched as Voldemort then flapped towards Aurora and lunged at her, emitting a fierce screech. Aurora immediately felt her anger transform explosively into fear as she saw the huge bat fly at her and lash his claws at her face. She screamed and dived down towards the forest floor. The group of flying foxes followed like enemy aircraft after a target.
As Aurora fluttered for her life from this new threat, pulling out of her fall in the canopy, the words of Tornado repeated in her mind when he had told her about the flying foxes during an outing he had taken her on. Those flying foxes are extremely dangerous to us birds. You are NOT to go anywhere near them. If you ever come across them even by accident, you must flee sharply and NEVER even speak to them. These words made guilt and regret bubble within Aurora. The flying foxes were indeed extremely dangerous to all birds. Even falcons and small species of eagles would avoid these bats for they have been known to kill those birds as well. The flying foxes had an insatiable hatred for all birds of the Amazon and saw them as nothing but vermin, an infestation that should be cleared, which was part of the teachings of the flying fox colony. The underlying reason was unknown to the birds, but they all knew that this was what motivated the flying foxes into viciously attacking them and killing them. This explained why the adult flying foxes were covered in those hideous scars, and Voldemort looked like he had been battling a fair few. However, it gets much worse than this, and more brutal. As Aurora continued flying through the dark trees, avoiding the rain, she quickly examined the surroundings and to her horror, the group of flying foxes were in hot pursuit, eyes flooded with the thrill of the hunt and determination. Even worse, some of them even had sticks on hand, clutched in their feet, something that Aurora did not notice before due to the darkness and the rains, but when she flashed a terrified glance at them, she immediately deduced that they must be some type of weapon, especially based on the sharpened tips of a few of them, similar to spears. Two or three of the sticks, however, appeared to have stones tied to one end but Aurora then thought she saw a few feathers tied onto the other ends of the weapons. A thought crossed Aurora's mind regarding those feathers' origins, a thought she didn't really like. Suddenly, the voice of one of the bats snapped Aurora out of her thoughts.
"Alright, you two, you try and chase that blue macaw into a seriously cluttered patch of environment while I prepare the sharp stick and hammer-wielding bats."
"Okay!"
"Got it!"
Aurora then shot terrified glances around and saw two of the bats begin to pursue her in a particular direction, but based on the words of the bats, Aurora deduced that they were planning to try and trap her and then either impale her with one of their weapons they had called 'sharp-sticks', or bludgeon her with the other type of weapon, a 'hammer'. The moment this realisation dawned on her, the pigtailed Spix macaw emitted a terrified scream and began to fly through the jungle faster. However, the clutter was proving difficult to fly through, not to mention the darkness and the rain. Lightning flashed and lit up the jungle for a short amount of time and Aurora began to dodge every obstacle that came her way. She flew left, right, up and down and diagonally to avoid colliding into a blackened tree trunk, branch or becoming entangled in blackened vine nets. But it seemed that the jungle was trying its best to slow her down for every time Aurora had to dodge an obstacle, she had to reduce her speed to make that dodge easier, and that pushed her closer to the lethal, barbaric and dangerously armed bats. Furthermore, Aurora was still very inexperienced at flying through the cluttered jungle at night and was clearly out of her depth.
Behind the terrified Spix macaw, the flying foxes continued their relentless pursuit. They had the upper hand over the still-inexperienced Spix macaw and were used to flying through a cluttered environment, especially at night. A Spix macaw like Aurora that had spent only a few weeks in the jungle against a group of adult bats that had spent years, all their lives in fact, in the same environment was a total mismatch and a big unfair advantage. But Aurora didn't care about this experience disadvantage she had against the flying foxes. She just HAD to get away before they could even go about harming her. However, as Aurora continued flying through the clutter of trees, a long black, outstretched arm appeared and crashed into her chest. Aurora was stopped dead by a branch she had failed to spot in time and was sent careening towards the forest floor, where she landed into a patch of burned ferns in a shower of blackened material. The Spix macaw twisted her face in pain as she clasped her chest. Then several drafts of air blew around her as a group of furred creatures with membranous wings touched down, some slivers of blackened vegetation and ash kicked up in the process. Aurora opened her eyes and when she saw that she was surrounded by a group of large, hideous bats, ALL of them saturated with bloodlust and some of them armed with weapons, including a few of the pups and adolescents, she flinched violently in horror. Then one of the bats, the large dark brown male with a muscular build, towered over her with a face full of untold sadism and insanity piercing her like a predator.
"We've got you now, you useless bundle of tacky feathers," growled Voldemort sadistically, some of the s's emerging from his mouth in hisses like a snake. He then nodded to one of the armed flying foxes, another brown female holding a stick with a sharpened tip and decorated with a cluster of colourful feathers, to advance towards Aurora and make the kill.
"Now, Cruella, show our pups and teenagers how it's done like we've told 'em, and we can have them earn their first trophy," he cackled. With that, the female bat named Cruella smiled wickedly and walked towards Aurora like a hunter about to kill a weakened animal; a sadistic and evil look written all over her face. On one tip of her sharp-stick opposite the sharpened tip was the cluster of feathers tied to it, taken from countless species of birds. Based on what Voldemort said about the pups and adolescent bats 'earning their first trophy', Aurora deduced that the feathers must be said trophies, and that number of feathers marked the number of birds killed by a weapon-wielding flying fox, taken from their victims, mainly from the wings or tail. If a group of flying foxes had worked together to kill a bird, each of the group members took a feather from that victim to add to their cluster of feathers of their weapons. However, Aurora was not going to allow any of the bats of Voldemort's group to make any of her feathers part of their collections of trophies, much less the first trophy for the young members.
Ignoring the pain in her chest from the impact against the branch, Aurora prepared for action. As Cruella then raised her sharp-stick and prepared to ram it through Aurora's back, aiming for where the heart was with the other flying foxes including the pups watching intently, the pigtailed Spix macaw sprang into action. Jumping up off the ground much to the bats' shock, Aurora jumped into the air and raked her claws across Cruella's face, inflicting a wound in the form of a scratch. Cruella let loose an agonised cry and fell over, covering her face with her wings, her sharp-stick with its feather trophies clattering to the blackened soil.
"RESTRAIN IT!" screeched Voldemort and with that, two more adult bats rushed in to try and grab Aurora but she also slashed her claws across both of their faces, knocking them back. Then Aurora quickly lofted into flight before any of the other flying foxes could lunge at her. The petrified Spix macaw then heard the sounds of membranous wings beating the air as her pursuers also lofted into flight. She flashed a glance back and saw that some of the bats, among them Voldemort were chasing after her once again, the rest of the group having opted to stay behind to tend to the injured Cruella and the other two bats. Snapping her gaze to the front, Aurora rocketed on as the chase was back in the air. Aurora stole another glance back at the remaining bats pursuing her. She could clearly see the murderous determination burning in their eyes, as fiercely as the fire had been. These looks reminded Aurora of Brutus when he pursued her group through the slums of Rio the night they had managed to escape the smugglers' den. He bore that sort of look, and it was the look of pure bloodlust, the thrill of the hunt and the thrill of looking forward to seeing blood being shed, and those flying foxes were indeed bloodthirsty and ruthless for that sort of action. This was what Roberto and his family would have faced when Roberto had been a younger macaw.
During their outing, Roberto and his family had been set upon by a group of flying foxes, where they viciously attacked and slaughtered them. Roberto and his father had escaped but his father had been fatally wounded while Roberto only had minor cuts and bruises. This occurred before Roberto was captured by smugglers and taken away to be owned. No wonder Roberto was so afraid of the flying foxes now, besides humans that were bad news after his horrifying time as a pet when he was abused by a young girl. Brushing away those thoughts, Aurora focussed on the most important thing right now, escaping with her life from these barbaric bats. As she continued to fly through the canopy at high speed despite the risk of crashing into another obstacle again, lightning flashed and rain continued to pelt down. But Aurora avoided flying into the rain as the water would soak her feathers and slow her down. As she continued flying on, Aurora stole a glance from behind again. To her surprise, she saw no flying foxes pursuing her. Believing she was out of danger, Aurora breathed a sigh of relief but reality would soon shatter that belief in a split-second, much like the lightning tearing the part at the sky above. As she continued flying on, suddenly, a pair of feet, armed with sharp claws appeared from above and raked down Aurora's back as she flew under them. Agony tore through Aurora's back as a scratch was opened and she emitted a screech of pain, but soon she realised she was finding flying too painful and within moments, she completely lost control. Aurora careened towards the forest floor and crashed headfirst into the ashen dirt. Then the sounds of cackling and, "Nice one Voldemort!" were uttered above. Aurora wearily pushed her face out of the dust and coughed out the particles from her nose and beak when shooting agony exploded from her back again, accompanied by the feeling of something wet. Dread hitting her, the Spix macaw sent a wing to touch her back but when the wing returned, the maya blue flight feathers were marked with a glistening red stain. Aurora drew in a horrified gasp. She had been badly scratched down the back and that scratch was weeping blood.
As Aurora gazed in utmost horror at the drops of blood on her wing, she heard the sounds of flapping membranous wings emanate from behind her. She turned round and saw Voldemort and his gang approach her and then touch down onto the ashen dirt, their eyes flooded with sadism converging on the Spix macaw. Aurora then saw that Voldemort's foot claws were covered with a red liquid. He must have been the one to deliver the scratch. As the bats converged towards her like a pack of predators, Voldemort nodded to one of the female bats with two pups by her side.
"Now, have one of your pups attack this useless parrot like how he did with that dummy bird during the training classes, be it with his teeth claws or with his weapon," he commanded. The female bat nodded and had one of her pups, the eldest who was armed with a small sharp-stick that was undecorated with feathers, indicating that it has yet to make a kill of an avian, walk towards Aurora. Aurora blinked in surprise. Training classes? But then it dawned upon her. The flying foxes must train their pups to fight against birds. Aurora couldn't understand why. She would never teach her chicks to fight against other birds and certainly NEVER to slay innocent individuals. THAT was for birds of prey like the harpy eagle but they did it for food. Furthermore, Aurora only taught her chicks to use their beaks and claws for self-defence, not to fight and slay innocent birds and CERTAINLY NOT with weapons, either. A wave of disgust tore through Aurora but she put aside that disgust to focus on escaping the danger.
As the armed pup approached Aurora and prepared to attack her, Aurora backed away, leaving a few drops of red that leaked from the claw marks on her back.
"Get it," called Voldemort and before Aurora could back away further, the pup jumped at her and sank its teeth into her right wing, hitting the arm part to the point of tasting blood. Aurora cried in utter agony and writhed. Then the pup quickly withdrew before Aurora could retaliated by biting or clawing it. The other flying foxes clapped in applause.
"Well done," said Voldemort as he clapped his wings, "That'll teach this good-for-nothing piece of useless forest dirt to mock us."
Aurora blinked in surprise but she held her bitten wing with a twisted face. Then suddenly, the urge to flee exploded within her once again. Before Voldemort could get another of the pups to attack her, possibly with a weapon this time, Aurora bolted like an antelope escaping a predator and took off into the forest, flapping like mad despite the extreme pain coming from the wounds from her back and right wing. Though she was flying clumsily, she was still able to fly
"AFTER IT!" cried Voldemort with a swing of a wing pointing at Aurora. And with that, membranous wing flaps filled the air behind Aurora once again. Aurora, this time did not look back. As the scratch on her back and bite injury on her right wing continued to leak blood, sending red droplets flying through the air, Aurora began to really fly for her life, an adrenaline tsunami flooding EVERY artery and vein in her body. She just had to shake off these bats. Then she heard Voldemort say something that chilled her to the bone.
"The next time that blue parrot falls out of the air and onto the forest floor, we're gonna kill it without hesitation. Then we'll find Cruella and the other bats and head back to our colony's territory before any of those other feathered pests come along and find us."
Aurora trembled and began to pump her wings faster despite the pain emanating from her aching muscles and from the bite wound on her wing and scratch on her back. This was clear that if she fell to the forest floor again, her number was up. She began to fly extremely fast, faster than she had ever flown before. Behind her, Voldemort and his gang of bats continued flapping after her, faces saturated with the determination to kill Aurora on the spot this time. They were not going to let her get away that easily, and Aurora knew that this time, her life was in mortal danger. Her only chance of survival was to escape these bats and head for the safety of one of the macaw tribes or clan's territory and home patch, or even the home of a smaller group of birds where she will find help. But it was not going to be easy for that meant flying through the dark and cluttered environment and keeping out of the rain again, so Aurora began to do that regardless of her wounds crying out in pain.
The Spix macaw and the bats behind her began to weave in and out of the blackened trees, occasionally flying through a jet of rain that fell through the gaps in the canopy. The rain caught in Aurora's wounds and made them cry in pain more, and wash away some of the blood. Aurora's heart was pumping, her body flooded with adrenaline and fight-or-flight, and her wing muscles were pumping madly to pull her wings up and down, and her lungs were inhaling and exhaling at a rapid rate, but it was still not enough for the flying foxes led by the sadistic Voldemort were still in hot pursuit like wolves after an antelope. Lightning flashed and lit up the dark jungle in a series of short blinks, and Aurora narrowly avoided hitting another branch. She swept under it just in time. The bats followed and also dodged the obstacle. Aurora continued to pump her wings like mad, but ache was beginning to creep into her muscles for they were starting to get tired but she knew she was not clear of the bats yet. Behind her, Voldemort and the others continued their chase, determined to wear Aurora down and kill her before making their journey back to their colony's land. They also had aching muscles but determination kept them on the chase. Then Aurora began to slow down as her wings became more and more fatigued. She stole a glance at the flying foxes pursuing her and saw that they were gaining on her. Then a million thoughts rushed through Aurora's mind, including images of her life:
Memories of her family in Rio when she and Levi were chicks before the smugglers snatched them out of Rio. Her meeting of Susan, Lucy, Blake, Drake and Jake, and Athos, Porthos, Aramis, Phoebe and D'Artagnan, and then Travis, Sunset, Veggie and Dash as young cockatoos, a kitten and puppy respectively; all the adventures she had with her owners and group in England, the finding out that she was a Spix macaw, her trip to Rio with the others, meeting of Zephyr alongside Brisa, Sapphire and Lapis Lazuli, and Ruby and the others, her adventures in Rio with them including her first meeting of Blu, Jewel, Carla, Bia and Tiago, her first dance with Zephyr, her time with Zephyr as they fell in love and became mates, and the hatching of Justin, Charlotte, Matilda and Virgil. Following these thoughts, images of Aurora's family and friends began to flow. Images of Zephyr, Justin, Charlotte, Matilda and Virgil, then D'Artagnan, Sapphire, Miranda, Jasmine and Annette; Athos and his family; and then Porthos, Aramis, Phoebe, Levi, Travis and their families; Blu, Jewel, Carla, Bia and Tiago, and Tornado, Gael, Nuvem, Viento, Roberto, Brisa, Eduardo, Mimi. As the thoughts about these macaws and cockatoos, especially of her beloved mate Zephyr and her four chicks, flooded her mind like floodwater, the urge and determination to escape and survive ignited within Aurora. Compelled by this, Aurora began to try and look for an alternative escape idea as she flew through the forest. She examined the forest floor for this, just as Voldemort and his gang closed in on her. Then Aurora saw something shiny as lightning flashed once again: something slimy and brown. The moment she saw this, an idea entered her head as she remembered Eduardo's training using mud. Aurora turned round and hovered with terrifying eyes looking at Voldemort and his gang. One of the bats had a sharp-stick, again with a cluster of feathers tied to one end like Cruella's one, in its feet, ready to stab Aurora the moment the group was near her, and then made a hasty dive towards the forest floor like a maya blue comet. Voldemort and his gang swerved and followed.
"Don't let it get away!" yelled the burly beast of a bat. Aurora then swerved around some burned vegetation to seriously confuse the bats and then made a hasty dive into a mud puddle behind a larger burnt bush, leaving the out-of-breath bats perplexed as to where she had gone. Voldemort let loose a frustrated sigh through his heavy breathing.
"I told you lot not to lose that macaw," he growled angrily. The other bats just looked at him. Behind the bush, Aurora continued rolling in the mud to mask her bright maya blue feathers with the brown stuff. She was also breathing heavily and the wounds on her back and right wing stung like a hundred bees, especially as mud got caught in them, but Aurora was too flooded with adrenaline to even care. Then as soon as her entire maya blue plumage was under the brown suit, Aurora quickly climbed out of the mud puddle and began to gather some burned wood to further camouflage herself from the bats. She picked up a few burned sticks and twigs and tied them to her mud-covered pigtails, wings and body. Then Aurora hid amongst a cluster of burned bushes and tried to calm her breathing and trembling. However, the whole ordeal has sent her muscles into a shaking frenzy. Aurora knew that she could not face another chase. She had had enough adrenaline rushes for one night. As she hid amongst the burned vegetation in her camouflage suit and hugged the shadows, she watched Voldemort and his gang closely. Voldemort and his gang then began to pace around, eyes carefully scanning the surroundings like hunters. They were clearly keen on finding and killing her, but at the same time they were also wary of their surroundings. If these bats were found by any of the macaws or other resident birds, those birds could easily chase these bats out and that could cause chaos. Aurora then froze and held her breath as two of the bats came her way and scanned the surroundings. One bat then looked in Aurora's direction but all he saw was a burned bush against a brown background. Taken in by this normal-looking scene, the bat moved his eyes to scan more of the surroundings.
"Can any of you find that blue parrot at all?" asked Voldemort, his voice tinted with impatience, "I'm beginning to get agitated as this could be birds' territory."
"No," said a female bat, "I don't know where that blue macaw has disappeared to."
"Oh, come on, it's a bright blue bird," said another female bat with a frown, "It's not that easy to miss."
Then Voldemort sauntered like a cat in Aurora's direction. Aurora froze as the enormous dark brown bat with a muscular build approached the spot where she was hiding, and held her breath. Voldemort then began to examine the burned bush. Aurora then quietly moved away towards the tree trunk, hugging the shadows and the brown muddy soil, freezing and keeping still every time Voldemort's eyes raked over her location. This continued on for a few tense minutes until finally, and to Aurora's intense relief, Voldemort called off the search having given up.
"Let's just forget that macaw, folks," he said, turning to the other bats, "and head back to our colony's territory. I'm beginning to feel that we've spent enough time in this part of the rainforest and I don't want any of those pesky parrots finding us in their territory."
This made the other bats groan in disappointment. Reluctantly, they prepared to take off by climbing up onto elevations for they actually could not take off from the ground unlike macaws.
As they did that, Aurora, after a breath of relief, crept out of her hiding place as the bats dropped into the air from their elevations and flapped into flight, their black net-like membranes catching the air. And as soon as they were airborne, the hideously scarred dog-faced flying mammals disappeared into the dark, dense clutter of burned trees, the lightning lighting it up briefly as they left. Aurora then began to take to the air herself but as she did so, adrenaline took hold once again. In a flash, the pigtailed Spix macaw rocketed off into the burned rainforest herself, desperate to find a bird tribe or clan. It was clear that the life-threatening chase from those flying foxes had pushed her desperation levels for help to breaking point.