Chapter 31- birds vs poachers part 2
Zephyr swooped down on another poacher and grabbed the rim of his coat, before fiercely pulling it upward and over his head so that it was inside out. The poacher struggled as Zephyr then wrapped the coat around his head to blind him. With the coat over his face, the poacher's screams and wails were muffled and his vision obscured. Then as soon as he had entangled the poacher in his own coat, Zephyr, together with Roxie, Aurora and Maximillian began to peck and claw the poacher. The poacher called for help but his muffled screams could not get out. His feet then snagged on a root of one of the tree stumps and he fell backward onto his backside. Nearby, Ernesto was swiping his hands at Ruby but the scarlet macaw continued attacking. Ruby lunged and seized a beak-ful of his hair and began to pull on it. Ernesto thrashed his head this way and that to dislodge the scarlet macaw. When Ruby refused to let go, Ernesto reached up with his hands, grabbed the scarlet macaw and threw her against a tree stump. Ruby crashed against the protrusion of wood and slid down, stunned at first. Then Ernesto stormed towards her with a net.
"I'm gonna ensnare and cage ya, ya wretched parrot," snarled the poacher. However, Ruby flapped up and sent Ernesto's net and hands crashing into the tree stump. She then jumped onto Ernesto's head and raked her claws across his face. Ernesto cried in agony and covered his face, some drops of blood oozing through his fingers. Then Ruby pushed Ernesto towards one of the roots of the tree stump. One of Ernesto's feet snagged on the partially submerged snake and the rest of the fake scientist toppled and landed in a mud puddle with a splat. Ruby then sniggered at the poor poacher as he struggled in the slimy mud.
"That's what you get for messing with wild macaws," sneered she as she watched Ernesto continue to struggle in the mud, groaning from the pain from the claw marks Ruby had inflicted on his face.
Nearby, another female poacher was being assaulted by Travis who flapped around her head with some red macaws, including the red tribe's scoremarker and Roxie's red macaw lookalike, a green-winged macaw named Cherie while another male poacher was being attacked by Sunset, Eustace, Milo, Rosa and some green macaws. Travis slammed into the woman poacher's face and knocked her over to Cherie and her companions who then began to bombard her head and shoulders with a series of claw scratches and bites.
"Hey, can you lend a hand here," shouted the man as Sunset clawed at his face with Eustace, Milo and Rosa flitting around his head and the green macaws attacked his upper body. The female poacher, however, did not hear him and continued to shield her face from the marauding Travis and the red macaws when suddenly, a few black comets rushed in and tackled some of the scarlet and green-winged macaws including Cherie, some of the military and great green macaws and Sunset. Cherie and the others that had been tackled shrieked or gasped in shock until they found themselves face to face with some of the crows. Enraged, they fought back full-force, Cherie locked in a vicious struggle with one of them while Sunset waved her talons around and knocked more down. While Sunset's group fought the crows, Travis and the two remaining red macaws continued attacking the female poacher while Eustace, Milo and Rosa continued their attack on the male with the remaining green macaws. Travis then kicked the poacher in the face and sent her falling backwards into another mud puddle. The poacher landed with a tremendous splat with globs of wet mud flying everywhere. Eustace, Milo and Rosa then made the male poacher lose his balance by flying right into his face. The poacher's foot snagged onto a rock sticking out of the ground and he fell.
Nearby, Tornado, Gael, Nuvem, Viento, Roberto and Brisa, together with Zephyr and Aurora and some other Spix macaws had formed an attack formation in the air.
"Alright, everyone," shouted Tornado who was at the front of the arrow, "Let's fly like the wind and strike those poachers!"
And with that, the group of Spix macaws tilted their formation and dived down towards a group of three poachers as they continued trying to catch some glaucous and hyacinth macaws with net guns. Enraged screeches exploded out of the group of Spix macaws' beaks as they dived down at the three poachers and before the two women and man could get a glimpse of the arrow of blue birds swooping down on them, the arrow hit them. Screeches of Tornado's group then exploded furiously as the group began to claw the poachers' heads and faces. The glaucous and hyacinth macaws then rushed in to help. Then soon, screams of agony exploded from the three poachers' mouths as their heads and upper bodies received claw and bite marks from the marauding macaws. Brisa and Roberto tore hair out of one of the women's heads while Zephyr clawed the other two in the faces.
"Take this!" he shouted, "Take that! Take THIS!"
One of his claw swipes knocked the glasses of the man from his face. The glasses were sent flying and the man, who was short-sighted like one of the female poachers whom Petunia had stolen her glasses, began to struggle to see the macaws. Aurora then flew in and kicked him in the back of the head to knock him down while Tornado and Gael, together with three of the glaucous macaws and a hyacinth macaw, tore at the other woman's shirt, inflicting gashes in the fabric. Around the three poachers' feet as they tried to ward off Tornado's group, the glaucous and hyacinth macaws that had been netted, including Rudi, began to struggle as Otis's gang members and some crows ran in to collect them to cage. However, before the cats and crows could pick up the macaws, barks exploded from nearby. The cats and crows looked up and bolted as four large greyhounds dashed in. Dash rocketed towards one of the cats, a white Persian, and swiped him away with a paw while Avellana, James and Danny chased off the crows. While they did that, Veggie, Collette and Daisy rushed in to free the birds from their nets. When Rudi saw Veggie approach him, he screeched angrily and tried to scratch him with his talons but the tabby cat continued advancing toward him.
"Hold still, or I'll not be able to free you," shouted Veggie but Rudi continued lashing his talons at him.
"I DESPISE felines coming anywhere near me," snarled the glaucous macaw. Veggie rolled his eyes and went up to him anyway. Quickly, he clicked his claws.
"I'll be in a jiffy," he said but before he could sever the thread entangling Rudi's wings and body, two of the crows swooped in and attempted to attack Veggie and drive him away when suddenly, three green and two navy blue blurs swooped in and knocked them away. Veggie flinched in shock when he saw the three green macaws, one of which was Alonso, and the two navy blue macaws, one of which was Valentino, tackle the crows and drive them away. Snapping back to Rudi, Veggie sliced his claws through the strings of the net and snapped them. He continued doing this until enough strands were snapped for Rudi to get up and fly away. Nearby, Collette and Daisy had freed the other glaucous and hyacinth macaws from their nets and had hauled them into the air. Veggie then bolted as Rudi stood up as he expected the wild glaucous macaw to pounce on and attack him. However, Rudi did not. Instead, he shot Veggie a fierce but approving glare.
"Just this once, cat," he growled, with a talon point to the tabby cat, "Since you've freed me."
And with that, he opened his wings and took off. Veggie then moved on to rescuing the caged birds. However, to his surprise, he saw one of the falcons unlock the padlocks with a key. It was a female falcon and she had a key in her talons. As she freed a Spix macaw, one of Otis's gang members, Paws screeched at her.
"What are you doing, Cometa!?" he shouted. Cometa shot the cat a defiant glare and went on to the next cage containing a Lear's macaw. Paws, enraged by Cometa's defiance, crouched and leaped at the falcon.
"You're just like Catina from our former group, you TRAITOR," he snarled but before he could land on Cometa, a brown and black blur shot in and tackled him away. A shout of surprise spat from Paws's mouth but when he shook his head to collect himself, he saw the cat that had tackled him, Veggie then flashed Cometa a quick nod as she stuck the key into the padlock and turned it. Veggie then took up an attack stance as Paws walked towards him to confront him, the tabby puffing his fur out and arching his back.
"You really have crossed the line, tabby cat," snarled Paws, "just like your calico mate!"
He then paused. "By the way, I thought you and that traitorous calico had broken up."
Veggie then put on an admissive facial expression.
"That was actually made up," he retorted, "We haven't really broken up but there was NO WAY I was gonna betray her to YOU guys back in Rio!"
Veggie then formed a smirk. "But at least she's broken away from the wretched business of smuggling helpless birds, especially with that deranged psycho of a cockatoo who has apparently become a sort of feathery substitute of that infamous Brutus…"
Paws felt hot rage tear through him and his fur spiked out.
"Then you shall FACE MY FURY along with your MATE and OFFSPRING," he bellowed and prepared to pounce onto Veggie to fight him but before he could do so, a mango slice flew in and bopped him on the head.
"What the-!?" spat Paws as the yellow glop of flesh and juice rolled off his face. He then snapped in the direction of the mango slice's trajectory and saw a number of hyacinth macaws, among them Phoebe, Cobalto, Indigo and Zebedee, armed with fruit and other things. Phoebe had been the one to throw the mango. Nodding to her family and companions, the hyacinth macaws charged towards Paws and began to pelt him with various fruit, nuts, stones and sticks.
"Leave our cat friend alone, you bully!" snarled Phoebe as she hurled more mango at Paws. Paws scurried like a terrified capybara as the projectiles of various types flew around him and bounced off various parts of his body. Cobalto then swerved around to the front of Paws with two slabs of wood loaded with fruit in each talon and caught slammed the two slabs together, catching Paws's head in between them. Guava seeds, juice and flesh flew everywhere during the impact. Then Paws turned tail and ran in the opposite direction, his face and neck covered in splattered guava, only to face a barrage of projectiles from the hyacinth macaws. Then Victor, one of Indigo and Zebedee's friends, took off his fruit-shell hat and threw it like a frizbee at Paws. The spinning shell flew and bounced off Paws's nose. Paws then fell over onto his side as more projectiles flew in from the hyacinth macaws and pelted him. Victor then gleefully flew to his hat, retrieved it and placed it back on his head. Veggie ran in and joined in the fray by hurling balls of mud at Paws. Paws soon became so overwhelmed by the barrage of projectiles that he finally admitted defeat and fled. The hyacinth macaws hi-fived each other with their talons while Phoebe hi-fived with Veggie by clapping a talon into his paw. Indigo, Zebedee and Victor congratulated each other.
"Well done, everyone," shouted Phoebe as they watched Paws flee.
"He certainly is a real coward," tittered Cobalto. Veggie gave a smug nod and left to help the other macaws.
Not too far away, Levi, Lapis Lazuli, Quincy, Tristan, Trixie and Larimar led a group of glaucous macaws in an attack dive at five more poachers. The group of poachers, upon seeing the arrow of aggressive grey-headed turquoise, azure and blue birds with yellow facial markings, screamed and tried to run but the small flock easily overtook them. The five poachers uttered immense screams and naughty words as their heads and upper bodies were subjected to aggressive clawing and biting from the glaucous macaws. Levi flapped directly in front of the face of one of them and screeched loudly, making the poacher scream and run away. Nearby, Lapis Lazuli, together with her four chicks and Rodrigo, mercilessly clawed another poacher's face and pulled at her hair.
Not too far away, three more poachers were being attacked and scratched by more hyacinth macaws and blue-throated macaws. Carolina as she flew alongside her daughters Ariel and Fernanda, flew in with a long piece of vine and shouted, "Eriko, Violeta!" and threw them the vine. Eriko, Carolina's mate and Fernanda and Ariel's father and Violeta turned and caught the vine and together with Carolina and Ariel began to fly around the legs of the three poachers while the other blue-throated and hyacinth macaws kept them occupied. Ariel then flew at a woman and seized her necklace to pull at it, while Reynaldo, Anita and their son Edson, together with Demetrio and his and Violeta's sons, Arlo and Vincente, tugged on her hair or pulled on her shirt.
"If there's ONE thing I CANNOT STAND," shouted Reynaldo furiously as he raked his claws across the poacher's face, "It's poachers who think they're clever enough to disguise as well-meaning humans only to reveal their true colours in catching us to take away for the pet trade."
"Annoying menaces, aren't they?" said Anita as she tackled another poacher in the face to get him to release one of the hyacinth macaws he had grabbed. Then soon, Carolina, Eriko, Fernanda and Violeta, with some more hyacinth and blue-throated macaws helping them, had finished tying the vine around the three poachers' legs and them together. When the poachers found themselves bound together by the vine, they began to struggle only to fall over like a huge tree due to the restricted movement of their legs, much to the laughter of the group of macaws.
"Hah, take that you trio of pesky poachers," squeaked Ariel. Suddenly, a drop of water dripped onto her head. Stunned by this sudden appearance, the blue-throated macaw chick shot her parents a look.
"What was that drip?" she asked. Carolina and Eriko looked around and saw a few streaks of water fall around the group. It was obvious that they were falling from the grey skies above. Carolina and Eriko knew this meant one thing. Then Demetrio flew in, a stern look on his face.
"It's beginning to rain," he said.
"We'd better hurry and get these poachers caught by Ariel's friends' human friends before the conditions become too unsuitable for us to continue this battle," said Violeta. Then pushing aside their concern for the rain, the group of macaws flew off to help some green macaws deal with some of the crows.
The raindrops then began to increase in frequency as the poachers and the macaws continued fighting. A thunderclap then sounded in the air. Dash shot a look skyward and saw a flash amongst the cotton-like texture of the clouds as well as the raindrops.
"Oh, boy," he said in a low voice. Suddenly, something snapped him out of his gaze at the imminent rainy weather.
"Dash, LOOK OUT!"
Dash looked around when suddenly, an arm of wood slammed down right in front of him. Dash released a bark of surprise before looking up at whoever had brought the stick down until his eyes met with the thunderous face of a human. It was Lysandre, and his face was as thunderous as the sky beginning to release its reservoir of heavy rain.
"I've just about had enough of you stupid mutts running around and causing trouble," snarled the poacher leader and with that, he heaved the stick from the ground and prepared to bring it down onto Dash's head. Dash rushed towards Lysandre's legs as the poacher leader slammed the stick down again only to miss. Dash rushed through the poacher's legs, swerved round and then clamped his jaws onto Lysandre's backside. An agonised cry exploded from Lysandre's mouth as Dash then began to pull at his trousers (or pants as they are often known in the Americas). Lysandre began to try and yank his trousers from Dash's jaws but the greyhound's jaws remained iron-tight. Growl's vibrated from Dash's throat as he continued to pull, and his blue eyes were flashing with lightning. Then four cats and three more greyhounds rushed in and began to help Dash cause trouble for Lysandre. Veggie, who had been the one to shout to Dash of Lysandre's approach to him with the stick, jumped onto Lysandre's trousers and began to climb up towards Lysandre's head while Collette, Daisy, Danny, James and Avellana, together with Dash who kept his jaws clamped onto Lysandre's trousers, began to bark, snarl, snap, bite, hiss and claw at Lysandre's feet. Lysandre continued shouting cries and spitting curse words as he tried shaking off the greyhounds and cats but they refused to back off. Veggie continued scaling up Lysandre's back until he was finally on his shoulders. As soon as he was on Lysandre's head, Veggie began to viciously claw and bite the head poacher's head. Even more agonised screams and spitting of naughty words exploded from Lysandre's mouth as he then began to try and pry Veggie off his head. Veggie continued clawing at his head and face until Lysandre grabbed him. Veggie, however, continued his assault on the poacher. With a loud cat screech and back fur raised, the tabby cat lashed his claws at Lysandre's arms, inflicting numerous scratches on them while Dash and the others continued attacking his legs and feet. Lysandre cried and screamed in pain as the skin of his arms became slashed with red scratch marks from Veggie's claws. Veggie finally brought his teeth down onto one of Lysandre's hands in order to get him to release him. Lysandre uttered another agonised cry and dropped Veggie.
As soon as Veggie was on the ground, he, Dash and the others retreated. Lysandre then grasped his bitten hand with the other. His face, arms and hands were covered in bleeding scratches and his bitten hand was oozing blood. Lysandre looked on with eyes glittering with malice when suddenly; a swarm of cerulean and blue birds came upon him like a swarm of bees. Veggie and the others continued retreating and turned round to see Lysandre return to shouting in pain as a flock of Spix macaws began to brutally claw and bite him.
"He's not gonna stand much of a chance against that lot," said the tabby cat smugly.
"That must be how they drove out the loggers," said Collette.
"That group of humans with their enormous tree destroying machines?" asked Avellana in confusion.
"Well, the Spix macaws would have had help from the other animals of the jungle, wouldn't they," said Dash. James, Danny, Collette, Daisy and Avellana nodded in agreement. While the Spix macaws continued attacking Lysandre, some more Spix macaws dealt with Cazador with some glaucous, red and blue-and-gold macaws. Cazador, his large eyes ablaze with thunderous anger, was lashing his talons at any macaw that came close.
"Get away from me, you filthy jungle pigeons," he snarled, "Get away from me!"
Suddenly, one of the Spix macaws, Aurora, pounced onto him from behind, sending Cazador into a writhing frenzy with Aurora on his back while the other macaws attacked. Aurora continued hanging on while the other macaws continued attacking Cazador. Tornado watched his daughter-in-law as she hung onto the falcon's back.
"Be careful, Aurora!" he cried. Gael, Zephyr, Brisa and Roberto also flew in and when they saw who was on Cazador's back, they, especially Zephyr, jerked their heads up in horror.
"Oh, no," squawked Roberto, "She's gonna be brutally clawed."
"Aurora, get off his back!" shouted Zephyr. Aurora, however, was too occupied with clinging onto Cazador to hear her mate's calls. With Cazador's defences lowered, the surrounding macaws began to launch a barrage of talon swipes at Cazador. Some macaws even tried tearing feathers out of Cazador's body but could not get close enough to do this because of Cazador's snapping beak and flailing talons. Then after a few more minutes of writhing and receiving more talon scratches including one to the chest from a talon of a blue-and-gold macaw, Cazador finally snapped.
"RIGHT, THAT DOES IT!" he bellowed and with that, he began to bolt and jerk violently like a fish out of water, making Aurora cling for dear life onto his back. Travis, Sunset, Eustace, Milo and Rosa flew in. they were puffing and panting from all the fighting.
"Has Tulio been alerted about these poachers yet?" asked Sunset.
"No, but someone needs to go and get him," said Travis. Sunset's face and crest then flared with determination.
"Then I'll be the one," she growled.
"Mom, no," cried Eustace. Travis, Rosa and Milo and shot Sunset a glare.
"But Sunset, it's too dangerous," said Travis as the Major Mitchell's cockatoo prepared to fly away, "One, it's beginning to rain and two, you could get lost in the jungle trying to find them…"
But Sunset had already made her choice.
"No time to explain," she shouted as she rocketed away and soon, she was out of earshot. Giving up, Travis led his three chicks to a safe spot.
Cazador continued jerking and bolting his body until he finally managed to dislodge Aurora from his back. Aurora, realising she had been thrown off, then tried to escape but a falcon talon darted in and grabbed her by the neck. Horror tore through the surrounding macaws, especially Tornado, Zephyr, Gael, Brisa and Roberto.
"AURORA!" shouted Tornado. Aurora struggled in the iron-noose of Cazador's talon as the falcon glared at her with malicious eyes.
"I'm gonna claw ya for that, you pest," he snarled and with that, he raised his other talon and prepared to bring it down onto Aurora's stomach. Then Zephyr began to dart in to attack Cazador but Tornado stopped him.
"Let me see to it, son," he said and with that, he charged at Cazador, much to Brisa, Zephyr, Gael and Roberto's horror.
"Tornado, NO!" cried Gael but it was too late. Tornado flew right up behind Cazador and with all his might; he raked his talons down the falcon's back. The falcon released an agonised screech and dropped Aurora, who made a beeline for her mate and his family and Roberto. As soon as she collided with Zephyr, he locked her in a relieved embrace.
"Just what were you thinking, you foolish macaw!?" he shouted.
"I only wanted to lower his defences," replied Aurora. Gael, Brisa and Roberto also came in and hugged her, relieved that she wasn't hurt. However, Tornado had not returned. The five Spix macaws broke their group embrace and looked up but to their horror, Cazador was viciously fighting Tornado. The surrounding glaucous, Spix and blue-and-gold macaws tried to help but they were either whacked away by a wing or talon from the whirlwind of grey, ivory, blue-white and lush blue. Tornado continued delivering bites and scratches to Cazador until the falcon's reservoir of anger finally broke through its dam. With an enraged screech, which caused the macaws surrounding him to cover their ears, Cazador raised a talon and brought it down onto Tornado. An agonised screech erupted from Tornado's beak as the lethal claws struck his torso. Then next, Tornado's body plummeted towards the ground.
"DAAAAAD!" cried Brisa and Zephyr together.
"NOOOOO!" cried Gael. Aurora and Roberto also looked on in utter horror. One of the blue-and-gold macaws shot the five Spix macaws a look.
"You five see to your relative," he said, "While we deal with this falcon."
Gael, Zephyr, Brisa, Aurora and Roberto obeyed and swooped down towards Tornado while the other macaws dealt with Cazador but he had already escaped. Cazador then flew over the battlefield the clearing had become and observed the continuing fight between the poachers and the macaws. Around him the rain had increased and a thunderclap sounded. Cazador's eyes raked the battlefield, sliding over Swoop as he was knocked down by a hyacinth macaw, and also Bryony, Aliana and Xerosic as they continued facing some merciless pummelling and clawing from more macaws, and Lysandre, as the flock of Spix macaws continued attacking him. Cazador's eyes then travelled to something against the background of green trees where they spotted a pale pink blob stand out. It was Sunset and she was flying from the battlefield. An evil grin crept into Cazador's beak and his throat emitted an evil laugh, and the falcon began to pursue the Major Mitchell's cockatoo.
As Cazador began his pursuit of Sunset and the fight between the poachers and the macaws continued, from the vegetation, a ragged grey-white form with a tattered green and yellow vest covering his body peered out from the ferns with brown eyes loaded with malice. When the pair of eyes saw a family of six glaucous macaws leave the battlefield to rest, a malicious smile crept into the cockatoo's beak.
"Bad move, turquoise boy (that is, Levi)," crooned the cockatoo, "You're putting your family into a vulnerable position. It is time to inflict another deep scar into your heart."
Then with an evil laugh, the cockatoo left and began to prepare to attack Levi, Lapis Lazuli, Tristan, Quincy, Larimar and Trixie.