Chapter 16- strange creatures
Meanwhile, Virgil's group continued to be blown about by the vicious wind. Virgil, Estelle, Chlorophyll, Zebedee, Trixie, Alessandro and Milo continued clinging onto each other as they whirled and spun violently in the deluge and high winds, lightning crackling terrifyingly in the sky and breaking the darkness briefly with a few flashes of light. None of the seven birds daren't let go of the others for they would be blown away into the wilderness, separate from the rest. In their terror, the six macaws and cockatoo had no idea where they were, where the others were or how far they had been blown by the wind. The group was completely engulfed by extreme fear and terror, both outside and in. It was the worst nightmare they had ever faced; worse than the deranged Nigel, worse than the fire, worse than the poachers. In Virgil, Chlorophyll, Zebedee and Trixie's minds, memories of the fire all those years ago flashed, especially when the stargazing group had been caught in it, and Alessandro's mind also flared with the fire for he had only been a chick under flight age when the fire ripped through the forest. His parents had carried him to safety with the other chestnut-fronted macaw group members when it happened. Also, thoughts about the others, their parents and their siblings and friends back home flashed through their minds. Virgil thought about Aurora, Zephyr and Charlotte and Zebedee thought about Indigo, Phoebe and Cobalto; Chlorophyll thought about Aramis, Esmeralda and Petunia, Trixie thought about Larimar, Quincy, Levi and Lapis Lazuli and Milo thought of Travis, Sunset, Eustace, Rosa, Clemont and Serena, and all seven thought about the rest of their families and friends. They wouldn't want them to face something like this, but who cares? The seven continued huddling each other, hoping that the wild ride would soon end. They also hoped that they would never ever face such a ride or anarchic nightmare like this again.
The seven birds continued to fly wildly and uncontrollably through the stormy air when suddenly, the wind dropped in speed. Then the next thing Virgil's group knew was they were falling down towards earth. However, they still remained tightly hugged together, too frightened to let go and fly. Their feathers were sodden wet and they were exhausted from all that had happened in the past few hours. From meeting a group of gangster birds, narrowly escaping them and a pair of harpy eagles and having to face this storm. It was just too much for Virgil and his subgroup and the overload of terror and adrenaline had taken its toll on them. The view of the earth below was obscured, smothered by blackness. Down the seven frightened birds went, hurtling through the rainy air and reduced wind speed. Down… down… down… until finally, something slowed their fall, but it was not a soft landing. Instead, the landing was rough and branchy. As Virgil, Estelle, Chlorophyll, Zebedee, Trixie, Alessandro and Milo fell through a stack of branches and leaves, the arms and claws of wood slashing mercilessly at their bodies, Zebedee accidentally let go from the shock and was torn from the others. He tumbled via a different path from the others through the branches and leaves, which were a canopy of a jungle. Zebedee cried in terror, his wings over his face, protecting it from the brown claws and leaves as they slashed over his body and face.
Virgil, Estelle, Chlorophyll, Trixie, Alessandro and Milo, meanwhile, continued hugging each other tightly as they fell through the canopy. The violent tumbling seemed like forever but then unexpectedly, Virgil and the other five with him were stopped in mid-air. Slowly, the six opened their eyes and examined their surroundings and realised they were in a net of vines. However, they were too exhausted to even care. Zebedee who was not too far away, however, had a more dramatic crash. He tumbled out of the canopy and crash-landed into a patch of ferns, nothing in his path to break his fall. Zebedee lay there on his front in the ferns for a few moments, his lush blue feathers absolutely waterlogged from rainwater and he was soaked to the skin, trembling from the cold. Then he moved his head moved slightly. Zebedee then tiredly opened his eyes and lifted his head to look around. The rain was less in this area, but it was due to the canopy diluting the concentration of deluge from above. But then Zebedee felt exhaustion come over him and he passed out, his head collapsing onto the floor. In the tangle of vines, Virgil and the other five also began to pass out from exhaustion, but Virgil had enough strength left to cut through the vine web with his beak and when he had finished this, he and the other five dropped onto the forest floor around a metre from Zebedee. The group of Spix, great green, scarlet, glaucous and chestnut-fronted macaws and half sulfur-crested, half Major Mitchell's hybrid cockatoo were too tired to react from the thump from the impact. Virgil then scanned the surroundings before he, too, entered the world of blackness as he passed out.
The seven sodden creatures then lay there, limp, with their only movement being their chests moving up and down as they breathed. Their feathers were absolutely waterlogged, the flight feathers on their wings and tails' structures collapsed to nothing more than strips from the water, like bristles of a paintbrush stuck together when it was dipped into a cup of it. The rain pattered gently on their bodies while it continued pouring overhead. The winds continued to howl and the trees wavered in the wind. Lightning flashed in the sky in a crack, the bolts of electricity tearing up the sky like fissures of light. The dark surroundings around Virgil and his group was still, quiet and calmer than the stormy air above the treetops until something moved. A light appeared and broke through the darkness while a cluster of bushes rustled. Then several shadowy, cloaked figures, three of them in fact, emerged. The glow of light shone all around them, pushing away the darkness. Each of the three shadowy figures had a stick and on the end of each stick was a flame, like a torch, which was the source of the light. The three creatures were cloaked, their cloaks made from interwoven leaves and vines. The cloaks had a hood and a back piece which hung over the backs of the creatures, similar to how coats covered the backs of humans. The three creatures had feathers like the macaws and Milo. However, there was something odd about these feathered creatures, something different. Their wings had claws and it was these claws the creatures used to hold the torches, and their legs were not like the legs of Virgil's group. They resembled another pair of wings, feathered, complete with flight feathers, just like their fore-wings. The creatures had clawed feet but they were not like the talons of any bird species known. Three clawed toes extended from the foot of each 'hind-wing'. One curved upward like the talon of an eagle while the other two ran forward alongside the sickle, flat on the floor.
The feathered creatures had tails, but they were not like the long, flowing tail feathers like in macaws but solid tails, like a lizard's but covered with feathers. The tails, however, did end with a fan of tail feathers at the tip. The solid tails extended out from under the trailing part of the leafy cloaks and gently wavered in the air, the feathers on them also wavering with the movement of the solid part. From the hoods, gleaming eyes glowed and beneath the eyes, strange beaks extended. These beaks had a row of sharp teeth. These creatures truly were strange. When the three creatures saw the limp bodies of eight colourful winged creatures with brown things around their waists sprawled out on the floor, they looked at each other in wonder, before one of them, the largest of the three and a male, walked forward and crouched besides Virgil, moving his torch closer to his face to examine his condition. When the feathered creature saw that Virgil was breathing but unconscious, he reacted in alarm with his eyes bulging and strange beak open. He then told the two smaller creatures, which were a male and a female, to check the other seven birds. The two smaller creatures did so and saw that the other seven were breathing but unconscious as well. The female then shot the larger male with a look and gave a confirmatory nod. She said something and the big male nodded. Then the three creatures set to collecting the limp bodies of Virgil, Estelle, Chlorophyll, Zebedee, Trixie, Alessandro and Milo and once they had gathered all seven birds, the three creatures, two of which had dumped their torches by plunging them into a nearby puddle to put them out so that the big male's torch was left, then began to half-drag, half-carry the macaws and cockatoo away into the dark jungle.
The Sanctuary de Amazon in Brazil, the Spix macaws' ravine
Charlotte sat in her room of her family's hollow, staring despondently into the darkness of the night air hanging over the ravine, lit by the silvery shafts of moonlight. Unlike in Guyana, the weather was calm though the night sky was patchily cloudy. It had been well over three days since Carla's group had left, and those that had chosen to remain behind had been struggling with the burden of sadness, worry and concern, and another thing. Charlotte deeply missed her two brothers and sister, two cousins and Carla, Bia and Tiago, and the others with them, and the decision to remain behind was proving a very difficult path to take. Charlotte sometimes wished she would have gone with the others but she knew that Zephyr and Aurora, her parents, would become very worried. Someone, after all, had to stay back and keep watch while Carla's group was in Guyana, searching for the legendary habitat of the bizarre birds and the treasure deposit, which Zephyr, Aurora and the rest of the group's parents and elders had dismissed as merely a fabricated story. Charlotte's mind was flooded with all kinds of things Carla and her group could be facing right now. What if they had run into a group of poachers, or caught by a predator? Charlotte daren't imagine these scenarios. She just hoped that Carla's group would come back in one piece, with some of the treasure, from their quest.
As Charlotte thought about these things, her cerulean feathers shining in the moonlight, two figures suddenly appeared, blocking off the stream of moonlight. Charlotte, startled somewhat by the break in the light, miserably looked up at the figures, which were Felix andMúsculo to her relief. The two male macaws had sneaked out their parents' hollows (Brisa and Roberto's for Felix) to visit Charlotte to check on her.
"Are you alright, Charlotte?" asked Felix. Charlotte gazed at her remaining cousin.
"Missing my three siblings and the others," she replied sadly. Felix breathed a sigh and brushed his multi-layered Roberto-like crest while Músculo just bowed his head.
"You're not alone," said Felix, "I miss my brother and sister and the others too."
"Same here," said Músculo, "Tyler and Ricardo had been talking about how worried they are for Carla's group, especially their second cousins."
Then Felix noticed something else tinting Charlotte's sad look but then Charlotte decided to let loose the other something that was bubbling inside her.
"You know something, you two?" she said, "We have never lied to our parents before."
Felix and Músculo gave her a look. However, they agreed with her completely.
"You're right," said Músculo, "And without a doubt, we will be in even deeper trouble than we are currently in already."
"And I hate to see the reactions of Mom, Dad, Aunt Jewel and Uncle Blu and our close family friends," said Charlotte, "If Uncle D'Artagnan and Aunt Sapphire find that their oldest daughter, and Aunt Ruby and Uncle Athos find that half of their brood, and so on, have gone to Guyana instead of Rio," Charlotte paused as dread came over her, "They are not going to like it, I can tell you."
"Uncle Blu and Aunt Ju-Ju," said Felix (because Roberto was Jewel's close childhood friend and thus treated like family, Felix, along with Finnick and Lavender, referred to Blu and Jewel as 'aunt and uncle', with Jewel's nickname being used like how Carla, Bia and Tiago referred to Roberto as 'Uncle Beto', though Felix and his brother and sister were not biologically related to Blu and his family), "are especially gonna go berserk when they hear that all three of their first-brood offspring had gone to Guyana as well."
Charlotte nodded in agreement. Then another sigh escaped Músculo's beak.
"Boy, are we in even more serious trouble," whispered the burly young male Spix macaw, knowing full well what the result was going to be when the truth finally came out, and it eventually will have to come out into the light at some point. He then glanced into the moonlit ravine and jungle, "And I sure worry for Mr Phoebe, Mrs Cobalto and Indigo as well, since the Bizarre Bird and Treasure myth is one of their clan's stories. Mom and Dad never allowed me to listen to those stories of theirs."
Charlotte sighed.
"Well, you'd better get back to bed," she said, "I'll perhaps see you in the morning when I get the chance."
Felix and Músculo nodded and prepared to return to their respective families' hollows.
"I'm sure Carla and company will make it back soon," said Músculo before he took off after Felix, "Just try not to worry about it too much. Easier said than done, I know."
Charlotte managed a small smile and whispered goodnight to him and Felix. Then within seconds, the two macaws were out of sight and Charlotte retreated to her bed-nest to try and get some sleep.
Several hours later back in Guyana
The storm in Carla and company's location had been strongly windy and rainy for quite some time. Now, however, the winds' rage had subsided and the rain was not as heavy or torrential as it had been earlier. However, the skies were still black with thick cloud and thunder still rumbled like a hungry stomach of a beast. It was now the early hours of the morning but the sun was still under the eastern horizon. Carla's group had been split into at least three groups because of the storm. One group; Carla, Bia and Tiago, together with Finnick, Lavender, Justin and Azul who had Kira and Aiden with them, were asleep in the cave they had taken refuge out of the storm. The nine were fast asleep, and they, apart from Kira and Aiden, still had their fanny packs on them, as well as one of the bags, the one containing Bia's precious drawing book and pencil set. The bag was used as a soft pillow by some of the birds and they were asleep. Carla, Bia and Tiago were on top of the bag while the others slept around it, their heads resting against the object. Aiden and Kira, however, were resting on some soft moss that grew in the cave, also exhausted mostly from the chase by the pair of harpy eagles. The scratches on Aiden's wing and Kira's back had stopped bleeding and had just begun the process of healing, but they were still red raw and angry and it was a wonder they didn't get infected for the claws of harpy eagles were not at all hygienic. The torrential rains must have washed the two macaws' wounds. Despite the pain crying from the scratches, Aiden and Kira were sound asleep. All nine birds' plumages, which had been soaking wet with rainwater from the raging rains, seemed to have dried overnight, but they were still damp.
Azul lay in between Finnick and Alexandre on his back, his head resting against the bottom of the bag. He stirred as he was dreaming. Small moans and murmurs emitted from his beak. His murmurs and movements became more and more frequent and rigorous until finally, the young blue-and-gold macaw's upper body shot bolt upright as though a thorn had suddenly sprouted under his head, a gasp drawn in through his beak and his brown eyes wide with fright. Azul then began to examine the surroundings and the sleeping forms of the other birds to register where he was until he calmed down and breathed a sigh of relief. However, as he lifted his wings, he felt painful stiffness shoot from them. Azul gasped and grasped his wing muscles. They had eased up, likely from all the mad flapping he and the others had to do to escape Ilosovic and his gang, the two harpy eagles and then fly through the storm. The other birds were likely to have this stiffness in their wings as well when they wake up. Sighing and gazing at the other ten as they slept and not wanting to wake them, Azul shakily stood up and began to unsteadily walk towards the entrance to the cave. At least his legs were still working, if also stiff from having to help carry the bag. Azul crept towards the entrance of the cave and looked out. To his joy, the storm had subsided, though it was still raining. But he was glad that it wasn't raining super-heavily like hours earlier. Azul then brushed his face with his wings and sat down. He then gazed at the other eight and sighed.
"We're gonna have to get some breakfast soon when dawn arrives," said he. The blue-and-gold macaw then gazed into the trees. "I hope there are some fruit nearby."
Then thoughts about the other group members came into his head, especially for Brooke, and Azul had hoped that they were alright too.
Somewhere else in the dark jungle, a form moved through the undergrowth on the forest floor. Velocity, who had been torn from the others during the storm, was struggling by herself through the darkness of the jungle. She was in pain, her immature peregrine falcon plumage dotted with small scratches and her right talon marked with a large scratch which oozed a bit of blood. The injury was so painful that it rendered walking normally too painful for Velocity. So she walked in a limp. Furthermore, her wing muscles were shrieking from painful stiffness, again from the mad flapping to escape Ilosovic and his gang and the two harpy eagles. Velocity had been carried by the powerful winds over a distance she couldn't estimate. However, she had managed to dive out of the powerful air currents. Her mother Cometa and father Lightning had taught her and Orion how to perform an attack dive during a hunting lesson, and how folding their wings by their sides made them streamlined enough to plough through the air at extreme speeds. Velocity had taken advantage of the shape made of her body by doing this and had ploughed through the streaming winds. However, due to the charcoal-blackness obscuring the earth, Velocity had not seen the approach of trees of a forest below and had gone through a dreadful tumbling through the canopy and landed into a bush, injuring her right foot in the process. It was wonder she did not break a wing or the fanny pack, which she still had around her waist, hadn't been shredded by the cruel and unforgiving claws of the branches. If that happened, the results would have been disastrous. Then after Velocity had landed in the bush, exhaustion finally overshadowed her and she drifted off into a sleep, her feathers sodden from the rain. The small cuts and bruises marking Velocity's body were evidence from that ordeal. Now Velocity was hobbling like an injured capybara through the dark forest floor, her large eyes flooded with fear and dread. None of the other members if Carla's group was in sight and Velocity felt lost and all alone, too stiff to fly though her feathers were dryer now. Velocity had no idea how long time had gone by since her crash until she woke up, but it must have been several hours. However, she did not care about that. Her top priority was finding the others, but how could she do this in an infinite maze of vegetation where all kinds of unknown creatures lurked, especially if she were too stiff to fly?
As this realisation dawned upon the lonely and frightened young peregrine falcon, Velocity slumped against a tree trunk and huddled her talons to her body, wrapping her stiffened wings around herself. Great tears welled in her eyes and began to spill down her cheeks as she gazed into the dark maze of the unfamiliar Guyanese jungle before sobs escaped her throat. As Velocity began to sob her heart out, thoughts about her mother Cometa, father Lightning and brother Orion came into her head, as well as thoughts about her friends including Bia, Carla and Tiago and their parents Blu and Jewel whom she met for the first time as a fluffy white chick alongside Orion, when Blu and his family had visited Rio last year, but that only fed fuel to the fire of the lost, alone and despairing feelings burning inside her. Overcome with despair, confusion and fear, Velocity broke down, sobbing loudly. However, Velocity was so consumed by despair that she failed to notice movements flashing around her in the darkness, carrying something that glowed. A shadowy figure darted by, a flame on a stick streaming in its wake like a small fiery comet. Velocity continued sobbing loudly, her face buried in her wings when another figure whizzed by, a fiery comet moving with it. Then seconds later, Velocity was surrounded by a number of cloaked figures.
All the figures wore leafy cloaks covering their faces and bodies like hoods but emerging from the bottom were feathered legs each ending in three claws, one of which curled upward like an eagle's claw. A long, solid tail ending in a fan of tail feathers extended from behind the figures. Some held sticks with a flame each on the ends but all of them wore masks made from large leaves and fruit shells. Because of this, the creatures' faces were concealed. As the group of strange cloaked creatures surrounded Velocity, uttering inaudible whispers amongst themselves in curiosity of the falcon, Velocity slowly lifted her head, her eyes glistening with tears. When her eyes landed on the cloaked figures wearing masks standing before her, Velocity's distress immediately flared into alarm and she stiffened. However, she winced from her painfully stiff wings and injured right leg. The falcon grasped her leg and twisted her face in pain. Then one of the creatures whose face was concealed by a mask made from leaves, showing only its eyes, came closer to the falcon, the torch in its wing claws lighting its face. It examined Velocity as she continued grasping her injured talon before raising a clawed wing to its mask and lifting it off its face. The mask revealed a pair of bright blue eyes, a row of eye-lashes radiating above each of them and a strange looking beak was revealed. However, the beak looked somewhat more like a reptilian snout and because of the eyelashes; the creature appeared to be a female. Velocity then opened her tight-shut eyes and when she saw the face of the creature, she raised her head in utter awe and wonder. She then thought she saw something wave behind the creature. However, it was too dark for Velocity to make out what it was but when her eyes travelled down to the creature's feathered legs, and the legs of the other creatures, they widened in utter surprise. No bird Velocity had seen or heard of had legs resembling wings. She had heard of some bird species having feathered legs but not flight feathers. Velocity then shook her head, thinking she was dreaming. However, the pain in her injured talon tore through the surprise and she clenched her beak and screwed her eyes shut as she clasped her talon again, a small, red spot forming on her brown flight feathers. The blue-eyed creature then leaned forward and moved the torch carefully towards Velocity's foot. Velocity, unaware that the creature was looking at her foot, slowly removed her wings to expose the scratch on her talon to examine how bad it was. A red gash was visible on her ankle and it was weeping a bit of blood. Though it was dry, Velocity's trek from her crash site must have come into contact with a stone or something and reopened the wound.
Suddenly, Velocity flinched as one of the other strange feathered creatures came forward, a large leaf in its wing-claws. The wings of the creatures had fingers on them, which was even stranger though Velocity remembered that hoatzin chicks bore claws on their wings to help with climbing and even swimming. The second creature then handed the blue-eyed female creature the leaf and some damp moss and she took them from it. Velocity then caught sighted something that was wavering behind the creatures. It was a solid tail ending in a fan of tail feathers, much to Velocity's greater surprise. Absolutely no bird she had seen or heard of had a tail like that. But then she became alarmed again as the female blue-eyed creature proceeded to dab her injured foot with the moss and then wrap it in a leaf. This done, the blue-eyed creature stood back and smiled. Velocity gazed at her foot which was now bandaged in the large leaf. Surprised again, she gazed at the blue-eyed creature who smiled and pulled the leafy mask in front of her face again, concealing it once again. Velocity smiled at the kindness of the creatures but then something sounded in the jungle air, a screech. Velocity flinched in fright, but the feathered creatures before her also jolted. Their heads then gazed skyward into the above canopy of branches, eyes wide with alarm. The screech sounded again, louder this time, but it wasn't an eagle or falcon screech. This screech sounded different, more piercing than a macaw squawk. Then suddenly, the cloaked creatures sprang into action and ran about, uttering a cacophony of chatters that Velocity was too confused to decipher words from.
Velocity's gaze darted this way and that as the creatures began to dart off into the bushes, the flames of their torches resembling comets. Then it dawned upon Velocity. It was typical prey escape behaviour, similar to that of deer or gazelles when they sensed a predator nearby. And it seemed that these creatures had sensed that a predator was approaching. As another screech pierced the air again, Velocity was suddenly seized by three pairs of wing claws, much to her fright. Then the next thing she knew, she was hauled away into the bush by three of the strange cloaked creatures. Velocity was so alarmed that she began to speak for the first time in hours.
"Hey, what are you doing!?" she cried, "STOP!"
The creatures, however, ignored her pleas and rushed on, jumping over stones and roots on the go. Velocity watched the wood flow by when another screech of some incoming predator pulled her attention to the above canopy. Then Velocity saw it. It was a flying creature, its silhouette just visible against the dark canopy canvas. Velocity then squinted at it and managed to trace its outline with her extraordinary eyesight. She managed to make out an arrowhead attached to a rounded thing which was in turn attached to a long, thin branch. It was like a swan but with a large triangular beak at the front. Velocity then saw the body of the creature and out to the sides, emerged large, curve-pointed structures shaped similar to Velocity's wings. These must be the wings of the creature. Behind the creature's body were clawed feet, but they weren't talons as Velocity had thought. At first Velocity, as she examined the entire shape of the creature, thought it was some sort of predatory bird but then she noticed something strange about the wings. On the leading edge of the wings were three stubs and the wings themselves had a smooth trailing edge, shown as the creature flapped its wings, and it was clearly not a giant seabird for they did not live this far into the jungle. Velocity shook her head, thunderstruck by the creature. Absolutely no creature she had seen, anywhere, looked like this thing at all, but Velocity knew that it was terrifying. But then Zebedee's explanation of the story of the Bizarre Birds and Treasure came into her mind.
The long bony tails ending in tail feathers, the feathered wing-like legs. These were traits no known living bird had. Then there was the concept of 'bat-birds', flying creatures that looked like birds, had beaks like birds and could fly like birds but had wings of skin like a bat. Velocity then became overcome with extreme disbelief. Was she in the legendary place as depicted in the Navyfeather hyacinth Clan's story? However, Velocity soon felt the shock of seeing these bizarre creatures reach boiling point and at that point, and she passed out, her brain overloaded with what it was picking up. The three strange creatures continued to carry her, now limp, further into the strange jungle as they continued running away from the strange flying creature which emitted piercing screeches after them.