Chapter 38- catching the toucan 'clan' at Pedra de Gavea part 2
While Andromeda and Augustus were tasked in looking after the other orange bats in the cave, the bats that had taken to the air were under serious peril. Terror and frustration flooded their orange to yellow eyes and they were frantically trying to flee the chasers, which were indeed some of the toucan chicks, the offspring of the three couples of adult toucans who were three of Rafael and Eva's grown-up offspring and their mates who had moved to this part of the sanctuary, continued to try and tackle them or pelt them with seeds fired from hollow sticks, mischievous glares lacing their faces and their large beaks emitting naughty laughter.
"This is NUTS!" shouted one of the orange bats, a female, as she dodged a toucan missile, "We can't go on living with these PESKY FEATHERED HOODLUMS."
Another bat nearby nodded another toucan missile while two more covered their faces with their feet protectively as seed bullets flew from two more toucans armed with the peashooter-like twigs, the seeds bouncing off the two bats' faces as they struck their targets. Another bat nearby, with prey in its legs and feet for it had managed to successfully pluck a moth out of the air using high pitched sounds that rebounded from its target back to its ears (called 'echolocation' by humans and also the birds who were ecology experts, such as Blu, Bia and Poinsettia), was flying like mad to escape another toucan kid who chased it, giggling immaturely when suddenly… BAM! One of the feathered comets zoomed in and purposely rammed into the bat's side, making it drop its prey. The bat, despite being stunned, stole glances this way and that until its eyes landed on the falling moth. Alarmed, the bat swooped down to retrieve its precious prey but another toucan comet flew in and snatched it up in its beak, much to the bat's outrage.
"Hey, that's MY prey, THIEF!" bellowed the bat but the toucan chick that had eaten the moth only flashed the bat a mischievous look before flying away, much to the bat's fury.
While all this was going on, some more feathered forms had entered the chaos, but they were larger and had smaller, curved beaks, typical of parrots. Levi, together with D'Artagnan, Sapphire, Lapis Lazuli, Brisa, Roberto and Blu all flew in, horrified at the chaos.
"Vincent, Eragon and Luna weren't kidding about this," whispered Blu in utter disbelief.
"Look how much trouble those toucan chicks are causing the little bats," said D'Artagnan. Roberto and Brisa were forced to dodge a bat as it zoomed past with a cackling toucan chick in hot pursuit.
"Those chicks are honestly like those poachers' crows," snarled Brisa disgustedly, making Roberto shoot her a terrified look. He hated the mentioning of poachers. Brisa shot Roberto an apologetic look at the unintentional insensitive mentioning of his most hated subject. Then Blu threw on a determined face, clearly wanting to help these poor bats deal with this problem.
"Never mind about how naughty the toucan chicks are," hissed the brown-eyed Spix macaw, "We've got work to do. Are you all ready for this?"
"Yes!" said all the other six macaws in unison.
"Then let's fly and herd those toucan kids to our human friends down there!" shouted Blu and with that, the seven macaws all scattered and threw themselves into the inferno.
D'Artagnan glared at a small group of five toucan chicks as they harassed several bats, two of them being mothers with pups clasped to their breasts and charged in at them, an enraged screech exploding from his beak. The Lear's macaw's squawk alerted the toucan chicks and their victims and when they saw a navy blue and teal comet rocket towards them, the bats darted away but the toucan chicks were transfixed with utter shock until finally, the urge to flee took hold.
"SCATTER!" shouted one of them and with that, the flock dispersed, much to D'Artagnan's surprise. This was not what he had in mind. However, with an outraged glare on his face, he aimed that glare at the toucan chicks as they swerved round and rocketed towards him.
"You're NOT gonna get away with this, you troublemakers!" shouted the Lear's macaw but no sooner than the word 'troublemakers' had left his beak when suddenly, he felt small, hard bullets bounce off his face and body. Two of the toucan chicks, both armed with peashooter sticks, were firing seeds at the Lear's macaw, their comrades laughing.
"Take THIS you MONSTER!" cackled one of them and with that, she accelerated towards D'Artagnan and charged into the Lear's macaw's side, momentarily stunning him and sending him into a clumsy flutter. As he regained control of his flight, Brisa flew in.
"You alright, D'Artagnan?" asked she. D'Artagnan grasped the side where he had been hit with a talon but he was willing to go on.
"I'm fine," he said, "Help me herd those chicks to the humans please."
Brisa was about to reply when suddenly, she saw a small group of big orange and black beaked rockets dive down on them from above, the word, "DIVE-BOOOOOMB!" exploding from their beaks. Immediately the Spix macaw tackled into D'Artagnan and knocked him away moments before the toucan chicks plummeted past, narrowly missing Brisa. Brisa shot the toucan chicks an enraged glare.
"We should have had Andromeda help us out with her yoyo thingy, I think," she muttered.
"Yeah, it was an excellent ide… look OUT!" shouted D'Artagnan as his horrified eyes saw the feathered, orange and black beaked comets swerve upward and charge towards them again. The Spix and Lear's macaws, seeing no choice, accelerated from a hover to a charge in a fraction of a second as the comets flew towards them, the intent on pouncing onto the two and harassing them clearly fuelling the toucan chicks. Unintentionally, D'Artagnan and Brisa rocketed in the direction of Fernando and company waiting on the ground, the toucan chicks in hot pursuit. Around them, Roberto, Blu, Sapphire, Lapis Lazuli and Levi were struggling to lure the other toucan chicks away from the little bats.
"Just HOW MANY are THERE!?" shouted Levi as he tried shaking a toucan chick that had grabbed onto his wing feathers off his wing.
"I don't know but their parents sure have been breeding like rabbits… OOOOW!" shouted Blu as some feathers were torn from his tail. Pained, the blue macaw flashed a glare at the toucan chick as it rocketed away with a beak-ful of blue feathers, giggles escaping its beak. Blu felt hot rage burn through him.
"Some of those chicks are honestly no DIFFERENT from some of their parents!" he muttered. Roberto screeched as one of the toucan chicks pulled on his head feathers while two other toucan chicks rode Sapphire and Levi like horses or rodeo bulls, the little bats looking on in utter horror and confusion. Some more toucan chicks were rapidly circling Lapis Lazuli so fast that she eventually became dizzy and began to fly unevenly. The female glaucous macaw was then struck hard in the stomach by one of the toucan kids, mischief lacing its face.
"Lapis Lazuli!" shouted Blu when he saw this. Lapis Lazuli then fluttered clumsily onto a branch and grasped her stomach, the toucan chicks laughing at her from the air. Blu came in and landed beside her. Lapis Lazuli's face was twisted into a pained look and her wing was clasped onto her stomach.
"You might want a rest," said Blu but Lapis Lazuli was determined to continue.
"I'm fine, just a little hurt," said she but Blu was unconvinced and began to convince her to rest.
While the chaos continued in the air, D'Artagnan and Brisa continued diving towards the humans with their toucan chick pursuers in hot pursuit. One of the chicks fired more seeds at the two, forcing them to screw their eyes shut. However, the two macaws heard one of the humans speak.
"Here they come, team, aim your net guns," said a man. Hearing this, D'Artagnan opened one eye and saw Fernando and the other humans with him as they lifted some barrel-like tubes in the artificial light such that their mouths were pointing directly at the macaws. D'Artagnan saw what the humans were going to do, especially as bangs were heard and spiderweb-like things were thrown out of the mouths.
"Look OUT!" he shouted and with that, he charged into Brisa to knock her away. The toucan chicks flashed a confused glance at the two macaws but before they knew it, they were entangled by meshes of thread of manmade origin and wrapped into a tight ball. The toucan chicks, taken by surprise and extreme fright by this, screamed in utter horror as they then found themselves plummeting towards earth but then they felt something catch them. It was a pair of human hands.
"Got SOME!" shouted the catcher, which was Fernando and the toucan chicks, horror gripping them, looked through the threading and saw the triumphant look on the young man's face. Then the next thing these little troublemakers knew, they were placed into a box made of silvery bars and slabs. The toucan chicks screeched and squawked as their cage was padlocked shut by one of the handlers. From the air, D'Artagnan and Sapphire saw this, and that was then an idea took hold of D'Artagnan like a positive grip.
"I've got it," he said and with that, he rocketed back in to the air to tell the other macaws.
"Got what?" asked Brisa as she followed. As soon as the two were in the air, D'Artagnan called the attention of Roberto, Blu, Levi and Sapphire as they continued struggling with the toucan kids, the little bats continuously watching on.
"I've got an idea!" he shouted and with that, he began to demonstrate to the group by flying towards a group of toucan chicks harassing three of the bats and began to provoke the chicks into following him. Blu looked on as D'Artagnan then called to the bats to follow him and together, the Lear's macaw and the three orange bats dived towards the humans with the toucan kids in hot pursuit. Blu felt understanding wash over him, especially as the mischievous toucan chicks began to overcome the struggles of their targets.
"Follow D'Artagnan!" he called to Roberto, Sapphire and Levi. The trio gazed at each other confused but as the toucan chicks became more reckless, especially as one managed to rip out one of Roberto's leaf-like head feathers, causing him pain, they did as Blu said. Brisa also passed on the idea to the orange bats and told them to fly down towards the humans, which they did.
Soon, the macaws and orange bats were diving down towards the humans, a large flock of toucan chicks in hot pursuit. Some of the chased covered their heads with their feet as seeds flew from some of the chicks armed with hollow sticks. Then as soon as the group neared the humans, their net guns ready and aiming at their targets behind them, D'Artagnan shouted, "NOOOW!" and with that, the macaws and the bats all swerved away, leaving the toucan chicks exposed to the net guns. Several bangs were heard and before the toucan chicks could react, they were ensnared by the netting as well and were knocked out of the air like a rock. Horrified and frightened screeches escaped their beaks as the toucan chicks were then caught and subsequently loaded into cages by their captors. The seven macaws and the orange bats repeated this trick another two times (with Lapis Lazuli joining in after recovering from the tackle to the stomach) with more toucan chicks and as soon as the third group was captured and caged, Blu, Roberto, Brisa, Sapphire, Levi, Lapis Lazuli, D'Artagnan and the bats all touched down on the ground nearby, watching as Fernando and his group loaded the caged toucan chicks into the truck.
"Good idea, my macaw friends," said one of the bats, "We never thought of luring those troublemakers to the humans."
"Heh, it was D'Artagnan's idea," said Sapphire, a smile at her mate, "He's the one who should be thanked most."
"Absolutely," said Brisa.
"Look how many toucan chicks there are," breathed D'Artagnan in immense shock as he examined the number of the young big nosed birds in the cages, "There must be well over fifty of them at least."
"More like almost a hundred," said another bat, a female, "Those three toucan couples certainly have been breeding like nobody's business."
"Is it any wonder you Linda's orange bats have been having such problems," said Lapis Lazuli. Just then the sounds of flapping membranous wings, larger ones, reached the group's ears. The group looked up and saw Augustus fly towards them through the moonlit jungle.
As the flying fox touched down, Blu asked him. "How are the other bats doing in the cave, Augustus, including the leaders Toby, Velma and their son Basil?"
"They're fine," said Augustus, "But Andromeda has decided to stay with the colony for some time and help them search for areas in the jungle where the bats' prey is abundant as well as protect them from potential crow intrusions."
As he stated this, Andromeda turned up on her bat-bird Rouge, her yoyo-like weapon returned to her from the humans the moment her toucan kid catch had been caged.
"That's absolutely right," said the archaeobird as her mount touched down and she dismounted, "I'm going to help the orange bat colony start anew and make up for what they have lost because of that bunch of toucan kid troublemakers."
"But what if your son Spyro and his mate Marella need you?" asked Levi in protest. Blu stepped in.
"They'll be looked after by the rest of us for the time being," said the Spix macaw, "But we'll keep Andromeda informed on their wellbeing and provide updates of our progress."
"Thank you, it's much appreciated," said Andromeda with a smile. Then one of the orange bats stepped forward. He, along with the other adult bats his species, only reached the height of Andromeda's chest for Andromeda was only the size of a Spix macaw or perhaps slightly taller but shorter than Augustus.
"We're thankful for your help, Mrs Archaeobird," said the bat gratefully, "We could do with a little wing here after all the trouble…"
"Please, call me Andromeda," said Andromeda with a smile. The bat smiled at this as titters rolled through Blu's group but that brief moment of happiness was shattered when the sounds of screeches tore the quiet of the night air apart. The macaws, flying fox, archaeobird and her bat-bird mount, and the smaller bats all stiffened. The group of humans did the same, the sounds of distressed toucan chicks still emanating from the truck trailer.
"What's that?" asked Augustus, his eyes inflated with alarm and his ears pricked. Andromeda, Rouge and the little orange bats also flashed confused glances this way and that, as did Roberto and Brisa. Blu, Levi, Lapis Lazuli, D'Artagnan and Sapphire, however, threw on serious glares, knowing that those squawks were from what they had been dreading during the group's flight to here.
"The enormous problem we talked about while discussing the tasks," said Blu in a low, serious voice, "Do you guys remember what we said about how the parents of the toucan kids are going to react upon seeing their offspring get caught and caged?"
Augustus and Andromeda shot Blu a realisation look while the orange bats looked on confused. Seeing that there was no time to explain why, Blu glared at Andromeda and said, "You'd better get your yoyo weapon and your ingenious combat skills ready, NOW."
Andromeda, without hesitation to ask why, rushed over to Rouge and remounted her. Then with a short, squeaky command, the archaeobird ordered Rouge to take off. D'Artagnan, Sapphire, Lapis Lazuli and Levi followed. Turning to Augustus, Blu said, "You take those bats back to their cave and report to Toby and Velma of the success of our human friends' mission in catching those toucan kids and stay with them until we've dealt with the final problem," Blu snapped his gaze into the night air as he heard several more screeches. It was definitely the screeches of some adult toucans, and they were laced with wrath. Sensing that the adult toucan attack was imminent, Blu jumped straight to the end.
"Take those little bats back to their cave IMMEDIATELY!" he commanded, screeching the final word with urgency and before Augustus could speak; Blu was off, a lush blue blur. After being left with the command, Augustus passed it onto the small bats that had gathered.
"To your cave, NOW!" ordered the flying fox. The orange bats, confused looks on their faces, exchanged glances until they finally went along with the orders. Augustus clambered a nearby rock and dropped into the air after the little bats and hurried for the safety of the cave where the other orange bats including Velma, Toby and Basil were waiting.
Back with Fernando's group, Fernando and company were also alerted by the extremely wrathful screeches and had frozen in alertness as they were packing up and ready to return to Tulio's Aviary, the caged toucan chicks in tow. The humans' heads shot wary glances this way and that as they tried to locate the sources of the screeches. However, those sources were heading straight for them right out of the darkness, the distressed cries of so many toucan chicks having reached their ears. Six larger toucans, three of which had Eva's red tinted cream face masks and bellies and brown eyes like Rafael but were ablaze with fury launched themselves right out of the trees and swooped down upon Fernando's group like hawks. Then before the group of humans knew it, two of them, a man and a woman, felt aerial cat claws slash over their faces as something shot past their faces, screeching loudly. Chaos immediately erupted among Fernando's group as the two struck humans were thrown into a chaotic stumble, their hands covering their slashed faces and screams of pain exploding from their mouths. Fernando flashed the two a horrified glance.
"Claudia, Jose!" he shouted to the pair but before he could rush over to the said man and woman as they covered their scratched faces, something feathery tackled into Fernando's back and knocked him down onto his front, much to his shock. However, that tackle had knocked him clear of more aerial cat-like claws of another furious adult toucan, whose talons slashed the air where Fernando's head and eyes had been moments before. Fernando, confused, scrambled to his feet with the help of some of the other humans and also Lapis Lazuli, the one who had tackled Fernando from behind and knocked him down to save him from receiving a nasty scratch over the face.
As he scrambled back onto his feet, he shouted, "Get the NET GUNS!"
Without hesitation, three of the humans dived into the back of the truck and seized a net gun each but a black comet with an orange and black beak zoomed in and, with its large beak, seized one of them, a lady, by the ponytail and yanked hard, tugging the woman back and away from the truck. The woman screamed and began to wave her hands at the toucan to dislodge the bird but the bird continued its relentless assault on her. Then bangs of net guns exploded into the air as the other two humans who had managed seized a net gun each fired nets at the enraged adult toucans as they zoomed around the humans, the parental instinct to save their many, many offspring held in cages at the back of the truck having taken control. The adult toucans, enraged screeches exploding from their beaks, dodged the flying nets and swooped down on the humans, their barb-like talon claws poised to attack. From the cave's mouth, Augustus, along with Basil, Velma and Toby and some of the other orange bats, watched in utter horror as humans attempted to net the adult toucans. One of the toucans swooped down at another lady named Denise, a lady whom Fernando was dating and had joined the task of catching the toucans plaguing the jungle outside the Pedra de Gavea cave, its claws poised to slash her face. Denise screamed when she saw the incoming toucan and covered her face with her arms but before the toucan could rake its claws over them, a BAM was heard. When Denise did not feel claws scratch her arms, she slowly lowered them and looked up to see that her attacker had been tackled away. The other humans including Fernando also looked up to see the toucan then begin to unleash its fury on its tackler, Brisa as they viciously locked talons and began to savagely struggle and wrestle with each other in the air, enraged screeches exploding from their beaks.
Nearby, another toucan swooped down on another human as he helped the two humans that had been scratched over the faces, Claudia and Jose, into the truck, its talons aiming for his nape, or the back of his neck but before the toucan could inflict an injury on that spot, a pair of discs attached to a string appeared out of nowhere and struck it square in the beak. The toucan, stunned, then entered a wild tailspin as Andromeda appeared on her bat-bird Rouge and withdrew her yoyo weapon. However, Andromeda commanded Rouge to swoop down at the toucan and before the toucan could crash-land in the back of the truck, Rouge seized the toucan's tail and slowed its descent. Moments later, a pair of hands appeared and seized the toucan and before the toucan knew it, it was hastily placed into a cage. Then another adult toucan was placed in a cage with it for Roberto and Blu had helped to catch that one and bring it to the human. Then after a few more minutes of chaos, the other four furious toucans were caught and caged but not before several more injuries were inflicted. Levi had pounced onto another toucan as it tore out Denise's hair and was scratched across the torso before that toucan was seized and caged; Andromeda had accidentally hit another human in the face with her yoyo while trying to take down another toucan and D'Artagnan and Sapphire had received small scratches to the face and side respectively by the other three toucans before they were shot down with nets and caged. Then after the chaos had subsided, relieved sighs could be breathed. The humans all hi-fived each other while Roberto, Brisa, Andromeda, Blu, D'Artagnan, Sapphire, Lapis Lazuli and Levi did the same, congratulating each other on a job well done.
"Good job, team," said Blu as he did a fist bump with Roberto and D'Artagnan who, despite the sharp pain from the scratch to the cheek which wept a bit of blood, was glad that the job was done.
"That was pretty rough," said Sapphire with a relieved gasp. She gazed at the scratch on her left side which also wept a bit of blood and breathed a sigh.
"Okay, Augustus and the orange bats can come out of the cave now," said Blu. Andromeda jumped onto her bat-bird's back and took off in the direction of the cave but Augustus had already emerged from the cave with some other small bats, among them Toby and Velma.
"We saw that you've managed to catch those six adult toucans with your human friends," said Toby the moment the archaeobird and her bat-bird flew up to them.
"Yes," said Andromeda, her gaze on the humans as they prepared for their trip back to Tulio's Aviary, "Anyway, those humans look like they're going back with their catches so if you want to join them Augustus, I suggest you do so now."
Augustus prepared to fly to the truck but not before saying goodbye to Toby, Velma, Basil and the accompanying bats.
"Well, it sure is nice to meet you but I'm afraid it has to be cut short, regrettably," said the flying fox as he shook feet with Toby.
"It's okay, but thanks for your help in dealing with the toucan problem," said Toby as he broke the shake with Augustus, "Hopefully that little toucan clan will be dealt with."
"We hope that they will be sent to other sanctuaries away from here," said Velma firmly.
"Well, that's still pending at the moment," said Andromeda. She then heard the sound of a truck engine starting, sending alert flashing through her. "Oh, Augustus, the humans are about to start their journey back to base. You'd better join them now."
Augustus darted off in the direction of the truck but Andromeda and Rouge stayed put.
"You sure you aren't coming back with us?" called Augustus as Blu met him to take him to the truck.
"I'm sure," said Andromeda, "I'm going to help this colony of bats forage for the food they've missed, anyway."
"We'll see you guys some other time," called Basil.
"It sure is nice to see you lot again after such a long time, and thanks for helping us deal with the toucan problem," said Toby.
"And we hope that the toucan overpopulation in other parts of the sanctuary will be dealt with too," added Velma.
"We'll do our best," called Blu, "We have our human friends by our side anyway. Anyway, we're off and we'll see you again soon. Andromeda there will look after you for some time and protect you from any poachers' crows that may have entered this area as well."
Basil, he, Velma, Toby and the other bats waved to Blu, Roberto, D'Artagnan, Sapphire, Levi and Lapis Lazuli and also Augustus as they and the human group including Fernando prepared to drive back to Tulio's Aviary. However, some of the humans had opted to return to the Pedra de Gavea and set up camp so that they could keep an eye on the orange bats for the coming few days and monitor their recovery from the competition with the toucan clan that had settled here which had now been removed. Then moments later, the truck had disappeared down the road in a cloud of dust, melting away into the dark jungle night lit by the silvery shafts of moonlight. After they had gone, Basil flashed Andromeda a confused look as she, Rouge and the little orange bats returned to the cave.
"Poachers' crows?" said he.
"I'll explain about those troublesome birds when we return to your cave," said Andromeda. Basil tipped his head to one side in curiously and then followed his parents and the other bats back to the cave.