Chapter 59- immense dread following a massive reunion
Meanwhile
Blu, Jewel and the other rescuers with them continued riding the trolley as the woman waited in a small room. This room had a silvery pad on one of its walls, and the pad had a stack of buttons; each labelled with a number, as well as a set of holes and a very dark red square that displayed a pattern of red light patterns. Two more of the room's walls appeared to be silvery blocky slide-doors. These features prompted Blu to tell the others that they had entered an elevator (also called a lift) and that the buttons, the screen and the holes were a control pad for selecting which floor number the elevator's occupants wanted to go. Soon, a 'ding' was heard and one of the silvery blocky slide doors parted to reveal a corridor full of more humans walking up and down. As soon as the silvery doors were opened, the woman dragged the trolley, its contents and its stowaways out of the elevator and began her walk down the corridor. As the woman left the elevator, Poinsettia continued flashing wary glances behind the group, the feeling that the group was being followed still gnawing within her, but she was briefly distracted by the sounds of various bird and other animal calls that darted about in the air. Furthermore, the walls on either side of the group and their vehicle appeared to transform into half-walls with a gap filled with a crisscrossing mesh of silvery wire separating the corridor from something on the other side.
"I think we're here," said Blu. Benjamin tried to climb up one of the larger boxes to peer through the mesh of one of the walls but Athos hooked a wing on his shoulder and pulled him back down.
"Don't climb any higher," said the scarlet macaw firmly, "Those working humans could see you."
Benjamin gazed at Athos and scrapped the idea of trying to peer through the meshes. However, the animal calls and sounds coming through the meshes provided him with enough confirmation that the group was potentially in the right place, for the scarlet mate of Petunia could recognise some of the bird calls as being parrots.
"I believe Blu is right," said he hopefully. As he said this, Poinsettia's eyes happened to pick up another flash of light out of their peripheral vision. Timidly, the middle daughter of Athos and Ruby's first brood shot a glance in the direction of the flash, which was the entrance to the elevator as its silvery doors closed but saw nothing. A small gasp entered her beak and she shuddered slightly, hotness warming up her skin. However, she pushed it aside and resumed her focus on finding Sandalwood and the others.
A few minutes later, the trolley came to a stop. As it did so, Athos turned to the woman as she prepared to undo the lock to a two-door compartment, the entrance to the main animal room on the other side. However, one of the men had come in to talk with the lady, leading to a delay of Blu and company's entrance into the compartment, but from the distraction arose an opportunity for some of the animals to peer through the mesh without being seen. D'Artagnan and Levi did just that and climbed to the top of the tallest box on the highest shelf of the trolley, being careful in staying out of the man's range of view as he continued talking to the lady and showing her some paperwork.
"Careful, you two," said Blu, his wary eyes on the talking two humans and also the passers-by, "You're in a vulnerable position up there."
The others also watched on as the Lear's and glaucous macaw stole a glimpse of the animals through the mesh before finally dropping down from the box and returning to their hiding places. The opportunity only lasted a few seconds and had soon disappeared as the woman began to gesture to the man toward the boxed contents on the trolley and talk about them. As Levi and D'Artagnan breathed sighs of relief, Jewel asked, "Did you manage to see any of the kidnapped kids or Eragon or the others?"
"No, but we did see a variety of animals in an artificial jungle through there," replied Levi, "Some of them appear to be birds, many of species that we have never seen before."
"Among them one or two flightless birds which I believe were emus or rheas," put in D'Artagnan. As he mentioned this, Carla, Bia, Tiago and Kira and the others exchanged glances but Blu put on a firm, unsurprised face.
"Well, unsurprisingly this is an animal collector's place, so you shouldn't be surprised that there are a variety of different animals, many of them rare and endangered, from around the world, you two," he said. Levi and D'Artagnan just shrugged. Then Aurora began to examine the two talking humans as they continued to chat, Victor and Indigo trying to translate their words as they also listened in.
"Well, I hope this is the right place," said Aramis with hope, "We did see the trees in the pictures of that magazine Broccoli and the others found for us back in Rio."
As he said this, the group was unaware of a floating object behind a protrusion in the half-wall below the mesh. A pair of malicious eyes glared bitterly at the macaws, but most especially Blu, Jewel, Carla, Bia, Tiago, Aurora, D'Artagnan and Levi as they continued chatting, a fierce hiss of pure hatred and rancour emanating from beneath them. But when Poinsettia's gaze turned in their direction, the eyes and dome twitched behind the protrusion, making Poinsettia's gaze narrowly miss the flash of metallic brown above the eyes. However, as the scarlet macaw looked away to talk to Aramis and Spinel near her, the dome and eyes moved back out slightly. The eyes then turned to fix on Carla, Bia, Tiago, Blu and Jewel and began to formulate a plan…
Aurora continued glaring at the woman as she continued chatting to the man.
"Come on, lady," she hissed impatiently, "What's taking you so long?"
"Chatterboxes, I think these humans must be," said Kira with an equally impatient frown. As she said this, Carla's ears thought she picked up some squeaky chirping noises. The chubby Spix macaw and Bia and Tiago's older sister snapped her gaze to the source of the sound. When Bia and Tiago came in, Carla's talon shot up in a 'Shh!' gesture.
"Do you two hear that?" asked Carla quietly. Bia and Tiago gazed at each other and stopped to listen. Blu and Jewel and some of the others were still talking, their focus directed away from the trio. More squeaky chirps, like those of a macaw chick, continued to emanate from somewhere.
"Sounds like a chick," said Bia.
"Could it be…?" began Tiago, hope welling within him. As the Spix macaw began to get his hopes up, a discarded cloth-bag happened to move itself from a nearby trash can and float towards the hovering dome, while squeaky chirps continued to emanate from beneath the pair of eyes and the dome.
"Shall we go and investigate?" asked Bia, her hopes also welling within her. Carla and Tiago shot their sister a gaze, the latter with an agreeing smile but the former with an uncertain look on her face.
"Um… I don't know, Bia," said Carla warily.
"Oh, come on," said Tiago, "It might be Sirius, Bellatrix, Spica and some of the other macaw chicks."
As he said this, Jasmine, Finn and Aiden came in, the squeaky chirps also having alerted them.
"You think so?" asked Jasmine hopefully. Tiago and Bia nodded.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" said Finn equally hopefully, "Why don't we go and investigate?"
Tiago and Bia nodded but Carla, her gaze on Blu and the others as they continued talking, gazed at the two Lear's macaws with uncertainty. However, she was pulled in by the current of persuasion.
"Okay, but we must not go too far from the trolley," her gaze then examined the corridor and the passing humans who were engrossed in their tasks; "I don't want us getting spotted."
"Okay," said Finn excitedly.
"Then let's go!" put in Bia. Tiago and Aiden nodded in agreement and with that, the trio of Spix macaws, two Lear's macaws and the glaucous macaw dropped from the lowest shelf of the trolley and onto the floor, being careful and wary of the passing humans as they did. However, as the six macaws did that, Stella and Spyro happened to catch them. Immediately, the albino bat and the archaeobird climbed past the boxes and followed the macaws. Meanwhile, Blu and the others continued glaring at the chatting woman and her colleague, impatience boiling within them but the lack of awareness that eight of their members had dropped from the trolley to follow some chick-like squeaks. Then after another minute, the man went on his way and the woman unlocked the first door to the two-door compartment.
"Ah, finally," said Levi with gladness, "I thought that man would never leave."
"Hang on," said Blu to the others as the trolley was pulled into the small compartment by the woman as soon as she had opened the door. As the lady went to close and lock the first door and went to unlock and open the second one, Poinsettia said, "Hey, Uncle Aramis."
"Yes, Poinsettia," said Aramis. Poinsettia had decided to tell him of the unease she had been having since the group boarded the trolley.
"Have you ever felt like someone was stalking you?" asked she nervously. Phoebe came in.
"What makes you say that?" asked she. Poinsettia, however, felt her tongue stuck in her beak, clearly reluctant to tell Aramis and Phoebe of the flashes of movement she thought she kept seeing behind the trolley. As Poinsettia continued to nervously go over the gut-twitching feeling, the woman, having finally opened the second door, turned to the trolley and pulled it through that door and into the main animal compartment, which turned out to be the artificial indoor jungle Blu and company had seen glimpses of in the pics of the magazine brought to them by Broccoli, Collette, Daisy, Ebony and James back in Rio. As soon as recognition took hold within the group, still unaware that eight of them were missing, they prepared to disembark.
As the woman then stopped the trolley and turned to close the door, amongst the activities of the diurnal animals in the artificial jungle, Adenine, Cytosine, Thymine, Guanine the Catalina macaws, together with Sirius and Sandalwood were chatting with Lilo, one of the cockatiels, just at the entrance to the tent of Dundee where all the parrots in the community had been evacuated. A sense of dread and worry hung above them for the search for Dalek was still in progress.
"Have they found that Dalek yet?" asked Thymine.
"I'm afraid they haven't, my macaw poppets," said Lilo sadly, "Dundee's searchers have been looking high and low about the artificial jungle for ages now."
"I heard from Mina the Tasmanian devil mention that she had asked two of the dingoes in the Compartment of the Carnivores at the barrier if they had seen the chameleon but the two Australian dogs said no," said Adenine. Some of the carnivores in the next compartment, but only a handful of them, were actually friendly with Dundee's community members but they were still not allowed in Dundee's land for they were a danger to some of the animals of Dundee's community.
"And that they have denied knowing about the chameleon," said Guanine.
"Dundee has become more and more flustered," said Sirius worriedly, a gaze at the emu as he talked with Olympia the cassowary and Wally the orang-utan, "He's honestly sick with worry."
"I'm not surprised," said Lilo, her gaze on the poor emu, "He's really concerned and worried sick for us parrots and our safety."
"Not to mention the fact that the searchers are getting more and more frustrated," put in Sandalwood as he examined the seriously stressed looks on the cassowary and orang-utan's faces.
As he said this, a yellow and gold coloured hawk-like bird came by with Tristan and Neytiri, two of the adult glaucous macaws kidnapped, the latter who had her wing in a cast. The golden fruithawk bore a scowl on her face as she glared at Adenine, Cytosine, Thymine, Guanine, Sirius and Sandalwood.
"And not to mention the fact that I am getting more and more frustrated at being held captive in this rotten place," said the fruithawk bitterly, making the eight kids and Lilo flinch at her glare.
"So is Aurum, Gylfie, and also Eragon, Marella, Trixie and Luna," said Tristan.
"And us two as well," put in Neytiri with a scowl. The female fruithawk named Gylfie directed her disdainful glare at the glaucous macaw couple.
"Well if you two parrots think you're as disgusted as me being in this miserable place," growled the fruithawk bitterly, "You're wrong. You're not as disgusted as I am, you know."
Tristan and Neytiri's heads shook in annoyance at the remark. This was the umpteenth time they had heard Gylfie say this and secondly, she didn't even mention Aurum, the only other golden fruithawk in existence as well as the only male, and his equal disgust about being here.
"Are you saying that we love this place!?" retorted Neytiri irritably, "No, we're on the same perch as you, Gylfie."
Gylfie's bitter and distain-saturated glare, however, remained on her face and she bluntly turned her face away, raising her beak in the air to rudely and deliberately block out Neytiri's statement. Tristan and Neytiri flashed Sirius and the others, and Lilo, an apologetic look.
"Sorry, folks," said Tristan, "This fruithawk's got a bad temper."
"She's had that attitude since we first met her and Aurum," said Neytiri, her wings on her hips at Gylfie's bratty and rather childish behaviour.
"I can see why," said Lilo flatly as Gylfie kept her beak high in the air, "But the sad fact is there is no way out of this place and secondly, our human carers will not have us trying to escape from here anyway. We're too precious to those humans for them to allow us to escape anyway."
As she said this, Tristan, Neytiri, Adenine, Cytosine, Thymine, Guanine, Sirius and Sandalwood shot the cockatiel a disgusted glare, especially Adenine and Guanine after what they had found in the humans' rooms and what they had heard from the human 'carers' themselves, and those humans weren't really carers at all. Gylfie the fruithawk, however, pretended she hadn't heard and kept her beak high in the air. Then an echidna and a platypus came in.
"You two," said Kiara the echidna when she saw Tristan and Neytiri out of the tent of Dundee, "What are you both doing out here?"
"You're supposed to be with the other parrots in there," said Reepicheep, a webbed foot pointing to the gathering of colourful feathers deep in Dundee's large leaf tent-like construction. Tristan and Neytiri gazed at the two newcomers.
"We're sorry but we got bored and wanted a walk," said Tristan. However, he flinched when the platypus's face morphed into a firm scowl.
"Haven't you been listening to our emu leader's orders?" asked Reepicheep sternly. When Tristan and Neytiri refused to answer, the platypus did it for him. "Dundee said that you parrots are to stay in his tent until that parrot-detesting chameleon is found and caught."
"Dalek has associations with a pack of parrot-eating caracals and servals in the next door's Compartment of Carnivores," put in Kiara equally sternly, "And if he finds you two out of the safety of the tent, that chameleon will not hesitate to capture you and feed you to Carnassial and his gang."
Tristan and Neytiri, however, continued to gaze at the two monotreme mammals silently while Sandalwood and the others with him looked on worriedly. Then Gylfie shot Reepicheep and Kiara an obnoxious gaze.
"Oh, now you're saying that there is a parrot-killing chameleon on the loose somewhere in here?" she wittered immaturely and sarcastically, "How convenient (!)"
"This isn't a joke you know, fruit eating falcon," said Reepicheep irritably at Gylfie's attitude.
"I'm a fruithawk," snapped Gylfie brusquely.
"Whatever you are," said Kiara, also irritated by the fruithawk's attitude, "We have had two separate incidences of two macaw chicks ending up in the paws of those servals and caracals, with the second sadly ending in one of the scarlet macaw chicks facing that demise and we MUST protect the other parrots," when Kiara mentioned Lars, Sandalwood and Sirius flashed a concerned glance at Steven and his family amongst the evacuated parrots in Dundee's tent, the grief over Lars's loss still gripping them hard.
"Betelgeuse and Sylvester were the ones almost eaten," said Adenine. Gylfie, however, maintained her childish attitude and strode away.
"Well, whatever this mumbo-jumbo is about, it's not MY concern," said the fruithawk coolly, "Anyway, if you don't mind, I'm off to snack on some berries."
And with that, the large gold and yellow bird of prey-like creature spread her magnificent golden wings and lofted into flight, leaving Kiara and the others to gaze at her with either stunned or irritated glares on their faces.
"She sure seems to think that this whole fiasco is a mere joke, doesn't she?" said Tristan.
"Aurum has that same attitude," said Neytiri.
"Well, wait until we catch that chameleon and bring him in," said Reepicheep firmly, "then those two golden fruithawks will see for themselves how much of a danger that reptile is to all the parrots."
"Including the flightless kakapos from New Zealand," said Sirius. Adenine, Cytosine, Thymine, Guanine, Lilo and Sandalwood nodded in agreement. Suddenly, shouts erupted from across the artificial jungle clearing, making the group jolt.
"DUNDEE! WE HAVE MORE NEWCOMERS!"
The shout carried all across the vicinity of the caller, prompting the other animals including Wally, Dundee and Olympia to stop their activities and turn their gazes in the caller's direction. The shout also reached the ears of Spica, Bellatrix, Polaris and Achernar the Spix macaws; Betelgeuse, Rigel and Antares the red macaws; Altair and Aldebaran the scarlet/great green hybrid macaw brothers; Sugilite the hyacinth macaw; Vega and Regulus the Lear's macaws; Canopus, Katniss and Arcturus the glaucous macaws; and Sylvester the Cuban red macaw, all who were in Dundee's tent with the other parrots. The ears of Bambi, Gladion, Lillie and Acerola, who were playing with some of the other chicks including Atreyu, picked up the shout, prompting them to abruptly halt their activities as well, and Marella, Eragon and Luna were also alerted to the shout. As soon as the hearers had heard the shout, their gazes turned in the direction of the shouter and, to their immense shock, their eyes picked up a colourful gathering of animals as they emerged from some nearby bushes and into the clearing. This prompted a rush of animals to converge in on the new arrivals as shock and immense surprise drove them to take a closer look at them.
Adenine, Cytosine, Thymine, Guanine, Sirius and Sandalwood, and also Tristan, Trixie, Neytiri and the others who had rushed towards Dundee's tent's entrance, gazed at the gathering of newcomers before the sea of various animals screened them from view. However, they had enough time to have recognition set in but as it did, joy welled within them at high pressure.
"Aren't they…" began Tristan with a wide smile, the first true one he had had in so long since his, Trixie and Neytiri's reunion with Canopus, Katniss, Arcturus and the other kids.
"UNCLE BLU AND SOME OF THE OTHERS!" screeched Arcturus excitedly, completing his biological uncle Tristan's sentence and with that he, together with his two cousins, darted off like a trio of turquoise or blue and grey comets, the others including Sirius, Adenine, Thymine, Guanine and Cytosine following. Tristan and Neytiri flashed each other a hopeful glance and charged off after the rushing chicks (Tristan flying and Neytiri running due to her injured wing in a cast) with Sandalwood, Bambi and Sylvester (the latter two who could not fly due to the former's tattered left wing missing some of its primary flight feathers and the latter missing most of his tail) running after them, Reepicheep, Lilo and Kiara staying behind with surprised and confused looks on their faces. Gladion, Lillie and Acerola, together with Marella, Eragon and Luna also either ran or flew as fast as they could towards the newcomers.
Back with the newcomers, which were indeed Blu and company, were greeted with a massive gathering of strange animals which came upon them so suddenly that some of them freaked out and backed away behind the older adults. Kira hid behind Aurora, Blu and Jewel, alarmed looks on her face as countless animal hands, paws and wings reached out to greet her.
"Good grief," cried she, "We never expected this."
D'Artagnan and Levi and some of the others also flashed astonished glances this way and that. Then a chimpanzee hand appeared and seized Indigo by the wing.
"Hey, hey, hey, HEY!" cried the young female hyacinth macaw as she was yanked from the group and brought before a group of black furred apes.
"Well, welcome to the Paradise Sanctuary," said the chimpanzee that had pulled her, several more chimps flanking him, "I sure hope you'll settle down here comfortably."
Indigo gazed at the group of tailless black and grey-furred primates with stunned eyes. She had never seen chimps in the flesh before for they were not native to Brazil. Then suddenly, some familiar sounds reached the Lear's macaw's ears, bringing her out of her stunned gaze and making her shoot glances this way and that in search of the sound's source amongst the congregation of animals as they continued to excitedly fuss over Blu and company, much to their utter annoyance and fright. As she did, Victor came over.
"Oh, there you are, mau amore," said he, "I thought you were…"
However, Indigo raised a talon to tell her to be quiet.
"Hear that?" asked she. Victor stopped and listened. However, the cacophony of animal cries drowned out the sounds Indigo had heard and the chimps exchanged looks.
"All I hear is this racket of animal screeches," said Victor irritably and with that, his wings went to his ears to block out the ear-assaulting row. However, Indigo managed to push aside the urge to cover her ears to listen to the sounds.
"MOOOM!"
The hyacinth macaw gazed up and saw an incoming form emerge over the sea of unfamiliar animals. This form was purple-tinted navy blue and Indigo thought she saw a hint of dark teal and bright streaks of yellow-orange on the form's face. This form was shooting straight towards her, calling out "MOOOM!"
At first Indigo thought she was hallucinating.
"Sugilite?" she asked. The small form continued melting into recognition and calling to her. Indigo took a few more minutes to take in the information about the form as it neared her. Then soon, the little form came close enough for Indigo to identify its eye colour (violet), as well as the ponytail on the left side of her head. Victor also came in and identified the incoming chick. As the chick came close enough to the couple, Victor felt immense joy tear through him as recognition set in and it was what he said next that made Indigo realise that she wasn't hallucinating.
"It's SUGILITE, OUR DAUGHTER!" cried her mate and with that, he darted off towards the chick which was indeed Sugilite. Indigo followed.
"DADDY!" cried Sugilite as she continued rocketing towards Victor. The three hyacinth macaws closed in until finally, they collided and locked themselves in a massive embrace much to the surprise of the onlooking animals. The chimps came to watch the trio as they broke down in jubilant tears, the one that had grabbed Indigo, the one named Herbert, at the front. Herbert gazed at his comrades with a surprised look on his face.
"Looks like we have more reunions since those seven newcomers came in during the previous introduction," he told the other chimps who nodded. Then Phoebe came in and joined the hug, so glad to see her granddaughter again after so long. Near the hyacinth macaws, the others in Blu's group were also locked in their own embraces.
Blu, Jewel, Aurora and Kira were embracingSirius, Spica, Bellatrix, Achernar and Polaris; Guanine, Thymine, Adenine, Cytosine, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Antares were locked in an embrace with Athos, Poinsettia and Spinel with the latter crying as she hugged her three chicks; Aramis and Benjamin hugged Altair and Aldebaran; Levi was Tristan, Trixie and Neytiri (being careful of the latter's wing) and also Canopus, Katniss and Arcturus; and D'Artagnan hugged Regulus and Denebola. Frodo also hugged Sylvester, Gladion and Lillie and Augustus, Soren, Luna, Sandalwood and Acerola were locked in their own embrace. The group then began to exchange hugs with each other with the other animals looking on. Dundee came in as Kiara flashed the emu a smile.
"Looks like we have a massive reunion, eh, Dundee?" said the echidna cheerfully.
"Absolutely," said Olympia the cassowary. Atreyu who was nearby with the penguins including JD, Tiana and Jacques, also flashed a smile, glad for Sandalwood's group that they had reunited with their families (or most of them).
"Yes," said Dundee in reply to Kiara and Olympia's comment before he turned firm, "Olympia, Kiara, can you lead all the macaws in that group to my tent please?"
As he said this, Frodo, after she had broken the hug with Sylvester, Lillie and, carefully with Gladion for his broken wing, shot the emu a surprised look.
"Your tent?" asked he curiously. Lillie began to explain.
"There's a parrot hating chameleon on the loose intending on capturing any parrot he could find to feed to some wildcats in the next door's compartment?" she said. Frodo, together with Blu, Jewel, D'Artagnan, Aurora, Athos and also the other newcomers, shot the little toucan and Diantha and Tom's older daughter a look.
"Parrot hating chameleon?" repeated Blu in confusion.
"That doesn't make any sense," put in Jewel.
"And besides that, we've only just got here for our kids and also some other friends," put in Augustus as he held Sandalwood and Acerola with Soren and Luna flanking him.
"Kiara here will explain further," said Dundee, "But in the meantime, let's get you macaws to my tent with the other parrots."
However, before Dundee's inner circle animals could set to work with taking Blu and the other parrots to Dundee's tent, Soren noticed someone missing.
"Wait, where's Stella?" he asked. Worry coursed through Blu's group.
"Stella?" asked Dundee confused.
"My mate, and also Sandalwood's mother," said Soren. Kira then found that three of the Spix macaws were missing.
"Carla, Bia and Tiago, my cousins, are missing too," said she.
"As are Jasmine, Finn, Aiden and... Spyro," added Levi. Tristan, Trixie, Canopus, Katniss, Arcturus and Neytiri flashed confused looks.
"Have those eight come too?" asked Tristan.
"Yes," said Athos as he and Aramis looked this way and that for the missing individuals, "They've come with us to rescue the kids."
Sirius, Spica, Bellatrix, Sandalwood and the others who were offspring of the missing individuals felt hope well within them so they began to ask about them.
"Mom's here?" asked Sirius, referring to Bia. Blu began to look for the eight missing animals.
"Yes, grandson," said he with a firm face, "But it seems that they have wandered off."
Then dread tore through Jewel and the other adults, and they hoped that Carla, Bia, Tiago, Jasmine, Finn, Aiden, Stella and Spyro hadn't gone far. Dundee was about to ask the newcomers when suddenly, the air was shattered by a massive, bloodcurdling scream, sending immense dread tearing through the group, but most especially Blu and his group. Blu and company tore for the two-door compartment entrance, the recognition of those screams welling within them. Dundee and some of the others followed.
"CARLA, BIA, TIAGO!" screeched Blu as he flapped like mad towards the mesh barrier and solid half-wall separating the artificial jungle from the human corridor. The Spix macaw slammed hard onto the mesh and began to shoot terrified glances this way and that for his two first-brood daughters and son.
"Blu, come down from there, those humans could spot you," called Athos. However, Blu was flooded by too much panic to hear him. Then his gaze was directed straight down to the floor and when they landed on something, a sharp gasp was drawn in through his beak. Jewel, Aurora and some of the others came in.
"Blu," said Aurora.
"What is it!?" asked Jewel, dread for her three first-brood children also welling within her. Blu, his talons clinging to the mesh, slowly turned to face the two female Spix macaws, the colour of the skin under his facial feathers having drained to a deathly pale colour.
He had spotted a few blue feathers that lay discarded on the floor outside the barrier, and when Sirius, Sandalwood and some of the other kids saw them as well, dread welled within them. This was familiar, and no different from what happened to Betelgeuse during some of the kids' investigation in the humans' rooms…