Chapter 68- a climactic confrontation
Meanwhile, Athos, Aramis, Jewel, Levi and Phoebe continued to zoom in the direction of Aurora's screech with some of the other animals, among them Olympia the cassowary, Kiara the echidna and Reepicheep the platypus, close behind. The macaws had dread boiling within them as they feared the worst for Aurora, Trixie and D'Artagnan and whoever else was with them, such as Sirius, Bellatrix and Spica who were still missing with several other kids, and possibly one of the kidnapped six macaws as well. As the group continued in that direction, the sounds of a brawl reached their ears. Reepicheep instantly recognised the sounds.
"Sounds like many of Carnassial's gang members have picked a fight with some of the dingoes again," he said with a suspicious frown.
"Or the other way round," said Kiara.
"Do fights between those Australian dogs and those wildcats happen often?" asked Aramis. Kiara was about to reply when suddenly, the source of the sound which was the battle cloud of brawling servals, caracals and dingoes, melted into view. Near the main battle cloud, several servals and caracals were fleeing some thunderous-faced dingoes as they chased them past some terrified onlooker animals who were still too frightened to intervene, forcing some of them, such as vultures, to scatter and move their eggs out of the servals and caracals' path as they darted past with their dingo pursuers rushing after them, angry barks escaping their mouths. As they approached the scene, Athos looked on in horrified astonishment.
"Good grief," he whispered. As he gazed at the brawling cloud of dingoes, caracals and servals, with one or two humans trying to intervene only to be driven back by the swipes of paws or bolting caracals and servals as they darted from the cloud with some dingoes in hot pursuit, Aramis and Phoebe began to scan the surroundings for any signs of Aurora and the other still-missing group members. As the two did that, Levi spotted some two-legged figures hurry off with something in their arms. In those arms screeches of distress were emanating. The glaucous macaw felt horror tear through him.
"Guys!" called he and with that, he pointed a talon at the fleeing forms. Athos and the others followed the two macaws' points and also spotted the fleeing two-legged forms. Alarm tore through them, especially as Aramis saw a flash of some shades of blue, among them maya blue and cerulean, and also purple with a metallic glinting, from some sort of barred containers held in the arms of the two-legged fleers, which the group identified as humans.
"There they are," cried Aramis and with that he rocketed off after the fleeing humans, Athos and then the others with them following, leaving only the animals of Dundee's group.
"Macaws!" cried Olympia in alarm and she gave chase with Kiara and Reepicheep and the other animals.
The flashes of blue and other colours in the cages held by the humans as they continued to flee, which were indeed Aurora but also Spyro, Carla, Sirius, Spica and Bellatrix; Canopus, Katniss, Arcturus, Vega and Regulus, Achernar and Polaris, D'Artagnan and Trixie, were struggling in their prison metallic bars and slabs as the humans continued rushing away from the brawl, screeching and squawking. Four of the humans had managed to catch these birds and cage them during the chaos Aurora and the others tried to wreak on their opponents and as Spyro tried to lead the kids to safety. Now the humans were making their getaway with all fifteen birds in their clutches, their eyes screwed shut and their teeth gritted as the screeches from their captured animals continued to assault their ears. Aurora clung to the bars of her cage and continued to screech and squawk at the top of her lungs in the hopes of attracting attention, the others joining in to amplify the distress call. Aurora was especially in hysterics as the way her captors handled her in the cage triggered a massive flow of bad memories of when she and Levi were captured and caged as chicks many, many years ago before they were taken to Europe, something Sirius, Spica, Bellatrix and the other kids including Sandalwood, Acerola and Ferdinand, had been told by Aurora, Levi, D'Artagnan and also the other adult birds of the ordeal the former two had been through when they were their age. Athos, Aramis, D'Artagnan and Phoebe had been through a similar ordeal as well, though the memories of their incidents had been deeply buried under a pile of trauma. However, the incident with Sandalwood and the others getting caught by the poachers was like history repeating itself and it had sent some of the macaws, among them Trixie, into a panic. Further, the revelation that this 'sanctuary' was a fake added to the terror of Aurora and the others, especially the kids and Carla.
As the humans attempted to escape with Aurora and company in their clutches, Athos, Aramis, Phoebe, Levi and Jewel, thunderous and volcanic looks lacing their faces, continued to pursue them, the instinctive urge to save Aurora and company having taken control of their minds while behind the enraged macaws, Olympia and the other animals struggled to keep up. However, Athos's group and their targets were about to cross paths with a certain flying fox pup trying to outrun a particularly enraged caracal, his ears tattered and streaks of dried blood carving dark red trails down the sides of his face, as he continued to chase the poor bat pup like a cat after a mouse with a certain Spix macaw and older flying fox in turn chasing after that caracal in an attempt to rescue the pup. Sandalwood jumped onto a tree trunk and then leaped off it, narrowly escaping yet another paw swipe from Carnassial whose mind was warped with unspeakable wrath. The caracal let loose a savage screech as his paw slammed into the bark of the tree trunk where Sandalwood had been a split-second before. Realising he had missed, the caracal dashed off after Sandalwood again. Sandalwood, who continued to frantically run on all fours, flashed a terrified glance at his chaser and continued to flee.
"GET BACK HERE, you LITTLE RODENT WITH WINGS!" bellowed Carnassial and with that, the caracal tried to close the gap between himself and Sandalwood again when suddenly, both he and the bat pup were alerted by the sounds of distressed macaw squawks. Sandalwood flashed an alarmed look in the direction of the screeches as he continued running, Carnassial doing the same but with a look of wonder. Some distance away, Blu and Augustus, seeing Carnassial flash a curious look in the squawks' source, immediately saw the opportunity to snatch Sandalwood.
"Right, here we go, Blu," shouted Augustus as he and the other closed in on Carnassial, "You snatch Sandalwood while I attack that lynx."
Blu flashed Augustus a 'What' look, concern flaring within him but Augustus retorted, "Just do AS I SAY!"
Blu obediently turned his head and fixed his gaze on Sandalwood and prepared to snatch him from Carnassial's path with his talons while Augustus aimed for Carnassial's back, his teeth and foot claws poised for biting and slashing the moment he pounced onto the caracal's (who he kept incorrectly identified as a lynx based on his ear tufts) back. However, as the two attempted rescuers charged towards Sandalwood and Carnassial, Sandalwood's eyes had already caught sighted some incoming humans and their screeching cargo. In the midst of the chaos, Sandalwood's eyes landed on the screeching and writhing cargo of colourful feathers, igniting recognition within him but the moment it did, horror tore through the little flying fox pup. Thinking quickly and totally unaware that Blu was zooming towards him from behind, his talons poised to snatch him from Carnassial and to safety, Sandalwood darted from Carnassial's path, much to the caracal's surprise and rushed towards a nearby large rock. Then without a second's hesitation and not thinking about the rock's height, something that would normally send him into a frenzied panic and freak him out violently, the amber furred flying fox pup jumped onto the boulder's surface and scrabbled up it, Carnassial, with Augustus hot on his own tail, following. Then what Sandalwood did next sent astonishment tearing through Blu. The moment Sandalwood was on top of the boulder, his eyes fixated on the caged cargo of the incoming humans which were Aurora and the other captured birds including Sirius, Carla, Bellatrix and Spica, as well as their captors who carried them, the little flying fox pup heaved himself from the boulder's surface with his wing thumbs just before Carnassial's paw came in and slammed onto the spot where he left, the claws digging into the hard surface of the rock, and straight into the air. Then as Blu slowed to a hover and looked on, Sandalwood, his wings spread out, then glided a short distance towards the human carrying Aurora, Carla, Sirius, Spica, Bellatrix, D'Artagnan, Trixie and Arcturus in one cage and landed square on the human's arm.
"Sandalwood!" cried Blu as he then watched the flying fox pup, his green eyes blazing unspeakable rage, the biggest fire of rage he had ever conjured, glared at the human holding Aurora and the others' cage and without further hesitation, sank his teeth into the skin human's arm as hard as he could. Cries of immense pain and surprise erupted from the human's mouth, followed by the human throwing his arms upward and accidentally tossing the cage containing Aurora and the others with her into the air, before writhing to get Sandalwood off his arm only to be struck down by the other humans carrying the cages containing Spyro, Vega, Regulus, Katniss, Canopus, Achernar and Polaris, sending their cages flying as well as the humans fell down like skittles in the human game of bowling.
Aurora immediately wrapped her wings around Carla, Sirius, Spica and Bellatrix as they screamed in terror while D'Artagnan and Trixie wrapped their wings around Arcturus and each other as they were sent flying in their cage but before they could hit the ground in a hard crash, their cage was stopped, dead as a strong pair of talons had wrapped around the cage bars. The seven macaws all slowly opened their eyes and gazed upward to see that Athos was hovering above them, his talons wrapped around the bars.
"It's alright, I've got you," said Athos before a sigh of relief escaped his beak, "it's a good thing I'm good at being a goalie."
Aurora and the other six formed smiles of relief as Athos then gently lowered them to the ground. Nearby, Aramis and Phoebe had managed to catch the cages containing Spyro and the others with him before they could go crashing into the ground as well.
"Good catch, macaws," said Olympia as she looked on with the others. Levi, Blu and Augustus also looked on with relief as Sandalwood emerged from the heap of collapsed humans but that relief was immediately shattered by the shouts of more humans. Olympia shot a horrified glance in the direction of the sounds' sources and to her immense dread, she saw more humans rush in, some of them armed with nets and boxes. Alarmed, she turned to the other animals and barked, "You get those caged macaws outa here while we deal with those humans."
Athos barked to the others with him to seize Aurora and the others and make a break for it while Blu rushed towards Sandalwood but as he did that, a massive caracal screech erupted from nearby, sending horror exploding through him and the other animals, especially Sandalwood.
"Mr Blu, look OUT!" cried Sandalwood. Blu shot a horrified gaze in the direction of the screech just in time to see a dried blood-faced caracal rush towards him and Sandalwood and heave himself into the air with his back feet, his front paws, their claws fully flared, aimed at the pair. Behind the truly apoplectic Carnassial, Augustus recovered himself from the shock of almost hitting the boulder during his attempt to pounce onto Carnassial's back only for the caracal to dodge and nearly send Sandalwood's grandfather crashing into the hard surface of the massive rock. As he recovered, he flashed a horrified gaze at Blu and Sandalwood as Blu immediately seized Sandalwood and took off, moments before Carnassial's front paws, their claws flared, plunged into the sand where the two had been a split-second before. Not deterred by the miss due to his immense desire to kill Sandalwood in revenge for sabotaging his and his gang's 'rare treat' of adult parrots, Carnassial took off after Blu as he carried Sandalwood off. Levi then prepared to launch himself at Carnassial as he rocketed by after Blu and Sandalwood but a talon landed on his wing and stopped him from doing so.
"Don't you dare even think of pouncing onto that wildcat, Levi," said Aramis.
"But…" began Levi but Aramis hardened his gaze.
"It's a bad idea, Levi," he said, "that lynx-like cat is consumed with so much rage; you could make it much worse by pouncing onto him could be detrimental to not only you but to Blu and Sandalwood as well."
Levi relented and perished the idea of launching himself at Carnassial. As he did so, Athos's voice exploded
"Everyone, FLEE!" cried the scarlet macaw. Hearing this, Levi and Aramis rocketed away. Then Athos and Phoebe hastily transported Aurora, Spyro and the others with them in their cages.
As the group fled and Olympia, Kiara and Reepicheep and the other animals prepared to face the incoming human newcomers who were now seconds away (these humans are backup called by the humans already present), Achernar and Polaris gazed after Blu and Sandalwood as the former carried the latter away from the enraged Carnassial, Augustus following the caracal once again.
"I hope that'll be the last time Sandalwood and Uncle Blu will have to face that horrible caracal," whimpered Polaris worriedly. Achernar didn't say anything but nodded in agreement.