Chapter 45- the investigation part 2; startling discoveries
As soon as Adenine, Guanine, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Antares, Bellatrix, Sylvester, Acerola, Lillie and Atreyu had disembarked the trolley and had hid amongst the buckets, they prepared for the next step of their investigation, heading to the rooms Sylvester, along with Bambi, had seen earlier when the two had been taken away to have snapshots taken of them at various angles. However, the group was unaware that they had a follower stalking behind them. Lillie then peered out from behind one of the buckets and saw a few pairs of legs pass by as humans walked past their hiding place, talking and wittering.
The human zone consisted of a system of paths that ran through the two enclosed artificial jungles and Adenine and company were amazed at how big those jungles were. The human zone was the only place in the jungle area of the Paradise Sanctuary to be lit at night. The jungles were dark further away from the steel mesh, intended to provide the animals with plenty of darkness to allow them to sleep and the nocturnal species to go about their nightly business. Both jungles were separated from the human zone by large steel meshes and Lillie gazed at the mesh and the space beyond that mesh that receded into blackness due to its massive size.
"That must be the Compartment of the Carnivores," said she in a low voice. This dreaded name sent shivers down the spines and skins of Acerola, Sylvester, Bellatrix and Atreyu as the four remembered almost meeting their demise at the clutches of that horrible caracal and his gang of other caracals and servals. Bellatrix flinched at the flashes of menacing feline eyes that burned with pure hunger, the sharp claws and Sylvester also flinched at the sounds of his screams and looking down into the death trap of Carnassial's jaws with the black hole at the bottom when Carnassial almost ate him alive.
"Please don't mention that horrible place's name;" shuddered Atreyu, "You're bringing back bad memories into our heads."
"Yeah, especially when those horrible wildcats chased us," put in Bellatrix. Lillie shot the penguin, the flying fox pup and the Spix and Cuban macaw chicks an apologetic look before pulling her attention back to the task. She watched for a gap in the passing humans. As she did so, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Antares, who remained hidden at the back of the group, thought they saw a small streak of metallic brown move out the corner of their eye through the flurry of human legs. However, when the sisters and brother turned to see the streak, they saw nothing, so they turned their gazes back to the others, but it made the three's nerves shudder and Betelgeuse's pineapple stalk-like crest feathers stand on end similar to how Roberto's mop-like head feathers did whenever he got frightened or angry. Nervously, the three chicks of Spinel and Sheldon prepared for the next move. Then as soon as Lillie had spotted a large gap in the flurry of human legs, she uttered, "Go!" and with that, nine bundles of red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, black and white feathers and the auburn fur and black membranous wings of Acerola all emerged from the buckets and raced down the walkway.
The group continued their rush, diving behind a variety of objects every time some humans came by before resuming their dash. Atreyu ran along for he could not fly due to his species being a flightless bird while the others flew. The group continued until they finally came to a corridor branching from it. Sylvester then took the lead for he could vaguely remember where he had been taken with Bambi. The group then dived behind a protrusion in the wall as two or three humans, all dressed in white uniforms with 'Paradise Sanctuary' printed in Portuguese or Spanish on their backs, emerged from a room and disappeared down the walkway. Seeing the three leave, Adenine and the others darted out of their hiding place and resumed their hasty rush towards the doors.
"This is where Bambi and I were taken to have those pictures snapped of us," said Sylvester as his lungs strained to absorb oxygen to power his talons and flapping wings. The group then stopped and Adenine began to quickly discuss who was to go in which subgroup. Atreyu shot nervous glares around the human zone, fearful that a human might appear and spot the group of birds and flying fox outside their compartment.
"Okay, Guanine, I and Acerola and I will investigate one room," said he, "Bellatrix and Atreyu will form group two; Lillie and Sylvester will be in group three, and Betelgeuse, Rigel and Antares will be in group four."
"Hey, why am I with Bellatrix?" protested Atreyu, his wing-flippers gesturing to the pigtailed blue Spix macaw, who shot the penguin chick a look.
"No time to question," said Adenine urgently and quickly, "Let's split up and investigate, NOW!"
With that, the ten divided into their groups of two or three and fanned out, seconds before another human appeared and walked down the corridor. Fortunately, she did not see any of the birds or Acerola. As the woman entered one of the rooms, Adenine and company, now in their smaller groups, peered out from behind more wall protrusions and examined the corridor. The corridor was long and at regular intervals along both walls was a door, each leading to a room and Sylvester's eyes landed on the very door through which he and Bambi were taken through to be photographed. After discussing on who was going to enter what room, the group split up again and made a beeline for their chosen destinations.
Adenine, Guanine and Acerola flew through one of the doors, which had been left partially open, and entered the room. As soon as the two Catalina macaws and bat pup were in the room, they began to examine its interior. Gasps were drawn in through the beaks of the two rainbow macaws and Acerola's mouth.
"What beautiful pictures," breathed Guanine in awe. Adenine and Acerola then began to flit around and examine each of the images. The room's walls were strewn with dozens of hard framed things. Each of the things had a shiny, transparent material running over their contents which were a sheet of paper showing an image, and the frames appeared to be made from wood, and in the images were a variety of animals. Adenine, Guanine and Acerola began to examine the images of the animals up close.
"Grandpas Porthos and Athos told us that humans sometimes collected pictures and displayed them in what they had called a gallery," said Adenine. He then stopped to examine a picture of a mammal he could not recognise despite the Catalina macaw, like Bellatrix and a number of other macaws in the family and group, being science nerds. It was clearly not familiar to Adenine but the animal depicted appeared to be a type of deer. Adenine then hovered in front of some pictures of rare birds and gazed at them in fascination while Guanine and Acerola examined the pictures of more mammals, birds, reptiles and other creatures including insects. Acerola then recognised some of the animals in this gallery.
"Many of these animals in these pictures are very rare," she said, "Look, isn't that Mulan's species?"
She gazed at an image of a bear with white fur and black markings, like Mulan, her mate and two cubs. Adenine's eyes then landed on some pictures showing some familiar birds. Seeing these, He flew down to them and examined them closely when he drew in a short gasp of surprise. Acerola flew over to him.
"They have a picture of a Spix macaw in their collection," whispered Adenine, "And a Lear's macaw and a glaucous macaw…"
Acerola's eyes travelled from one picture frame to the next. These frames were showing pictures of a variety of species of macaws, many of which appeared to be very rare. Acerola's eyes then travelled over some pictures showing macaws that were believed to have gone extinct. One of the pictures showed a macaw with a red head, body and upper wing coverts but blue wing flight feathers and tail, and its eyes were surrounded by a patch of white skin. Acerola tipped her head to one side in curiosity.
"Interesting," she said, "Looks quite like a scarlet or green-winged macaw but without the yellow or green between the red and blue on the wings."
She then saw writing under the picture of the bird but could not read it for it was in Latin. Assuming the writing was simply describing the bird in the image in a language she couldn't recognise, Acerola moved on to examine the frame next to the red and blue bird. To her surprise, the adjacent image depicted a macaw that very strongly resembled Sylvester. Like Sylvester, the bird in the picture had a red head with an amber nape, burgundy and blue wings, red front and a blue and red tail. Acerola immediately recognised the bird in the picture.
"Isn't that Sylvester's species?" she whispered. It was then that her eyes landed on something attached to the frame. Roused by curiosity, Acerola fluttered forward, reached up with her foot claws and took hold of a piece of paper. The flying fox then descended onto a table sitting in the room and unfolded the paper to have a look at the slip. As she did so, the flapping of feathered wings reached her ears, followed by the tapping of talons onto the surface of the table.
"What have you found, Acerola?" asked Adenine, Guanine by his side for the two had noticed the flying fox pup find something. Acerola handed the paper to the former.
"I believe it's some sort of note that the humans have written," said the flying fox pup, "But since I cannot read human writing, I believe you guys might have a clue."
Adenine took the paper from Acerola and looked at what was written on it with his sister gazing at it as well.
As Adenine, Guanine and their younger siblings Cytosine and Thymine grew up in the jungle, their mother Spinel, alongside some of the others such as Blu and their maternal scarlet grandfather Athos, had taught them how to read human writing and also how to draw and write, both in English and in Portuguese and Spanish as well. This also applied to most of the other chicks including Bellatrix, and a few of them such as her, Adenine and his siblings were quite fluent for their age. The slip of paper Acerola had found had writing on it but it was in Portuguese. As Adenine translated the word in the slip, he drew in a gasp.
"What is it?" asked Acerola, alerted by Adenine's gasp. Adenine slowly looked up with widened eyes flooded with immense shock while Guanine looked on.
"This slip of paper says, 'Small group of this macaw discovered alive in the Amazon Rainforest, Brazil,'" the oldest Catalina macaw said. Acerola gazed back at him and his sister in disbelief. It was obvious that the humans working at the Paradise Sanctuary WERE aware that there was a flock of Cuban macaws living in the Amazon Rainforest, and that was the little group where Sylvester, along with his parents Frodo and Ellie had originated from.
In another room, Lillie and Sylvester were examining a large shelf of books. This room's walls were lined with shelves and on each shelf was a line of dozens of books and articles.
"The humans that work here sure seem to have a love for ecology," said Lillie, "I know Aunt Bia and Uncle Virgil and some others back home have a little library of books for us as well…"
"A book on birds…" said Sylvester as she examined the cover of one of them, "Another book on birds…"
Though he was not familiar with books he was able to recognise the books' themes based on their covers' pictures. However, as the Cuban macaw chick did that, he thought he saw a tiny flash of metallic brown appear in his eyes' corner. However, when Sylvester turned his full line of sight to the flash, he saw nothing. Shrugging it off, he resumed the investigation.
"What can you find, Lillie?" he asked his teammate, touching down onto a table.
"Just books and books and more books," replied Lillie in a grumble as she continued flitting along one of the shelves, "All on plants and different sorts of animals…"
As she said this, Sylvester's talon landed on something hard and cylindrical. Feeling this, the Cuban macaw chick looked down and saw that his talon had landed on a small, shiny dark blue cylinder with a silver streak on it. Sylvester began to examine it and saw that it was a human thing called a pen for he had seen one of these handled by Blu before. It was a device his human-raised friends had told him that humans used to write with, and many of Sylkvester's friends who had partially grown up in a human environment, including Lillie and Gladion to a degree when their parents Diantha and Tom took them to Rio had been taught how to write and read. With this in mind, Sylvester's eyes travelled to a sheet of paper which appeared to hold writing. Frowning, Sylvester began to examine it closely. However, because Sylvester had little experience in reading human writing, all he saw on the sheet of paper was a series of squiggly lines.
"Lillie, can you come here and have a look at this?" he called. Lillie pulled her gaze from the books and descended to the Cuban macaw chick.
"What is it, Sylvester?" she asked. Sylvester handed the sheet of paper to the toucan and she took it and read it. Much like most of the macaw chicks, Lillie, along with Gladion had been taught how to read and write human, mostly by Blu but also by Rafael and Diantha as well. Because Lillie was able to read human writing to quite an extent, Sylvester was glad to be partnered with her. Lillie then began to examine the sheet. As she did that, Sylvester felt a sensation that someone was watching the pair rise within him; another tiny flash of metallic brown had appeared out the corner of his eye again, making the Cuban macaw chick's skin crawl. Sylvester turned to look at the flash only to find it gone. Unnerved, he returned to pay attention to Lillie as she continued to check the sheet.
"It's some sort of checklist which is a list humans use to keep track of a list of tasks they have to complete," said the toucan, pointing to the way the sentences were set out. Each sentence was given its own dot at the beginning. Lillie remembered Blu telling her that these were called 'bullet points', which was a particular method humans sometimes used when making notes or lists. The toucan then began to translate the sentences, all of which were written in Portuguese, one of the languages she was quite fluent in besides Spanish and English.
"'Aims to achieve,'" began she, "'Aim one: catch some adult Spix, glaucous and Lear's macaws and to bring back here… (much of the sentence contained unfamiliar words to Lillie so she left them out)…"
Sylvester threw on a shocked facial look.
At the door, Adenine, Gyanine, Acerola, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Antares, Bellatrix and Atreyu entered the room. Bellatrix and Acerola had been forced to make a hasty retreat with the latter placing the slip of paper back into the frame holding the Cuban macaw picture as a group of humans came in, and the pair had managed to slip out in time.
"Found something, Lill…?" began Adenine but Sylvester whirled round and spread his wings to tell him and the others with him to be quiet. The eight exchanged glances and took off for the table or, in Adenine and Acerola's case due to the former being a flightless bird and the latter needing an overhang to get airborne, climbing onto the top using a chair. As the others gathered round, Lillie continued translating as much as she could from the list.
"'Aim two: catch some adult Cuban red macaws… some green-and-yellow macaws…'" This made a confused look form on Sylvester's face. Lillie continued.
"'Aim three: catch some…"' Lillie frowned as she came to an unfamiliar Portuguese word. She handed the list to the others apart from Atreyu and Acerola who, like Sylvester, cannot read human writing.
"Can any of you recognise that word?" asked the toucan, a wing pointing to a specific word with a black flight feather. Antares looked at it and squinted.
"'Pterossauro', he said, "I believe that translates to 'pterosaur'?"
"Yes, it does," said Bellatrix with an impressed smile, "You've been paying strong attention in our Spanish lessons, Antares."
Antares just shrugged and turned back to look at Lillie as she resumed reading the list.
"'Aim four: bring in the pair of golden… hawk creatures… Rio…" she said. This caused glance exchange to roll through the other nine.
"Golden hawk creature?" repeated Rigel in surprise.
"Never heard of such a bird," said Atreyu. Adenine, Guanine, Acerola, Bellatrix, Sylvester, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Antares, however, reacted to the final word, and Lillie shot them an astonished gaze.
"Rio!?" blurted out she.
"Then it confirms our suspicions," said Adenine with a frown. Bellatrix then came in and took a look at the list as Lillie held it. When her eyes landed on some familiar words, she drew in a sharp breath of disbelief.
"Uh, I can see the Portuguese words for Amazon Sanctuary and Brazil written in the sentence where you read 'Cuban red macaws' and 'Spix macaws', the latter of which is my species Lillie," she blurted out. Lillie shot her Spix 'cousin' an alarmed look while Adenine gazed at the pair.
"Are you meaning to say that this list could be some sort of…" the Catalina macaw began when suddenly, Atreyu blurted out, "Someone's coming!"
Immediately, Lillie dropped the list and all ten birds dived into hiding behind a cabinet and a trash can or bin.
As they peered out, they saw three humans dressed in their Paradise Sanctuary uniforms enter the room and make a beeline for the table where Adenine and the others had been. As the humans began to chat in Spanish (some of the staff spoke Spanish while some spoke Portuguese; some spoke other languages), Antares shot Adenine a dark look.
"There is something we found that you need to know…" he whispered but Adenine hushed at him, cutting Antares off and making him shut his beak. Then the group began to listen to the three humans, one of them, a lady holding the list that Adenine had handled.
"Translation, Bellatrix, please," whispered Adenine. Bellatrix set to translating some of the Spanish words to English. Through the gap between the door and its hinges, something moved a little but none of the group, though Betelgeuse, RIgel and Sylvester thought they heard some sort of low hiss and shuddered, noticed.
"We certainly… are doing… well with our… of rare and… animals… from different… world," said Bellatrix in line with the speaking human, though it was a bit fragmented for she did not know certain words, "I look forward… seeing some… blue… in our…"
The others exchanged glances as Bellatrix continued. Nearest to the door, Betelgeuse thought she saw movement and felt her pineapple-like crest spike out again but she re-focussed on Bellatrix as she continued to translate the words, this time from the next human who spoke. "The Amazon Sanctuary in Brazil… lot... blue… (pause)… red… (another pause) get… adults from… back here so that we…" Bellatrix trailed off as she lost track of the fast-talking human. However, the fragmented pieces were enough to rouse suspicion within the group. Antares then seized the opportunity to speak.
"While we were investigating one of the other rooms," he whispered, "We saw some sort of checklist with the names of the variety of animals."
"And many of them are ticked," added Rigel.
"Some, such as Sigh-an-opsor whatever Bellatrix called it, are ticked but with a small star written next to it," said Atreyu. Adenine shot the penguin chick and the two red macaws a shocked look as Bellatrix then began to translate the humans' words again.
"Let's check on… progress of… in Brazil and… search for blue… red…" said she but then the three humans departed for the door and disappeared into the corridor, leaving the room in silence and the air above Adenine and his group with astonishment hanging over them. Betelgeuse then felt the compulsion to investigate the movement behind the door so she began to tiptoe away from the group, flashing a glance at the others as she enlarged the distance between herself and the nearest ones, Antares and Atreyu. Then a look of suspicion came upon Adenine.
"Dundee and the others aren't gonna isn't like what we've found," the Catalina macaw whispered.
"What do you mean?" asked Guanine. Adenine's dark glare slowly turned to her and the others.
"The humans' knowledge of those two Brazilian sanctuaries…" he said, "Their demand for some adult Spix macaws and some other rare birds…" he turned to Atreyu and Bellatrix, "And that checklist you have found…"
"That list was a list of the binomial names of animals, many of which are rare," said Bellatrix.
"Binomial?" asked Atreyu with surprise.
"Two worded names," said Bellatrix, a glance flashed at him before looking at Adenine, "And my species name, 'Cyanopsitta spixii', along with Anodorhynchus glaucous, which is the species of Arcturus, Canopus and Katniss, and Anodorhynchus leari,Vega and Regulus', are on there as well, ticked but with a star marked next to them."
Adenine and the others exchanged glances as Bellatrix continued her explanasion.
"And when we looked at the 'key', we saw that the star meant, 'breeding adult specimens required.'"
As these words were absorbed by Adenine and the others' brains, disbelief came over them. There was only one place where breeding adults of those species, along with the Cuban macaw and the other rare birds, lived. However, another startling conclusion arrived in Adenine's head.
"I'm wondering if the humans here are not just looking after the rare animals from all over the world," said he, "But are actually…" however, he trailed off, not wanting to say it. The others shot him a dreaded look, alongside a glare of outrage. By now, Betelgeuse was by the door's edge and had peered round it. When she saw some sort of dome appear to float…
"Then that means the animals here are no different from very rare precious g…" began Bellatrix but suddenly, she was cut off by a bloodcurdling scream from around the door. Horror tore through the group and their heads whipped in the direction of their missing comrade.
"BETELGEUSE!" bellowed Rigel and Antares, especially when they saw that their sister was missing. Dread flaring within them, these two and the other seven all surged towards the door's edge and peered round but to their horror, their missing comrade was nowhere to be seen.
Betelgeuse had disappeared.