Chapter 57- alarm, nervousness and unease
Blu and the others with him continued moving from one hidden spot to another, their eyes scanning the environment and the passing humans at all times between each and every transition. After a gap in the passing humans appeared in the corridor the group was currently in, Blu darted out from behind a large cabinet and hurried towards a trash can or bin and another set of drawers where he dived into hiding behind these two objects. After this, he peered out and beckoned to the next macaws in line in the previous hiding place. Jewel took her turn and scurried over to Blu. On the go, she flashed a disgusted glare at the working humans (whose backs were turned to her), before reaching Blu behind the trash can. She breathed a relieved sigh as she slumped against the metallic back of the cabinet, her heart beating with trepidation.
"I honestly don't like this risky quest, Blu," whispered the wary Spix macaw, "I always seem to fear that we might get spotted and seized because we're such rare animals."
Blu didn't reply and beckoned to Carla, Bia, Tiago, Kira, D'Artagnan and Aurora who were next in the line. After waiting for a human to pass by, Aurora and D'Artagnan uttered "Go!" to the four younger Spix macaws and they made break for it. Kira and Tiago had a small box over them to help conceal their bright blue feathers from view of the humans. One by one, the group of six reached Blu and Jewel but Tiago and Kira found that they could not fit the small cardboard box into the hiding space. As the pair struggled to collapse the item, Blu said, "Look, just discard it into the trash can."
When Kira and Tiago flashed a confused look at Blu, Aurora came in, took the collapsed box from them and shoved it into the bin, before leading the pair to the hiding place with the others. Next, Athos, Aramis and Levi darted from the previous hiding place and made a beeline for Blu and company with Spinel and Poinsettia close behind.
As Poinsettia and Spinel, who were at the back of this line fragment, darted behind the trash can, a human happened to walk by. However Athos had seized his two daughters and pulled them behind the cabinet just in time before the human's eyes could spot a splash of red and red-pink with colourful wings dart behind the trash can. After the human continued on his way, Athos looked out and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Do you think any of those humans have seen us yet?" asked the lead scarlet macaw to Blu as he did a headcount of the present macaws, all whose faces were laced with trepidation, some of them even trembling with it.
"No, but the dangerous possibility is still in place," replied the brown-eyed Spix macaw.
"Especially if one of us makes one wrong move," put in Aramis as he checked Carla, Bia, Tiago, Kira, Spinel and Poinsettia. It was true. If any of the group made one mistake, it would put them in serious danger of getting spotted by any of the humans working in this 'conservation' area and would likely blow the cover of the rest of the group and bringing the rare members to exposure and possible capture by these rare animal collectors disguised as conservationists.
Then Phoebe led Stella, Soren, Augustus andAiden from the previous hiding spot to Blu's group, followed by Indigo, Victor, Jasmine and Finn. Lastly, Benjamin, Frodo and Spyro took their turn and left the previous hiding spot and dashed as fast as they could towards Blu and company. However, on the way, Spyro's left foot landed into something sticky and before the archaeobird knew it, he was stopped in his tracks. Spyro shot an alarmed look at his left foot and saw that it had landed in a patch of sticky substance and that it was gripping it like quicksand. Benjamin and Frodo, as well as Blu and some of the others, drew in alarmed gasps when they saw Spyro's predicament but Spyro urged them on.
"You two go ahead," said the archaeobird to Benjamin and Frodo, "I'll get my foot out of this sticky glop," and with that, he seized his feathered leg with his wing claws and began to try and pull his foot free from the grip of the substance, which Blu had identified as chewing gum much to his disgust, while Benjamin and Frodo, at first torn between helping Spyro and joining the safety of the others' new hiding place, made their choice and did the latter, which was what Spyro wanted for these two, especially for the Cuban red macaw male for obvious reasons.
As Benjamin and Frodo joined the others, the latter shot a worried gaze at Spyro as he struggled to free his foot from the chewing gum.
"He's a sitting archaeobird in that situation," said the Cuban red macaw, especially as a couple of humans passed by, sending shock and worry tearing through him, "He's gonna get spotted by those collectors…"
"We've gotta do something," said Bia. As she said this, Tiago spotted a small silvery metallic disc (not a money coin) lying close to the other side of the cabinet. His eyes then travelled to a pile of sheets of the stuff humans and animals familiar with human things called paper stacked neatly on a desk across the corridor. A distraction idea entered his head and he seized the metallic disc. While he did that, Aurora gazed at the sticky glop of yucky stuff holding Spyro's foot to the floor with disgust lacing her face.
"I never liked chewing gum when I first saw that stuff," she hissed, "Not only is it disgusting and unhygienic when it is discarded onto the floor or somewhere, but it also sticks onto the soles of human shoes as well. Our former owners Susan and Lucy had that happen to them countless times and believe me, they had been repulsed every time."
"So has Linda when she took her baby son Tommy for a walk," said Levi.
"Why can't humans throw that stuff away and save others plenty of inconvenience?" complained Aiden.
"Pure laziness," replied Aramis with a sarcastic smirk, "Some people just can't be bothered to look for a bin and throw their trash away."
"Hang on, Spyro," said Athos as the young archaeobird continued to struggle to pull his foot from the chewing gum. The scarlet macaw continued flashing wary glances at the passing humans before returning to Spyro who was beginning to show signs of panic welling within him, "I'll help you get your foot out of that gum."
Spyro, his face wrinkled with disgust, scowled at the small pile of disgusting sticky substance as it continued to hold his foot firmly onto the floor. Then after flashing one more glance this way and that to make sure that no humans were looking their way, Athos darted out towards Spyro, took hold of the young archaeobird's feathered left leg and began to help him free his foot from the chewing gum.
"I guess some humans are dirty, careless creatures as well with their waste," growled Spyro as he and Athos struggled to pull the former's foot free of the chewing gum, "I remember Mom and Dad and Uncles Ophiuchus and Anakin, Cousin Spock and Aunt Honeydew and some of the other archaeobirds coming across a young jaguar cub with some sort of human-made bag stuck around its neck and front legs during a patrol outing…" Spyro warily gazed at the corridor as three more humans passed by, "and they struggled to free that poor animal from that suffocating bag while some of the patrollers kept the mother jaguar distracted… they did free it eventually but it had been a very risky task…"
"Jaguars are the apex predators of the forest floor," said Athos as he continued to help free Spyro's foot from the chewing gum, "What was the material that the cub had around its neck and paws? Was it a plastic bag of some sort?"
Spyro shot Athos a confused look, for the term was not familiar to him.
"Plastic?" he said.
"Never mind," said Athos, "Let's get you out of this mess before any of those humans sees us..."
As he said this, the scarlet macaw flashed a glance at a pair of humans as they emerged from a room talking. Tension was rising for Spyro and Athos were right in the range of these two humans' gaze. This led to tension above the atmosphere above Blu and company.
"Hurry," said Blu, "Hurry, Athos."
The others watched on with dread welling within them. That was when Tiago saw the two humans about to turn their gazes in Athos and Spyro's direction as they continued to struggle to free the latter's foot from the chewing gum. Tiago then held the metallic disc, a bolt, in his talon and took his aim at the stack of papers on the desk, being careful not to expose himself too much from behind the cabinet. Then as the two humans stopped their conservation and were about to turn their gazes to a spot of colour, the Spix macaw's talon flicked forward and released its only bullet at the paper pile, before he ducked back behind the cabinet. The bolt darted across the corridor and struck into the paper stack. At first, the pages above the point of impact shifted slightly but then gravity got its way with the stack and pulled the pages from the stack. Tiago flinched as the sound of white sheets splashed all over the desk and floor. At this moment, Spyro's foot finally managed to get free of the chewing gum's grip and as soon as this happened, Athos quickly carried Spyro to the others and the safety of the hiding place while the two humans, alarmed and confused looks on their faces, rushed over to the collapsed pile of pages and began to scramble to pick them up, utterances of frustration in Spanish emitting from their mouths. Thankfully, the distraction had pulled the humans' gazes away from Athos and Spyro's location and the pair had narrowly escaped getting spotted. Blu saw this and flashed a proud smile at Tiago.
"Good thinking, son," he said. Tiago smiled back in acceptance of his father's praise while Bia and Carla simply looked on with proud smiles.
"I'd never thought of doing something like that," said Carla.
"Tiago, you're a genius even though at times you can be annoying," said Bia.
"Hey," snapped Tiago with a hint of amusement in his voice. As he said this, D'Artagnan finished the headcount.
"Everyone's here, Blu, all 25 of us," he said. Blu smiled at this result, as that was the exact number it should be, before turning his attention to the next step.
"Right, let's move onto the next phase," he said and with that, he moved to the front of the group and to the other side of the cabinet's back.
The brown-eyed Spix macaw then peered out from behind the cabinet and began to scan the surroundings. Several more humans, some going to help the first two humans to tidy up the mess of the papers Tiago had made, until his eyes landed on a trolley being pulled by one of the humans, a woman. An idea entered Blu's head, especially as he examined the contents on one of the trolley's three shelves as the woman stopped to talk with one of the humans.
"That looks like fruit," he said to the others as they also gazed at the trolley, "The same sort of fruit that we eat. Now if my theories are correct, that must be food for the department where the rare parrots and other jungle birds are held, and if that is true," Blu paused, "that same compartment might also hold some fruit bats…"
"And if that area holds some fruit bats," said Augustus with a hopeful smile. Stella and Soren also felt hope well within them. Indigo and Victor inched carefully out from behind the cabinet to listen in on the conversation between the trolley puller and one of her colleagues.
"Then we'll be able to find Sandalwood and the others," said Carla, finishing Augustus's sentence to which the flying fox clan patriarch nodded. Blu, a determined look on his face also nodded. This caused hope to well within the other members of the group. Carla, Bia, Tiago and Kira looked forward to being reunited with Sirius, Spica, Bellatrix, Achernar and Polaris; Poinsettia looked forward to seeing Adenine, Thymine, Guanine and Cytosine again; and Spinel looked forward to seeing Betelgeuse, Antares and Rigel and hopefully reunite the entire family once they return to Rio to reunite with Sheldon as well as fix and rebuild their almost-shattered relationship. The looking forward to the reunion was replicated on Stella, Soren and Augustus with Sandalwood and Acerola; Benjamin with Altair and Aldebaran; Jasmine and Finn with Vega and Regulus, Frodo with Sylvester and so on.
As Blu and the others continued examining the trolley and its puller, Victor came in.
"We've translated some of the Spanish words exchanged between those two humans," he said. Then Indigo appeared. For the first time in days, her eyes were sparkling with hope.
"And we have heard the woman mention something about a pair of golden hawks as well as a pair of breeding glaucous macaws, plus a third, lone female," she said, before her gaze turned to the woman as she continued taking with the other human, also a woman, "And she seems to be going to that area with that fruit and other food on that trolley to help feed the birds, bats and other fruit and insect-eating animals that live there…"
As this information reached the others' ears, hope continued to well within them.
"That sounds like…" began Levi.
"Those two golden fruithawks that were stolen from Tulio's Aviary," said Aurora, finishing Levi's sentence.
"And 'pair of breeding glaucous macaws' must refer to Neytiri and Tristan, who were also taken along with Eragon, Marella and Luna, and Trixie, the 'third lone female'" said Stella, much to the hopefulness of Spyro. The others also exchanged hopeful glances.
"It seems like we're heading in the right direction," said Indigo with a smile.
"That's all we wanna hear, Indigo and Victor, thanks for translating some of the words spoken by those two women for us," Blu said, making Indigo and Victor smile again and then joined the group. Blu turned to the others, a determined look on his face.
"We're gonna board that trolley which will hopefully be our ticket to the area where Sandalwood and the others are held," he told the others, before turning his gaze to the woman as she continued talking to her friend, "But we must hurry before she leaves."
That made nervousness well within the group. This stage called for quick transition and they knew that there was no room for error or delay, and Spyro shuddered. After the mishap with the chewing gum that almost got him spotted with Athos, he knew he could not afford to land in another situation that would not only land him in the risk of getting spotted again, but also the cost of precious time. The others also did not want to risk facing a similar situation to Spyro, knowing that even if one or two were spotted, everyone else would have their cover blown as well, and Carla, Bia, Tiago and the others who went to Guyana the other year knew how dangerous that was. They had experienced that while near the entrance to the Cave of Glitters and Sparkles in Jurassic Jungle where a heavy density of predatory bat-birds lived and nested, and Benjamin's brother-in-law and Petunia's brother, Chlorophyll had been captured and almost eaten by one of them until; Lavender, Kira's sister-in-law, had come to his rescue despite the risks, and Carla and the others who had been on that trip shuddered in memory of that close shave.
Then Blu examined the trolley one more time to pick out potential hiding spots on the cargo. However, as he did that, the brown-eyed macaw companion of Linda and the others were unaware that something had spotted them, but it was not one of the humans that worked here. As Blu continued examining the trolley, from across the corridor in a shadow under a set of drawers, a pair of eyes opened and glared like a laser at the Spix macaw and his companions. These eyes were laced with wrath, especially as they examined Blu and the macaws around him, in particular the teal-eyed Spix macaw with cerulean feathers, the hazel-eyed cerulean Spix macaw who bore a striking resemblance to her, the younger male brown-eyed Spix macaw who resembled a slender version of his father Blu and the chubby green-eyed Spix macaw who resembled Jewel to a degree. As these eyes took in the features of this family of Spix macaws and also of D'Artagnan, Aurora, Athos, Aramis, Phoebe and Levi, a hiss began to emanate from under the wrath-burning eyes which began to increase the fires within them. Above the fiery eyes was a glinting of light off something metallic as part of the light shone onto something above the eyes but the thing was so engulfed by the shadow of the drawers that its shape was concealed. However, Blu and company were too focussed on the trolley to notice that they were being watched.
Then as soon as he was ready, Blu turned to the others.
"Right, let's make a quick dash from here and onto that trolley," he said, before his face became firm, "But whatever you do, do NOT stop midway through the space between us and the trolley. As soon as you get to the trolley, hop onto the shelves and conceal yourselves as best you can, okay?"
The others, nervousness dancing in their eyes and nerves, nodded. Some even released nervous gulps and the wings of Indigo and Stella interlocked with their respective mates Victor and Soren. Jasmine did the same with Finn. This was clearly the most nerve-wracking part of the search and rescue and as said before, there was no room for error or delay. Then Blu prepared to send the group several at a time to the trolley, Jewel and Aurora going first. The two female macaws were shivering with nervousness. Behind them, the others also got into position with Carla, Bia, Tiago and Kira standing behind Jewel and Aurora. After this, Blu turned to Jewel and Aurora as they trembled more and more.
"Right, are you two ready?" he asked. Timidly, Jewel and Aurora nodded. Blu then examined the corridor and the two talking humans one last time and as soon as it was all clear, he said, "Go!"
Then without hesitation, Jewel and Aurora's talons propelled their owners towards the trolley as fast as possible. The pair resembled a cerulean and maya blue comets on the floor but as soon as they were by the trolley, Aurora and Jewel scrambled aboard. Next, Carla, Bia, Tiago and Kira darted out from behind the cabinet and made a beeline for the trolley before scrambling aboard. Next came, D'Artagnan, and then Athos, Aramis, Phoebe and, Levi, and Poinsettia and Spinel; Stella, Soren and Augustus; Aiden, Indigo, Benjamin and Victor; Jasmine and Finn; Frodo, and then finally, Spyro and Blu himself with the latter carrying the former. One by one or small group by small group, the animals made a beeline for the trolley and scrambled aboard it. Blu and Spyro made it just in time as the woman had just about to pull it away to continue to her destination and Aramis, Jewel, Carla and Tiago helped the two aboard. After all 25 animals were aboard; sighs of relief can now be breathed. Blu rested on his back against one of the food boxes.
"Boy, this sure reminds me of when we just managed to board that truck while we were chained together, eh, Jewel?" he said to his mate.
"Oh, when you couldn't fly back then?" said Jewel with a slight smile, "Oh yeah."
"I still can't believe that you didn't fly for the first fifteen years of your life, Blu," said Augustus.
"It's a long story," said Blu, "Let's just focus on rescuing Sandalwood and the others, okay?"
As he said this, the surroundings' movement past the group and the trolley began to pick up pace and they passed through a doorway. The woman had resumed her walk to her destination and had picked up walking pace.
"When we get to where Sandalwood and the others are being held, Dad," said Bia as she held onto a covered food tray with Tiago, Carla and Kira, "Will we be rescuing the fruithawks as well?"
"We'll get to that," said Blu, "Let's just get to the area first."
As he said this, Poinsettia, who had clambered onto the second shelf of the trolley with Spinel, Aramis and some of the others and was sat at the back amongst some small food boxes, thought she saw a flash of movement in the corridor behind the trolley, a metallic glinting streaking the top of it. The deep red macaw named after a plant with red leaves shot an alerted gaze in the movement's direction but as her gaze landed on where she believed she had seen the flash; there was nothing in the corridor. However, it sent shivers down her spine, her skin prickle and her flower-like crest bristle with unease.
"Are you alright, Poinsettia?" asked a voice, Aramis's. Poinsettia snapped out of her uneasy state and shot a surprised look at her slender male great green macaw 'uncle' who gazed at her. Her sister Spinel also bore a concerned look, as did a few other macaws. When she saw these concerned gazes, Poinsettia said, "Oh, nothing. Just… unnerved by this… quest to retrieve the kidnapped kids and friends as well as the fruithawks…"
A pang of regret at this denial flashed within Poinsettia as she said this but she did not want the others to worry about anything else other than rescuing Sandalwood and company. Aramis breathed a sigh and leaned back against the box, his wings behind his head.
"Yeah, it's been a nerve-wracking trip, I can tell you," he said in agreement.
"You got that right," said Jasmine.
"I sometimes keep thinking that my heart is going to beat outside my chest," said Finn, "Especially during the transition from behind that cabinet to this trolley."
"Also when Spyro got his foot caught in that chewing gum and was almost spotted by some of those humans until Tiago intervened," said Aiden.
"I just hope we get to where Sandalwood and the others including Eragon and the other five and the fruithawks are being held," said Spinel, "where we will rescue them and then get out of this so-called 'conservation' place," she growled the last part of this sentence with pure malice and disgust. Clearly, the idea of a group of collectors pretending to preserve countless rare and endangered animal species to cover up their true intentions of collecting them as mere items was turning Spinel's blood into boiling water. The same was true for the others in Blu's group, especially Blu as thoughts of the Paradise Sanctuary's negative effects of the reputation on true conservationists like Tulio and his team and the Sanctuary de Amazon workers and their name churned in his mind. As the group continued to hang on to the cargo of the trolley as the woman continued pulling it, along with a bunch of stowaways, through the corridor, the group took a moment to relax, but Poinsettia still remained tense. Her gut was twitching and her skin was crawling, and she could not help but gaze down the corridor behind the group, the belief that the group was being followed constantly nibbling at her insides like a pack of piranha at their prey, especially as another flash of glinting movement blinked in her gaze before disappearing in a split second.
As Blu's group continued to ride the trolley down the corridor, the woman pulling them along, from behind a protrusion in the wall, something domed and metallic hovered and below the floating dome, a pair of eyes, both flooded with the most acidic and bitterest hatred, glared with pinpoint laser accuracy at Blu's group, especially at a certain type of bird in the group but most especially a certain brown-eyed Spix macaw, his mate and three certain other Spix macaws that happen to be his two daughters and son. A malicious hiss also sounded from below the floating acidic hatred-flooded eyes and dome-like object.