Found

1. Found Disillusionment

Red opened and closed his eyes once more, hoping that this time there'd be some difference, there wasn't. He let the air in his lungs escape in one long defeated rush, dropping his head at the same time and letting it rest on the cold hard floor of his cage. He couldn't even begin to fathom just how he'd ended up in here again, maybe it was just a case of wrong place at the wrong time, or was it more than that? Red hoped not, if there was it meant only one thing, the humans had it out for him, and that wasn't a good position for any animal to be in. Red pressed his eyes closed to block out the problem and willed himself to sleep.

Red slept right through the night and some of the morning, he woke to the sound of a metallic rattle signalling the opening of his cage door. Red felt the hands of a human reach in and take hold of him, he didn't resist. If it had been a year ago he'd have turned and sunk his teeth into those hands in a heartbeat, but that defiant spark had been all but extinguished when he left Scarlet. Red was now nothing but an empty shell of his former self, less him than he'd ever been. Red felt something sharp pierce the skin at the top of his neck.

Red violently woke for the second time, only this time he couldn't recall going to sleep in the first place. He remembered the human hands and the feeling of helplessness, but after that there was nothing, it was as if half a day of his life had just been scrubbed from existence. Red registered a dull ache emanating from every part of his body, he felt old, wasted. It was like he'd swapped his body for one ten times older. Red opened his eyes, blackness.

"Great! Could things get any worse?" cursed Red out loud.

"You could be dead," answered an unexpected voice. It was a female voice, a vixen. Red sat up and pricked his ears.

"Who said that?" asked Red.

"I did, look to your left," explained the voice.

"I can't!" snapped Red

"What do you mean you can't? I'm right here!" urged the voice once more.

"I can't look anywhere!" snapped Red once again.

"What on earth do you mean?" probed the voice in confusion.

"Because I'm blind!" spat Red angrily as he lay his head back on the ground, signalling the end of his part in the conversation. There was the sound of shuffling off to his left and then silence.

Red was still for quite some time, with nothing but his thoughts for company, and currently they were far from the ideal partner. He didn't move again until he heard a clang come from the top of his cage. Instinctively Red looked up, even though he had no chance of seeing what he had heard.

"What did I tell you last time we parted boy?" asked a most unexpected voice. Red froze, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Macaw! Is that you?" gasped Red in amazement.

"That's a stupid question if I ever heard one, of course it is! Who else were you expecting?" admonished Macaw "now tell me, what foolishness landed you back in here?"

"It's kind of a long story," sighed Red.

"So? Are you going somewhere? Somewhere you've got to be, hmm? Didn't think so, why don't you start at the very beginning?"

"Ugh fine!" grumbled Red "After I escaped from here last time-"

"No, no, no, that won't do at all, go back to before that, weren't you born? Didn't you have a family? Don't you have a name? I know very little about your life, you had almost no knowledge of it yourself last time you were here! Surely you've remembered some more of it by now!" said Macaw in frustration "now from the beginning this time!"

Red reluctantly began to tell the story of his life, almost without embellishment, he included everything except the part about his brother and his reasons for leaving home, that was a story he wasn't sure he could ever retell to anyone.

It took a long time for Red to tell the story of his life up to its current point, his two listeners were engrossed and exchanged concerned glances many times during its telling. Once done, Red put his head down to rest.

"So, it was a female then? I should have guessed as much, only they could have got a male to act as foolish as you have!" pointed out Macaw.

"That was so sad," sniffed the vixens voice from the next cage along.

Red sat up. "Who asked you to listen in? I don't remember inviting you to the conversation!"

"Calm down Red, no need to get angry, Autumn here was only interested in finding out a little more about her neighbour, weren't you my dear," interjected Macaw diplomatically. Autumn could only manage a nod, quite upset by Red's response to her attempt at comforting him.

"Well I don't want or need that interest, I just want to be left alone," said Red uncaringly.

"I see, I see, then neither of us will bother you again, if that's the way you want it," with that parting comment Macaw turned and flew back to his perch at the back of the room. Red said nothing in reply, the fewer friends he had the better.