9. Found Sanctuary
Red squinted as hard as he could. "It's a big grey thing…next to some green stuff and some brown stuff."
Macaw stared blankly ahead, his feathers puffed up in frustration. "Really? This is all I have to work with? Are you even trying?"
"You said, and I quote," Red cleared his throat loudly and held his head up towards the sky "Boy! Tell me what you see! Boy!" Red paused to smile for a second before finishing. "Well what I see is some grey, some green and some brown!"
Macaw continued to stare blankly ahead, his eyes now narrowed to slits. "I do not sound like that!"
Red let out a snigger of laughter. "Oh, trust me, you really do."
Macaw retracted his head thereby squashing his neck into his body in an attempt to make his voice sound deeper. In reality it just made him sound wheezy and oddly comical. "Well what I see is some grey, some green and some brown."
Red burst out laughing and turned his head around to face the bird perched on his back. "Was that meant to be me?"
"What do you mean meant?" answered Macaw.
"Literally, the worst impression I've ever heard in my life," sniggered Red.
"Look can we please just focus, its daytime, we're out in the open and we're starving to death, let's get somewhere safe before we start arguing about who's impression was the worst!" said Macaw as he made gestures to hurry up with his wings.
Red looked back at the view in front of him, he cocked his head slightly to one side to try and make sense of what his limited vision would allow him to see. "It's some kind of human den, probably a place we don't want to get caught snooping around."
"It's a barn, and that's nonsense, not all humans are to be feared," said Macaw.
Red snorted and shook his head. "That sounds like a terrible theory that I'm never going to put to the test."
Macaw bent down to talk directly into Red's ear. "Someday you may have no other option."
"Smart kid, right twice in as many sentences," interrupted a deep commanding voice that the two animals found difficult to place with an owner.
Red growled and bared his teeth in the direction he thought the voice came from. Macaw sighed and with one of his wings he redirected Red's gaze towards the actual owner of the voice. It was a tiny little robin perched on the wall that divided the path they currently stood on from the land surrounding the barn.
The robin chuckled. "A blind black fox ridden by a bright red…mystery bird."
"Parrot," corrected Macaw.
"And he's a wise guy too," continued the robin "we really don't like that type around here."
"We?" asked Macaw as he glanced around the area.
The robin held up a wing towards the tree above the two animals. Macaw's gaze followed the direction the robin was pointing. At first he couldn't see much of anything, then as his eyes slowly became accustomed to the sunlight streaming through the branches he began to see hundreds of pairs of eyes looking back at him.
"Pigeons?" stammered Macaw in disbelief at the sheer number of them, they were everywhere he looked.
"Pigeons? Pigeons are idiots," said Red "why so worried?"
"Red, look down at your feet…slowly," answered Macaw keeping his eyes locked with the Robin on the wall. Red looked down slowly, squinting hard at the ground that surrounded them. He began to understand what Macaw was getting at.
"Idiots? Absolutely, but there is strength in numbers, have you ever thought about what an army of hundreds can accomplish?" said the Robin as he hopped to the edge of the wall to look down at the vast array of birds milling around on the ground below. "Hey! I see you Stubby and what you're doing, don't make me come down there!"
The robin sighed and rolled his eyes. "Idiots yes, but they are useful idiots, my idiots!"
"Our idiots," came a second unannounced voice "or did you forget again?"
Macaw had to blink and shake his head a few times, a second much larger bird had seemingly appeared out of nowhere behind the robin on the wall.
"My idiots, our spoils, we've been over this so many times now," answered the Robin as he shook his head.
"Who are these two?" asked the large bird before vanishing again. Macaw and Red began to look highly confused.
The robin sensed he was losing his audience, he turned his full attention back towards the two trespassing animals, he cleared his throat loudly. "That was Talon, our resident Peregrine Falcon, she's more than a little quick, she's also my real muscle."
"Our muscle," came the faint voice of Talon as she circled up above. Red let out a stifled snigger, several the pigeons copied him and followed suit, even though they clearly had no idea why they were laughing.
The Robin rubbed his forehead with one of his wings. "That's enough we're done here, you two aren't welcome, show them off my territory boys." Turning away he began hopping along the wall in the direction of the barn.
Red felt the pressure of numerous small bodies begin pressing against his legs as the pigeons began herding him away from the barn. Macaw knew that was not an option, there was nowhere else to go, they were starving and needed shelter, they couldn't afford to be turned away.
"Wait, please, we'll be no further bother. Ignore my young friend here, he is rude and immature, and I apologise for any offence he has caused. We just need a place to rest and get our strength back, we'll be gone quickly I promise you!"
The robin stopped for a second as if taking some time to rethink his decision.
"I like them, they're interesting, you should let them stay," said Talon who was now perched amongst the pigeons in the tree above.
The robin let out a long-exasperated sigh, he then turned and hopped back along the wall towards the now rapidly disappearing Red and Macaw. When he reached the end of the Wall he held one wing up towards the sky, the mass of pigeons immediately stopped pecking and pushing Red, instead turning and looking up towards the robin on the wall.
"You stay, you work, that is the rule here," announced the Robin "this is my land and I own whatever is on it, if you're on it that extends to you too, is that clear?"
"I…" started Red before stifling a yelp of pain as Macaw dug his claws into Red's flank.
"Would be honoured to help out," said Macaw finishing the sentence Red had begun.
"I?" replied the robin as he peered suspiciously at the two larger animals.
"We," said Macaw quickly, he knew Red was itching to say something less than gracious to their new host which if he let happen could cost them dearly.
"Good…good…welcome to the family, you can call me Boss, because that's exactly what I am to you now," answered the Robin as he puffed himself up to look big and important.
"Wonderful…wonderful, whatever you need from us it's yours, lead on Boss," said Macaw as he bowed down graciously.
Boss snorted an acknowledgement and turned away towards the barn. Macaw glanced down towards Red, he had felt the large animals back muscles tense up throughout the conversation with Boss, he knew Red was all coiled up and ready to snap. Macaw lowered his head to force himself into Red's eye line.
"Easy my boy," he whispered.
Red didn't answer at first, his face frozen into a constant sneer. Macaw could see something in Red's eyes that he had never seen in his companion before, it sent a shiver down his spine.
"Red! This is not the time!"
"I won't be owned," growled Red through gritted teeth "not again!"
"You won't and you aren't, it's called acting," replied Macaw as he raised his head back up to smile in Boss's direction "just play along, be someone else, be anything, just until we get what we need."
It took a moment or two for Red to calm and relent, Macaw appeared to be making progress with his young friend. He guided Red over to the barn and through the door.
It wasn't until they entered the barn that Macaw could fully appreciate the extent of Boss's operation. The barn itself was much larger than it looked from the outside, the ground floor was broken into sections by old, dilapidated walls that must have marked out animal pens back when the barn was still in use. At the far side of the room was a worn wooden staircase which led upwards to a broken and uneven mezzanine that was around a third of the size of the ground floor.
The hundreds of pigeons they had met outside were just the tip of the iceberg, inside were even more birds. Sparrows, crows, magpies, owls, blackbirds, the sheer numbers of bird species made Macaw's head hurt as he tried to count them all. Red was less enthused, his limited vision stopped him taking in the full spectacle, instead his focus was on the cripplingly loud chatter the birds made as they came and went. A full orchestral cacophony of chirps, tweets, hoots and wing beats.
"The noise!" Red yelled over the din, he scrunched up his face and tried to cover his ears with his front paws. "It's unbearable!"
Boss was now perched on the top of a dividing wall located towards the centre of the barn, looking down at Red he held up a wing pointing it straight up at the ceiling, the barn fell silent almost instantly. "Listen up, these two are new, someone…show them the ropes," Boss panned his gaze from one end of the barn to the other as he gestured towards Red and Macaw with his wing. "I know what you're all thinking, yes that is a fox, a fox that is inside the hen house no less, but listen I protect what is mine, if he brings harm to any of you, he and his friend will answer for it!"
There was silence following Boss's speech, no cheers of agreement or dissent, just an uncomfortable silence. Boss continued to look around the barn, almost like he was looking for something amongst the vast array of birds present. "Now get back to it!" he said eventually.
The chorus of bird noises started up again almost immediately. "Oh, come on!" shouted Red as he put his paws to his ears again.