10. Found Sight
It had now been weeks since Red and Macaw had first encountered the barn and its avian occupants, in that time they had both done their best to integrate into the strange society they now found themselves to be a part of. In fact, the truth behind the function of the barn had turned out to be far stranger than either animal could have ever imagined. The barn had been setup as a central point for trade amongst the local birds that lived in the area, food, nesting materials, shiny trinkets, information and even protection were traded within its walls. Boss of course took a cut of everything that passed through the establishment.
Initially both Red and Macaw had been allowed to stay without having to get involved, however that soon changed once both had recuperated from their journey. Red had been put to work as protection for the barn, his main job was to watch the door and turn away anything that didn't have wings. He also spent a significant amount of his time around Boss, acting as a personal bodyguard. Both these jobs suited Red greatly as it meant he could stay outside and avoid the incessant bird chattering that plagued the inside of the barn. Red's vision had continued to get better as the weeks went by, he still struggled at medium to long distances however his short-sighted vision was now much better.
Macaw on the other hand had been paired up with Talon, he was to assist her with her hunter gathering tasks. Macaw didn't really understand this as it made no sense, he was no good at hunting, he was slow, easy to spot and struggled to carry things, it didn't fit with any of his skill sets. Oddly none of this seemed to bother Talon, she seemed to use him as company more than anything, constantly asking the parrot questions about himself and his life.
Red and Macaw had initially been inseparable but due to their now differing jobs their time spent together had begun to dwindle. Macaw did his best to find time to stop at the door to the barn on his way out with Talon, however this wasn't always possible.
"So boy, did you think about it?" asked Macaw.
Red yawned, he was curled up nose to tail in the long grass just outside the barn door. "Did I think about what exactly?"
Macaw peered down at Red from his perch on the top of one of the open barn doors, he shook his head. "What we discussed last time last I caught you knapping on the job."
Red let out a snort. "I do plenty around here."
Macaw rolled his eyes and hopped off the door and onto the ground next to Red. "Oh don't I know it, I've seen you sleeping in at least half a dozen locations, just keeping those spots warm for everyone, right?"
"My job is to sit by this door and look intimidating, I can do that with or without my eyes open," said Red.
"So, are you going to go look?" asked Macaw cocking his head to one side.
"There was a reason I left, and it was a good one," replied Red "she's better off."
"Is she? You got to decide that?" Macaw poked Red with one of his wings. "Maybe that should have been up to her?"
Red didn't respond, he was finding it difficult enough to be this close to the last place he saw Scarlet without someone constantly reminding him.
"Maybe you should have told her the truth and let the decision come from her, have you not considered that to be the reason you feel the way you do?" continued Macaw.
Red opened his eyes and sat up. "It's all irrelevant, looking for her would mean crossing the town."
"The Beast is dead, you're not that animal anymore, you need to move on," replied Macaw as he made forward motions with his wings "everyone else will have."
"I knew it!" boomed a voice from behind the two animals, it was Boss. "You are the Beast from the town, unbelievable!"
Red snorted again and gestured towards Macaw. "Impossible, didn't you hear? The Beast is dead, so how could it be me?"
"Buried is not the same as dead son," answered Boss as he flew down to join them "you don't kill a piece of yourself, you learn to own it, or it learns to own you."
"Great and now there's two of them!" said Red holding his head up to the sky and closing his eyes. "Why is it always birds?"
"Because we're always right," both Macaw and Boss said in unison.
Boss looked over at Macaw. "Haven't you got somewhere else to be?"
Macaw looked between Red and Boss a few times.
"Don't look to him, off you go now," said Boss as he waved the larger bird away. Macaw turned around uncommittedly before opening his wings and flying up and over the barn. Boss turned back to Red. "Don't you just hate know it all show-offs?"
"Some of the time I do wish they would leave me alone," Red cast a casual glance over towards Boss. "That goes for all of them."
"Now I finally understand where all this aggression comes from, and the refusal to conform!" Boss hopped up on to Red's back and then up to his head and looked down into Red's eyes. "Is it true that you fought off three of the northern foxes most feared fighters on your own?"
"Four…" Red began before pausing for a moment, there was a hint of sadness in his voice. "And what does feared even mean? Feared by who? They were just regular foxes, they weren't fighters, just fathers trying to protect their families, and I ended them because I could."
Red felt himself being drawn back to those events again, he could see their faces clear as day, the expressions of fear and pain were terrible. Red squeezed his eyes shut to try and push the images away.
"What you bury will be dug back up later, better to acknowledge it, learn from it, and own it," said Boss "it's the only way to make yourself whole again, sometimes bad experiences teach us more than we realise."
"Just leave me alone, I'm doing what you asked, keep your lectures to yourself," Red replied reopening his eyes and turning towards the barn. "Go count your earnings or something."
"Such defiance, you really are everything Chief described," Boss smiled "also, maybe don't go burying the Beast again just yet, we might be needing him."
Red paused and looked back. "You know Chief?" there was a look of disgust on Red's face.
"I knew Chief," replied Boss with his wings held up "he is quite dead I assure you."
Red continued to stare at the Robin, he did not consider that an adequate explanation.
"Okay, okay, let me explain! This sort of operation, see, it takes time to establish. You don't go from nothing to full trade monopoly without it taking time, and connections." Boss paused for a second before continuing "See Me and Chief, we had an understanding, I organise a little reconnaissance, cut him in on some of the trade, he leaves us alone."
"You spied for him?" Red's face was now a permanent scowl.
"I did what had to be done to survive, just like you," Boss gestured to the barn "business was booming back then, it was the best of times."
Red began to growl, he vehemently disagreed with that statement.
"To be a bird, a bird! As a fox, terrible, really very terrible times," Boss tried his best to back track "Chief was an awful fox and leader, but he answered for his crimes I can assure you."
"He did? How?" Red strode back towards Boss "He needed to suffer, I need to know he suffered."
It had been sometime since Boss had felt afraid of anything, seeing Red stride up to him in anger definitely ticked that box. "I wasn't there, I heard his son sold him out, along with the entire of the Southern foxes. Killed to the last fox or so the story goes. The remaining Northern Foxes up and disappeared not long after that, not heard or seen from them since."
Red checked his advance and sat down. Chief had been terrible to him however his son Scout was a friend. He had deserved a better fate than sharing that of his father, in fact the more Red thought about it the more Southern foxes came to mind that had not deserved to die.
Boss watched Red for a moment, he could see that he was lost in thought and figured giving him a moment might soothe at least some of his anger.
Red eventually broke the silence. "You said you needed the Beast, why?"
Boss looked up at his larger companion. "Because I'm not big and scary enough without him."
Red rolled his eyes. "Who is it this time?"
"Look, this time they deserve it I swear," replied Boss as he hopped up onto Red's back.
"You said that last time, and what did you have me do?" Red cocked his head to one side and screwed up his face to make it look like he was thinking. "Oh yeah that was it, intimidate a couple of elderly voles!"
"That was a misunderstanding on your part, I clearly said frighten not terrify," said Boss "this time it's different see, a group of wild cats have moved into the area, I need you to make sure they understand the rules here."
"Would those rules be leave and don't come back?" asked Red.
Boss hopped up onto Red's head, he had a beaming grin on his face. "I like to think it's a more than fair offer."
Boss directed Red to a clearing not far from the barn, it was a relatively short and uneventful trip. Red had used the time to try and pry more information from Boss regarding the events that took place in the town after Red had left. Unfortunately, all the stories Boss told didn't seem to fit together properly, either he was making it all up or he genuinely hadn't been present during the aftermath and was merely repeating stories he had been told. Red soon realised that further questioning was not going to get him any satisfactory answers.
"What now?" asked Red as they approached the centre of the clearing.
"We wait," answered Boss. He wasn't sure himself how this was going to go down, the birds that had encountered these cats had been a little unclear on details. The one common thread through all the accounts was that the cats always ended up back here at this clearing.
The clearing itself was unusually large and surrounded on all sides by dense woods. Red's vision was much better than it had been however he couldn't see any details in the tree lines, when the cats arrived he would be reliant on Boss to spot them, this didn't take long.
"They are here," whispered Boss in Red's ear, he was still perched on top of Red's head. "Straight ahead, four of them".
Four cats had broken through the tree line to the north and had begun to make their way diagonally across the clearing towards its eastern side. They made it about halfway before they spotted Red and Boss at the centre waiting for them. They paused momentarily looking between each other before the lead cat motioned for them to approach.
"You or me?" Red muttered out of the side of his mouth, trying his best to disguise the discussion from the oncoming cats.
"I'll go first, you play it by ear and jump in when needed," said Boss, he couldn't help the grin that crept onto his face.
The cats approached close enough to talk but kept at a distance far enough from Red that he couldn't pounce on them. They were all male and each had a different coloured coat of fur.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the little kingpin and his personal fixer," said the ginger tom cat at the head of the group, the remaining three cats began encircling Red and Boss. "You're a long way outside the walls of your personal enterprise, did you get lost?"
"This area is all my enterprise," responded Boss "I'm here as a courtesy, that is all."
The ginger cat let out a chuckle. "A courtesy?"
"Every undesirable who comes on my land gets it," continued Boss "point yourselves in any direction and walk until sundown."
Red began to feel uneasy, there was something wrong here, Boss's plan wasn't the only one at work. He tried his best to keep track of the actions of all four of the cats as they spread out in a semi-circle in front of him. There was something strange about the way they moved. They were far too relaxed, continually stopping to clean themselves, looking away into the trees or up into the sky, they were trying too hard to look uninterested. Sometimes bad experiences teach us more than we realise, those words reverberated around Red's mind. He suddenly felt the tactics he had learnt in the town come flooding back, Chief had always told them to plan their enemies' movements before their own. Put yourself in their position, what would your plan be? Figure that out and you will always come out ahead.
"What if we like it here?" said the ginger cat as he stopped and pointed with a paw around the area "maybe we don't want to leave?"
"You will leave and never look back," replied Boss, his eyes fixated on the lead cat "or my fixer here will have to insist."
The ginger cat began to laugh. "This half blind beast you are sat on top of? Yes, we know about that little disability, we've been watching." He gave a quick little upwards nod of the head and a fifth hidden cat leapt from the shadows cast by the tall trees to the west.
The attack was intended for Boss, the cats thought that if they could remove the leader in the area everything would fall into ruin, allowing them to take over. Luckily for Boss Red had seen this all coming, he raised his front left paw at just the right moment and caught the cat in full flight. The ball of his paw connected with the cat's throat, he immediately slammed it down pinning the helpless black cat to the ground.
"I might be half blind, but I can still hear and smell," said Red, his voice full of malice "and currently you all sound and smell a lot like fear."
"We are-" began the lead cat. Red thrust his body weight onto the leg that pinned the black cat to the floor, it began to squirm and choke. The other cats cried out in distress, Red watched and waited for them to fall silent before releasing some of the pressure.
Red lowered his head to be in line with the black cat's ear. "I feel another prick of a claw or fang on my leg and I rip you in two, is that clear?" The cat slowly and painfully nodded, immediately releasing the grip it had on Red's front leg.
"Like the bird said, you leave and never look back," Red looked straight into the eyes of the ginger cat "I see any of you again…" Red removed his paw from the black cat's neck and slammed it back down into the underside of its front right leg joint. The cat let out a horrific cry of pain as Red's claws dug deeply into its flesh. Red used his body weight to drive his leg forward before removing his paw from the cat causing it to slide across the grass over to its counterparts. The three subordinate cats moved to help their injured companion up before shepherding him over towards the northern tree line. The lead cat held Red's gaze for a moment before turning and following, Red knew this wasn't going to be the end of it.
"Truly marvellous work son," Boss patted Red on the head with a wing. The two animals waited and watched as the cats disappeared into the forest.
Red shook his head. "They're not done."
"We gave them a chance, everyone gets one that's the rule here, what they do with it is up to them," replied Boss with a shrug "that was a victory irrespective of what the future holds, you even saved my life, that's not something that will be forgotten!"
"Our lives," corrected Red.
"Right, so you were worried about your own safety there?" said Boss sarcastically "you were worried that five half-starved cats might take away your life? You, the infamous Beast?"
Red turned and started heading south in the direction of the barn. "Just take us home, I have to get back to sleeping on the job."