Midnight, it blanketed the mountains that we were traversing with a darkness. We had to be high up the mountains now as we had been hiking for the entire day. Tuskee kept us awake, by forcing us to walk up this whole way.
We each held a small stick with a glowing flower attached to it. It provided limited sight in the darkness but at least allowed us to orientate ourselves and keep each other together. The flower glowed from a dark blue to a dark violet color and was a nice sight none the less.
The Sioux decided safety was better in numbers and decided to stay with us, we were technically allies and our friends. I even got all of their names down: Tex, Felipe, Bubba, Dallas, Forest, and Cleveland.
"Hey, big guy! Can't we just stop here it's after midnight, huh?" Dallas asked Tuskee.
"No. We have to get to the top of the mountain first. I promise we will rest when we reach the 'Kill van Kull' area of the mountain." Tuskee said.
Onondaga said that we would only reach there around 2:00 and by then the other teams would have likely caught up with us if they rested now. Kill Van Kull was a point of the mountain on Onondagas map where a river ran through, and where the steepest part of the mountain elevation began. Kill Van Kull would send a shiver through anyone's spine but was supposed to be the name of the river.
Humans and their names! I thought. After all, Onondaga was reading off a map made by humans.
"I don't think we should stay out here for too long!" Bubba said. Instantly Seneca and Thurgood agreed with him.
"Come on guys, how many times at home did you get the chance to walk at night through the mountains?" Roberto asked.
"The perfect amount. Zero. This place is scary, and it's dark, an-an-and it's easy to get l-l-lost!" that was Forest, he had a stuttering issue.
"Come on give me a break we will stop, Kill Van Kull should be right up ahead. Water, food, shelter everything." Tuskee tried to calm us down.
We marched along tired. We climbed over a rock slope, a giant wall of rocks, and there was just flat earth. The flat land, according to Onondaga, signified we were approaching the river. I could smell the water in the air too, but trees and the night sky was blocking our view.
After a few more minutes and the soil was mushy and wet, sand and mud basically. Huey and Onondaga took a step forward and were submerged in water up to their knees, we shined our lights around. The tree line ended a few feet away from us leaving a blank area for a fairly large river that ran through.
"Okay, we are here. Let's get back on land and we will sleep here for the night."
I was the last to wake up that day. The morning went by surprisingly smooth. We had conversations, laughed, and ate breakfast as we prepared to conquer Mount Erasmus.
"Breakfast is up guys!" I said flying in wish a variety of fish and fruits in my talons. Everyone looked up at the sky at what I said, expecting food to fall from the sky. It's a little joke we had made.
The fish came straight from the river, it mainly went to Huey and Cleveland, Cleveland being a brown falcon that was actually bigger than Huey.
We crossed the river on a large boat made from a fallen tree. After getting on the other we continued our walk.
The mountains were a much better sight in the day time. We left the jungle yesterday and were now in the much colder forest part of the mountain. Trees I have never seen before were here, the air was a lot drier and coller, more sharp something that could keep you awake unlike the damp heat of the jungle. Basically the air was actually comfortable.
The flat land soon ended and the slope of the mountain increased dramatically, we still pushed on.
"How much more of this slope, huh?" Dallas asked.
"Not too much. We should be out of this in a few minutes if we keep up the pace!'' Onondaga added.
"If I keep up the pace my legs will fall off!" Apache said.
"Well use your legs as picks, and climb your way to the top. We cant stop now!" Ithaca said.
Dallas rolled his eyes and kept climbing. The peak of the mountain couldn't be too far off Onondaga reminded us always, just a few hours. We would surely win.
We could see the peak whenever the tree line broke, a long way leading up to a cliff face. We could also see Kill Van Kull in the foreground after climbing through the tree line. The river cutting through the trees and running off a cliff face.
"Me Thurgood and our father lived in the northeast, you know. They called the land America. Anyways, we would always take nature trips through the northeast like this, in fact I was named after a human tribe in the area where we lived. Onondaga." Onondaga reminded us.
"how come you left," I asked.
"we didn't leave." He left it off like that.
After a few minutes of silence, I had to try and ask again.
"well…what do you mean?" Thurgood answered this time.
"We used to live with a human family. But then someone just took us and ran all the way here. We never saw our father or our humans again."
"oh man," I said to myself.
Everyone got pretty quiet after that. Mainly to conserve our breath and because, you know, something really sad has just been shared. The slope let up a few minutes ago but then began to go up even higher, we were in the final stretch.
We climbed up another rock face, and lo and behold we could see all of the region of Canarsie. There was nothing left to climb, just flat rock and dirt. There was no snow but it was really cold. The trees had leaves on that sheltered us a little but not enough.
"Okay here is what we are going to do. We will split into three groups. Me, Jewel, Onondaga, and Seneca will go search in that part of the forest. Dallas, Forest, Ithaca and Huey will search near the cliff. Everyone else will go to the other forest area to look for the flag." Tuskee said.
I followed Tuskee, Onondaga, and Seneca into the forest. We must have searched for hours but it wasn't up there. We could hear the sound of drums beating. The Nightingales
We started searching more frantically, but to no avail. Nothing, zero, zip, goose eggs.
"WE FOUND IT. WE FOUND IT!"
I could hear the echo of Bubba and Felipe's voice from away. We raced back to the area were we began to split up, grabbing sticks and stones in case we met an unfriendly team.
We gathered together, Bubba holding a blue flag made out of some kind of paper.
The Nightingales were in sight, marching up the slope.
"Everyone head to the trees!" said to us.
We climbed the trees to hide from the other people. Their war drums silenced. Not a sound except the rustling of the leaves. Pure silence.
The air and wind itself even seemed to stop. When out of the corner of my eye I saw a blue jay and a lears macaw come into them an huge team of various other birds followed.
The two first birds where talking and I tuned in.
"yeah, Poughkeepsie and Tallahassee are guarding the entrance to the peak."
"I'm pretty sure those other birds are here. I heard them scream that they got the flag." The other bird said.
Stupid Dallas
"The only other group that left Skywalker before us was the Sioux and the Cayuga's. I think they formed some type of alliance."
"Alliance? Is that even allowed?"
"I think so. Anyway, teamwork is kind of overrated I mean what team was Babe Ruth on?''
"The Yankees!"
"It's still dumb."
Your dumb. I thought in my head as they walked right under me. They stopped just under my tree branch and sat down, Tuskee Seneca and Onondaga getting my attention making wing gestures signaling their attack plan.
I liked it.
Seneca held up her wing feathers. Only 3. Then two. And finally one. We jumped down on top of the two birds pushing them into a bush. We covered their mouths until we were sure the other group passed.
"Shhhhh!" I said to them.
"You're going to help us get down this peak!" Tuskee said to them.
"Or else what?" the blue jay asked.
"Well. We do have these stones over here. And bone+ stone equals…well, you could figure that out." Onondaga said.
Scared the two nodded their heads in agreement. We lifted them up onto their feet.
The rest of the Cayugas and Sioux gathered around.
"okay here's the plan, we take out the two guards, make those two lead us down to Kill Van Kull and then take the boat to the other side of the river where we will make our getaway," Tuskee said. Everyone nodded.
We waited. Huey Felipe Roberto and Apache went out to get the guards. They would make a sound to signal us.
After a few minutes, we heard it.
"Scraaaw! A-AAW, YAAAW, LEDLE LEDLE LED- SHUT UP!"
That was it. Minus Huey yelling shut up, ruining the secrecy of the mission. But that call needed to stop.
We took off running, down to Kill Van Kull. The Nightingales probably don't even realize what has happened.
Forest still carried the flag and it waved in the air. We ran down the slope for a good 15 minutes until exhaustion kicked in. we slowed to a walk and regrouped. The other Nightingales probably ran back up the hill to warn the rest of their team. Screw them.
The walk was a long one. It took a full on 2 hours to get to the Kill. The waves of the water sloshing ashore on a sandy beach like area with reeds and Nile plants growing out of the water to land transition. Our boat was still in its original place, but a few meters away we saw big boats made out logs and large leaves, enough to transport the armada of Nightingales.
We traversed the Kill and reached the other side, we would have set up camp here but the Nightingales were probably on our heels. Anyway, another problem much closer than the nightingales faced us.
A group of birds sat at our old original camp picking at the remains of food and resources we used when we were heading up the mountain.
Tuskee told us to try and avoid them, but they almost immediately saw us. They dropped their food and replaced them with sticks stones and other weapons.
We drew our weapons and it was a face off. Ithaca jumped in the middle.
"Woah, Woah guys, slow down. Maybe we can find a peaceful solution to this?" he said.
Both sides shook their heads, Ithaca looked kind of disappointed.
"Or maybe a violent one, but where I'm standing over there," he said pointing at a rock.
"This was our camp get away now or we will pursue you and take your flag." A Spix macaw from the other side said. I looked behind me. On the other side of the kill the Nightingales were boarding ships to cross to the other side. Not much time.
"Wh-wh-who are y-y-you?" Forest asked.
"We are the Dakota." The same Spix macaw.
"Well, you should know this used to be our camp!" Dallas said.
"Guys the Nightingales are coming across the river!" I said. All three teams (well technically two the Sioux and Cayuga's were united now.) looked at Kill Van Kull to see warships with the Nightingales coming ashore.
"They are the only reason why we don't kill you off now! The next time we meet we will be enemies!" A turtle dove said.
We continued walking, the Dakota going a different path than us, and we walked down the mountain.