The bottom of the mountain. I wanted to be here for so long and now… here we are.
"That was a hell of a getaway huh" Huey said.
"Yeah I cant wait to see the look on the Nightingales faces when they find out we escaped with the flag!" I said out of breath.
We weren't out of danger, not yet anyways. We only had maybe a few kilometers left before we reached the bottom, The Sioux had been our friends and I was going to admit I was kind of sad to depart from them. But there was another problem, who would turn in the flag? The point had to go to one of the teams I doubted it could go to both. We decided not to talk about it and agreed to let the judges decide (the judges being my father and that seagull he flew with).
The ground began to even out, the air became warmer and much more moist, and the plants took on a more tropical form. We reached the bottom of the mountain, finally I was free! I could walk wherever I wanted without falling off a cliff.
"So Ju_Ju, we didn't die going on this trip after all, huh?" Roberto poked at me.
"It was only our 3rd or 4th day in, we still have an entire 4 months ahead of us Beto", I said rolling my eyes.
" 4 months", Seneca repeated. She too was out of breath, she hated everything about this camp. She was the definition of a neat freak, grossed out by everything and anything. She always complained and was so pathetic. It was honestly sad.
Today wasn't any different.
"Eww, its so muddy and gross around here, Im getting my talons full of dirt and muck" Seneca was about to panic.
"C-C-C-COME ON! Cant you s-s-stop c-complaining!", Forest yelled.
"Calm down forest, sure she complains a lot and its annoying but what can you expect, she's a girl." Cleveland said, hanging off of that last word.
"And whats that supposed to mean?" I snapped at Cleveland who backed away fast.
I was about to fight with him but Roberto pulled me away.
"Okay, oKay calm down Jewel. He is a jackass he doesn't know what it means to be normal", Roberto said in my ear.
"Come on guys we don't have time for this. We have to keep moving before the other groups catch up with us. We should have gained the upper hand at Kill Van Kull but they might have crossed the river or ran back down the mountain to catch up to us. Time isn't on our side here." Tuskee said pointing ahead.
I shot a evil glare at Cleveland and I walked forward.
The ground evened out completely and the clearing was just ahead. It must have been past noon the sky was already transitioning from a light to darker blue.
My father and a group of other adults waited in the center of the clearing.
"Forest you have the flag right ?" Felipe asked.
"Yeah, h-h-hey w-we still ha-havent figured out who is-s going to get the point or n-not." Forest said.
"lets just bring the flag to Eduardo and he will decide, right?" Thurgood began questioning himself. Once again.
"Right on", Felipe said.
By the time we reached my dad, everyone was practically climbing on all fours. We were exhausted.
"hmmm." My dad said looking over the flag, the group of adults with him reviewed the flag, and looked at it closely.
Come on dad just give us the point already .I thought.
"Well this flag is authentic, but the point has to go to…"
Everone leaned in to find out which team would win.
"Both of you, you were the only team to work together to find and capture the flag. Very wise choice, we hope you make the same choice in the future." The seagull next to my dad said to us.
"That's finally over, now can we fly back to our shelter, Pleease?" Naomi said, clutching her wings.
Everyone else agreed and waited for a answer.
"Yeah you guys go home and rest while we wait for the other teams." My dad said.
Finally.
Before I took off, my dad grabbed my shoulder I turned around and looked up at.
"Whats up, dad?"
"I just wanted you to know. I always knew your team would win, simply because you are on the team."
"Thanks dad" I hugged him tightly and went to join my team.
We all slept in the same hollow (a bad idea since Tuskee snored, a lot). Me and Roberto couldn't talk to each other like normal friends without someone saying "ooooohhh" or shooting a occasional whistle.
We slept so early that late at night everyone woke up, way before we were supposed to.
Naomi and Seneca talked about things I could never understand (what is a the point of applying clay to your face if that clay just needs to get washed out of your feathers and that takes at east an hour?), everyone else played games, outside.
I refused to go outside, during the night that is. Who knows what evils lurk in the undergrowth.
The algae pond suddenly had a whole bunch of waves on it. I heard a splashing sound.
"aww man this water is gross!" Huey's voice resonated through the jungle.
I could hear laughter coming from the people who pushed him in.
This commotion was strong enough to distract even Naomi and Seneca from their annoying and brutally long conversation.
Huey emerged out the pond, he had green all over him, he charged into the undergrowth to chase the people that pushed him in the lake.
Then all of the sudden Tuskee jumped into the hollow laughing like crazy. He held his stomach and almost fell forward of laughter.
"You three should have seen it [haha] it was hilarious…[chuckling] I pushed Huey into the lake and he got soo mad. And the best part is…. He doesn't know its me he is going to blame Onondaga!", he finally fell on the floor laughing.
"Boys." Naomi shook her head. "Don't they know that algae doesn't help at all with the feathers".
"Huh?" Tuskee was confused.
He looked at me.
"any idea on what they are trying to say?" he asked me pointing at them.
"No breakthroughs so far." I said.
"You guys are a bit judgmental don't you think?" I said to them.
Naomi rolled her eyes.
"Come on Seneca. Lets go somewhere else. We are obviously not wanted here" the two flew away somewhere, and it was just me and Tuskee.
"So what are you doing here?" I asked him.
Tuskee was pulling a leaf blanket over him in his bed.
"Hiding from Huey, you?"
"Im just here bored I guess." I said.
"Hey I found a rock. Wanna play catch?" Tuskee held up the rock.
And that's what I did for the next 20 minutes.