The morning brought with it a renewed sense of urgency. Gadget was already awake at the crack of dawn. The forest floor was covered in a light mist. She lamented not having her tool set, but she knew that she had to do something to get her plane fixed. She was removing the last part of the wings when Edgar awoke, putting his glasses on and crawling out of the burrow.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Oh, good morning," Gadget said, looking over her shoulder, "I'm just thinking about how to remodel the plane so it can get us where we need to go. We're not going to get anywhere on foot."
"I think I know just the way," Edgar said.
"I was hoping you kids would help," Gadget said with a smile, "You built a plane before after all. Even with my aviation knowledge it's never too late for me to learn a thing or two."
"I'll go get the others up."
With that Edgar went back into the burrow and lightly shook Russell awake, avoiding his quills as he did so.
"Ugh, morning already?" Russell yawned.
"Yeah, we're gonna have to try to get Gadget's plane flying again."
Abigail slept between Michelle and Willy, all huddled together for warmth. Edgar couldn't very well shake Abigail and Willy without also waking Michelle. He whispered to Abigail.
"Psst, hey Abby, wake up."
Abigail's eyes fluttered open, and she groaned and stretched, as the other two squirmed.
"Oh, good morning," said Abigail, rubbing her bandaged forehead.
"You okay?" Willy asked her.
Abigail nodded and ruffled his hair, "You need a hair brush."
"What's that?"
"Oh get up," Abigail giggled, "So are we working on the plane?"
"Yep," Edgar replied, "Come on out."
Edgar looked over at Dale, who had Zipper sleeping in his lap. He figured he'd let the chipmunk keep sleeping for a while. Maybe they'd finally impress him with what they did know, he thought, since Dale was always teasing them about their naiveté.
When they came out of the burrow, Gadget had finished pulling off what was left of the wings, leaving holes in the side of the plane's plastic hull. Edgar sized these up, and thought about how they could use them.
"All right, I think I have an idea," he said, "You guys get us some sticks and leaves. We'll need something to tie things together…"
"I think I have a roll of duct tape in the glove box," said Gadget.
"What's that?" Edgar asked.
"Oh! Um, it's like a thin, sticky strip of paper, kinda. Except it's not really paper."
"I guess that'll do," he said, going toward the glove box.
Abigail felt proud seeing Edgar take such leadership, but he was also the one who supervised building the original Flapper Wingamathing. The rest of them split up to find good material. They wouldn't be able to find sturdy lily pads for the wings but maybe this forest had tough leaves somewhere. Abigail and Michelle stayed together to look for leaves, while the rest of them looked for sticks. Having gathered what they could, within a half hour everyone had returned to the plane with their materials. Edgar cleared a spot in the dirt and with a small stick, started to draw a diagram.
"Okay here's how we're gonna do this. We'll build a winder-upper with some long sticks, and slide it in through the wing holes in the hull. Then we'll mount some sticks to support the pivot and the two wings here, and the back passengers will all be in charge of winding the wings."
Gadget stooped down to look over the plans.
"I think we can make that work if we build everything right," she said with a smile, "Come on you guys, let's get to work."
The next couple hours or so were spent constructing the new plane. Long twigs were duct taped together to create the winder-upper, and the wings, which were jointed like a bird's wings and fitted with leaves which acted like feathers. The wings were mounted above the cockpit of the plane in much the same way they'd been on the Flapper Wingamathing. Abigail and Willy sat in back to test the wings out, cranking the winder-uppers and making the wings flap. They pushed as hard as they could, until the plane lifted a few inches off the ground.
"We did it!" Edgar declared happily, as Gadget put her hands on her hips and stared up at it with pride.
Dale crawled out of the burrow, yawning, followed by Zipper. Zipper looked at the new plane with surprise, tugging on Dale's shirt and pointing at it.
"Woah! What's that?!"
"It's our new plane," said Gadget, "And it runs on no fuel at all! Neat huh? Of course, it can still run on batteries for an extra speed boost, but they aren't required."
"And we built it," Abigail added.
"What should we call it?" Michelle asked.
"Since it's like a hybrid of our planes, how about the Ranger Wingamathing?" Edgar suggested.
"I like it," Gadget said with a wide smile, "Well Dale, what do you think of it? I worked out the measurements and proportions but other than that the kids mostly built it all themselves."
"Well uh…it's impressive, I guess," Dale said sheepishly.
Zipper folded his arms and shook his head with a frown.
"Oh alright, you kids are pretty smart, I'll give you credit," Dale conceded.
Edgar smiled, "Okay! Now we just gotta steer clear of owls."
"Traveling by day should make that less of a problem," Gadget said, "Now then, wanna give it a spin everyone?"
"Let's go!" said Abigail with enthusiasm, as the group climbed into the plane and strapped themselves in tightly.
Gadget instinctively started to pull a lever and turn it on, but brought her hand away and put both hands on the steering wheel. The rudder was still controlled the same way as before, strictly mechanical. The engine would make the front propeller go if there were any power, which would speed the machine up. Hopefully they'd just be able to glide and make about as much mileage as a typical bird of this size would.
Everyone in the back started to turn the crank, a jagged stick put together with duct tape, making the wings flap. The four of them put some muscle into it, until finally, the plane began to lift.
"Keep going guys," said Gadget, "Once we get up high enough you can lock it and we'll just glide the rest of the way."
The plane slowly rose over the canopy of the forest, and once they gained enough altitude, they were able to lock the wings in place and successfully glide forward. The Ranger Wingamathing was airborne, and a success. By noon they were back on track, gliding toward their destination, a place close to home for the furlings.
After a few hours, they realized with excitement that they were passing over the bluffs that outlined Oakdale Meadow. Willy stared down, leaning over Michelle's lap to get a view of the lone oak tree.
"Homesick?" Abigail asked.
"Well, maybe a little," he said, "But, as long as I'm with you I'm fine."
Abigail giggled and kissed his cheek, as Willy wondered if they could be seen from down below.
"Dapplewood is just west of here," said Edgar, "It took us about two days to get to Oakdale on foot, but just a few hours to fly back in the Flapper Wingamathing."
"And the farm should be somewhere in between," said Gadget, "At least, so you said, Russell."
"Yeah, that spot where we hit the tree with the black vines," Russell remembered.
"They were probably telephone wires on a telephone pole," Gadget said, "Humans invented them to carry telephone signals and electricity. I never showed you a telephone but it's a little like a radio, but you can talk back into it."
"Sounds amazing," said Edgar.
They traveled over the drained marshland where the "Yellow Dragons" dug up the earth.
"Do you know what the Yellow Dragons are?" asked Abigail.
"Dragons?" Dale asked, alarmed.
Gadget looked over the site of the plane, and giggled, "That's just construction equipment. There's a crane, a bulldozer and a steam roller. The humans use them to build stuff. I'm guessing the humans will be putting a building there eventually."
"Construction equipment…" Abigail repeated slowly, "Huh…so they're really just machines."
Dale laughed, "Hoo boy, you almost scared me there. Thought it'd be some scary creature you called a dragon."
They passed the marshlands, flying over a wooded area again. Soon enough, after a while of gliding through the air, they could make out a large clearing marked by a barn and a building, over the canopy of the forest.
"Golly, that's got to be it," said Gadget.
"We made it!" the furlings cheered.
As they came closer to the farm they could see a field surrounded a worn down wooden fence, and outside of that bordered by woods. The field contained plants arranged in straight lines. Gadget decided to take them down someplace at the edge of the farm, where they could hide the Ranger Wingamathing from humans, near a pond with an old mill. The mill didn't seem like it'd been given much attention by the owners, so Gadget was hopeful they'd be hidden well enough. The furlings cranked the winder-uppers again to slow their descent, and they made a landing by a bush.
"Good, now let's cover this plane up with leaves," Gadget said, "We'll go the rest of the way on foot. We just need to find another animal to talk to about the rats that were here."
They traveled in a single file line, with Gadget leading the way, followed by Dale and Zipper. Michelle held Abigail's hand as they trekked through some long grass, with the sound of a babbling stream flowing into the pond masking their footsteps. It was probably the same river that later in its course flowed through Dapplewood. But the furlings had never been aware of this treeless, marshy area before. Cornelius had likely kept it a secret from them.
They emerged from the grass before the wooden fence, rows of crops in front of them.
"Where do you think the animals live?" Willy asked.
"I don't know," said Gadget, "Let's cross this field and get over to the other side. Stay close behind me."
"Lucky thing there's no humans around," said Russell, as they walked under the fence, "Say, are those carrots? I'm starving!"
"Shh! Now's not the time to eat," said Abigail.
"But we skipped breakfast," Russell whined.
"Let's keep going," said Gadget, "And please stay quiet. Humans aren't the only things we have to worry about."
Gadget couldn't have been more correct, for at that moment, a beast of a cat was prowling the field, its nose having caught a whiff of its favorite meal.
Russell sighed and kept up with them, at the back of the line, surrounded by rows of tasty vegetables. It occurred to him how much he was going to miss city food like popcorn and cheese, but at this point he was hungry for anything.
A shadow loomed over him, and he heard a low growl.
"Is that my stomach?"
"I told you to be-" Abigail turned around, only to see an enormous cat behind Russell, ready to pounce. She screamed, and the others turned around.
"Run!" Gadget shouted.
Russell screamed as the cat dove for him, narrowly rolling between two carrots. The others scattered in different directions, Abigail leading Michelle as fast as she could, Willy running beside them. Edgar panicked and began digging into the ground. Gadget and Dale went back for Russell.
The cat patted Russell with its paws, making him roll back and forth. His spines however poked his paw and made him hiss, shaking his paw in pain. Gadget and Dale used this opening to pick Russell up by his sides and run with him. Zipper flew into the cat's face, flicking his whiskers and diverting the cat's attention. While the cat swatted at Zipper, everyone else made their getaways, in opposite directions.
"Come on you can uncurl now," Dale griped as he and Gadget carried Russell, "You're a hedgehog, doesn't that make you a fast runner?"
Russell uncurled himself, and began to run on his own as Gadget and Dale let him down.
"We need to find shelter!" Gadget said.
They were running toward the farmhouse. Gadget hoped that maybe they could find some cover beneath the house, or within its walls.
"Where'd the others go?" Russell asked, huffing and trying his best to keep up with them, and also wondering how Dale got the idea that hedgehogs were fast runners.
"I don't know, but we can't worry about that until we're safely away from this cat," Gadget answered, "I just hope Zipper keeps him distracted long enough."
The cat swatted away at Zipper, chasing the fly toward the fence. Zipper kept just out of its reach, making faces at him and slapping his behind to taunt the cat. As he did, Edgar blindly dug himself deep into the ground, and Abigail, Willy and Michelle darted toward the edge of the farm, back toward the woods, only as fast as Abigail could pull Michelle along. Separated, each of them feared what would happen to the others when the cat finally got bored chasing Zipper.