Chapter 10- the poachers part 1
Meanwhile
Audrey, Brandon, Joanna and Francisco drove in a large jeep with Tulio, his wife Linda and adopted son Fernando and were on their way back to Tulio's Aviary after an outing together involving a brief tour of Rio including Copacabana Beach.
"Before I became Tulio and Linda's, now Dad and Mom's adopted son," Fernando explained to the Australian woman, English man and Joanna, "I used to be part of a band of smugglers due to me being a homeless orphan."
"Did your parents die or something?" asked Brandon. Fernando's face fell with sadness and he placed his hands on his face.
"No, they're still alive but they separated and eventually, my mother threw me out and told me to never come back and to fend for myself, which was how I ended up on the streets," said he in a sombre voice.
"Th-th-that's HORRIBLE," Audrey replied in revulsion at what happened to Fernando, "Wh-wh-when were you chucked out?"
"At age 7," said Fernando, gazing at her, "And after a year or so of wandering the streets like a stray dog, I eventually came across Marcel and his group of smugglers and they took me under their wing... but not a very nice one at that, especially with what they did: capturing and smuggling animals, mostly birds. From that day on, I was consumed with guilt but I carried on because I needed money just to survive, even though they kept paying me a fraction of what was promised with each successful capture of each bird.."
"You were the one who took Blu and Jewel, weren't you?" asked Joanna. Brandon shot her a glare at this rather insensitive remark but Fernando, who didn't mind, nodded to this.
"Yes, and that was the final straw especially when I saw how heartbroken Mom (Linda) was," said Fernando with a nod to the red-haired United State-born woman sitting next to her husband who flashed him a look, "I decided to help her and Dad (Tulio) to find the Spix macaws. Then after I rejoined the smugglers to keep them safe and eventually turned against them altogether at the airport, Linda and Tulio adopted me as their son and now I work as a bird conservationist and to a small degree, bats (I'm vaccinated and trained to handle bats) and other animals as well."
"That's a good turnaround for your life," said Joanna before she turned to Tulio, "Did you try and contact his birth parents after you dealt with those smugglers, Tulio?"
"We did but we couldn't track down his father and when we tried to contact his mother, she refused to have anything to do with him," Tulio replied, flashing a look at Joanna before returning his eyes to the road. Obviously, with him driving, he MUST keep his eyes on the road at ALL times.
"And since we were unwilling to let Fernando return to the streets, we took him in," added Linda.
"A tragic early life, Fernando had," said Francisco.
"That's sort of like how my foster bat and friend Ahsoka had to be taken in by me and raised, but she was TRULY an orphan," said Joanna, "we couldn't find any of the other Amazon flying foxes ANYWHERE, at ALL in Tijuca Forest."
"That's what poaching tends to do, Joanna," said Tulio with a frown, "Not only are animals captured and treated poorly often, but the affected animals tend to move on to avoid getting caught. We have had evidence of an apparent small population of glaucous macaws once living in our forests as well, but not anymore."
"Could Sirius possibly originate from your forests?" asked Brandon.
"We don't know..." said Francisco when suddenly; Tulio's phone went off, its ringtone being a crowing cockerel. Audrey flinched as she found that noise irritating.
"Ugh... I n-n-never liked the s-s-s-sound of cocks crowing..." said she as Tulio uttered, "Oh, bother," in Brazilian Portuguese, his native tongue due to being Brazil-born, and began to look for a space to pull up and answer his phone. As he did that, Brandon said, "Did you know it's illegal to drive while using your phone, either by texting or talking on it?"
"It's illegal in a LOT of countries," said Linda, "And for good reason."
"Yes, y-y-you could cr-cr-crash," said Audrey, "As it-it-it can t-t-t-take your concentration of th-th-th road."
Joanna, Francisco and Fernando nodded in agreement as Tulio then pulled up into a parking spot on the side of the road, turned off the jeep's engine and got out of the car to answer his phone. The other six humans looked on as Tulio continued talking but then his mood suddenly changed, and not in a good way.
"WHAT!?" he blurted out to the caller on the other end, "What do you mean the..." he trailed off and gave the other six a look of dread, the colour draining from the skin in his face. At first, Joanna, Audrey and Brandon gazed back at the pale-faced man in confusion but then that same dread crept over them as thoughts for Ahsoka, Sirius, Aurora and Milo entered their heads.
Later
Tulio's Aviary was sealed off with black and yellow banner ribbons labelled 'Do Not Cross' in both English and Portuguese tied around the premises on supports such as trees. Black and white police cars with flashing red and blue lights atop their roofs were present and policemen and women dotted the premises, interviewing the guards. However, a storm was occurring. Joanna, Audrey and Brandon stood back at a distance with Francisco, Fernando and Linda, watching Tulio have a temper outburst in a clearing and safely away from everyone else to prevent hurting them. Their faces were laced with UTMOST confusion, sadness and despair and the former three were ESPECIALLY upset, and especially Audrey since Milo was one of her best friends. Linda and Fernando were troubled, the former because she had been through this before when Blu was taken with Jewel, and Fernando because HE took those macaws as mentioned before. Then Luca, the head of the chiroptology and bat conservation department of Tulio's Aviary, came up to the six. His facial look was perplex. He had been in the artificial jungle chamber and had come out to confirm that ALL nine of the valuable animals including Ahsoka and the male bat (Orion) had disappeared.
"It's true," said the lead chiroptologist, "All seven blue macaws and both flying foxes are missing."
"But how!?" asked Fernando in disbelief.
"We've had all that advanced security technology INSTALLED since Fernando stole Blu and Jewel," said Francisco. Audrey was weeping and was being hugged and comforted by Brandon and Joanna.
"Well, according to what we found in the chamber," Luca explained, "And the guards who witnessed something, the macaws and the flying foxes have managed to escape through a vent. We found the damaged grate covering the entrance to the ventilation shaft leading into the chamber lying on the floor nearby, but that's not all..." he then turned and gazed at three particular guards. Linda, Fernando, Francisco, Joanna, Brandon and a very tearful Audrey followed his gaze and found three certain guards, one of them being the lead guard, Sylvio. When they saw the three and their state, they winced.
"They look like they've been attacked by a pack of feral cats," said Fernando when he saw the scratch marks and torn clothes on their bodies and their messed up hair.
"And Sylvio looks like he had been bitten by something on his leg," added Brandon when he saw a bite mark on said area and how Sylvio was standing on one leg, his left one. His right shin was bandaged, indicative of a nasty bite mark there. A policeman was interviewing him and the other two equally dishevelled and claw-marked men named Pablo and Pedro but when the group heard what answer came out of Sylvio's mouth in response to the policeman's question, an even GREATER wave of confusion washed over them.
"It... it was a large white bird of some kind..." Sylvio spoke, his face contorted as he winced from the pain of his injuries, "It was large... larger than a cockatoo... about this tall", he indicated the height of the bird with his hand and Linda, Fernando, Francisco, Joanna, Brandon and Audrey flinched at the height as Sylvio continued, "And it had a long neck like a snake..."
"It was accompanied by a pack of cats... dogs... and some black birds which I believe were a type of corvid, like crows and ravens," added Pedro. Francisco's group exchanged looks.
"The description of the large bird Sylvio gave sounds like a large waterbird," Fernando said.
"A pelican?" asked Joanna as she continued to comfort the weeping Audrey. Brandon, however, shook his head in disagreement.
"Sounds more like a white swan," the man from London said, "I've encountered those birds before with Aurora and Sirius at some ponds we have in our gardens back in London such as the Jubilee Gardens and believe me, they can be VERY vicious birds, especially when they have a mate and cygnets."
"And they can be very strong birds, I've read," put in Linda, "My former home place, Minnesota, also has swans nesting. They are EXTREMELY territorial and will not hesitate in attacking anyone and anything that strays onto their turf."
"Well if whoever had managed to capture the seven macaws and two flying foxes had a swan with them, then that is TOTALLY unusual indeed," said Francisco.
"Furthermore," Luca added, "that grate had been busted from the wall and some of us have concluded that those nine animals have managed to escape through the ventilation shaft to outside, indicated by the vent grate also broken from the wall in that area of the building," he then put a hand to his mouth and entered thought, "But if that is the case, then that means the macaws, Ahsoka and the male bat had flown up the shaft and escaped. However, that is a problem since Ahsoka cannot fly for one and two, no human can fit through such a tiny and narrow shaft and thirdly, some black feathers, clearly originating from a crow or raven, have been found INSIDE the chamber NEAR the opening to the shaft..."
Linda flashed a surprised look at the head chiroptologist when he mentioned Ahsoka not being able to fly.
"Joanna's foster flying fox is flightless?" she asked.
"It's a long story," Joanna replied, "She's NEVER flown a single flap her entire life, ever since I found her as a pup in that jungle all those years ago, sort of like how your Spix macaw hasn't his when he lived with you in Minnesota."
"An eerie parallel," said Fernando.
"And it's gonna be a problem if Ahsoka is captured with the other flying fox and those seven blue macaws including Milo, Sirius and Aurora," put in Joanna as she continued to comfort the upset Audrey. Then Tulio came in after releasing some steam. He was still VERY angry and frustrated but he had better control of his temper.
"Okay, sorry about that outburst, folks," said he, "But I had to release it."
"It's okay, honey," said Linda.
"We've found out that the nine animals have somehow either escaped through the ventilation shaft and were captured by some group of thieves assisted by cats, dogs, corvids and a swan outside," said Luca, "Or they were captured INSIDE the chamber and taken outside via the ventilation shaft, possibly by some ravens and crows that have found their way into the chamber via that shaft. How is anyone's guess..."
Confused shock tore through Tulio and he flinched.
"These thieves have been assisted by cats, dogs, corvids and a swan!?" he blurted out.
"That's what Sylvio seemed to have described," said Brandon with a nod to Sylvio, Pablo and Pedro as they continued talking to the policeman. Tulio turned and gazed at the three guards and saw their state. Then his anger boiled within him once again but he did not let it explode this time.
"This is the SECOND time we have had a theft of invaluable animals, eight of which are part of three species on the BRINK of EXTINCTION here," he growled. Brandon sunk behind Luca, wary of the ornithologist's temper but Fernando assured him that it was not HIM that he was angry at. Tulio continued, "First it was Blu and Jewel... and now Aurora, Ahsoka, Milo, Sirius and those five wild macaws and flying fox that we have FOUND and intended to be their future mates..."
Luca, Francisco, Linda, Fernando, Audrey, Brandon and Joanna gazed at Tulio as he continued to glare at the crime scene and began to hope that the nine animals hadn't gone far.
Meanwhile
Aurora, Milo, Ahsoka and Sirius, together with Zephyr, his sister Brisa, Samara, Orion and Celeste, stood in darkness. They were in four cages hidden under some sort of cover and placed in some sort of container. They were moving and the smooth movement with the occasional bump and rocking indicated that they were in some sort of container on wheels. Aurora was in one cage with Zephyr and Brisa; Sirius was in another with Samara, Celeste and Milo were in a third and Ahsoka and Orion were in a fourth. The cages were stacked with the Spix macaws at the top, the glaucous macaws below them, the flying foxes in the third of the stack and at the bottom, the Lear's macaws. As the nine continued to be pushed along in the container, Milo looked around at the container while Celeste looked for a hole to peer out.
"We're in some sort of wheelbarrow," said he.
"Wheelbarrow?" asked Celeste.
"It's a container built onto a large while and has two handles," explained Milo, "Humans use it to transport objects and loads too heavy for them to move by themselves," he then called to the others in the cages above, "Aurora, Ahsoka and Sirius? Samara, Zephyr, Brisa and Orion, are you guys okay?"
"Yes," called Ahsoka's voice from the cage directly above the Lear's macaws, "Where are we?"
"We've been dragged up that ventilation shaft to outside and then caged," called Aurora who looked around the topmost cage with Zephyr and Brisa sitting sourly nearby. In the glaucous macaws' cage, Sirius also looked around until he found a small hole in the cover. He went over to it, poked a talon through and widened the tear and peered out. Nearby, Samara glared caustically at the cover and cage.
"I... DETEST cages," the pretty but still-bad tempered glaucous macaw growled in a low voice, "No wonder mud-pets get so comfortable in the houses of those WRETCHED bipedal destroyers..."
"Hey, even 'mud-pets' can despise cages as well," Sirius snapped, his glare at her, "Especially if they are in the hands of those STUPID poachers..." he then began to look around the cage nervously, "And... especially..."
Samara glared at him.
"Especially what, mud-pet?" she growled. She then saw Sirius' nervous behaviour as he gazed timidly at the cage and felt a pang of concern for him but that was displaced by her bratty, bad-tempered attitude as she then thought that Sirius was being silly. However, he wasn't as this type of cage was raking up some bad memories within the male glaucous macaw. Aurora and Milo were also feeling pangs of nervousness as they gazed at the bars, the floor and the roofs of their cages, the same bad memory waves threatening to rear their ugly heads. However, Sirius put aside the nervousness and peered out of the tear in the cover to take in the surroundings outside. In the bats' cage, Ahsoka looked around while Orion glared bitterly at the bars.
"Our human friends are gonna be UTTERLY worried about us when they find us gone," she whispered.
"Listen, Ginger," Orion snapped slightly.
"It's Ahsoka," Ahsoka corrected irritably.
"Ahsoka then," Orion spoke with her right name, "Those humans may be YOUR friends but not mine nor Samara's, Celeste's, or Zephyr and Brisa's. We belong in the jungle, NOT as house pets in cages in a human's home..."
"I was NOT a pet," Ahsoka snapped, "I was a foster bat. Joanna was intending to release me into the wild once the time came..."
"When the time came?" asked Orion. Ahsoka opened her mouth to reply but stopped herself. She was about to mention that she couldn't fly but she decided not to as she feared Orion's reaction. Then the two bats resumed looking around the cage. Back in the Lear's macaws' cage, Milo was trembling a bit and shooting gazes at the dark cage and walls of the wheelbarrow container.
"Are you alright, Milo?" asked Celeste when she saw his nervous behaviour, "You look scared."
"I'm..." said Milo, "I'm just... unnerved by this cage and from the stun of being snatched through that vent..." however; it was not just because of that. It was because of the boiling cauldron of bad memories caused by the cage and darkness threatening to overflow. He turned to Celeste and asked, "Have... have you ever been captured by poachers before?"
"No but I have been captured by those silly humans and brought to that crudely made jungle chamber with the silly intention of meeting you, along with Samara, Orion, Zephyr and Brisa," said Celeste.
"Let's... let's not go over that pairing up thing again and let's focus on escaping," said Milo and he continued looking around. Celeste breathed a sigh and joined him. In the topmost cage again, Aurora peered down the bars and tried to get a glimpse of Sirius and Samara, Zephyr and Brisa sourly looking on.
"Can you see anything, Sirius?" asked she. Sirius continued gazing out of the tear and took in the surroundings and as he did, his face fell. The buildings around the macaws and bats and their captors weren't advanced buildings like what he, Aurora and Milo had seen in the main city along Copacabana Beach. These buildings were very basic with some being ramshackle and in disrepair. Sirius then turned his eye down and when he saw something walk alongside the wheelbarrow, he flinched. Samara looked on sourly.
"I can see basic buildings, like what you find in impoverished areas," he replied to Aurora, "They're not built like those buildings we saw on the way to Tulio's Aviary, but that's not all..."
Aurora's face formed a look of dismay while Zephyr and Brisa looked on. Then the former of the two siblings spoke.
"If our captors are poachers, expect to be maltreated, pet girl," he growled. Aurora gazed at the wild-born male Spix macaw and flinched. Sirius was about to describe what he saw next but then the sound of a door opening alerted all nine of them in the four cages and they flinched.
Outside the cover, the cages were indeed being transported in a wheelbarrow and those moving it were two people, a young boy and a young girl around Fernando's age when he was part of Marcel's group. Both had tanned skin and brown eyes but the boy had blue eyes and the girl, green eyes. The girl's hair was long and tied into a ponytail. The boy and the girl wore an old set of clothes for they were homeless like Fernando had once been. With the boy and the girl were a group of animals. They were a variety of city cats and dogs but in addition to them, were black corvid birds. These birds, crows and ravens, flew alongside and after the boy and the girl and were lead by a chubby raven with brown eyes. The cats were lead by a male cat or tom with ginger fur and blue eyes while the dogs were lead by an intimidating looking hulking black dog of the Doberman breed. This dog was male and had green eyes. Three more notable individuals of the poachers' pets were a Dalmatian with spots on his back surrounded by a few smaller spots and blue eyes; a female calico cat with the obvious white coat smothered with black and orange blotches, and brown eyes, and a young male raven with a slim build and grey eyes. These three were only young with the calico cat being the oldest, a cat's equivalent to a teen while the Dalmatian was only a puppy and the raven, an older chick borderline on adolescence. The boy and the girl were fraternal twins and were similar to what Fernando had been before he joined Tulio's group and became Tulio and Linda's adopted son.
The group of cats, dogs, crows and ravens and the two people then entered into a large dilapidated house into a large room. The house was in serious disrepair with many broken windows and cracks in its walls whose paint was peeling with large patches of missing wall paint exposing the wall's skin underneath. In fact, cracks were present both inside and out and throughout the house's inner walls as well. However, this was the smugglers' hideout and their base. After the two kids and their animal assistants had passed through the door with their catch, an older man closed the door behind them and the group stood before another man sat at a table. Around the room were more cats and dogs of various breeds, more corvids and two more people, a younger man in his twenties and a slightly overweight woman. Also dotting the room were more caged animals, mostly birds and a few bats. The man at the table then looked up and smiled at the boy and the girl with a gangster-like smile.
"Well done, Jack and Jill," said he when he saw the twins named Jack and Jill, "and also you, Brutus, Lysandre, Dooku and the rest of you," the lead Doberman, ginger tom and raven smiled as they accepted the praise as the man, the lead poacher continued, "and that includes you, Sunspot, Katrina and Charon," the Dalmatian puppy, preteen raven and calico teen, however, just gazed downward guiltily, the cat lowering her ears but a Great Dane nudged them firmly into nodding. Jack and Jill also wore guilt-laced faces and bowed their heads slightly.
"Oh, don't look so disappointed, you two," said one of the other men, the older one, "Frank here is right."
"You did an EXCELLENT job in helping Vecna, our swan in catching those blue macaws and flying foxes," said the woman.
"Indeed," said the younger man in his twenties.
"Correct, Marv, Vera and Peter," the lead man replied to the other three, got up from his desk chair and went over to the wheelbarrow Jack and Jill had pushed to here and containing the load, "Now, let's get these cages onto the desk and examine our prizes," he then took hold of the cloak covering the cages and unveiled the captured macaws and flying foxes within. Zephyr, Aurora and Brisa in the topmost cage winced as the sudden surge of light washed over them from the cloak withdrawal. They then looked up as the leader, named Frank, took hold of their cage and put them onto his desk. Peter, the young man, then took the next cage containing Sirius and Samara the glaucous macaws and took them to the table. Sirius looked on timidly while Samara wore a look of volcanism. The urge to lash at the poachers was boiling dangerously within her and she was UTTERLY frustrated at being stymied by the cage bars to do this. Charon the young raven then looked on with some of the other ravens and crows including leader Dooku as Vera, the woman took Orion and Ahsoka the flying foxes' cage and took it to the desk and Frank again with the Lear's macaws, Milo and Celeste. The young raven had hoped that none of the macaws and flying foxes were hurt but Dooku shot him a glare.
"Excellent work in helping us to catching one of those bats, Charon," said he. Charon gazed at the lead chubby raven and said nothing. He clearly did NOT like this job and neither did Sunspot, Katrina, Jack and Jill. Then as soon as all four cages containing the nine valuable animals were on the desk, Frank gazed in triumph at them.
"Brilliant, Jack, Jill and the rest of you," said he, "You have caught all nine of those animals we are after," he then raked his triumphant glare over them, starting with Zephyr, Brisa and Aurora who glared back at him, the former two angrily and the latter, timidly.
"You've got all three Spix macaws," said Frank before he moved his gaze onto Sirius and Samara the glaucous macaws, the pair glaring maliciously back at him, especially the female.
"Both glaucous macaws and the last known macaws of the species," said Frank with a wide smile. He then tried to poke a finger through the bars but had to withdraw it when Samara immediately lashed her beak at it in an attempt to bite it. Frank flinched and gazed at the vicious female glaucous macaw as she caustically hissed at him, Sirius also flaring his claws in a threatening manner. For the first time, the pair were on the same perch despite their enmity.
"We're gonna have to be careful when handling those macaws," said Frank to the others before he resumed examining the other four, Ahsoka and Orion the Amazon flying foxes and Milo and Celeste the Lear's macaws. Like the Spix and glaucous macaws, these four glared back at him and his gang with three being angry and Ahsoka, timidly. "And you've also nabbed the last pair of Amazon flying foxes and the Lear's macaws as well. Excellent job."
Frank then stood up and gazed at the nine as a whole, "You've certainly nabbed a MASSIVE bounty, Jack and Jill. Those glaucous macaws and Amazon flying foxes will be worth an UTMOST fortune with the Spix macaws in second place and the Lear's macaws in third. Though there is a flock of Lear's macaws living in Bahia, they are still worth a lot of money due to being rare, especially if they are found elsewhere in Brazil such as here."
As he spoke, Aurora gazed at the other captured macaws and other animals in the room. They were huddled together and looking on timidly and were surrounded by more ravens, crows, dogs and cats who stood guard around them like jail guards. Then Frank turned to his underlings and pets.
"Now that we have got those nine animals, we need to figure out how to catch that Spix macaw family of five," he said. The seven blue macaws and two flying foxes widened their eyes in wonder.
"Spix macaw family of five?" asked Orion.
"I think he means Blu and Jewel," said Ahsoka, "I've met that couple before but they hadn't yet started a family. It seems like they have now with three chicks based on the description of 'Spix macaw family of five'..."
Zephyr and Brisa turned to Ahsoka when they heard her mention Jewel.
"Jewel?" said the former, the brother, "She was one of our friends from the Spix macaw tribe before those loggers' fire tore us from them."
"Is she still alive?" asked the sister.
"I have only met Jewel once but it was when we were young, she a chick and me a pup," said Orion.
"Sounds like she may have survived that fire but ended up alone like us," said Celeste, "And eventually found a mate and start a family of her own. Pretty amazing since the Spix macaw is so rare."
"I hope she's alright," put in Samara. However, she did not like the idea of Jewel settling in a forest near a human city, one of her most DESPISED places since she, like pretty much every other glaucous macaw apart from Sirius, HATED humans with a passion. Suddenly, a raucous voice pierced their conversation.
"Hey, stop talkin' you yappin' gemstones," said one of them.
"Yeah, shut ya beaks and ya traps!" said another, "Ya talkin's irritain' us."
The nine looked up and saw two crows glare at them with irritated eyes. Aurora and the others glared back at the crows as they resumed listening to Frank on how they could find the Spix macaw family. The nine resumed talking but quietly.
"I'll be glad to get outa this place," hissed Orion bitterly, his glare on the poachers. Like most wild flying foxes, he was untrusting of humans but poachers and loggers were on the VERY top of his hate list. Then Ahsoka gazed at the lock and examined it.
"Macaws," she told the others in a low voice, "Check the locks on your cages. They should be slide bolt locks."
Aurora, Sirius and Milo did so and saw that their cages had the same locks as Ahsoka and Orion's. Orion looked on as did Zephyr, Brisa, Celeste and a VERY embittered Samara.
"You four know how to unlock cages like these?" asked the male flying fox. Ahsoka turned back to him with a sly look. Then Sirius gazed at the other caged animals around the room and as he did, he formulated a plan.
"What are you intending on doing, mud-pet?" Samara hissed. Sirius ignored her and called Aurora and Ahsoka to him for they were nearest in their cages to his and Samara's.
"Okay, here's what we're gonna do," he whispered, being careful of the watchful poachers' pets in the room, especially the crows and ravens as they shot occasional glares at them. When they had turned away, Sirius continued before going over to Ahsoka, "And make sure you tell Milo this as well for he cannot come over to me..."
Ahsoka nodded and got prepared to hear Sirius' plan. Sirius also got Orion, Samara, Zephyr and Brisa to listen as well despite the latter three's reluctance.
"But how are we gonna search for and capture the Spix macaw family, Frank?" asked Peter.
"They could be ANYWHERE in this vast city or forest," said Vera.
"And isn't Carnival season near?" added Marv. As the poachers talked, Sirius put his plan in motion and undid the slide bolt lock to his cage, making sure the poachers' pets weren't looking. Aurora, Milo and Ahsoka did the same on their cages and as soon as they had the cage doors unlocked...
Frank continued his conversation with his underlings including Jack and Jill, a sly smile forming on his face. He then called for the crows and ravens and they obediently fluttered onto him. As soon perched on his head, shoulders and arms, Frank soon turned into a poacher version of Tulio with his bird fans and also an antithesis to the ornithologist.
"Our corvid assistants and Vecna will fly out and search the area," said he, before he turned to the cats and dogs on the floor as the crows and ravens flapped away and perched onto the floor or the furniture in the room, "While our four-footed friends will follow on foot and help with caging any potential target they find."
"Sounds like a plan but it will still take an AWEFUL long time," said Peter.
"Yes, Rio is VAST, don't forget," said Jack, Jill nodding in agreement. Sunspot, Katrina and Charon looked up in half-agreement. The latter, young preteen raven, was especially reluctant in participating in the job but Dooku and also the lead dog Brutus the Doberman and Lysandre the lead ginger tom cat glared at him.
"You will be helpin' in the task too," said the Doberman, "whether you like it or not."
"Yes, we will need EVERY pair of wings in the air looking for that Spix macaw family," said Lysandre.
"They'll be worth an ABSOLUTE fortune like those glaucous macaws and Amazon flying foxes," put in Dooku before the lead raven hardened his glare, "Now obey or face SEVERE consequences from our overall leader Vecna!"
"You as well, Sunspot and Katrina," Brutus barked at the Dalmatian and the calico, making the pair flinch. Fearfully Sunspot, Katrina and Charon obediently nodded to show their compliance to the leaders' gladness. However, the poacher group was completely unaware that their nine prizes had escaped their cages right under their noses, leaving four empty cages on Frank's desk.
Aurora, Zephyr and Brisa hid behind a stack of crates, gazing at some cages holding some blue-and-gold macaws, green-winged macaws and a hyacinth macaw surrounded by some of the poachers' pets. Aurora flinched when she gazed at the large navy blue bird in its cage. The cage it was shoved in was suitable for smaller parrot species. The hyacinth macaw was almost twice her seize and WAY too big for such a tiny cage so you can imagine what horrible state the poor macaw was in. As Aurora gazed in tears at the poor hyacinth macaw and also the blue-and-gold and green-winged macaws packed like rocks into their cages, Zephyr glared at her.
"Yes, that's poachers for you," he said in a low voice, "They do NOT care about their captured animals..."
Aurora ignored him and got prepared for a distraction that will be made by Milo and Celeste. Elsewhere in the room, Orion, Ahsoka, Sirius and Samara hid among more crates, ready to free their first targets, three marmosets under guard by a Chihuahua and a red setter. Though Samara was bitter, she reluctantly went along with Sirius' plans.
Frank then finished on the plans to catch the Spix macaw family and turned his attention to the nine caged macaws and flying foxes (or so he thought).
"Peter, get me some chains from that crate," said he to the young man and Peter did so. Charon looked on as the young man then went into the crate and pulled out some silvery snakes with a ring at either end.
"Why chain anklets?" asked he.
"It's to keep those gems together, Charon," said Brutus with a smile, "Stop 'em from scatterin'."
Charon winced when he deduced what Brutus meant.
"You mean...?" he began but then a MASSIVE fountain of swearwords exploded from the lead poacher, making Charon, Brutus, Dooku and the other animals and also Jack and Jill shoot a startled look in Frank's direction. Then Frank whirled round, his face red with a look of thunder.
"WHERE ARE THE (BLEEP)IN' SPIX, GLAUCIOUS AN' LEAR'S MACAWS AND (BLEEP)IN' FLYIN' FOXES!?" he demanded at the top of his voice. Peter, Vera and Marv stepped back with the latter stepping on one of the cats' paws, making the cat screech in pain and back away, its fur and tail puffed out. Frank then stormed over to Jack and Jill.
"WHERE ARE THOSE BLUE MACAWS AN' FLYIN' FOXES YOU TWO!?" he demanded to the twins, frightening them. Charon darted off to hide while Sunspot and Katrina dove behind Lysandre and Brutus to their irritation.
"We-we-we have them all locked in their c-c-c-c-cages, Fr-Fr-Fr-Frank," Jack stammered.
"Yes, and we made sure that their cages were locked as well, added Jill but then Frank, in a fit of rage, seized the twins by their hair, making them yelp in pain and dragged them to his desk. Then he thrusted their heads forward to make them look at the four empty cages, their doors open.
"Do those macaws an' bats look like they are still in their cages to you, you two?" he demanded, before forcefully releasing his grip on their hair, "DO THEY!?"
Jack and Jill grasped their hair and gazed timidly back at their boss, tears streaming down their faces when suddenly, a navy blue macaw leaped up from behind a crate, over Marv and Vera and landed right onto his head. Then the macaw, Milo, seized a lock of Frank's hair in his beak and pulled HARD. A tear sound of hair being torn from Frank's scalp raked the air and Frank screamed in pain and swore even more as agony exploded from that area through his head. Then as Frank lashed his hands at whatever had pulled some of his hair out, Milo shot off, dropping strands of hair on the go and sending black threads gently drifting down. Jack, Jill, Marv, Vera, Peter and the poachers' pets including Brutus, Lysandre and Dooku shot stunned looks at the navy blue Lear's macaw comet as he began to dart around the room and wreak havoc, another navy blue comet, Celeste, appeared and joined in the fray. That caused a MASSIVE fireworks display like that on New Year's Eve as the poachers and also their pets stormed to grab Celeste and Milo as they began to dart around and avoid their attempts to catch them. Curse words, shouts of anger, barks, screeches and cat screeches exploded from the poachers as they went after the Lear's macaws. Milo and Celeste's distraction had removed the guards standing around the other caged animals and once they were gone, Aurora, Sirius, Ahsoka, Orion, Samara, Zephyr and Brisa sprung into action and began to free them.