The doors were caked solid with rust. Big Crunch grasped the locking cross bars and pulled on them with all his strength. The hinges groaned. He braced his legs against the jamb and pulled harder. Rust fell, and the doors opened wide. They peered into a long, dark hallway and silence. The only sound was the occasional drip of water that echoed off in the distance.

The two little Punx came to life on Kalla’s wrist, and the twin lizards peered into the tunnel.

“Send the princess out now!” the voice of Daktor boomed outside. “If you do not send her out, I will assume you have taken her prisoner, and we will attack!”

The entire group stood, ignoring the call of the field marshall, and stared silent and motionless down the long corridor. A small spot of illumination winked to life in the distance, seemingly a great long way off. The light was framed inside a far-off square narrowness of tunnel walls. And then they all heard a distant sound. A closer square of brightness winked to life, and then even a closer light winked on. The sound grew from the barely perceptible into the rush of something moving towards them. More white blocks of light stepped towards the tunnel entrance like a runway coming to life.

One of the Punx leapt from Kalla to the floor. The gecko scurried to the doorway and sniffed the air. It seemed to think for a moment, and then it began to spin back and forth on the threshold.

“Something is coming,” Big Crunch said.

“Yep,” Jazzy said. “And if it’s bad, nowhere to run except outside into the arms of the waiting army.”

“Punx acts like he doesn’t know if it’s bad or good.”

The scurrying and screeching sound was building to a crescendo as the lights continued to turn on ever closer to the doorway.

“We should get out of the way; it sounds like it is coming fast.” Distinct animal sounds. Shrill and high. Unique-sounding screechings of all different registers. Everyone backed away from the open vault doors except for the big lizard man. He stayed to try to determine what the threat was.

Louder and louder still, the noise grew until the rush of movement and screeching filled the air.

“Birds!” Big Crunch said and ducked behind the door jamb against the wall.

“Birds?” Jazzy asked.

“A river of them!”

And then, with a roar of noise and squawking, the room was filled with birds. Large running birds of all shapes and sizes. Giant ostriches, birds as black as night, smaller multicoloured birds, some of them flying. Grey birds with short feathers. They filled the room and out through the control room doors into the big room beyond where the track stood, a river of feathers and noise washed over them.

Some birds became stuck in the larger space and knocked against the control panels. One small black bird ran into the door of the cooking room, thumped into the sisters, and ran back out again to join the exodus. Feathers swirled about the room, creating a snowstorm of colour. Everyone stayed ducked and hidden down behind the control panels or behind doors until the solid wall of birds gradually decreased. But still, more birds ran through the room, now scattered in groups and then that decreased to the last few stragglers rushing through in search of freedom. Kalla went to the bank of windows. Some birds were running around in the sloped chamber with the track, but most were finding the open archway into the canyon outside.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The party turned to find two remaining birds. These birds stood calmly, peering from the open vault archway. One of the largest birds and one of the smaller flying birds. Both had been fitted with the tech of bird brains.

“Well, ah, there sure were lots of birds down there, eh?” It was the big bird that spoke, his head nearly touching the top of the archway. His harness and arms were bulky. Under one arm the bird brain had nestled an ancient beat-up silver drone. The bird’s voice was strange. Definitely a male voice, but it had a buttery lilt to its speech.

The small, pretty bird spoke next, projecting a girl’s voice that was also strangely accented. It wore a very fine, delicate set of mechanicals that looked like they were made from silver wire.

“Yes. Lots of bird. Bird food. Bird stink on floor. Waterfall with goo. Bird eat goo.” The accent was clipped.

“But you guys are birds…” Big Crunch began.

The bird’s heads swivelled to each other.

“Yes. We too are bird. But today only. Yesterday… yesterday we baseball player.”

“Ya. We are birds. But what my friend here is saying is that we’re not normally birds. This is just like a glitch or something. Short term only.”

“That right. Short-term glitch,” the little bird said and then looked back to the group that stood to their front. “We play baseball. We not birds.” The little bird shook its head “no.”

“What-ball?” the princess asked.

“Hey!” the camera lens of the drone flickered with illumination as it spoke.

“Who are you guys talking to?” the voice asked. “Who is out there?”

“Ah. Nobody” the small bird said quickly.

“Why did you lie to him?” the ostrich said sideways to her in a stage whisper.

“He is baby in tree.” The little bird bobbed its head like a nod. “We must lie!” she hissed back.

“Hey! Hey, you guys! Quit messing around.” The drone lens flashed its little pulses of light almost with each syllable.

The ostrich stood and looked straight out at Big Crunch and the others standing, staring back at them.

“Listen, mate, Nova was just messing with you. We had some folks show up. You need to give us a minute. We’ll get you outa there. No worries, mate, we’re workin’ on it.” A big yellow crane arm lifted and gave a little wave to the group.

“Uh, hi… I’m Brock, and this is Nova.” He pointed a finger to the little bird at his side.

“Who is there? Who is there with you?” the drone asked.

“Your time is up!” a booming voice called from outside.

“Ah, sorry, but we have a somewhat hostile army that has us surrounded outside,” Big Crunch said as he pointed back behind himself with a thumb. “My apologies, but introductions are going to have to keep till later. Princess, do you feel up to trying to take control of your army?”

The princess rose to her feet. She still had a serious limp. “Daktor’s cavalry. They may not listen to me.”

“It’s the first thing we’re going to try.”

Little Ishi let fly a string of hand signals. If she looked angry before, she looked dangerous now.

“That is excellent, Ishi. We could use the magic cloak and her grenade,” Kalla said.

“Yes, we could. Those tools won’t overcome the entire army, but your suggestion is giving me the beginning of an idea. Let’s go talk to them before they try to bash their way in here. It may take some quick talking, guile, and luck, but I think there is a way out of this.”

The drone that had flown in from the tower the day before came to life and lifted off the floor of the control room.

“The drone! That’s the drone that launched yesterday, Ishi!” Kalla exclaimed.

Everyone watched as it rose to about head height and hovered there.

“Darius? Is that you too?” the female bird brain asked. She looked from the drone hovering in the center of the control room to the drone still locked under the big bird’s arm.

“I wish you guys would stop messing around.”

“This is Professor Adoria Seelo. I am speaking to you from the top of the Western Tower. I only have a moment of reserve power in this drone. We have been listening to your conversation. Those ratites must get to the downed location of the Central Tower. With the crystal staff, that drone can reactivate and repair the Central Tower. You mus—”

And the drone winked out and crashed to the floor.

“Uh, mate. Just an update: we’re still working on that rope for ya.”