The two birds journeyed through the dark, gnarly woods. Celeste braving on, hoping to get to the end while Orville let out a yawn, a loud one. Of course, he was diurnal and didn’t have any coffee, he must be exhausted! She looked at him with slight concern, this was something strange about this forest and she couldn’t place a finger of it. But they must be getting somewhere, right? The trees weren’t as thick anymore, giving a good view of the sky. She gazed upwards, seeing the moon. Judging by the placement, it was almost midnight, were they here that long already? Her feathers had spots of filth and a few were slightly ruffled, but she wasn’t in as a bad of a state Orville was. He had a large prickle on his bottom, he only had just noticed and removed with a yelp. “Never thought I’d end up in this situation!” He whimpered, his feet covered in mud, his head feathers in a ruffled mess and his uniform having a stain on it. He gasped when he heard a loud noise, he looked to the side and gasped, seeing a large scaly tail in a bush.
“Celeste!” He whispered, looking at her and back towards where the tail was, only to see a log in its place.
”What?” She asked.
”N-nothing. Must have been seeing things…” He said shivering just seconds before walking into a big spider web, he let out a dodo noise and wiped it off his beak, the best he could before realising it was now stuck to his wing feathers. “Ugh! I think some of it is in my mouth!” He exclaimed, quickly running ahead to keep up, just seconds before a small insect landed on his wing. It was small and resembled a spider but with wings, he yelped when it bit him, shooing it away with his wing. “What was that!? The spiders can fly!?”
”Shhh!” Celeste shushed him. ”Careful, it’s a little slippery here.” She was careful with her steps, making sure to not slip or trip, the mud was slippery here, especially down the upcoming slope, the bottom hidden in darkness. But a certain dodo did not seem to get a memoir, the next thing she knew, he was tumbling down, having slipped forward, hitting the bottom of the slope with a hard thud. She quickly fluttered to the bottom, helping him up quickly, he struggled to get up and winced in pain.
“Are you okay?”
”Eaugh- My leg…” He whimpered as he held it up.
“Looks fine to me…” She responded and sighed, knowing it wouldn’t be good to push forward. He must have sprained his ankle. “But I suppose we could use a break. There!” She exclaimed finding a small cave, seemed it was not in use by any critters, thankfully, so she helped him over to it and helped him down, he let out a sigh as he closed his eyes.
“I can’t believe I got us into this mess…”
”And we’ll get out of it, together, okay?” She said calmly, concerned for him, Orville looked at her with a slight smile, he wasn’t good at walking in the forest. Clearly not with the pricklebush he managed to fall into earlier, or when he managed to get chased down by wasps, which stung him on the bottom. Could this get any worse? “Just take some rest. I’ll try and see if I can find something. Lie food or any kind of supplies.” She responded, hoping to find at least a food or water source nearby, if they were to survive, they needed to prepare. Hopefully there’s at least be some honey, fruit, nuts-or anything eatable! So she quickly flew out as Orville rested. She should be back by sundown, she had told him to call for her if he needed her.
Soon enough Celeste did manage to find a few small things, like some honey and a few nuts and seed. This was hardly a day’s worth, she let out a sigh as she started to walk towards the cave, soon hearing a low growling behind her. “Huh?” She questioned, her heart dropping at the sight her eyes met with. Head of a lion, wings of a bat, tail of a scorpion was this a… Manticore!? But it can’t be!? Celeste was met with the loudest roar she had ever experienced straight to the face, as soon as she could she lifted to the air, flaying as fast as her wings could carry her. Her heart was racing, her brain was processing a whole bunch of questions. But now she was ducking under branches, soaring over rocks and this monster was still after her. “Oh get lost!” She hooted back at it and kept racing, letting out a yelp when she gazed herself on a tree branch, but she kept soaring. She had to get back to Orville they could not be separated at a time like this. An idea shot into her head, she was not the best flier, but judging at its gaining speed, it was now or never. She soared straight up diagonally and did a tight dive back down into the forest, soaring through the small gaps between the branches, heart racing as she took another sharp turn, gasping when she heard the roar and crash of the failing Manticore behind her. Distracted by her flight, she ended up clipping herself against a branch and crashing into a hard tree, she let out a squeak as she got up, a stinging pain in her wing as she panted. “I-I can’t believe that work… I-I have to get back to Orville!” She exclaimed, her wing was unable to help her fly this time, so she decided to walk over, picking up her pace. Hopefully they could find some more food in the morning, but with a manticore hanging around, they’d have to be careful. She hopped over the log and hurried through the forest, hearing another roar, but unable to react in time before a part of the manticore slammed right into her, sending her flying into a tree and fainting to the ground below.
———
Wilbur woke up from his bed with a gasp, he groaned as he turned off his alarm. “What a strange dream…” he muttered, having a shower before getting dressed into his uniform before he noticed the lack of presence of a certain dodo. He owed him an apology over something with such an easy fix! All he head to do was enter the ‘recently deleted’ folder, not shout at him. Perhaps he was mad at him, too, or perhaps he woke up early to get to work. So he headed out of their bedrooms to where the main room of the airport was, “Morning, Orville I-“ He managed to say before noticing the empty desk, perhaps he had gone to get some coffee? Maybe they could talk over some coffee, so maybe meeting him at the roost wouldn’t be too bad of an idea. He can apologise, they can talk it out and it’ll be be back to normal. So he headed out to hoping to see him there. Only to leave the roost disappointed, but soon noticing something different in the museum foyer. Blathers was up? He was usually asleep at this time, he’s an owl.
“Oh, Blathers?” He noticed, “You are awake?”
”Oh-Hoo- Guess it’s a bit late-er-earlier than I realised.” He sighed. “Yes indeed, my sister and I were going to spend some tome together last night after she did some stargazing on this island, but she hadn’t shown up… I called her and all but… She never responded…. This is unlike her, hoo. I can’t help but feel worried, wot?”
“My brother’s missing too…” Wilbur said sadly, “We had gotten into an argument last night and I haven’t seen him all morning, or heard from him. I just want to apologise.”
“Hoo… Let me guess, he didn’t respond to any form of contact?” Blathers shivered.
”Not at all. It’s been hours.”
”Same… You don’t think…”
”Maybe we should look for them before we make any assumption first…”
___
”Isabelle!” Wilbur and Blathers shot into the resident services building just a few minutes before Isabelle were to make her morning announcements.
“Oh! Wilbur, Blathers! What brings you here, is everything okay?!”
”Orville and Celeste are missing!” Wilbur exclaimed, “You need to make an announcement, November Ocker Whisker!” Nook giving him a quick look as if to say ‘why do you keep speaking like that?’
“Me and my sister were meant to meet up last night. Not a word since, and I’ve been sending her messages for ages, hoo. My big brother instincts tells me something is really off.”
“I looked in every nook and cranny on this island-Except for Nook’s Cranny- But he never goes there!” Wilbur added. “Not even Kapp’n has seen either of them!”
“Missing animal report.” Isabelle gulped. “Understood…” He voice and expression were full of worry as the two birds stepped out.
“I know she’s perfectly capable, but It feels like something has really happened… Hoot…”
Wilbur looked at him and towards the airport, he had a bad feeling in his gut too. Besides guilt, he shouldn’t have shouted at him like that, but he wouldn't have ran away because of that? They have gotten in plenty of arguments before, but they always made up within a few hours. But not only was he missing, so was Celeste, he had flown her to the island and to another from time to time, but sometimes it’s Kapp’n who takes her to or from the island, or a friend of hers.
Could have something happened to them both at the same time? How? What could they do, surely there was something they could do to help!
“I guess there is not much else- I should head back and wait f--“ Blathers said before Wilbur tugged him.
”C’mon Sleepybottom Rock. We’ve got some Chalkie Lima Unicorn Echo Sierra to find!”
”Hoo what? Eh wot? Wot wot?” Blathers exclaimed.
