Thunder raced through the jungle. Ahead of him, he noticed a small light in a tree. He approached it hoping that he could find help out of his current situation. As it stood, he was alone trying to make sense of the events that had just unfolded. He had never been alone before and found he didn’t like it at all. All Thunder wanted to do was find his mother and feel her warm embrace again.
Penelope heard a branch rustle below her. She muttered to herself, “Someone’s there. Answer the door. Answer the door.”
Nudging her jar of fireflies, Penelope waited for their light to give her better sight. The glow from the fireflies brightened the darkness around her. She picked up the jar with her wings, and carried it like a candle to her nest’s door. She unlatched the door and peered skeptically down below through the branches of the tree.
A mild breeze cast shadows from the limbs as they swayed in the moonlight. Penelope scanned carefully and playfully called out. “Peekaboo. Peekaboo. Who’s there? Woohoo!”
Crickets chirped, but soon stopped. The air became eerily quiet. Penelope could not see much in front of her. “Is anyone there?”
The parrot noticed what looked like a large boulder covered with branches. This had not been there earlier today. When it moved slightly, her heart just about leapt out of her chest as she hopped back a step. “How ya doin’?” She made a clicking sound with her tongue and waited for a reply.
When none came, Penelope continued, “Come for a visit?” She whistled loudly and bobbed her head back and forth on her shoulders. “Time for dinner?”
The bulky object moved again, but did not reply. Her eyes peered into the darkness. “Come and see me.”
Penelope made kissing sounds and bobbed her head again. “Come and see me.”
Now more curious by the moment, the gray parrot stepped outside her door. Sneaking behind the tree trunk, Penelope peeked out and saw Thunder’s head. “Elephant. Big feet. Long trunk. Woooo!”
From beneath the tree, Thunder finally heard her. “I’m down here!”
“Peekaboo,” she replied.
“Hey!” Thunder looked up at her.
Penelope clucked her tongue against her beak and ruffled her feathers. “Hay is for horses.”
Glancing into the tree branches, Thunder squinted for a better look. “I’m Thunder. I lost my herd!”
Penelope tilted her head from one side to the other as she stared at him. “Thunder? Thunder? Where’s lightning?” The parrot whistled then cackled loudly at herself.
Thunder grumbled, “That’s not funny!”
“Not funny, not funny.”
Thunder attempted to ignore the mocking in the secretive voice. “Can you help me?”
Penelope replied in her singsong voice, “What-a-ya’ doin’?”
“A terrible thing happened!” Thunder felt tears running down his face as his voice trembled.
Penelope sensed his sadness. “Trouble. Everything okay, dear?” She made small kissing noises in an attempt to comfort him.
“Far from it! Where are you, mystery voice?”
Penelope waddled out from behind the tree branch. “Peekaboo. I see you.”
Thunder let out a sigh of relief. “I see you.”
“Nice to meet you,” she replied.
At that moment, down on the ground near Penelope’s tree, a human hand loaded a dart into a tranquilizer gun. The upright, Drago, raised the tranquilizer gun and pulled the trigger. Thunder groaned when the dart hit his skin. After a few seconds, the lights started to fade from before his eyes and he slumped over.
Penelope heard a loud thump and felt the tree shake in the darkness. Then all she could hear was a brutal silence. Peering down, she saw Drago standing near Thunder’s limp body.
The upright glanced up, saw the parrot, and quickly decided she was another opportunity for financial gain. He reached behind him and pulled out a burlap sack, which he threw over her.
Penelope squawked fearfully before everything went black.
The next morning, Drago was traveling down the long dirt road, his truck filled with his captives from the night before. Birds and animals lined the back of the truck bed in cages that kept them trapped securely inside. The small elephant calf was held inside the largest one. Drago knew this was only a temporary holding for the calf. Soon, he would auction him off to the highest bidder.
His goals of a rich future distracted him as he traveled over the bumpy road. His speed was far from safe, but Drago was not concerned. He had places to be, and people to bleed money from.
The green tree frog watched from the side of the road as the caged animals bounced perilously inside the strange vehicle. He choked on the trail of smoke that wafted from the truck’s exhaust as it sped by him. He hopped away from the sight, shaking his head at the commotion.
Thunder started to regain consciousness, but his head was heavy and he felt groggy. He looked around in confusion as he struggled to grasp what was happening to him, but he was still completely disoriented. He blinked his eyes together a few times, attempting to clear the filmy haze that had collected over them.
A loud yowl of truck brakes filled the air and the squeaky, metal cages rubbed against each other. Thunder felt the cold metal meld against his skin and shook his head. He gazed at the bars and tried to make sense of it. He was trapped inside some kind of metal box. Looking over at the other cages, he saw several more captives.
Thunder’s head bounced up suddenly when a shot rang out, loud like the ones from the night before. His world spun crazily as his heart pounded a mad rhythm in his chest. Then he heard several more shots follow the first. His head dropped back down to the floor of the cage. A tear slipped down his cheek. How had he managed to get himself in this mess? Thunder heard birds shrieking in terror. Monkeys wailed in the distance. Lifting his head again, Thunder could see them racing around as they attempted to avoid capture too in their wild panicked hysteria.
Thunder let out a long, tired sigh as he tried to keep his eyes open. He knew it wasn’t wise to sleep, but he was still too tired to fight it. The last thing he saw before his eyes drifted closed again was a large, heavy tarp that concealed a mound of covered items.