Frederick flew down next to the lagoon and gazed inside. The water rippled with Thunder’s frolicking and his reflection turned blurry before him. “Aaahhh! My face! What happened? Oh no! Wrinkles!!”
Flapping his wings around him in a panic, he put one to his chest and held on, as if his heart were about to explode. “Everything was fine a minute ago! Oh! Oh! My face!! Where’s my night cream?”
Frederick turned to Thunder, snapped his wing tips together, and pointed to his vanity table. “Quick! Hand me that jar!”
Thunder reached around the boulder with his trunk. He wrapped it around the jar, picked it up from the table, and stretched so that his trunk brought it toward Frederick.
The flustered flamingo grabbed the jar quickly from him and opened it up. The ripples faded in the water before him. Frederick peered into the lagoon and saw his reflection again. “Oh, wait! Who’s that? Oh, it’s me! I’ve come back! Oh! What a relief!”
Frederick let out a nervous laugh, relaxing slightly, then feigned as if he were going to faint. “Oh my! I was beginning to feel like a cat on a hot tin roof! Bring me my wine, Scarlet! Where’s my handkerchief? Oh, oh!”
Soma rolled her eyes from the mud nearby. “Here we go again.”
Frederick walked over to the vanity table, plucked a tissue from the box, and turned to Penelope. “Did you see that movie?”
Penelope whistled at him. “Frederick is a flamingo.”
Frederick wiped his brow in confusion. “What?”
Penelope titled her head at him as he looked in the mirror. “Nice to see you.”
Frederick shook his head at her. “Nice to see you? I don’t even know you! You’re losin’ your feathers, girlfriend.”
Penelope squawked. “Ick! Ick! Ick!”
The flamingo muttered to himself, “I traded a nice comfortable life in a high-rise for this? What was I thinking?”
Thunder walked from the pond and stopped closer to Frederick. He leaned forward and froze, and his ears jutted out around his head. He listened with his feet as the ground moved beneath it.
Penelope cocked her head at him with a puzzled look plastered over her face. “What-a-ya doin’? What-a-ya doin’?”
“Sending a message and trying to hear the earth move,” Thunder answered her.
“Move the earth?” Penelope stomped her feet on the tree branch above him.
“Yes, elephants can do that. Didn’t you know?” Thunder replied.
Frederick ignored the pair of them and continued to preen himself. He was fixated on getting his feathers styled just right.
Penelope jumped down from the tree branch and paced back and forth on the ground in front of Thunder. Penelope nodded to Thunder with her beak. “Thunder’s an elephant. Big feet. Soft soles. Can move the earth. Woooooo.”
“Yes. And I bet they are back in the field. We have to get back to them, before they leave again!”
Frederick put a wing up and gestured to them. “Yoo-hoo? I’ll be right there!” He sashayed over to Thunder and Penelope. He noticed Soma in the mud. “Girlfriend, you got the right idea!”
Soma rolled over and grumbled to herself. She had better things to do than listen to the foolish flamingo.
Frederick turned back to Thunder and propped his wing under his chin in contemplation. “I’m here! Now, where’s my pupil? Ah, there he is. Are you ready to learn some style?”
Frederick sashayed in front of them, showing off his fancy walk. “Some grace?” He posed one wing above his head, and one wrapped around his stomach. “And some poise?”
The flamingo made another shape in front of them. “Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!”
He grabbed Thunder’s trunk with his wing tips and talked into it like it was a microphone. “Are you paying attention?”
Thunder replied nasally, “I’m here! Front and center!”
“And you with the mud pack, spa time is over! Come out and join the party!”
Soma trudged out of the mud hole. The egrets flew over and resettled onto her back.
Frederick gestured to all of them. “Now listen! You can’t just traipse over that big open field and think the uprights are not going to see you. Oh no, honey. They’ll sound the alarm and end your life as you know it!”
“I thought you didn’t know anything about the uprights?” Soma asked him.
“Well, of course I do, but they bore me, dahling. Nothing flashy about those uprights over there. Nothing to see there, honey. And I like my hide where it is just fine. I wouldn’t want to be turned into some exotic head piece after all. Although I’m sure I would make any upright look fashion forward with my feathers.”
“Right,” muttered Soma.
“You have to follow my lead,” assuaged Frederick.
“Okay? So now what?” asked Thunder.
Frederick answered, still stuck on his last train of thought. “Yes, honey pie, they will end you.” He paused for emphasis. “Now watch me. I’ll show you the art of hiding in the forest. You have to become one with the trees—if you know what I mean.”
Frederick pranced over to a tree and disappeared behind it. “You have to think like a tree.”
The funny flamingo contorted his body to match the tall thin shape of the tree. Not a single feather could be seen behind the trunk. “Just like this!”
Frederick returned from behind the tree ignoring the puzzled looks that Thunder and Soma shared. “Now it’s your turn.”
Thunder walked behind the tree, but his round body stuck out on both sides. He stood up on his tippytoes, and let his legs stretch over his head. The tree shook under his weight, its leaves rattling loudly in protest.
Soma moved behind the tree next to him. She sucked in a deep breath to get skinnier. She almost pulled it off, but her horn stuck out from behind the tree.
“How’s this Frederick?” called Thunder.
Frederick put his wing over his head and shook his head. “No, no, no. That won’t work.”
The egrets broke out in a fit of giggles.
Soma was struggling behind the tree. Her face was turning different shades of purple and red. She let out a huge exhale that sent a gust of air past Frederick and the egrets. Their feathers were all pointing sideways from the rush of wind.
Frederick slapped his wing tips to his forehead and shook his head in exasperation. He returned to his closet, shuffled a few items on hangers, and grabbed some clothing. Garments flew through the air. Soon a pile of clothes were scattered all around the ground.
At last, Frederick pulled out two bulky, colorful outfits. “I knew these would come in handy one day! And that day is…ta-da…today!”
Frederick held up what looked like two unicorn costumes. The large fur covered costumes had a tuft of rainbow hair that came down in swooping waves. When the light caught the rainbow hair just right, it glittered in the sun.
Soma and the egrets looked at each other in disbelief. They were simply speechless.
Thunder tilted his head at him in confusion. “What’s that?”
“It’s a unicorn suit, silly!”
Thunder scratched his head with his trunk wondering if Frederick expected them to put those on. “Are you sure? I don’t like the sound of this.”
Soma gave Frederick an ice laden glare. “Unicorns don’t exist.”
“Of course. I know that! Don’t you get it? If they don’t exist, then no one can see you! Voila!” gestured Frederick with his hand.
Cedric blinked. “Is that how it really works?”
“Oh, right! And I suppose you want her to wear the pretty pink and purple one.”
Frederick nodded affirmatively, “That’s right, of course! They’ll never know!”
Soma shook her head. “That’s ridiculous!”
Cedric bounded up to Soma’s head and knocked on it. “Listen, sister. You’ve got to do this to get us through!”
Soma snorted at him. “Tell me something new.”
Frederick threw a unicorn outfit over Thunder. He smoothed the fur out and whistled to himself. Then he tossed the other outfit over Soma. He ignored her stamping feet. “I feel just like a stage mother! Oh, how exciting! Oh!”
Meanwhile, the egrets were sneaking under Soma’s costume in an attempt to get covered up. After a few seconds, they were too hot under all the fur and struggled to get out from under the costume on Soma’s back. They ended up in a pile on the ground under Soma.
Frederick found a giant cone-shaped object and fitted it over Soma’s horn. “There. Now you are ready! Ready for the ball, my princess! And don’t you forget to take it to the dry cleaners before returning it to moi.”
Soma rolled her eyes at him and muttered, “Why did I even get up this morning? Cleaners…I’ll take something to the cleaners, all right.”
Thunder’s words came out muffled and nasally from beneath the costume. “Can we go now?”
Penelope whistled above them. “Time to fly. Time to fly. Let’s go.”