[……Damn.]
No wonder he laughed it off as if nothing I did mattered. How ridiculous and foolish must I have looked, chirping away and threatening him with my beak? The corners of Formo’s eyes drooped as he realized the shocking truth.
[Over there, I can see the gate!]
[Lecho, go down carefully. Carefully.]
How long had they been flying? The shape of a large gate could be seen in the distance. Armo calmed down the extremely excited Lecho as she slowly descended. Formo, who had been sitting in the basket, poked his head out at Lecho’s commotion to see what the secret gate looked like.
His round eyes surveying the surroundings blinked slowly. The gate looked simpler and more ordinary than expected, but peculiarly, no doorknob or handle could be seen. Did it open automatically? Formo made a puzzled face, then quietly watched the long-tailed tits who were busily moving around near the gate after hiding the basket that held him in the grass.
The glimpses of the long-tailed tits between the grass looked just like a harmonious group out for a walk catching insects. Formo watched that adorable sight and unconsciously burst into a soft laugh.
I think Serdin laughed like this too.
Formo’s expression immediately hardened at the passing thought. It was utterly absurd. To be thinking of that damn human—no, that damn jaguar—at this moment. Had he finally gone crazy?
[Find a suitable rock!]
[Yes!]
While Formo was finding himself absurd, Armo led the long-tailed tits around looking for rocks. The secret gate that Armo had discovered by following the jaguar’s trail had a rather peculiar form. It was structured so that it would only open when a certain amount of weight pressed down on a particular patch of grass, but the weight of Armo and the long-tailed tits was nowhere near enough. Therefore, they had to struggle to find and move stones in order to get inside.
The weight of the stone they moved wasn’t very heavy, so the gate only opened a narrow space wide enough for them to pass through before quickly closing again. And when leaving as well, just like when entering, they had to find a stone and place it on the grass on the inside in order to get out.
The long-tailed tits moving around near the gate discovered a suitable rock and began moving it by combining their strength.
[Ugh, ngh……ah! It, it’s too heavy!]
[Gasp……! This seems ten times—no, a hun, hundred times heavier than the rock we moved earlier!]
[M-my wings feel like they’re going to be pulled off……!]
The tiny long-tailed tits made all sorts of fuss as they moved the rock.
[Everyone lower your voices. What if we get caught like this? There might be jaguars hiding in the grass. Don’t let your guard down.]
When the commotion and exaggeration grew increasingly excessive, Armo spoke firmly to calm the long-tailed tits down. At her words, the long-tailed tits who flinched and trembled looked around their surroundings with tense eyes for a moment, then shut their beaks tight and moved the rock.
The rock they were moving with combined effort was, in fact, laughable to even call a rock. How could something far smaller than a human’s head be called a rock? However, from the long-tailed tits’ perspective, it was certainly a size worthy of being called a rock.
[Huff, gasp.]
[We…… we moved it all. We moved it all!]
When they placed the rock on the grass that had grown near the gate, the large gate opened slightly with a sliding sound. The long-tailed tits watched it with proud eyes, then turned their bodies around.
[Now back to the basket……!]
[……We have to move it.]
[Mm. We have to…… Let’s go!]
The search party walked diligently toward the basket where Formo was, exhausted but busy. It was a hectic schedule with no time to catch their breath.
[Once we get through this gate, we can take a breather. Everyone hang in there just a little more.]
Armo encouraged the tired long-tailed tits as she was the first to wrap the strap connected to the basket around herself. The other long-tailed tits also wrapped straps around themselves and tightly tied each other’s, steeling their determination.
[Lecho, Peno. Cheer up!]
[You squeeze out even the strength from eating bugs, Mori! I saw you eating a lot yesterday. I think you can put in a bit more effort.]
Formo wiggled his wings inside the basket and quietly cheered them on.
[……Thank you all. Please hang in there just a little more. I’m asking you.]
[Gasp……. It’s nothing, Formo-nim! I’m thinking of it as building my wing muscles more intensely than usual. I’m really perfectly fine!]
[Yes, that’s right! We’re not so weak that we’d be exhausted by this much. We could even fly all the way to Arancha in one go without resting! Right, Peno?]
[……Lecho, don’t casually talk about impossible things as if they’re possible.]
When Lecho laughed “ahaha” and joked around, Peno scolded him with an anxious face. He was worried about what would happen if Lecho’s words became reality and they flew straight to Arancha without any rest time. They were already exhausted from constantly moving the heavy rocks. It was time for them to get sufficient rest.
The long-tailed tits, who had bickered while preparing their posture, flew at high speed toward the gate outside. Their wings spread wide like fans flapped and moved sturdily. The long-tailed tits who swiftly exited through the gate flew higher into the sky.
Though long-tailed tits originally fly at low altitudes, even in urgent moments like today, they couldn’t do that. This was because jaguars were beasts that climbed trees skillfully too, so they couldn’t let their guard down.
Formo, who had finally succeeded in escaping from the feline beasts’ secret domain, opened his beak slightly. He was a bit dazed, as he was heading to Arancha much more easily than he’d thought. After all, just getting out of the building had been a huge difficulty because of Serdin, who had always stuck to him.
Formo closed his round eyes at the air of the high, clear sky he was savoring after so long. The sky smelled of warm sunlight.
[Let’s rest a bit on that tree.]
Armo pointed to a suitable tree for the tired search party. The search party, who had placed the basket on a quite tall tree, sat on the branches and panted heavily.
Moving the rocks had consumed much more stamina than expected. To get from Tersium to Arancha required quite a long-distance flight, and Armo became worried as the search party was already exhausted.
[Is everyone okay?]
When Armo asked carefully, the search party twitched their beaks and watched each other’s reactions. They had bragged to Formo that they could fly to Arancha without resting, but in truth, that was a very distant prospect.
[Well……]
Peno’s gaze, who had been hesitating to speak while stammering, reached Mori. Mori was tilting his head and moving one of his wings that he’d used to move rocks, as if it was sore.
[M-Mori looks a bit tired. It seems like he might have overexerted himself, his wing looks uncomfortable, so I think we should rest sufficiently before going.]
[Gasp, no! If we do that, we’ll end up getting eaten by those vicious beasts! Getting away from here is the top priority!]
Mori shook his head with surprised eyes. Formo sent an apologetic look toward the long-tailed tits who were suffering unnecessarily because of him, then spoke softly.
[Armo, let’s rest just a bit more before going. Maybe because it’s been a while since I’ve been outside, but I want to rest more like this before going. And everyone’s tired too.]
[But if the beasts follow our trail……]
Armo, who had been trailing off, glanced at the tired faces of the long-tailed tits and eventually nodded.
[……Alright. Just a little bit though.]
Thanks to Formo and Peno, the search party, who could rest a bit more, cooled down the heat while panting heavily. While they loosened their sore wings this way and that, Armo anxiously surveyed the surroundings. She had no choice but to feel uneasy the whole time.
The fact that the escape had succeeded so smoothly beyond expectation wasn’t exactly a joyful thing. Rather, it was something to be wary of. Armo couldn’t shake off the uncomfortable feeling. She felt like prey just before falling into a trap. If her prediction was correct, they should have been chased by at least four or five jaguars while escaping.
Could they be trying to hunt while taking advantage of their moment of carelessness, intoxicated by the joy of a successful escape? The jaguars, befitting apex predators, had all sorts of wicked hobbies, which was worrying.
Armo waited for the search party to catch their breath sufficiently, then urged them.
[Let’s depart again. Hurry!]
That’s when it happened. Formo’s eyes, who had been smacking his beak while freely inhaling the scent of sunlight he was savoring after a long time, snapped open. This was because he felt a strangely familiar body scent mixed in with the warm, dry scent of sunlight.
“Pipi.”
And then came the voice of an existence that was very familiar, but one he absolutely did not want to encounter, at least not at this very moment.
“Where are you trying to go?”
It was the damn jaguar. He was standing quietly in front of the secret gate that the long-tailed tits had opened with all their might, looking up at Formo. With a very calm expression, as if he had known in advance that Formo would run away with the long-tailed tits.
