Book One: Lost and Found: An Angry Birds Fanfic

Chapter Six: Red

Darkness surrounded me as I heard voices, entrapped in something that was hallow but somehow strong. I was being held close to something warm and comforting.
"Take them, please," one voice begged.
There was a second voice but I couldn't hear what it said.
More talking and it was the second voice, it said, "Mighty Eagle... 22 years old... saved... village."
I couldn't catch everything that came from the conversation. It was so hard to hear.
"These... one unhatched...brothers of... take."
I felt a sudden rush of coldness creep around and into me.
The second voice said something else.
I was warm again.
There was a pause before the first voice answered,
"Crimson."
I woke up, flipping out of my nest as I hit my head off the nightstand.
"Gahhh!" I gasp as land on the dirt floor.
I shake my head and blink my eyes open, trying to get used to the bright sunlight.
Well that was a weird dream.
It felt real, as if it happened before. The weird feeling came back when I had that dream. I kept replaying the last thing that was said.
Crimson.
It sounded so familiar but at the same time, it could be nothing.
I probably read too many Mighty Eagle comics.
There was a bird named Crimson in it, so it's a possibility.
I shake my head and and continue to lay on the ground as I listen to the noises outside my hut.
I hear the rustling of leaves as birds are talking and laughing loudly, as if they have no worries in the world.
Wait, birds?
I forgot, I live in the village.
I miss the ocean.
"Well, I can't get everything that I want," I mumble as I continue to lay on the floor.
I sigh and start to drift off back to sleep until...
"Rise and shine!"
Chuck races in and zooms all around me, causing dust to fly everywhere before coming to a stop above me.
Well, I'm plucked.
He's probably mad at me for not going to his party.
"Red, Red, Red, get up, get up!" He demands as he shakes me, repeatedly hitting my head off the floor.
Hit.
"Oof."
"RED!"
Hit.
"Gahh!"
"Get up!"
Hit.
"Chuck!"
I sit up and slap his face. My feathers are ruffled and my anger is rising.
"I'm up, you idiot!" I snap. Chuck stops shaking me.
"Whew! I thought you were dead!" Chuck sighs as he lets go of me.
I just roll my eyes.
Why am I friends with an idiot?
"What do you want?" I groan as I rub my eyes.
"There's no class today!" Chuck grabs my wings and pulls me up to my feet. He pulled me up so fast I almost fall, but he zooms to the side of me to keep me from falling.
"Thanks," I mumble angrily.
No class? That's weird. Matilda has never cancelled class. She has never cancelled anything now that I think about it.
"Why'd she cancel class?" I ask before yawning.
Chuck shrugs his shoulders.
"I don't know to be honest, Bomb told me class is cancelled."
"You seriously trust Bomb?" I ask sarcastically.
"He wasn't lying," Chuck states. "And we all know when he's lying. He actually looked concerned, like he was scared."
"Bomb is always scared," I point out as I roll my eyes.
Chuck gasped.
"What if he loves Matilda and something happened to her?"
"Chuck."
"What if Bomb cancelled class 'cuz he was jealous of seeing Terence with Matilda?"
"Chuck," I try to get his attention, but I'm just becoming more and more impatient every second that Chuck doesn't listen. Just his existence makes me lose all patience.
"What if-"
"Chuck!" I yell at him. "For once in your life shut up and don't say anything!"
He stops.
"Hehe, sorry, curiosity is getting the best of me again," he apologizes quietly.
I roll my eyes.
Finally he's listening.
I sigh.
"Okay, so we don't know what's going on, so I suggest we-"
Chuck cuts me off.
"Go spy on Bomb!"
I glare at him.
"No."
"Oh," Chuck starts, his smile fading. "Then what are we gonna do?"
"Maybe if you'd shut your worm hole I'd be able to finish so you'd know!" I snap at him.
"Proceed," he bows towards me as he smirks.
I put my head in my wings to try and keep myself calm. Sighing, I continue.
"As I was saying," I state angrily. "I think we should go to Matilda's house and see what's going on, I mean, she's never cancelled class."
"Okay, that sounds like... horrible idea," Chuck states.
Horrible?
"Chuck, number one, horrible is my word, so don't take it," I inform him. "And two, it's not a horrible idea. What if something bad happened and we weren't there to help?"
"Oh so you can use 'what if' but I can't?" Chuck says in a sassy tone. He crosses his arms and glares at me.
For the love of plucks...
"You're so immature," I state as I face palm.
"You're right I am," Chuck agrees.
Well that's weird, he actually agrees with me... that's the first.
"Because the word itself says 'I'm mature'."
Never mind.
"Chuck!" I snap.
"Hey, you said it," Chuck points out as he puts his wings behind his back and walks to the door.
My anger continues to rise as I stand there glaring at him.
"Hey, you know what we should do?" Chuck asks excitedly as he looks back at me, his eyes wide.
"What?" I growl, taking deep breaths to calm myself down.
"We should go to Matilda's to see if everything is okay, I mean, she never cancels class," he gasps.
That's it.
"Chuck you bird brain, I just said that like twenty seconds ago!" I yell at him, flailing my wings around.
"Well, then we're going to see Matilda! Meet ya there!" He exclaims and races off.
"Thank goodness he's gone," I groan as I start to walk out of my hut. Then, I see a flash of yellow and a cloud of dust come up right in front of me.
"Hey, why weren't you at my party last night?" Chuck demands as he crosses his wings, narrowing his eyes.
Pluck.
"Why don't you just go?" I snap in response. He shrugs his shoulders and zooms off again. I sigh and walk out, closing the door behind me. A few places are still getting rebuilt from the pigs' last encounter, but most of the island is already cleaned up, as if it had never been attacked.
A few birds greet me, and I would just nod in response. A few, such as Hal, asked me why I wasn't at Chuck's party.
"Hey Red, how are you?" Hal greets me as he smiles.
"Oh, the usual," I respond.
"Horrible?"
"Oh look at that, you know me so well!" I answer sarcastically.
Hal just shakes his head.
"Anyways, why weren't you at Chuck's party last night?" He asks me.
I shrug my shoulders.
"I didn't really want to go."
I mean, seriously, I didn't.
"Alright, I just wanted to make sure everything is okay," Hal says.
"Why?" I ask. No bird ever wanted to know if I was okay, and it's not like any bird does care to ask anyways.
"Well, Matilda, Terence, and Bomb left early, and the rest of us thought something happened to you," he answers.
What? They left early?
"Oh, okay, well, I'm fine, I'm actually going to see Matilda now," I reply.
"Alright, well, I'll see ya, nice talking to you," he says as he walks over to Bubbles.
Gosh, I'm so sick of birds asking me that! It's not like they'll understand if I tell them.
I'm a bit irritated, but surprisingly, not over the top angry. I mean, I honestly didn't want to go because, one, I didn't want to. I'm not a social, party bird. Nope, not me.
Two, last night was my hatch day. Well, as far as I know it was my hatch day, and I also I went to talk to my parents, well, it was more of me talking to a rock with initials on it, which sounds kinda dumb, but still, I do it every year. It makes me feel less lonely, and it makes feel like that somewhere they're out there. I know they abandoned me and it hurts like heck, but I still run to them. Well, more like the thought of them.
"Hey mom, hey dad, it's me, Red," I said aloud to a rock. The initials C. T and K. T.  were etched into it, flowers softly placed to decorate the rock.
"So today, is my hatch day, at least I think it is. Anyways, just like I do every year, I read the letter to you, the one you placed with me in the basket, remember it? It's the same one. Oh, and I still have half of the picture too. Mom, you look awesome by the way and dad, I know I don't have you in the picture but I'm pretty sure you look awesome too."
The same mix of emotions had hit me as pulled out the letter and the picture from my bag. Sadness, pain, but yet happiness and joy filled me. I was so confused that I started crying, but I managed to stop the tears. I started reading the first part, outloud.
       "Hi! My name is Red, and I'm still an egg. My parents left me here and I don't know why, but I know they'll come back for me. I don't know when that will be, but I know they will! So please take care of me!"
I stopped reading to take a few deep breaths. I scanned the second part. Some words were scratched out, just as they've always been. The hand writing is different than that of the first part. The second part had to be written by my mother, the first part, I don't know.
Then, I continued.
"To whom it may concern,
          Please, if whoever is reading this, take the egg. He will be hatching soon. His name is Red. I never wanted to leave him, but I had no choice. Please, take care of him, and make him feel loved, give him everything he needs. Please. Thank you.
       Sincerely, C. T. and K. T.
I bowed my head as silent tears streamed down my face, soaking my feathers. I clutched the letter and picture close to me.
"Give me some sort of sign that you're still out there," I whispered as I opened my eyes and lifted my head. The sunset was beautiful.
I smiled.
"Well, this is definitely a moment to remember, isn't it?" I ask outloud as I wiped my eyes. I sat there for a while longer before I said goodbye and left.
My mind comes back to reality when a voice interrupts my thoughts.
"Red!" Bomb exclaims as he runs towards. I trip and fall from being startled.
"Gahhh!"
I face plant in the ground, dirt and grass filling my mouth.
"Pleh blech!" I cough and spit as I sit up.
"Haha, sorry Red, didn't mean to scare ya like that," Bomb apologizes as he helps me get to my feet.
"Here, let's get you some water," Bomb suggests as he leads me into Matilda's house.
"Got it!" a familiar voice says.
Oh pluck, it's Chuck.
He hands me the glass and I immediately start swishing the water out of my mouth and spit.
"By the way, I saw everything," Chuck laughs. I spit on him.
"Aw, c'mon!" Chuck complains. "I was just in my the bird bath!"
Pfft. Serves him right.
"You had it coming," Bomb says.
I stood there, still swishing water as they argue.
The day just started and they're arguing already.
I spit one last time, the taste of dirt still lingering in my mouth.
"Okay, what's going on and why did Matilda cancel class?" I interrupt the quarrel. They both stop.
"Well, um," Bomb stutters, looking away.
"Well, what?" I demand, wings crossed.
Bomb looks at Chuck, Chuck looks at me.
"Well, it'd probably be easier if we showed you," Chuck says nervously, his eyes wavering.
"What, worm got your tongue?" I snap impatiently.
Are they four? How hard is it to just talk?
"It's kind of hard to explain, but-" Bomb starts.
"Okay, you know what, I'm just gonna go in," I snap as I walk into Matilda's hut.
"He's angry... again," I hear Bomb sigh.
"He's always angry," Chuck points out.
"True," Bomb agrees.
They follow me.
I walk though the weird hippy bead things that Matilda put up.
Is she ever gonna take those down?
I stumble through them just like I had on my first day of anger management class.
My anger rises, but I somehow keep it from taking control of me.
"Hey Matilda, are you here?" I call out. I hear a quiet sound of cluttering and Matilda comes from a small room at the right of the hallway.
She stops and turns back into the room for a few moments. I look at Chuck and he just shrugs his shoulders as Matilda comes back out and walks towards us.
"Hi guys, what are you doing here?" Matilda greets us, quietly.
Matilda quiet? That's new.
"What are we doing here, you ask. Why we-"
I cut Chuck off with a glare. I didn't want him to go into his 'what if' theories. He stops and gives a nervous laugh. I sigh.
"Bomb told us class was cancelled and we just wanted to make sure everything is okay," I inform her flatly.
"Oh well, um, it's not bad, it's just, a, well, it's more like a...," Matilda stutters. "Shock."
A shock?
I raise an eyebrow.
"Like a good shock or what?" I ask, my patience still dropping.
"I wouldn't say quite good," Matilda says slowly. "It might be easier if I showed you."
"Um, okay, well, lead the way," I say, not really understanding why it's so hard for every bird to talk.
I swear if it's some dumb surprise party of Chuck...
But I don't think it is. Matilda looks concerned, Bomb looks nervous, Chuck himself is looking a bit unsure. I look around for Terence but there's no sign of the big guy.
Huh, weird. Terence is always with Matilda.
We get closer to the room Matilda left from. Suddenly, my heart starts racing, my breathing is coming in fast, short breaths.
What the pluck?
I'm nervous.
I'm never nervous.
Then, I walk through the door and stop dead in my tracks.
"Hi, I'm back," Matilda gently shakes a bird's shoulder. She's badly bruised and she has a deep gash on her head. Her red, maroon ombré feathers shine in the the sunlight.
She opens her eyes and blinks a few times and groans.
"Thanks Matilda," she yawns. Then, she sits up and she looks at us, taking a few moments to study each of us. Then, she looks at me and stops her scanning. Her jaw drops. She is silent for a bit.
"You look like dad," she finally says.
Shock fills me.
I look like 'dad'?
"Wait, but I don't have a dad," I tell her.
She cocks her head to the side.
"What's your name?"
"Red, my name's Red," I answer nervously.
Her eyes widen.
"Do you have a letter and a picture?" She asks, starting to get up.
"No no, lay back down, remember what happened last time?" Matilda shoves her gently back on the couch.
"No, not really, but sure," the stranger grumbles.
Wait, how does she know I have a random letter and picture?
"Why were you asking if I had a letter  and picture? Why do you look shocked?" I demand, hoping to not sound as nervous as I felt. "Who even are you?!"
Her hazel eyes never wavered from my brown eyes until now. She reached towards a sword and grabs it.
Well this is how I die. I get killed by some random stranger asking strange questions with some strange... stuff.
How great.
I want to say something but something holds me back. She pulls on the lower half of the handle and it slides off. Setting down the part with blade, she takes the part she slid off and pulls something out.
"Recognize this?" She asks as she hold up half a picture. In the picture is a bird that looks identical to me. Or me to him.
My jaw drops.
"I have the other half," I say.
"Do you want me to get it?" Chuck volunteers.
"Umm, sure, if you want, it's in-," I start to tell him, but he's gone before I finish telling him where it's at.
I'm not even mad at him. He zooms off but comes back in less than five seconds.
"Here you go," Chuck says as he hands me the Mighty Eagle comic book.
"Did you have to bring the comic book?" I mumble to him.
"I didn't want it getting ruined," Chuck responds as he shrugs his shoulders.
I pull out the half torn picture and held it beside the random bird's  half.
"What the..." but I couldn't finish my sentence. There we were, seven of us.
Oh my gosh.
"But, how, like where, just, I, how, you." I stutter as I point from the picture to me to her and back to the picture multiple times.
"Red," she placed the two halves of the picture on the table before grabbing my wings. "I'm Crimson."
Crimson? My dream, she's from my dream.
The weird feeling came back, but this time, it overtakes me.
"You're from my dream, I was in something, you were talking to Mighty Eagle, I, and just," my voice trails off.
"Red that wasn't a dream, it was a memory," Crimson tells me.
I look at her, shocked. She still has a hold of my wings.
Tears come to my eyes, and tears fill her eyes too.
"Red, I'm your sister."
The word sister hits me like a ton of bricks.
"You're my sister?" I ask in hushed tone.
She nods.
"It's official, I'm dead and I'm living the life of my comic book right now," I say shock filling me.
"That makes no sense but okay," she tells me as she slightly laughs.
But if she's my sister....
"I have a family?"
"Yes, you've always had a family," she responds.
Wait...
Always?
Then, everything just smashes into me, knocking me out of my shock and back to reality.
"Oh my gosh, I have a family," I cry out and throw my wings around her. She wraps her wings around me.
I cry even harder.
I don't care if every bird sees me like this, I don't care if they think I'm overreacting, I have a part of my family.
I have a part of my family.
She holds me as I continue to cry.
"You're my sister," I cry.
"And you're my younger brother," she replies quietly. "And I will do anything to protect you."