The Story of Tiberius

Chapter 119

"Come on, come on. Where are you ya ugly walking stick?" Tiberius muttered quietly to himself as he soared high above the city streets. His light brown eyes scanned every nook and cranny when he passed over it. He had figured that his searching would only take three to six minutes. Maybe seven. Instead, he was now pushing fifteen. And he wasn't feeling the greatest. The old hawk prayed he could find who he was looking for before he began plummeting out of the sky.

His prayers were answered.

Noticing a familiar hairless tail sneak around a corner into an alley, Tiberius circled back around to make sure he was right. Sure enough, the freak of nature from earlier in the day was there. And he was with the black feral cat that the hawk had seen him talking with that morning. It appeared the two felines were chattering away once more. His targets sighted, Tiberius tucked his wings close to his sides and swooped down at high speeds, coming closer and closer to the ground and the cats.

"Hey man, how's it going?" Ozone asked as he made himself comfortable on the cracked pavement and wrapped his hairless tail neatly around his paws. Originally lounging upon a dumpster, his best friend and second in command Nitro got to his feet and jumped down. Letting out a huge yawn and stretching, the black cat meowed, "I'm doing good, I have some news for you though." Before he could say anything, he happened to glance up. Horror quickly jumped on his face as he yowled in terror, "DUCK!" Confused, Ozone looked up at the sky and noticed a bird coming towards them. Turning back to his friend, he pointed out, "That's not a duck, that's a HAWK!" Both screaming now, they got ready to run away but didn't get far when Tiberius caught them in each of his talons before flying up again.

"Put us down please! I desire to live! What have I done to deserve this?!" Nitro cried, absolutely terrified. Staring at the ground with fear glittering in his light green eyes, Ozone was too scared to say anything. At first at least. When he finally saw just who it was exactly that had captured them, his face turned into a deep scowl as he hissed over the wind, "You again?! Look pal, I already told you and that stupid puffy dog where the heck the small brown and white dog was! Let me go!" Not looking down at either of the cats, specifically Ozone, and keeping his eyes instead on the horizon as he flew back to where the rest of the gang was waiting, Tiberius growled, "This is for another matter so shut your trap and enjoy the ride while it lasts."

"But we're both scared of heights," both Ozone and Nitro mewed at the same time.