#redd chapter

Gregg paced back and forth outside Wormwood station. He was dressed in a dusty green conductor’s outfit. A large number of C.A.W agents watched nervously as he muttered to himself.

They had reports from animals out in the desert about explosions coming from the railroad tracks. Gregg had tried to get in touch with the train conductor to confirm or deny the reports to no avail. This caused their normally rational Captain to freak out. He had the entire department on full alert. Everyone had to mobilize at this very second. No one was allowed to bow out. He needed everyone at the Wormwood station five minutes ago! And so on and so forth.

Now there were emergency vehicles on standby, everyone was in riot gear incase the criminals tried to attack, and Captain Gregg was pacing while smoking his tenth cigarette. It was a rare sight to behold; Gregg rattled to the core.

There was the faraway sound of a train whistle. Gregg stopped pacing and ran over to the entrance to the station. Taking the stairs five at a time, he rushed down to the train’s platform.

The Owl Express trudged into the station, brakes squealing loudly. Large portions of the top of engine were heavily damaged, several broken windows littered the front cars and the roof had bits of metal sticking out at odd angles.

“What the flocking peck HAPPENED?!” Gregg yelled, forgetting that he was supposed to be calm and collected.

“Oh Gregg! Good, yer here!” The Conductor’s head poked out of one of the broken windows.

“Conductor! Are you- There were- WHAT HAPPENED?!”

“Look, Ah’ll give ye the whole story in a bit but we’ve got some prisoners ye probably need tae take fer their own safety.”

“Wh-what?” Gredd asked, confused.

Leia glared at the tied up Pavlin and Mrs. G, the tip of the fireworks pointed directly at the two bound birds. Leia and the Conductor had surrounded the two birds with rows and rows of fireworks and had rigged it so all it took to set them off was for Leia to press one button. And Leia had been waiting for them to make one wrong move so she could press it. She would be fine, since she was protected by the bullet proof glass, but they would go boom.

“Ye see, they tried tae take her captive and she did nae take well tae that,” the Conductor explained casually.

“So you let her set up a DEATH TRAP?!”

“Ach, no, Ah made sure to cut the charge on the explosives, they’d just singe a few feathers. It’s all about helping her feel better, you ken,” the Conductor explained.

“Nope. None of this. Leia, give me the button.”

“No!”

“Leia, now!”

“NO! Daaaaaa!!”

“Eheh heh, Leia, we’ve had our fun, now it’s time tae listen tae Gregg,” the Conductor chuckled, his heart still soaring whenever Leia called him ‘Da.’

Leia pouted and handed the activator over to Gregg.

Gregg’s eyes narrowed.

“Is Leia hurt? It looks like she has blood on her neck.”

“Oh aye. She got attacked by that goose and then by Shorthair. Ah patched her up the best Ah could-” The Conductor stated in a dreamy tone.

“THEN WHY HAVEN’T Yo-” Gregg stopped short. For the first time since he boarded the train, he really looked at his brother.

Torn clothes, dark spots on a black jacket, loss of feathers across his face and… was he swaying?

Gregg cautiously reached out and touched his brother’s shoulder.

The Conductor fell straight back and would have crashed to the ground if Gregg hadn’t grabbed his arm and pulled him up right.

“Med unit, I need a stretcher in here stat! B and C unit, I want you to my position now. We’ve got two for jail and a possible third still on the train,” Gregg yelled into his handset.

Leia tugged on his coat.

“Ah go witf da?”

“... Yeah Leia, let’s get you in there with yer dad.”

“Wha abou other owls?”

“What other owls?”

Leia explained about the tickets and the two express owls on the train.

Steve and Jim had spent several fruitful hours getting very drunk while looking for jobs in the sauna*. They had been napping peacefully when the sudden stop of the train woke them up.

“Wzzat? We’re here?” Jim murmured, still very drunk.

“Sssshushshsh, is just Woormwood. We- we’ll be mmmoving very soon,” Steve drunkenly replied.

“Oah okays.”

The two drunk birds fell back asleep.

They didn’t wake up when someone opened the door, nor when the bird walked over to them. They did, however wake up when said bird turned on all the faucets to cold and drenched them in freezing cold water.

Sputtering and cursing, the two owls looked up at the peck neck who dared tried that stunt. They froze.

Towering over them was a tall, dark reddish brown bird wearing a green conductor’s uniform. His eyes glowed a dark red as he glared down at the two cowering owls, his expression saying that even touching them was beneath him.

“Get out.”

Steve and Jim bolted for the door, there was no disobeying that voice.

Gregg glared at the retreating owls. He’d get their information from the Conductor. If he ever saw them near his niece again, there would be trouble for them.

* this mostly consisting of saying ‘I bet-I bet I could be a bee thingy if I wanted to’ or something along those lines.

The Conductor floated in a sea of white. Pain seemed a long way off as did the events of the past few hours. He closed his eyes and floated with the current.

“...aa?”

His brow furrowed.

“Daaaaaa?”

The sea grew turbulent.

“Hmmm… laa laa ba ab la al laa la al,” a little voice sang softly.

White waves calmed and he felt something soft touch his forehead.

“La lad da da,” the little voice sang as his forehead was patted.

Whiteness engulfed everything, even the soft song and the Conductor woke up.

Leia had climbed up on his hospital bed and was resting on a pillow next to his head. Her stuffed lamb, newly cleaned of any blood he noted, was resting on his forehead. She was still singing her little made up song and softly patting his forehead.

“Lass, what are ye doing?”

Leia didn’t stop.

“Singing! And patting.”

Leia had been patched up, new bandages were wrapped around her neck and head and she was sporting a little hospital gown.

“Leia, how long have Ah been asleep?”

Leia looked up at the ceiling, chewing on the neckline of her gown.

“Three days!” She said proudly.

“What!” The Conductor shot up. Leia rolled down to the foot of the bed, giggling.

“Leia, has it really been three days?!”

Leia chewed on the gown again, avoiding the Conductor’s gaze.

“Leia,” the Conductor grumbled.

“It’s been three hours, not days,” Gregg said from the door. “You really need to teach her how time works.”

“Noted,” groaned the Conductor, laying back down.

“I’ve got my agents combing the desert for Redd and Shorthair. The other two we have in custody,” Gregg started, walking into the room and sitting down.

“Wow, right to it then,” said the Conductor dryly.

“Yes right to it! You were seriously injured today! The train has a hole in it!”

“Well, ye don’t have tae worry about Shorthair. He took a fast dive off a speeding train. Ah doubt he’s still kicking.”

“Ok, but what about Redd?”

“Wait, how did ye know Redd was on the train?”

“I’m a psychic,” Gregg said sarcastically. “Come on! I have eyes and two witness in jail, what do you think?!”

“...Well, Ah have no clue where he went. One moment he was there, the next, gone.”

“Is that what you’re going with?”

“It’s the flocking truth!”

Gregg groaned and rubbed his eyes.

“Look, I know you two still somewhat get along. I mean, heck, you’re raising his-”

“OI! Shut it!” The Conductor snapped. Both birds’ eyes went to Leia.

Leia returned their stares, confused.

“All I’m asking, from one remaining brother to another, don’t keep stuff about Redd a secret from me. I can help.”

“Yeh, well, Ah doubt that. Ah doubt any of us can help Redd with what he’s dealing with.”

“You’re really not gonna tell me are you?”

“Ye wouldn’t believe me if Ah did.”

Tense silence descended between the brothers.

“One last thing, Conductor,” Gregg said, breaking the silence.

“Yeah?”

“The emergency staff found something weird in Leia’s back. They have no clue what it is or how to remove it.”

Shorthair pulled his aching body out of the river. The nice bit about being a cat were those lovely extra lives. He heaved as he slumped into a wet pile of soaked fur and blood onto a small rock bank surrounded by the raging rapids of the river. The dark night sky was barely visible above, littered with thousands of stars.

Oh his revenge would be bloody and legendary. Perhaps even televised, just to rub the salt into the wounds of that damned conductor.

Rolling into a ball, Shorthair tried to rest.

The white water around the rock roared as Shorthair snored. Here and there, flashes of black and pink mixed in with the white water. The roar of the water grew louder, the white waves bashing themselves against the rock unrelentingly.

A flash of black light erupted from underneath the rapids.

Slowly, a long, thin, black bone arm rose from the rapids, unaffected by the rough waters. The tips of the finger bones scratched at the rock, catching onto small cracks in the rock. The arm slowly pulled a moldy cloth draped form from the water. A second black bone arm extended from the white water, reaching at the cat’s sleeping form.

Shorthair felt something chilling dig deep in his back. Hissing loudly, he twisted around, clawing and kicking at his attacker. Claw met supernatural bone with a horrible screeching noise.

The thing didn't flinch, it just continued to pull the struggling cat towards it, slowly, letting the dread build.

Seeing his attacks having no effect on whatever the thing was, Shorthair dug his claws into the rock in a futile effort to keep himself from being dragged into the water.

His claws created grooves in the rock as the monster pulled him closer and closer to itself.

“No! NO! YOU CAN’T-” Shorthair yeowled

The second bone hand grabbed Shorthair’s body and pulled. Both monster and cat fell back into the rapids.

The white crests of the waves washed over the rock, taking the shards of rock torn up from Shorthair to the bottom of the river.

The river roared on.

There was a flip of a switch and pale blue light shown through the x-rays. Or, they looked like x-rays but half way down, the image became distorted, twisting and turning the image and light at odd angles.

“You see, we can’t tell what it is. The machine was working fine before and we tested it after and it produced perfectly fine images. It’s got to be something in your daughter. Only, we can’t tell what,” a squat brown owl explained.

“When we looked for an entry point, we found only one spot but the only sign there was a wound at all was red skin and the loss of feathers. Since you are her father and you were unconscious, we turned to your brother for what to do next,” a second brown owl chimed in, she was taller than the first owl.

“He gave us permission to remove the anomaly however, there was a problem. Anytime one of our tools got close to your daughter’s skin, and I know this sounds far fetched, the tool would rapidly decay,” the first owl finished.

The Conductor stared at the two owls.

“What.”

“Conductor, I know it sounds weird but I saw it happen too,” Gregg interjected.

The Conductor looked from Gregg to the owls.

“Well, is she okay? This weirrrrrd thing isn’t happening tae her, right?”

“As far as we know, she’s perfectly healthy! There’s no strange cell break down around the red area, in fact, we were lucky to notice the wound at all! Minutes after we identified where this anomaly was, the feathers grew back! The whole area looks like nothing happened! But, it seems it only applies to the one area,” the taller owl explained. “The wounds around her neck and head are not affected at all.”

The Conductor took a deep breath.

“Alright, she can leave when Ah leave then?”

“What?!” The doctors exclaimed.

“Well ye said she’s fine. If the weird thing isn’t causing her no harm, then Ah cannae see spending the money tae keep her here.”

“You can’t be serious!” The short owl yelled.

“He is,” Gregg sighed. “I’ll get your information and we’ll give you a call if anything happens.”

“Not that anything will,” the Conductor snapped. “My lass will be fine, now if ye don’t mind, Ah’m gonna see when Ah can get out of this money trap.”

The Conductor stomped back to his room to find Leia waiting for him on the bed, tears welling up.

“Da!” She pipped happily, wiping away the tears.

Anger melted away and the world softened. Scooping her up and ignoring painful protests in his arm, the Conductor hugged Leia tightly. Leia giggled and hugged him back.

“Ye’ll be fine,” he muttered. “Ah’ll make sure of it.”

Through the power of being too much of a headache to keep around and not sick enough to force him to stay, the Conductor and Leia were released from the hospital later that night. Gregg drove them home in his beaten up old car grumbling the whole ride.

Before they had left, the Conductor had made one essential call so that when they arrived at the small house he had bought for him and Leia to stay in, two huge pizzas were just pulling into the driveway.

That had earned him a look of admiration from Gregg.

“That was some amazing timing,” Gregg said, impressed.

“It’s a gift,” the Conductor bragged opening his door and stepping out to pay the delivery bird.

“Ye want some? Ah ordered two incase ye wanted tae spend the night.”

“I will take a few slices but I have to decline staying the night. I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. You know how much paperwork you just generated? Gonna be a long one.”

“Eh, fair.”

“Good night, Conductor.”

“Night Gregg.”

“Nite nite! Geghghgh!”

“...It’s Gregg, Leia.”

“Greck!”

“...Good night Leia.”

Gregg’s car sped away into the night. Leia waved at it till the taillights disappeared from view. Lowering her arm, she walked slowly over to the Conductor. He was trying to hold the two pizza boxes and open the front door while not moving his left arm anymore than he had to.

Leia bumped his hand with her head.

“Ah Leia! Could you either hold these or open the door. Ah can do one but not both-”

Leia grabbed his tattered coat and dug her face into it. Her shoulders began to shake. Sobs came next.

The Conductor stroked the feathers on her head.

“Ah ken Lass, Ah ken,” his own tears rolled down his cheeks.

Putting the pizzas on the ground, the Conductor opened the door, Leia still clutching at his coat. Scooting the food inside with his foot, the Conductor pushed the door shut with a click.

Redd screamed in a voice not his own.

“YOU FOOL! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK TO FIND A PIECE THAT SMALL?!”

“Calm down whatever the heck ye are!” The Conductor ordered, sitting in the middle of Redd’s back so he couldn’t get up. Leia was curled up in his lap, still shaking and holding on tightly.

“WE WILL NOT BE CALM!”

“Yesh, yer like a babe screaming for a sweetie. Now, let me talk tae Redd.”

“NO! THAT FOOL HAS COST US TOO MUCH! HE THREW THE KEY! HE DIDN’T TAKE THE TIME FRAGMENT WHEN YOU HAD IT RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM! HE IS A WORTHLESS FOOL!”

“Eh, Ah’ll give ye the fool part, but Ah’d say he’s far from worthless. So he threw the key tae me? He cut it a little close then. So Ah take it ye cannae sense these, whatchamacallit, ‘time fragments’ then?”

“...”

“Oh donnae be like that, if ye could, ye would have ken that Ah’ve got that fragment thingy right here.”

With that, the Conductor pulled the satin cloth out of his pocket.

The effect was immediate. With unexpected force, Redd bucked the Conductor and Leia off his back. The two landed hard and the Conductor pushed Leia off of him just as the possessed Redd tackled him. One of Redd’s hands grabbed the Conductor’s throat and started to squeeze while the other scratched at the cloth in the Conductor’s clenched fist.

Leia shook as she stood up. The semi-nice bird was attacking her da! No no no!! Anger and terror launched Leia at the back of Redd’s head, biting hard.

The possessed body yelled and clawed at the biting bird. Seeing his chance, the Conductor threw the shard weakly away from both him and Leia.

Redd grabbed Leia and threw her at the ground just as the piece of glass bounced underneath her.

Owlet and shard collided.

There was a blinding flash of light and Leia was gone.

Darkness enveloped everything. Sound was sucked away and each breath was laborious. Leia checked to see if her eyes were open. Yep. Just darkness. She felt around her. She was floating on something smooth, that she could tell. And her back hurt, a lot.

Her ear twitched. Was that a sob? Sound was so muffled here it was hard to tell.

“..ello?” She meekly called out. The darkness sucked up the word.

Leia tried standing, her floatation device wobbled dangerously below her.

“ELLO?!” She shouted into the void. Heavy silence answered her.

Shivering, Leia tried to sit down. The extra movement shook whatever she was floating on just enough that it flipped over, sending Leia into the dark water.

Only, it wasn’t water.

“Sand?!” Leia coughed as she tried to grab onto something to keep her a float.

The dark sand pulled her down fast, dragging her deep into its depths. Leia covered her mouth and tried not to panic. This had to be a dream or something!

Down deeper and deeper she went, feeling the currents spin her different ways, always pulling her towards one central point.

Her lungs ached for air but trying to breathe in this would result in lungs full of sand. Finally, her body felt like it was being pushed through a small tunnel and the world in front of her closed eyelids exploded with light. She could feel dry air on her face and she gasped for air.

Leia then promptly choked on sand still in the air. Gagging hard, she opened her eyes and saw an ocean of sand. She was falling, only, very, very slowly. Looking around, she saw that the ocean was encased in a glass bubble like structure.

“Whaa ACK *cough* *gag*”

Now why are you here? A voice comprised of millions asked.

Leia looked around for the source of the voice.

“Ello?”

Leave this place. Go on. Shoo.

There was a flash of blinding blue light.

“-And then Ah’d bring ye back tae life just so Ah can do it all to ye AGAIN! Ye got that ye PECK NECK!”

“WE ARE NOT ALIVE…”

“Well guess what?! That won’t matter.”

Leia blinked. Clouds passed in the sky above her and the train rumbled below her. She gingerly sat up and winced in pain. Her back was still in a lot of pain. Reaching around, she touched the source of the pain. There was a hole in her jacket’s fabric and she could feel that some feathers were missing but there wasn’t a cut or anything.

She sniffed and started to cry. It had been too long of a day and she just wanted to go home and sleep.

The bickering in the background stopped.

“LEIA!!? OH LEIA!”

Leia was scooped off the ground and hugged tightly to the Conductor’s chest.

“Oh my little lass. Y-yer back! Ye disappeared and- and- that Peck Neck said ye were gone but yer here!” The Conductor buried his face into Leia’s shoulder. 

“Ah thought Ah lost ye,” his voice started to crack.

“D-daaaaa!” Leia sobbed wrapping her arms around the Conductor’s beak.

Redd’s expression flickered. The grey possessed eyes flashed their normal red and for a moment, his expression was a mix of pained acceptance and sadness.

“Did ye just- wait, ye said it before too didn’t ye?” The Conductor asked, his voice slightly muffled from Leia’s hug.

Leia let go of his beak and nodded her head, tears still falling down her face.

Tears welled in the hidden eyes of the Conductor. His heart was full of so many different emotions; happiness, sadness, relief, anger… Right, anger.

Hugging Leia to him, the Conductor turned around to face the possessed Redd.

“Look, whatever ye arrrreeeee where did ye go?”

The top of the train was empty, Redd was nowhere to be seen.

“Redd!” The Conductor yelled out to the sky.

The word echoed out across the desert. No response.

Leia tugged at the Conductor’s ripped sleeve.

“Inside now?”

“...Yeah Leia, let’s go back inside. We’ve got the last of the riff-raff tae clean up.”

“Bad birds?”

“Yep, gotta throw them in jail.”

“Oh! Unk Geghghg!”

“Pfft, that’s right, Unk Geghghgh.”

“Canna bop them?”

“Why do ye want tae hit them?”

“Hurt me,” Leia said, tears welling up in her eyes again.

The Conductor’s expression darkened.

“Oh in that case, let me lend ye a hand then,” he growled, cracking his fists. “After all, ye are part of me staff. And these peck necks did agree tae my terms of service.”

Shoving the rest of the sandwich in her mouth, Leia bolted down the dressing room lined hall. Ducking under some costumes and climbing up boxes, she made her way to the last place she had left her dad. As much as she loved being at the studio with him, she did not like being left alone with the express owls and would take any opportunity to sneak off and do her own thing.

Spotting the Conductor’s back, Leia skidded behind him and took a huge breath.

“CNDUTOR!!” She yelled happily.

The Conductor jumped, his feathers puffing out slightly.

“Leia!! How many times do Ah need tae tell ye not tae run off?!”

Ignoring his question, Leia smugly trotted over and grabbed his hand.

“Prk?” She asked innocently.

“Wha- No, we ain’t going tae the park,” the Conductor replied, a little confused. “Why would ye think that, Lass?”

“Want to!” Leia explained.

“Ah, well, not today, OK,” the Conductor sternly replied.

Kneeling down, he motioned to Leia to get on his back. Excitedly, Leia jumped on. Getting piggyback rides were the best way to get around in little Leia’s mind.

As they traversed Dead Bird Studio, Leia babbled on in incoherent sentences about her adventures. Here and there and actual word would make it in but overall, Leia was still figuring out how to master speech beyond a few words. The Conductor nodded along and tried to make the appropriate comments at the right times to encourage her to keep at it, just as all the books on raising hatchlings had said, but he had no real idea what she was going on about.

Once they were in the elevator heading up to the main floor, Leia started asking questions. Those were a little harder to fake his way through but, heck, was the Conductor going to try.

“‘Nd ah doshna yer wanning ‘nd cranny?”

“-Ah’m not sure Lass.”

“But Cndutor! Dun ab- ab-” Leia stopped, struggling to find the words.

“It’s alright Lass, when we get on me train, Ah’ll get you some crayons and paper and you can try tae draw it out.”

Slightly frustrated, Leia sulked before asking another question.

“‘ome?”

“No, we ain’t going home. Ah told ye last night, we’re gonna be on me train for a few days,” the Conductor replied with relief.

With a ding, the elevator doors opened and the two of them headed towards the small train station the Conductor had set up next to the studio.

“Oh! Ma!” Leia exclaimed happily.

“No, not Ma! Why do ye keep callin me train Ma?!” It was the Conductor’s turn to sulk as he quickly moved towards the double doors leading to his train.

Leia, with the instincts of toddlers everywhere, latched on to this the perfect chance to have some fun.

“Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma!” She chanted with glee.

“UGH, Leia… Did Grooves tell you tae call me train that?”

“... No?”

“AHA! AH KNEW IT!” He exclaimed smugly before clearing his throat. “Anyway, Lass, Ah’ve got a gift fer you!”

“Yeehs!! Gift gift gift!”

As the two of them chattered their way across the station, Redd watched them from his hiding place in the station. He had driven all night, almost wrecked the car and barely snuck in without being detected. Sure the receptionist would have a huge headache later but nothing too bad. Leaning back against the wall, he let out a loud groan.

“Uuuuggggghhhhh, why?” He asked the heavens. “This whole year has been a whole pile of rotten luck.”

Continuing to grumble about his fate, Redd carefully, snuck around, trying hard not to catch the attention of either birds. Climbing up on some boxes stacked up next to the entrance to the employee break room, Redd carefully maneuvered his way to some of the building’s scaffolding, got himself right over the caboose car and dropped down. Lying on his stomach, incase anyone happened to walk by, he started looking for the emergency hatch.

His search didn’t last long. The distinct sound of a diesel engine in the distance immediately grabbed his attention. Poking his head up over one of the decorative metal feathers of the train, Redd scanned the distance. A small, white van covered with dried mud was leaving a large trail of dust behind it as is tore across the desert landscape. It took a sharp turn off of the desert and onto the paved road leading to the studio. Swerving into the parking lot, the van came to a stop and three figures climbed out and headed toward the train station entrance.

Redd’s face darkened. So they decided to change their plans, huh? Not that it would matter much. Though with Leia here…

Leia woke with a start. She had cried herself asleep and now felt overwhelming sick. Barely making it over to a corner, she puked up all the food she had stolen. It didn’t smell great but at least she felt better afterward. Rubbing her mouth with the back of her sleeve, she trudged back over to the center of the room where Miss. Lambkins laid.

Plopping down next to the stuffed lamb, Leia tried to remember what she was suppose to do next. She vaguely remembered something about a red button.

“Smthn... Smthn... red button… ‘ast resorrrrt…. Boom?” Leia muttered to herself.

She took off her hat and nibbled the brim. The ‘boom’ part sounded like fun but she wasn’t too sure about the rest of the words. They had sounded important.

Loud scratches from the door made Leia jump. Mrs. G must have come back.

Panicking, Leia looked over at the various consoles. Various buttons, switches and levers stretched over the wall length consoles. Several large screens hung from the ceiling, wires twisting down to the consoles below like vines.

Leia perked up. This looked promising! With Miss. Lambkins in her beak, she climbed up on the tall counter. Struggling a bit to find her balance, Leia looked at all the colorful buttons and tempting switches.There was only one huge problem.

“...so meny red buttons,” Leia whimpered. Most of the buttons she could see were red or various shades of red. There were a few light blue and dark teal buttons and one or two white buttons. She could avoid most of the red ones till she found the one her dad meant.

Still, it was a problem she noticed more and more. Birds would point at a color and call it orange or yellow but the colors they pointed to just looked like shades of red. Even Mista Grooves would call her dad an “yellow migraine” but that didn't make sense either, unless yellow was just another word for pink. She was still a little fuzzy on the concept of words and their associations to real world objects but that didn't sound quite right. It was annoying but she wouldn’t let her distract her from figuring this out.

Stuffing Miss. Lambkins down the front of her jacket, Leia dramatically stomped down on a light teal button. Various other buttons blinked on and off, the screens buzzed slightly before blinking on; displaying the room outside and several corridors of the train and several shrill beeping noises started to echo throughout the train.

Wincing, Leia scanned the screens for signs of Mrs. G. Nothing in front of the panic room doors except a small pile of… bags? Small boxes?? Leia squinted and moved closer to the screen. She couldn’t really make out what it was. Ignoring it for now, she scanned the other screens.

There was movement! The door to the engine room slid open and Mrs. G trudged out, dragging a bag behind her. There must have been something heavy in the bag, as the goose stopped every thirty seconds to catch her breath. When she got to the edge of the platform, she carefully grabbed the neck of the bag in her beak and flapped her wings hard. She struggled to get airborne and very slowly rose to the safe room platform. Dropping the bag carefully, she collapsed on the floor, exhausted.

Leia watched the wheezing form of Mrs. G for a few minutes, waiting for her to do something dangerous. The shrill alarm was still ringing out loud and clear.

On the screen, Mrs. G struggled to her feet and waddled over to the bag. Opening it with her bill, she stuck her head inside and pulled out a welding torch, which was still attached to its gas canister. She dragged it over to the pile next to the door.

“Wat?” Leia mumbled.

Mrs. G went back to the bag, rooted around and pulled out some small sticks, a stone and a tiny bag. She ripped a small hole in the bag and dumped a trail of black powder leading to the pile of stuff at the door. She threw the tiny bag on the pile as well. With that, she flew off camera.

Twenty seconds later one of the sticks flew into frame. It sparkled brightly for ten seconds, showering the ground with sparks. None of the sparks landed near the black powdered trail. There was a pause when the last of the sparks died down. A second stick of what Leia was pretty sure were firecrackers flew into frame.

Leia’s young, pyromaniac brain put two and two together to make an explosion of understanding. She looked around at all the different buttons and levers desperately. Surely there was one that could stop the goose from blowing up the door. Like a cage button or a weapon button. Or a laser beam! That’d be cool! Desperately, Leia started dancing across the different shades of teal and pink. Various buzzing noises and clanking noises erupted around her but nothing physical showed up on any of the screens.

Another bright fountain of sparks illuminated a screen. This time, it didn't die out. The sparks landed on the trail of black powder and a new spark was born. This fresh spark raced along the black track right towards the pile of various explosives.

Leia torn her eyes away from the screen and bolted across the console to the far side of the room. Wedging herself between the edge of the console and the wall, she hugged Miss. Lambkins and braced herself for the explosion.

The piercing alarm broke the tense silence in painful intervals.

FWREEEEEEEE

Leia’s heartbeat filled her ears.

FWREEEEEEEEE

Maybe there wasn't enough tae set off the boom? Leia thought hopefully.

FWREEEEEEEE

It should have gone off by now…

FWREEEEEEEE

Dare Ah check?

FWREEEE-

The world filled with violent sound. The force of it shook everything; several screws unscrewed themselves and dropped to the floor, metal panels rattled, glass shattered and several monitors were blown off the wall. Sparks showered down from the broken monitors.

Leia covered her head with her arms as a shower of dust and other debris rained down on her. Her eyes squeezed shut, she waited for the shaking to stop.  

The rumbling silence of the train filled the room punctuated with the occasional clang as a piece of scrap fell to the ground.

Leia risked peeking out from her hiding spot. The doors were still standing but the wall around them and a large portion of the ceiling and floor were gone. She could see the sky passing above and parts of the cafeteria down below. No sign of Mrs. G.

Cautiously, Leia stepped out from behind her hiding spot. Stepping carefully around the pieces of glass and fallen, sparking cables, Leia made her way to the edge of the floor and looked down.

Large pieces of metal and floor had fallen to the floor below, blocking the entrance to the control room. It was a little too far to jump down safely. Not that there was much reason to do so.

Across the gap, the wall of screens had crashed to the ground, covering the floor with a carpet of glass, tubes and wire. Sparks occasionally sprung up from the mess. The other rooms looked relatively untouched but to get there required trekking across a huge mess of shrapnel and wires. If she could fly, getting there would be a different story.

The only other option was to try and leave via the roof. Leia stared up at a passing cloud.

“...No. Maybe red button time,” she muttered to herself. It definitely couldn’t hurt matters.

Leia made her way over to one of the less damaged control panels. Climbing up, she started pressing any button that looked remotely red.

Nothing. Not even a noise. No lights either.

Annoyed, she tried several other colors, stomping on every button as hard as she could.

Still nothing.

Back on the train, Redd picked the lock on the door to the small kitchen in the lounge car. With a quiet click, the door sprung open and Redd held it open for Leia who happily bound in. Instantly, she bolted towards a chair, pushing it towards a fridge.

“Hey now, kid! Hold on!” Called Redd.

Leia turned to Redd, giving him a questioning look.

“Am I kicked off the train?”

Leia looked around the kitchen that she now had free reign of. Turning dramatically towards Redd, she gave him a thumbs up.

“Accpepptablblbe.”

The cuteness struck Redd through the heart like an arrow. He staggered back and gripped the edge of the door, his right hand clenching his chest dramatically.

Help me she’s too cute~! He thought lovingly.

“Sir?” Leia asked, concerned.

“I’m fine. Just experiencing the consequences of my life choices.”

“Oh, OK.”

With that, Leia went back to raiding the freezer of every bit of frozen goodness and Redd made his way to a small chair in the corner to sit down and watch. He hadn’t seen any sign of the Conductor roaming around so far or any sign of a babysitter. It was troubling. Even without the murderous trio on board, that couldn’t be safe for a kid.

Redd bit his thumb. He wanted to get the shard and get out as soon as possible but leaving Leia alone, no, he couldn’t do that. Shorthair would take his anger out on her and the Conductor. Well, the Conductor would be fine, probably, but little Leia…

Flashes of memories danced across his mind’s eye; heavy rainfall, hanging from a branch as the two white dots disappearing into the vast darkness below, the silhouette of Shorthair looking down into the chasm for him.

No. Redd thought, glaring at the ground. He’s not getting Leia.

“Sir?”

Redd looked up to find Leia looking at him, her arms filled with ice cream snacks and frozen meat treats.

“Yes?”

Leia shuffled the treats around before pulling out a lizard and mealworm flavored popsicle.

“‘Ere.”

“Wha? Why?”

Leia looked at him and shifted some more treats so she could point at Redd’s face.

“Treats are goood when sad,” she said helpfully.

Redd blinked and raised a hand to his face. Oh.

“...Thank you,” he said, taking the treat.

Leia nodded her head and plopped down on the floor next to him and dug into her treats.

Redd stared at her in awe; slightly scared of how nonchalant she was around strangers. That cemented it. He had to stick around to make sure she’d stay safe. The Conductor sure wasn’t going to.

Redd ripped open the treat’s wrapper and bit off the top of the popsicle. Guess that also meant that he’d probably have to face off against Shorthair. Great. Maybe he could pick off the other two first so they couldn’t get the jump on him. He didn’t need another goose wing to the ribs.

Lost in his own thoughts, Redd finished his popsicle while the ring of wrappers around Leia grew exponentially.

“Ah, it would seem our associate was indeed killing someone. So sad, blood and feathers everywhere,” the peacock shook his head sadly.

Leia stared at the scene before her in wide eyed horror. She had seen the aftermath of violence on TV and in her dad’s movies but never in person. As Mrs. G pecked at her feet to keep moving forward, Leia slowly became aware of the copper like smell of blood.

Small splotches of red speckled the floor and several streaks of it dripped down the glass panels where someone had hit them hard enough to crack them. Feathers of various colors stuck to some of the spots of blood.

Leia whimpered. The some of the feathers looked like her dad’s.

The peacock walked over to the barricaded room as Leia and Mrs. G stayed back. Making a few nondescript noises under his breath, he walked the perimeter of the fight scene, checking out every bit of broken glass, lost feather and scrap of fur. He picked up a crumpled tinfoil hat.

“Hmm, very interesting. Mrs. G! Take the little one back to the control room and keep her there. I have a feeling we might have a problem with old friend of boss’s, Redd. If so, I may need to find where Shorthair has gone: I would rather not have another bird slaughter on hand.”

Mrs. G honked a question.

“Well yes, he maybe inside room with barricade but he may also be on top of train eating remains of conductor bird. Such is nature of Shorthair,” the peacock mentioned casually.

Leia squeaked and gasped at the same time, covering her mouth with her hands. Her dad couldn’t be dead, right?

The peacock looked over at her, a blank expression on his face.

“Ah right, Little one. Do not worry, we will keep you alive,” he said cheerfully, patting Leia’s head with his wing tips.

Leia flinched back. She was shaking so hard she could barely move.

The peacock smiled again.

“Back to the control room now, like a good little girl,” he said, shooing her and Mrs. G away with his wings.

Leia stood frozen. She wanted to scream at them or cry or or just do something other than stand around!

Mrs. G snapped at Leia’s collar and dragged her towards the door.

“Ah, thank you Mrs. G!” The Peacock called happily as the goose took Leia through the door.

As she was dragged back down the stairs to the control room, Leia was screaming at herself in her head to move, to fight back, to see if her dad really was… Leia gulped. She needed a chance to escape. To run and hide. Now that there was only one, perhaps she could manage it.

Mrs. G dropped Leia for a moment and shook her neck to stretch her muscles. While she was the best goose in the business, dragging anyone using your mouth was a pain. Better to peck at their legs and chase them to where you want them to go.

Speaking of, Mrs. G extended her great wings to herd the little brat. A few hits with the wings usually got the message across and if not, well, Shorthair wasn’t the only one allowed to have fun. She snickered as Leia whimpered and fell to the ground.

Leia, still terrified, felt a new emotion rise up out of the deep choppy waters of fear. It was hot, boiling away all other emotions until it was the only one coursing through her veins.

How dare they?!

Leia got to her feet, shaking with rage.

How dare they treat her and her dad like this?! Acting like they could kill him like it was no big deal? Ha! Like her dad would die so easily! She knew how it went, if you didn’t see a body, chances are they aren’t dead yet. Just like in her dad’s movies, he’d come back just in the nick of time and beat up both the bad birds.

A sliver of doubt tried to wiggle into her raged filled mind but she overruled it.

As for herself, she needed to get away from the stupid goose lady.

Mrs. G advanced on Leia, neck lowered, wings raised high, and hissed loudly in Leia’s glaring face.

Leia’s fist clenched and she punched the goose on the side of the head as hard as she could.

The goose pulled her head back, shaking it to recover but Leia wasn’t having any of that.

With pure fury she hadn’t had since the red dot incident, Leia launched herself at the goose’s neck, biting and scratching with all the rage and terror a small body like hers could muster.

Mrs. G danced around like a ballerina with fire ants in their leotard, honking wildly and trying to buck the biting terror off her body.

But Leia had the jaw of a bear trap and the will of toddler told they weren’t allowed sweets.

The fight continued across the room. Mrs. G crashed into various tables to knock Leia off and Leia smartly shifted her position to Mrs. G’s back to avoid getting hit. She was used to this game.* 

Leia wrapped both arms around the goose’s neck and squeezed.

Mrs. G let out a horse honk and let herself slump down.

Breathing heavily, Leia let go. Shaking, she got off the goose’s back and took a few steps back.

Gasping for air, Mrs. G slowly tried to stand. Her small sunglasses had been knocked off during the fight and her dark eyes glowed red with hate.

Leia didn’t wait for Mrs. G to act. She bolted for the door leading to the other cars. She had been lucky, there was no way she’d manage that again. Best to hide for now.

Leia pushed open the door, half expecting the goose to charge her back before she made it through the door. Not daring to look behind her, Leia bolted towards the luggage room.