Mommy felt bad about her poor attempt at telling me a bedtime story in flash fiction format last week, so she started work on a better, more expansive tale. Well, it took off, and now she's got quite a story going. It has high adventure and includes many of our Twitter anipals. Daddy loved it and asked her to write it and post it through the blog, because he thought you'd enjoy it too. So here it is. The title is Invasion on Anipal Land, and this is the first installment. Bear in mind that this work will not be published for sale - it's purely for enjoyment through our blog, and to honor our anipals that brighten our lives. We hope you enjoy it!
And now, without further ado, here is Installment 1 of "Invasion on Anipal Land" by @sherrithewriter and @chloeconure.
Luv,
Zack
Invasion on Anipal Land, Installment 1
Once upon a time, there were two sun conures named Zack and Chloe. They lived in Anipal Land with all of their Twitter pals. Every day was filled with fun and joy in the sun, and all the anipals lived in harmony with one another. They feasted on the best crops, honed their speciality skills, and snoozed in safety under the protection of the rainbow bridge guards that watched over them. Rare disputes were settled with good natured beak wrestling matches, where both winner and loser feasted on peanuts and snuggled their problems away.
Until one day, when trouble came to their door.
Chloe was finishing her meditation and yoga session with Sassy and Morty when little Lola came running in the studio. Her feathers were mussed up where small green strands had wrapped through them.
“Miss Chloe! Miss Sassy! Miss Morty! Somebody sowed weeds in the crops! They’re tangled around all of our good wheat!”
“What?” Chloe said, falling out of her lotus position. “How can this be?”
“I don’t know. I was outside playing and munching on a mango when I thought I yellow heads in the fields. I ran to check it out and got tangled up in the weeds.”
“Oh dear,” Sassy said. “Are you alright, Lola?”
“I’m fine, just a little messy,” Lola said, still breathing hard from her startled flight back to the home castle.
Sassy and Morty helped Lola preen the weeds out of her feathers as Chloe went to find her brother, Zack. Sure enough, she found him in the fields with the gentlemen of the flock. They had seen Lola’s frantic flight and wondered what startled the newest member of the flock.
“I wonder who did this?” Zack asked. “Not only are the fields messed up, but they scared Lola, and now there’s chatter of an incursion. How can this be?”
“Somebody sowed these weeds out here. The question is, who?”
“Sir Zack! Madam Chloe!” Tuscon rushed from the fields, dropping yellow feathers at their feet. “We found these in the fields.”
Chloe growled at the feathers. “Lola said she saw what looked like yellow heads out there. I know who did this. It was the Queen of Bavaria’s.”
“Who?” Tuscon asked.
“The Queen of Bavaria conures. They live on the outskirts of Anipal land.”
“Why the outskirts?” Zack asked. “We welcome everybody here.”
“Yes we do, but the Queen of Bavaria’s are different,” Chloe said. “They’re rare, nearing extinction. They spend most of their time in their nesting boxes trying to protect the few young they have and don’t let mix with the rest of us. They’re afraid we’d ruin the ‘purity of their race.’ I had dealings with them in the aviary.” Chloe growled again. “Long have they envied our joy and peace. They’re jealous of us because we don’t live in fear, but embrace the happiness that is life. Still, I never thought they’d be bold enough to attack.”
“Well, there’s not much we can do about it now,” Zack said. “If we pull the weeds, we risk losing the good crops we have. We’ll have to separate them at harvest time.” He rubbed his chin. “We need to make sure they don’t sow anymore weeds out here, though. From the looks of it, they’ve done quite enough. If they plant any more out here, we could use everything.”
“Maybe something like scarecrows would help,” Chloe said.
“I think I know where we can get something that will work,” Tuscon said. “Strategy and communications are my specialty. Let me tap my network and get on it. We’ll have a perimeter set around the fields soon.”
“We’ll need extra help keeping an eye on the crops as well,” Zack said, “but everybody around here works as hard as they play, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”
Over the next few weeks, the friends in Anipal Land worked together to tend the fields and set a perimeter around the land. Within a month, Coco Parrot had a find yarn bird army surrounding the land. “That way, we won’t have to post guards and we can keep tending our own land without worry,” she said.
“Thanks, Coco,” Morty said as they anchored the last yarn decoy in place. “This is perfect. You did a fine job.”
“We’ve worked together well to salvage our food supply,” Coco said. “We won’t let those Queen of Bavaria’s starve us out.”
Meanwhile, Zack and Chloe sat at castle window, peering over the land bordered by yarn bird decoys. “I hate it came to this,” Zack said, “but maybe this will let them know that we won’t put up with their shenanagins. It’s a shame. All they had to do was ask for our help if they needed it. The Anipals never turn out those in need and welcome all!”
“That’s true, Zack, but they have too much pride to ask for help,” Chloe said. “Remember, they’re scared. They’re acting out of fear. I just wonder what made them do this. Don’t they realize that a threat to us is a threat to everybody? Sabatoging the food supply could hurt anipals much further than just our land. It could have hurt them too!” Her feathers drooped. “I’m afraid they won’t stop at this. I’m afraid they might do something more to hurt us.”
“I don’t know,” Zack said. “If they’re that scared, won’t they just tuck tail and run back to their nest boxes? There’s a lot more of us than there are of them.”
“Oh no, that isn’t necessarily so,” Sammy the Beta, the chief advisor of Anipal Land, said from his aquarium. “Remember there are lots of lands outside of Anipal land, filled with unsavory kinds. If they join forces with others, they could be a terrible threat to our security.” Sammy bubbled. “I believe this was the first step in a bigger plan. It’s good you set up defenses. You might need them. Once they find out that starving us didn’t work, they’ll get bolder.”
“What do you mean?” Zack asked.
“I mean your sister is right. I believe they plan to attack.”