So began the adventures of Frederick and the G-Birds.
“So…” Taffy said, “what do we do? I mean, where do we begin?”
Frederick answered, “Well, my family always starts by going down this little river over there, but after that, I can’t tell you. I have never flown anywhere but here.”
“Man, well, let’s get going!” Manny said, and he pushed his powerful wings and lifted off of the ground. The others followed suit.
Frederick, with some difficulty, managed to stay in the air long enough to flap his wings once more, and just with that one extra push, he was up and soaring like he never had before.
Manny was in the front of the V formation that the birds made, and to his left and right were Downer and Jabber. Following them was Taffy and Frederick, who were having a hard time keeping up.
Manny seemed like a good enough leader. He knew the river well enough to get by. Frederick was having a blast. Knowing that he wasn’t the worst flyer in the world really boosted him up.
With a huge breath, Frederick dove down to the surface of the river that they were flying above and skimmed across the surface.
Pure joy rushed through his bones as he felt that rush of excitement and fun that he never had felt in his life. He looked down at his reflection in the water and bent his head lower. He scooped up a tiny bit of water and swallowed. The water was icy cold, and perfect for a hot afternoon drink.
He put his beak in the water again, and suddenly was flipped over. His body splashed in the water and with total embarrassment, he swam to the surface.
The others had not seemed to notice. With a sigh of relief, Frederick flapped himself out of the icy river and carefully flew out. He was freezing! The water was cold, and now with him rushing through the air was even colder! He brrrrd and flew to catch up with the rest of the gang.
They flew. And flew. And flew.
Manny started talking about the scenery, and when he looked behind him, he saw that Frederick and Taffy were really far behind, exerting themselves way too hard.
“Man, formation reverse!” Manny shouted. The other geese swiveled around and started headed back to Frederick and Taffy.
“I…can’t…go…on.” Frederick stuttered. He closed his eyes and tucked his white wings into his sides. He fell down through the air.
“What? No!” Taffy cried, and then he saw Manny flying to the rescue. “Manny! Help Frederick!”
Manny shot down to the exhausted Frederick and flew beneath him. With a painful landing, Frederick tumbled on top of Manny and he cried, “Uh! Oh, Manny! Thanks…a…lot…” and with those couple of words, Frederick was asleep.
“Man, this is gonna be harder than I thought,” Manny said, as the birds sat around the dead tired Frederick.
“We are going to need some kind of like, attachment to carry Frederick if he is going to be like this the whole way.” Taffy muttered. The others nodded their heads in agreement.
“How come everything always goes wrong? Why can’t anything go right?” Downer said. Jabber frowned at him and said, “Downer! Will you please just look at the bright side? I mean, we helped this goose get off of his behind and fly. Don’t you think that is a good enough achievement for one day? I think that we need to pull ourselves together and help Frederick fly better. We need to help him!”
“Man, well guess what?” Manny argued, “I don’t have time to baby sit a dumb goose who can’t even fly! We need to go now, or we’ll get to Mexico after winter has already passed!”
“Well, I agree with Jabber!” Downer cried. “At least she thinks about the good stuff!”
There was a sudden silence. Did Downer just say something not so negative? Wow!
“What about you, Taffy?” Downer said.
All of the heads turned to Taffy. His face was bright red and he tried to cover up with his wing.
“Well, I don’t know. I mean, what does this matter anyway? Frederick has already agreed with to be with us! He’s gonna stick around anyhow!”
“Man, not if I can help it!” Manny suddenly said, “If you guys want Frederick to stick around, then I’m outta here!”
“WHAT?” Jabber cried. “We can’t split up! We are a family!”
“Not with Frederick here, we ain’t!” Manny continued, “He’s just gonna slow us down! I want to keep warm! And I already told you guys, I don’t want to baby sit a goose!”
Manny stood up, and wobbled a couple of feet away from the rest of the flock.
“Who’s with me?”
No one moved.
Jabber shouted, “We can’t split up! We just can’t! We never have before! What if we just leave Frederick here?”
“What? Weren’t you just saying a minute ago that you wanted to help Frederick fly?” Downer said. He was now standing up, glaring at Manny.
“How could you? Manny, you are the leader of the G-Birds! We will not split up!” he cried.
“Man, it’s too late. We already have.” Came the reply.
Taffy stood up. “I guess I’m going to go with Manny, then.”
Jabber gasped. “Taffy! Come on! We are best buds! Remember?”
“Well, Manny knows the way to Mexico. I don’t want to get lost!” Taffy said, and the blushed. “I- I don’t want to talk about it anymore, ok?”
Jabber stood up, obviously hurt. “Fine! Have it your way! I am going with Downer! And I bet you a million bucks that we will get to Mexico before you!”
“What are you guys talking about?” came a sudden whisper.
Jabber gasped. “Oh! Frederick! Oh, you won’t believe it!”
Frederick’s eyes widened, “What? What happened?”
“Frederick, we are leaving you.”
Frederick’s head turned to meet Manny’s eyes. “What?”
“You heard me. We are going, just me and Taffy.” Manny unfurled his wings and said, “Man, well, I guess this is goodbye.”
Frederick was in shock. His head turned to see Jabber and Downer and they looked terribly sad. Jabber was muttering, “You can’t break the flock. You can’t break up the G-Birds.”
But Manny did. Manny broke up the G-Birds.
“I –I don’t understand.” Frederick complained, as he watched Manny and Taffy fly away.
“Kid, it’s better if you don’t. Anyway, who needs a bunch of goofy geese like them, anyway? Heck, for all we know, they will end up in Florida!” Downer mocked.
Jabber started laughing. “Ha! Florida! Yeah, that’ll be the day!”
Frederick frowned and checked his pockets for his map, and discovered that he didn’t have it. “Wha –” he said slowly. Jabber turned around and said, “What’s wrong, Fred? Did you lose something?”
“Yeah, my map…” Frederick thought about the last place he had seen it. Oh, no. Manny had had it last. That meant Manny had the map!
“You guys, Manny has the map. It looks like we are on our own.” Frederick said. Downer shrugged.
“Who needs a lousy map when we can ask for directions?” he said. Then he turned around and flapped his long, brown wings until he was up in the air, and sped off the opposite way that Manny and Taffy went. “Come on!” he yelled through the darkness.
Frederick buried his eyebrows. He had just noticed that the stars and moon were out. Wow, the day flies by when you are having fun! Frederick picked himself up and followed Downer through the night.
The next morning, Manny was way too tired to even move. He thought, “Man, we are never going to fly through out the whole night again!”
His wings hurt terribly! They ached with pain all over, and then suddenly, he felt an enormous weight on his right wing.
“Gah!” he cried out. His voice echoed through the forest.
He felt something jump next to him, and then Taffy yelped, “Oh, sorry Manny! I didn’t know I was on you…oh man, I am killing all over!”
Manny quickly withdrew his wing and tucked it next to his feathers. “Man, be more careful next time.”
Manny closed his eyes tightly. He felt the nest that they had made under him. The pine needles stuck out in all directions, making it almost impossible to sleep on, but when you have to sleep, you have to sleep!
“What was that?” Taffy suddenly said.
“Hm?” Manny said, too tired to notice any sounds.
“It sounded like…a roar…” Taffy said, and then took a few steps back. “Uh, Manny…there is something in that bush over there.”
“Man, will you be quiet? I’m trying to sleep here!”
“Manny! There is something watching us from that bush!”
“Taffy…we are in a tree…the thing is in a bush.”
“Well,” Taffy said, and then screamed. Manny bolted upright and his eyes became all blurry. He focused them and then gasped.
There was a huge, brown bear running straight for the tree that Manny and Taffy slept in! Manny flapped his wings, and felt a huge pain shoot through his wing. “Ah!” he cried as he fell down.
“Manny! Watch out!” Taffy cried, and then shot into the air. He flapped hard and went to the next tree over. “Manny! Come on!”
The bear launched itself at the tree, and Manny fell down into the poky nest. He shook his head and opened his wings. “C’mon!” he thought, “I need to fly!”
The bear slowly clawed its way up the tree, hanging on with its huge claws.
“Hurry, Manny!” Taffy cried from somewhere, but Manny couldn’t think. He just needed to fly!
He flapped. Pain! He flapped again. More pain!
“I…I can’t do it!” he muttered, and turned around.
The bear was facing him, face to face. Its long brown snout almost touched the leader of the G-Birds.
Manny flapped once more, and rose through the air. “Yeah!” he cried, and then he fell to the nest. “No!”
He ran to the edge, but the bear took a swipe at him, and clawed him in the right wing, right where everything had been hurting.
“Nooooo!” he cried. The pain was tremendous, and he limped over to the edge, and leaned over. A wave of nausea passed through him, and he tumbled out of the nest.
