Fight and Flight
A healthy fear and wariness of one’s own surroundings was something taught to every young Taillow. Small and relatively weak, speed was the one advantage the tiny birds had against their foes, from the egg-stealing Ekans to the sharp-clawed Sneasel, the latter being especially dangerous due to their speed and tendency to know icy attacks, a weakness against most flyers.
A pair of Taillow parents, having lost a clutch of eggs to a hungry Sneasel before, were especially cautious with their children, teaching their chicks the importance of advanced flying skills. One of their daughters, Chirpy (or Cyclone, as she liked to be called), took these lessons especially to heart. Being the first to learn how to fly, it didn’t take long for her siblings to follow her speedy example.
One sunny afternoon, as unthreatening as any afternoon, Cyclone was practice-flying with her sister, Songy (their other siblings being Tweety and Singy... they had faint memories of another brother, Screamy, but he was mysteriously gone one day, said to have fallen out of the nest). The Taillow sisters decided that practice should take place above the treeline so they could get maximum air and be the safest from danger.
“Watch this, Chirpy!” Songy said as she did a loop-de-loop in the air.
“I told you, call me Cyclone!” the other Taillow shouted, spinning rapidly as she gained altitude. “Get a load of my signature Twister!”
“Well, check out my Aerial Ace!” Songy challenged as she cut through the air back and forth.
“Lame, I’ve got Aerial Ace too!”
“Mine’s faster!”
“Oh yeah? Race you to that pine!”
“Ah, the trees? Wait, Chirpy...”
“Come on! And don’t call me Chirpy!”
Cyclone took off towards the tall evergreen, Songy feeling she had no choice but to follow. The sisters were soon neck and neck, eventually Songy just barely taking the lead. At the last moment, the young birds swiftly and expertly gripped onto a bare branch, their race destination.
“Shoot!” Cyclone said, “You beat me! I woulda won if you...”
Out of nowhere, a blur of black fur and pink feathers shot out, and Songy was nowhere to be seen. Cyclone was dumbfounded until she heard the sound that no Taillow wanted to hear: the distress call. A loud, desperate screaming could be heard far below the treeline, as well as claws swiftly scraping against wood. A Sneasel.
Without wasting another moment, Cyclone shot down below the treeline. Navigating the confusing mess of leaves and branches proved to be a challenge, the Taillow nearly finding herself tangled in ivy vines and other natural obstacles. Once she saw the Sneasel leaping through the trees, Cyclone concentrated hard, trying to focus so she could use Agility. Her sister’s distress calls could still be heard, it was not too late.
In the blink of an eye, Cyclone finally built enough speed to slam into the predator. Though much smaller than the Sneasel, she was able to knock it down and, to her relief, Songy fell from its jaws. The Sneasel quickly regained its footing, eyes wide in surprise. It looked back, it eyes narrowing as it realized its attacker was another Taillow.
“Go away! Leave her alone!” Cyclone yelled. She shot into the Sneasel again, bouncing back like a boomerang. The move seemed to work for the creature cried out and fell backwards, crashing into the branches below.
“Hasta la vista, jerkface! Hey, Songy, where ya at?”
Cyclone flew around until she spotted a small, blue ball of feathers huddled and trembling in the cavity of a nearby tree. She glided to her sister and poked her with the tip of her wing.
“Hey, get up. It’s safe now. I saved you!”
Songy lifted her head, her eyes large and dull.
“Um... are you hurt?” Cyclone asked.
Songy just slowly shook her head back and forth as she lifted her wings, slowly flapping them up and down.
“Well it looks like you can at least fly. Boy, should shoulda seen how fast and cool I was! Of course, you couldn’t see how awesome I looked, seeing how you were in that thing’s mouth and all.”
“Stop,” Songy said, her tone quiet and meek. “I just want to go home.”
Cyclone averted her eyes uneasily. She then turned around, looked back to make sure Songy would be following, and the two sisters silently made their way back to the family nest.
“You did what?!” Cyclone and Songy’s parents squawked in unison.
“I totally saved Songy’s tail feathers from some slimey ol’ Sneasel! She would have been dead meat if not for me!”
Songy, huddled between their parents, just remained silent, her head facing down.
“I told you countless times, always use your speed to escape danger!” father Taillow said.
“And I told you, that ice rat came from nowhere! What, you want Songy to be dead right now?”
Songy whimpered and buried her head under her wing. Their mother began preening her.
The father just sighed. His reckless daughter was right, in a way. “Look. I am glad that you were able to fight that creature off. But please, never endanger yourself again. Be more aware of your surroundings and this never would have happened in the first place.”
“Bull! We can’t predict everything!”
“This is why you need to learn to be more cautious, always be on the lookout!” To prove a point, father Taillow harshly pecked Cyclone on the top of her head.
“So, this is the thanks I get?”
“Please, keep your voices down” mother Taillow interrupted. She continued gently preening Songy. Cyclone scoffed. How could her sister, her best training partner, turn into this sad sack? How could her own parents not recognize how heroic and awesome she was?
Well, she would just have to get better, faster, and stronger.
From then on, nearly every day, Cyclone would try and urge Songy to come out and speed train with her. “Um, not today. I’ll just... stick close to the nest. Train around here.”
“You’ll never get stronger staying at home all day! Come on, Tweety and Singy are too slow and boring, don’t be like them!”
Their morning conversations always ended with Songy remaining silent and Cyclone huffing in exasperation, and then taking off. Their parents had given up trying to scold her or get her to listen to their advice. If she wanted to be a daredevil and end up as a Sneasel snack, so be it. There was only so much they could do to ensure her survival.
Cyclone spent her days trying to perfect her moves, sometimes using a dead branch or even a low hanging cloud for target practice. Once, she saw a Caterpie crawling along the forest floor. Cyclone gained altitude and then dive-bombed into the poor bug, its guts exploding upon impact. Wasting a potential meal was never a wise thing, but the spectacle was worth it. She hated how her other family members were missing out on all this fun. The rare times Cyclone encountered a Sneasel, she found that the boomerang slam, U-Turn, always did the trick in making them back off. They were almost too easy to defend against.
