CONCLUSION

REPERCUSSIONS

It was twilight by the time Petrie and Ducky arrived at his nest. They gasped in shock when they saw what was waiting for them. The nest was wrecked! The branches and twigs they had so neatly arranged in the circle shape earlier that day were strewn about and tossed everywhere, and mud was thrown into the nest itself, on the floor and walls of the hanging rock it was under.

"Who would DO this?" Ducky asked in horror.

Petrie sighed sadly. "Somebody who not like us being mates, THAT who!"

"I do not like this! No, no, NOOOO!" Ducky whined almost to the point of tears.

Petrie simply closed his eyes and stifled his tears. "What we do NOW?" he asked his mate.

"Well, we cannot leave the nest here the way it is! We can't! We can't! We will have to move it someplace else."

"Where?"

Ducky pondered that for a bit. Her face lit up when she thought of a good place. "I know! We will move it to The Secret Caverns! Nobody's going to come wreck the nest THERE! Yep, yep, YEP!"

"Secret Caverns?" Petrie smiled. "YEAH... That be GREAT place to rebuild nest!"

Then they busied themselves in gathering up the branches and twigs that were salvageable, and brought them over to The Secret Caverns, located a short distance away. Though Ducky was almost as large as Petrie, he had grown strong enough to be able to carry Ducky on his back, as well as her armload of nest building materials. He even carried his own bunch of branches and twigs in his feet as he flew over to the location of The Secret Caverns.

They may not be able to reassemble the nest completely before they turned in for the night, but they could "rough it" for one night without any problems. They would have to complain tomorrow to Little Foot about what happened. But without any evidence or proof as to who did it, Little Foot cannot punish anybody for the crime! Whoever did it would get away with the crime until some kind of proof could be obtained!

Later on that night, while Ducky fell asleep wrapped in Petrie's wing embrace, he stayed up worrying about the future for he and his life mate. Everywhere they turned, there would be somebody who would look down upon them, wish them harm, or spit at them, simply because they fell in love. This made Petrie very sad! Eventually, he fell into an uneasy sleep. Tomorrow would be a busy day for him and Ducky in The Great Valley.