Top Wing - A New Addition

6 - The Belated Advent

Summary — Taz is finally due to arrive at Big Swirl Island. The cadets organise themselves for her arrival, who arrives not at the time they thought she would.

'Hey, Swift!' Brody called from below. 'What are you doing?'
Swift peered down at Brody from up the tree. 'I've been resting from a bit of flying around, which I thought would get me more energised.' He yawned loudly.
'It doesn't seem like it did though, you look tired,' remarked Brody.
'I am, Rod woke me up, too early for my liking ...'
Brody chuckled at Swift's comment.
'Well, make sure you get enough rest! You don't want to give the cadet, or should I say, Taz, a bad impression, do you?'
Swift laughed. 'Let's go inside to catch up with Rod and Penny. Race you there!'
-----
Penny and Rod were deep in conversation while setting their beds when Swift and Brody walked in.
'... I'm not saying that she doesn't need one, but if it panics her—' Rod stopped upon noticing Swift and Brody. 'Oh, hi guys! Penny and I were just tidying up. Taz is coming today, isn't she? So we've got to be ready.'
Penny giggled. 'This isn't a rescue mission or anything!'

Swift wanted to ask what Penny and Rod were talking about, even though he had a pretty clear idea. Rod was worried that Taz would be stressed if she had to do a rescue mission on the first day, which was reasonable, the cadets had all been nervous with their first rescue mission after failing the virtual reality version.

'You don't really think "Taz" is the cadet's actual name, is it?' Brody asked.
'Maybe it's a nickname ...' Swift already had ideas of what names could have "Taz" as a nickname.

'Anyways, I overheard Speedy and Bea's conversation this morning, and Speedy said that she would be coming around noon,' informed Rod.
'Well, we'll have to wait a couple of hours.' Penny said. 'For now, all we have to do is wait for Speedy to call for us.'
-----
'Thank you Sandy for flying me, I can make my way from here,' thanked Taz.
'If you say so! See you around!' Sandy waved.

I think I'd better get something to eat ... Tara thought. Maybe there's some place around where I can go?

Tara unlocked the tablet she had been given and looked up her location on the map. It seemed that there was a concession stand nearby.

Great! I can go see if I can get anything, Tara thought, storing away the tablet and flying off the her destination.

It wasn't long before she spotted a concession stand resembling a yellow lemon with a flagpole, a window, and a wavy green and white stripe pattern. There were four round chairs and tables around it.

There's no type of architecture like that on Montane Boscage, Tara thought.

There was a rhinoceros behind the counter who had a pale tan complexion, short locs of brown hair with purple and green embellishments, and orange-pink lipstick.

'Um, hello!' Taz greeted hesitantly.
'Ah! Hello there! I assume you're new here?' The rhinoceros beamed brightly.
'Yeah, I am,' said Taz. 'I've just arrived actually.
'Well welcome to Big Swirl Island! My name is Rhonda! You must be hungry after your flight, is there anything I can get for you?'
'Sunflower seeds?'

It wasn't rare to find them, but they weren't as common as dandelions. Taz had eaten too many dandelion tarts to count.

'Of course!' Rhonda pulled out a sack of sunflower seeds and gave it to Taz, feeling greatly reminded of a memory that happened not too long ago. 'Here you go, enjoy!'
'Thank you. I have to go now,' Taz got up, tying up the sack of sunflower seeds and storing it in her backpack, steadying herself to fly off. 'Bye!'
-----
'Hello Rhonda!' Penny waved to Rhonda as she and the cadets sat down at the counter.
'Why hello cadets! It's great to see you again, what would you like today?' Rhonda was wiping the counter down with a cloth.
'Three bags of sunflower seeds!' Brody said.
'I'll come back later today, I'm not hungry right now!' Penny stated.
'Sure thing!' As Rhonda was getting out the food, Swift thought of something to ask.
'Hey Rhonda ... has anyone wearing purple clothes came here?'
'Shirley has!' Rhonda placed the three bags of sunflower seeds in front of Swift, Rod and Brody.
'... A bird wearing purple clothes?' Swift rephrased his question.
'Ah, yes! How could you have guessed? I didn't get her name though ...' Rhonda trailed off.
'Do you know what this means?' Swift whispered to the other cadets.
'It means that ... Taz is here?' Rod replied.
The cadets all stared at each other with ecstatic looks.
'Thanks Rhonda, we have to be off now. Bye!'
-----
As the cadets rushed into the control room, they were surprised to see a black capped chickadee standing besides Speedy and Bea. She sported a bell heather purple cold-shouldered long sleeved top with mauve buttons dotting down her top and a pendant necklace with a gold swirling cloud charm. A lilac skirt with floral patterning whipped around her legs and had matching lilac boots, and underneath her skirt were white tights. The black capped chickadee had ash blonde feather buns situated on the top of her head and her grey eyes had a settling effect, reassuring in their reflectiveness.

'Cadets, I'd like you to meet Tara.'

a/n: Hello! Sorry for the late update, my state was in lockdown and I've had assessments. This chapter is shorter than most chapters I've published because I had no clue on what to really write.

If you've forgotten what the prologue says, this book takes place around the middle of Season One (where I assume the cadets are halfway through completing Level One). Chapters after the cadets' level up will not include season two episodes with Tara written into them. Instead, they'll be interactions with (other) characters, further discovery of Tara's backstory and other chapter ideas I'll come up with.

I can't really write the cadets during training because I don't know how that works out when writing scenes so just be aware of that.