Longpaws trapped inside the birds! It was such a strange sight that Lucky’s eyes had struggled to understand what they were seeing. Now he was certain: Those hostile longpaws with their bright, shiny pelts were barking at one another as they shifted about in the birds’ bellies.

Mickey must have spotted them at the same time. “Longpaws!” he yelped. “What’s that one doing?”

A longpaw in the first bird was edging toward the hole in its shiny flank. He half climbed through, hanging outside in the open air. The bird seemed to help him by dipping to one side so that the longpaw was dangling toward the broken houses, pointing and barking back to the others.

Lucky felt a tremble of uncertainty run through his body. “They’re searching . . . I think.”

“Searching for what?” Mickey asked.

There were three of them now—three huge birds, whirring, their wings whipping up the air around them. One swooped closer, a longpaw still dangling from the wound in its flank. The others dispersed over the city. Lucky could just make out other yellow-furred longpaws pressing their faces against the see-through bellies.

The dogs cowered, their fur blown flat, blinking against the wind that stirred beneath the birds’ wings. One bird stayed overhead, hovering and hunting. But what was it looking for?

Then all three birds veered sharply toward the city outskirts. They dropped lower as they disappeared from view.

“They’re going to land in the forest!” Lucky barked over the receding thunder of their wings. “I think we should follow them and find out what they’re up to!”

Mickey was reluctant. “What if they see us? The birds are carrying those horrible, yellow-furred longpaws. They’re dangerous, Lucky.”

“We’ll keep a safe distance.”

“Don’t you remember how they shouted at us? How they kicked Daisy?”

Lucky did remember. He watched the silhouette of the huge birds whirring lower until he could no longer see them behind the buildings.

“We won’t get close to the longpaws or those birds,” he barked. “But it’s no good ignoring them. We need to understand what they’re searching for. We need to know if they’re a threat. Maybe it will give us a clue to where the other longpaws have gone. It’s a risk we have to take.”

Mickey’s eyes were wide and his black ears were low.

“If you’re sure . . .”

Lucky watched the sky a moment longer, though he could no longer see the great birds in the distance. “We have to do this. We have to find out what they’re up to!” He bolted along the road with Mickey close behind. Their paws pounded against the hard stone of the city streets as they raced back to the forest.

CHAPTER EIGHT