10

      It began long before they reached the mountain. The herd of bright yellow birds - flapping, tumbling, doing something. What were they up to? It looked like a race, but some of them were clearly faster than others and didn't rush ahead. Douglas watched as one of them broke free, then just as quickly slowed back down into line. The line! They were forming an even line in front, which grew straighter the further they went. Then, all of a sudden, the line stopped.
      "That's the mountain?!"
      He was looking at a hill of large purplish rocks, barely capable of containing its one cave.
      "Douglas, it's important to keep things in perspective."
      "Yeah, but so should they!"
      Josef was content to ignore this comment and climb toward the cave, but Douglas had become mesmerized by the superturkeys. Some of them had begun to scooch forward and then back again. As though it were a tiny sea of superturkeys and the tide were coming in. The front line surged closer and closer to the cave, which was strewn about with feathers and bones and a very small pile of rope.
      The ebb and flow continued until the band of superturkeys retreated with impossible elasticity and were flung forward at an incredible speed. Almost all of them skidded to a tumultuous halt, but one rather cunningly failed to stop, ran conspicuously up the hillside and onto the rope. It fell over and began thrashing about. Douglas watched all of this with a smirk, and then approached the cave entrance.
      "Oh look, it's the vegetarian!" exclaimed the all-too-familiar superturkey lying in front of him, "Happy now? I'm about to be eaten."
      "Vegetarians don't eat meat," corrected Douglas, patiently, "usually because they think it's wrong for animals to be eaten." He reached for the rope.
      "What are you doing?!" demanded the superturkey, "Decide you wanted to eat me yourself?"
      "I'm setting you free."
      "I'll never be free from these knots of injustice!"
      "Ow. Not if you keep pecking at my hands." Douglas put his towel over the superturkey's head.
      "You can't silence me!" came a muffled yell.
      "You're not even tied, just a little tangled, see?" he said, removing the towel, "There you go."
      The superturkey looked about for a moment.
      "Owww! My wing!" it cried, "You broke my wing!"
      "That's so cool!" whispered a young superturkey in the audience.
      "You don't even use your wings!" Douglas lifted the bird and started it off toward the ground.
      The audience gasped. The superturkey tried to laugh as it landed, but the others pecked at it and chased it into the woods.
      "You know, that turkey will probably never be cool again," observed Josef.
      "If only it had used its powers for Good," replied Douglas, still smirking.
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