"Here!" Arabella yelled for all her tiny lungs were worth. "I'm here, you fried chicken!" Her heart pounded wildly in her chest. Had he heard her? How good were parrot ears? She didn't have time to think about it any further, she had to make noise like never before in her life. And if she was ever anything in her life, it was loud! Groping, she picked a wall and banged against it as often and as hard as she could, while continuing to scream what her vocal cords could. Briefly, she paused to hear if anyone answered her or if the cawing of Herbert the Roast Chicken had come closer. Nothing...absolute silence, but wait, there was something. A muffled noise that sounded somehow grating at the same time.  Suddenly there was more, a whole carpet of sound spread out. Excited voices joined hacking noises...please don't let it be the goblin that had found her again through her roar...Anxiously, she pressed her back against the wall. Ready to do a hamster sprint if necessary. Then she heard it again, the sound that seemed almost like an angelic melody to her, the cawing of the roasting chicken.  

"I'm here!" Again she hit the wall so hard her little paws threatened to break.  

"Parrots, have very good hearing, better than any mutt. Stop yelling or your rescuer here will think you're about to snap." Cawed back, Herbert tried hard to sound indifferent, but she thought she could hear a trace of concern.  

"Were you worried?" She added a teasing note to her husky voice. Teasing the bird calmed her nerves. 

"About everyone in town." The cryptic statement was the last she heard until, all at once, first a heavy spike nearly sliced her belly open and, finally, glaring light burst in. Arabella narrowed her eyes. When she carefully opened her eyelids again, she was dazzled. God Himself in full glory, stretched out His hand to her....