– Manfred
As the first magpie started the first note of Reveille, Manfred climbed out of his nest, dragged his primaries through his crown feathers, nipped at a few lice for breakfast, and stared at his miserable reflection: he had to tell Felix.
It was Olly’s fault—he’d encouraged that stupid game of hypothesy in the first place. And he’d called Manfred’s expertise into play. It was a mean trick. Amelia was supposed to make her choice, and if that broke Felix’s heart then everybird knew that was the way of things. It was just survival of the fittest. But that hadn’t been allowed to happen. Now it was up to Manfred to do the honourable thing and tell his friend what was going on.
He set off for the Eastern Melody.
Along the way he cursed himself, his friends, and his hawking stupid luck. Why else did they think quantum mechanics was invented? It definitely wasn’t something as trivial as to find paired electrons and teleport to other universes. Although that would would come in handy about now. He resolved to keep a side-eye out for interesting electrons just in case.
He circled the park. Stormfeather was there, some of the cocklings were milling about and others were still arriving, but there was no sign of Felix. He circled once more. Should he wait for him?
He recognized Orville, talking to a henling. He landed, stowed his wings, and bobbed over.
“Hi,” he said. “Orville, isn’t it?” But it was the henling who answered.
“Manfred?” She asked with surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“Amy?” Orville said to her. “How do you know Manfred?”
“How do you know Manfred?” Amy countered.
Manfred opened his beak to ask about Felix, but now it was Stormfeather’s turn to derail his conversation.
“Manfred, isn’t it?” Stormfeather asked. But she didn’t wait for an answer. “My cocklings are about to enjoy Twisted Wing’s lecture on Recent History. Unless you’ve got leave from your Dr Rada to join my melody,” her voice had started sweet but was turning harder. “I’ll ask you to leave, because,” and with this she glared at Orville, “I don’t want my cocklings to miss out on the lessons of the Cretaceous comet.
“I’ve got this, Stormfeather.” Amy took Manfred by the wing and led him away before hissing under her breath. “What are you doing here?!”
“It’s about Felix,” Manfred started to explain himself.
Amy rolled her head. “What’s he done now?”
Evolution: it's for the birds 