Pigeon lift

Quill pointed at the birds and shook his head. “I don’t think they like owls.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

They ran across the park, dodging bushes and shadows, slowly gaining on the figure. Of course, when it shambled up to the second layer, yet another square of white paper flapped to the ground.

The pirate Quill swung a hard left to nab the note.

“That’s the fifth one,” Percy said.

“Maybe he’s writing a story for us,” Quill replied.

From the heads of all the statues on the second tier, every pigeon, black, white, and grey, flung itself into the sky.

“That was your fault again,” Quill said.

“When he drops the next note, I’ll grab it. You catch him,” Percy said.

“Don’t you want to grab him?”

“I have no idea what is under those rags.”

“So you’re gonna make me do it?”

They kept running and sure enough, when the gray figure scrabbled up to the third tier… it didn’t drop a note. Quill and Percy stopped.

“What?”

Then the note fell and the next set of birds cast themselves into the sky.

Quill squinted at the pigeons. “Was that your plan all along?”

“Obviously not,” Percy said while snatching up the note.

“Ok, new plan. Remove his cloak with your claws.”

Percy flew ahead and gave off a screech. Perhaps in response to this noise, or perhaps coincidentally, every pigeon in the park went skyward and formed a circle. Quill looked up and saw that the circle centered above the figure in gray.

“Percy, get back!”

The owl turned hard to the left and then boomeranged back to Quill. At the same time, the pigeons swooped down as a single form and lifted the gray figure off the ground and into the sky. When they finally disappeared, a single piece of paper glided down to the ground and landed at Quill’s feet.