Daphne found herself in the middle of the sky. Quite reasonably, she began to panic. She twisted and turned and began to hyperventilate, taking in deep gasps of air.
"Could you quit that please?" a voice said. "It's gets harder to hold you when you move. You don't want me to drop you, do you?"
Daphne looked towards the sound of the voice and found it to be a very large vulture. The vulture was gripping her with its talons. Daphne stopped her twisting and turning and said, out of habit if nothing else, "Sorry."
"Apology accepted," the vulture said.
"If I may ask," Daphne said, "where are you taking me?"
"You may, but it is impolite to ask a question without first knowing one's name," the vulture said.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Daphne said. "What is your name?"
"I," the vulture said, "am Sir Marylebone, Esteemed Member of the Parliament of Fowls."
"Well," Daphne said, "Sir Marylebone, I'm not going to say that it is a pleasure to meet you, since you have in fact kidnapped me and I do not wish to lie, but I do not wish any offense, so it is interesting to meet you."
The vulture seemed to harrumph, his neck feathers ruffling in the wind.
"And now," Daphne said, "if I may ask my question?"
"You may," Sir Marylebone said.
"Where are you taking me?" Daphne asked.
"Back to the Houses of the Parliament of Fowls," Sir Marylebone said, "on top the Mountains of Rising Action. And there you will meet our Prime Minister, the Lord Westminster."
"And what shall happen to me then?" Daphne asked.
"That I do not know," Sir Marylebone said, "though I suspect he may feed you to our young. They always like eating nice juicy organs."
Daphne closed her eyes and tried to remain calm. She tried to tell herself that the Parliament of Fowls wouldn't simply kill her, that they needed her for something. That if the Parliament had gone to all this trouble of finding her and kidnapping her, she was important for something.
She thought all of this, but none of it helped.
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