. . . .
It's a cool morning in the Amazon, as always. Blu slowly opens his eyes to find Jewel still sound asleep, her head resting on his chest with a light smile on her face.
"Jewel.." He whispers.
She chuckles , "Good morning, Blu." She says in a soft, sweet voice. "Wait," She says, looking around. "It's not even daylight, why'd you get me up so early?"
Blu shrugs, "Uh, I-I figured we could watch the sunrise together..."
"Aw, Blu." She says with a bright smile, "That would be amazing. How long until the sunrise starts?"
He looks up at the sky, "Well, giving the current declination and right ascension of the constellation Orion in relation to the horizon..." He quickly does some calculations before saying, "About forty five minutes."
Jewel laughs, "Nerd." At that moment, a dim light starts to appear on the eastern horizon. Blu sighs and shakes his head.
"Or I could be wrong." He says.
Jewel chuckles, "Where'd you get that forty five minutes from?"
Blu shakes his head, "I have no idea. These southern stars are harder to read than the ones in Minnesota." They sit in silence for a few moments before Blu remembers something, "Oh, I nearly forgot! Follow me!" He says as he takes off, heading east.
Jewel quickly chases after him, "Where are you going?! Wait up!"
. . . .
Jewel finds Blu sitting on a branch waiting for her with a very excited look on his face. "What was that about?" Jewel asks, "You can't just get up and run off like that."
"Uh, I- sorry, I just.. had something to show you." He gestures to a well built nest-like structure in a large knot hole in a nearby tree. Inside is a small pile of Brazil nuts stacked in a neat pyramid formation. "I put this together last night when you were out with your dad."
Jewel's face lights up with joy and amazement, "You did all of this.. for me?"
Blu nods, "Of course.
Jewel seems confused, "But, why?"
"It's our anniversary!" Blu says happily.
"It is? Already?"
"Yeah! Can you believe it's been a year?!"
"I wish you had reminded me!" Jewel hangs her head, "Now I feel bad for not getting you anything."
Blu shakes his head, "I don't need anything, I don't want anything." He says humbly. "You're everything I could ever need. A-And I know that sounds really sappy and cliché, but it's true."
Jewel smiles and kisses Blu, "You're the best." She says softly as she nuzzles up under his chin.
. . . .
.: Three Days Later:.
Jewel approaches Blu while he's preening his feathers in their new nest. As always, he's trying to be very careful about how he does so. He's finishing up just as Jewel gets there; ruffling his feathers as she lands next to him.
"Blu, there's someone here who wants to see you." She says.
Blu looks confused, then nods. He steps out of the roost to be greeted by a very intimidating spectacle. In front of him is a jet black falcon with deep blue eyes. The falcon was slightly taller than Blu, and wore a bronze band around his left leg; but despite the bird's striking size and color, the thing that stood out to Blu the most was the fact that the entire upper portion of the falcon's beak seemed to be made of a dull silver metal. Blu's eyes widen as he finally recognizes the face. "Kestrel...?"
Jewel seems surprised, "Blu, you know this guy?"
Blu nods his head, "He's one of my friends from Minnesota." He says, before turning his
attention back to Kestrel. "Wha- How'd you get here? Thats an eight thousand mile flight! And, i-if you don't mind me asking, what happened to your face?"
Kestrel nods, "Ventured down here a few years ago. A long journey that I decided to spread out over several weeks." he says in a deep, resonant voice. "And as for… this," He points to his beak, "Half destroyed in a scrap with a condor about a year ago. Couple of humans found me a few days later and fixed me up with this piece of titanium to call a beak."
Blu nods, "Aha. Well, it's great to see that you're recovering quite nicely."
Kestrel looks at Jewel, "Ohh, who's this?"
Blu nods, "That's my wife, Jewel. Jewel, this is Kestrel. He was my best friend before I left Minnesota."
Jewel gives a smile, "It's nice to meet you." She says very poiltely.
Suddenly, a loud crash is heard, followed by what sounded like screaming birds Jewel looks out to see a burning airplane in a clearing about a hundred yards away. "There's birds in there, we need to help them! C'mon!"
The cargo bay of the plane opens just as the three of them get there. There must be hundreds of birds here; all in cages and boxes.
"These smugglers are getting out of control." Kestrel says before diving in and using his beak to break locks and pry bars apart to free whatever birds he can. "Go! Get out while you can!" he shouts to Blu and Jewel, "Go!" He breaks one last lock and opens the cage before realizing he's nearly out of time. The flames would soon be blocking the exit; he bolts out of the plane, leaving over half the birds still imprisoned there.
Jewel looks back, "There's still some in there!" she shouts at Kestrel.
"There's no time left!" he says.
"But you can't just let them die!"
"Sometimes, you have to make sacrifices!"
Jewel shakes her head and darts toward the plane, which was almost completely enveloped in flames.
Kestrel chases after her, followed by Blu, "Jewel stop!" Kestrel shouts as Jewel flies into the plane just before the flames roar up and block the exit. "Jewel, there's no way you can-"
The plane explodes as the inferno hits the fuel lines. The explosion sounds for miles and knocks Blu and Kestrel out of the air. Blu hits the ground hard and is knocked out cold, while Kestrel lands flat on his back. As soon as he regains his orientation, a flying piece of shrapnel pierces his left wing and pins it to the ground. He lets out a pained screech, but quickly gets over the pain as he realizes Jewel was in that explosion. Nothing could've survived that. He does nothing but sit there in silence, speechless for about half an hour before Blu finally comes to.
"Kestrel!" Blu exclaims. He quickly makes his way to the falcon and helps with Kestrel's wing. "What happened, where's Jewel?!" Blu is quick to ask.
Kestrel hangs his head. "She… she didn't make it."
. . . .
A/N
Okay so I know killing a central character is a hell of a way to start a story. But hey, if Game of Thrones can do it, I can do it.