Chapter 1- prologue

It had been a number of months after the events of Rio One and a Half. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Ceres and Pluto, the nine macaws formerly owned by Susan, Lucy, Blake, Drake and Jake, had begun a new chapter of their lives. They had all found mates and had paired up with them and have had chicks with them. Mercury the Lear's macaw had paired up with a beautiful female Lear's macaw named Sapphire who came from the Amazon. He and Sapphire's pairing had been assisted by Tulio and his team based on their goal of establishing a Lear's macaw population on the Blu Bird Sanctuary. However, their meeting did not go very well but throughout the journey and Jupiter's group of escaping the smugglers and getting them caught, Mercury and Sapphire had grown to like each other and had eventually become mates. They were now the parents of three daughters named Phoebe, Jasmine and Annette, and had become the first family of Lear's macaws to live on the Blu Bird Sanctuary. At almost the same time, Venus the Spix macaw had paired up with Zephyr, a male Spix macaw also from the Amazon. However, like Mercury and Sapphire, Venus and Zephyr at first did not get off on the right talon when they first met, but during the adventure, the two had grown to like each other and had eventually become mates a few months later. Venus and Zephyr were now proud parents of four chicks, oldest son and chick Justin, oldest daughter and second oldest chick Charlotte, third oldest chick and second oldest daughter Matilda, and youngest chick and son Virgil. Brisa, Zephyr's brother, had become a proud aunt of these four chicks, and Zephyr and Venus had become the Blu Bird Sanctuary's second breeding pair of Spix macaws after Blu and Jewel. Mars the green-winged macaw had paired up with a rather diminutive green-winged macaw named Chiquitita who was also from the Amazon. They had had three chicks together: oldest son and chick Phobos, middle chick and son Deimos, and youngest chick and son Alexandre. Jupiter the scarlet macaw, the leader of the group of macaws had paired up with Chiquitita's scarlet macaw friend Ruby and together, they had four chicks: oldest daughter and chick Io, second oldest daughter and chick Europa, third oldest chick and only son Ganymede and youngest daughter and chick Callisto.

Saturn the blue-and-gold macaw had paired up with Orquidea, a female blue-and-gold macaw also from the Amazon and a friend of Chiquitita and Ruby. These two had had the biggest brood of Jupiter's group, of seven chicks. Their names were Mimas (oldest daughter and chick), Enceladus (oldest son and second oldest chick), Tethys, Dione and Rhea (who had hatched nearly at the same time and are sometimes called triplets, and are classed as Saturn and Orquidea's third, fourth and fifth oldest chicks and second, third and fourth oldest daughters respectively), Titan (second oldest son and sixth oldest chick) and Iapetus (youngest son and chick). Uranus the great green macaw had paired up with Esmeralda, a female great green macaw also from the Amazon and another friend of Ruby and Chiquitita. They had had five chicks together: four older daughters Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel and Titania who all look like Esmeralda and each other and could only told apart by the colours of their eyes, and youngest and only son Oberon who looked very similar to Uranus. Neptune the hyacinth macaw had paired up with Ultramarine, a female hyacinth macaw from the Amazon and they had two chicks, oldest son and chick named Triton and youngest chick and daughter named Indigo. Ceres the blue-throated macaw had paired up with a male Amazonian blue-throated macaw named Cobalto and together, they had three sons named Azul, Aurelio and Wilbur while Pluto, the only known male glaucous macaw in existence had paired up with the only known female glaucous macaw in existence, Lapis Lazuli, who also came from the Amazon. Much like Venus and Mercury, the two had met in Tulio's Aviary in the artificial habitat, the same place where Blu met Jewel. Together, the two glaucous macaws had four chicks, oldest daughter and chick Blueberry, second oldest chick and oldest son Charon, younger son and third oldest chick Quincy and youngest daughter and chick Flor. Pluto and Lapis Lazuli, in the same way Blu and Jewel had saved their species the Spix macaw from extinction by breeding, had saved their species the glaucous macaw from certain disappearance from existence and had given their species a new lease on life in a new generation. However, the other four pets that lived with Jupiter and the other eight macaws, Travis the sulfur-crested cockatoo, Sunset the Major Mitchell's cockatoo, Veggie the vegetarian tabby cat and Dash the greyhound, had also paired up with mates and had had offspring. Travis and Sunset had paired up with each other while Veggie paired up with Catina, a former smugglers' cat, and Dash paired with Ginger, a former stray greyhound taken in by Susan and Lucy along with Catina.

Travis and Sunset, now mates, had had a brood of three chicks, oldest son Eustace, middle chick and second oldest son Milo and youngest and only daughter Rosa. All three chicks were sulfur-crested/Major Mitchell's hybrids due to their parents being different species. Eustace looked a lot like Travis and had his yellow crest. However, the crest feathers were differing shades of yellow and amber as the striking red and yellow bands he got from Sunset seemed to have mixed in with Travis's yellow but the red did not show. This feature made Eustace look somewhat like a citron crested cockatoo, a subspecies of sulfur-crested cockatoo that had a yellow-orange crest. The rest of his plumage was mostly white but the blotches on his wings and tail undersides appeared peach coloured as though the yellow marks from Travis and the deep salmon pink marks from Sunset had mixed. He was named after a character from The Chronicles of Narnia. Milo also had peach coloured marks under his wings and tail, but the bands in his crest were more obvious than Eustace's. Instead of being differing shades of yellow and orange, Milo's crest was red and yellow only the red was more vermillion than Sunset's deep red crest bands. Like his brother, most of his plumage appeared white but up close, Milo's white feathers appeared pink tinted. His eyes were blue but were darker than Travis's baby blue eyes. Rosa resembled Sunset more than she did Travis. Her plumage was white and pinkish and her crest was vermillion and rich yellow like Milo's but her vermillion bands were more orange. Her eyes were a shade of pink and she had peach coloured blotches on her wing and tail undersides. All three chicks had near black beaks and feet like Travis and stocky builds like their parents. When Travis and Sunset had paired up, most birds thought it was a bit bizarre for a sulfur-crested cockatoo to pair up with a female of another species, but because Rafael the toco toucan had paired up with a female of another toucan species, a keel-billed toucan named Eva, Travis and Sunset did so anyway. Eustace, Milo and Rosa were good friends with the macaw chicks and were like their cousins.

While Travis and Sunset had become proud parents of three hybrid chicks, Veggie and Catina had become the proud parents of four kittens, all of which were a tabby/calico mix. Their kittens' names were oldest son and kitten Broccoli, second oldest kitten and son Daisy, third oldest kitten and younger daughter Collette and youngest kitten and son Thomas. Broccoli and Thomas resembled their father Veggie more than they did their mother Catina. Like their father, both had striped brown, black and orange fur. Broccoli had brown eyes while Thomas had baby blue eyes, lighter than his mother Catina's. Broccoli took after his father Veggie and showed a strong dislike of meat including fish and mice, preferring vegetarian food instead. Thomas, however, preferred regular cat food but still liked eating fish. Both sons showed little inheritance from Catina. The daughters, Daisy and Collette however, showed more inheritance from both their parents. They were 'caliby' cats, a mix of calico and tabby. Like their mother Catina, Collette and Daisy had white fur but their orange and black blotches were interspersed with Veggie's black and brown stripes. Daisy showed less of this than Collette and had more white than her younger sister. Daisy had baby blue eyes like her mother Catina while Collette's eyes were hazel, a lighter shade of brown than Veggie's. Daisy seemed to show an aversion to meat and prefer a vegetarian diet just like Veggie and Broccoli did. However Collette liked regular cat food and the odd fish every now and then. All four kittens were slender in build and they were friendly with birds, which Veggie and Catina, especially Veggie were glad for, as the only bird meat Catina, Thomas and Collette preferred to eat was chicken but they would never kill a bird to eat unlike most cats. Finally, Dash and Ginger the greyhound had become proud parents of a litter of five pups, oldest daughter and puppy Eduarda, second oldest daughter and puppy Esperanza, third oldest puppy and older son James, fourth oldest puppy and younger daughter Avellana, and youngest puppy and son Danny. All five puppies looked like a spitting image of their parents with either light grey or ginger coloured fur. Eduarda, Danny and Avellana had ginger fur like their mother but Avellana's fur was hazelnut coloured, earning her her name (Avellana was Spanish for hazelnut) while James and Esperanza were light grey. Their eye shades were also associated with their parents' eye colours and were either a shade of blue (like Dash's) or brown (like Ginger's). Eduarda had hazel eyes, Esperanza had ocean blue eyes, James had brown eyes, Avellana had baby blue eyes and Danny had sandy brown eyes. All five greyhound puppies had the typical greyhound build: long slender legs and a cheetah-like body with a long tail and all were very energetic. They were good friends with Catina and Veggie's kittens and loved to play with them. However, the kittens and the puppies were to be sold to other owners once they become old enough while their parents will possibly have another litter of kittens and puppies.

As the years went by since the capturing of the second group of smugglers, Susan and Lucy had finished their degree in ecology and had joined Tulio's team to help with the conservation of Brazil's birds while their three cousins, Blake, Jake and Jake had gone home to London to finish their degree there. During this time period, Susan and Lucy had released Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Ceres and Pluto into the Blu Bird Sanctuary so that they could be with their mates and raise their chicks, though sometimes the macaws paid them a visit. Unlike Blu, Jewel, Carla, Bia and Tiago who lived in a birdhouse near Linda, Tulio and Fernando's cottage, Jupiter and company chose to live in hollows while Travis, Sunset and their three chicks had moved to a birdhouse nailed to a tree just outside Susan and Lucy's house to live near their owners' house like how Blu and his family did as the cockatoos preferred to raise their chicks in a more naturalistic environment and had pretty much gone off cages. Veggie, Dash and their families, however, remained as house pets since they were, after all, built for the human home. All eleven birds, Dash and Veggie were enjoying their lives as parents and raised their offspring in their respective homes. However, a new adventure was about to unfold…

As Venus and Mercury raised their chicks with their respective mates, Zephyr and Sapphire, they still kept their parents' dream and hope of other macaws like themselves alive and had hoped to one day venture into the Amazon to find those birds. However, that journey was to be made by Blu, Jewel, Carla, Bia and Tiago along with Rafael, Nico and Pedro first, but Mercury and Venus, together with their families and friends including Jupiter and his family but apart from Veggie and Dash and their families, would soon follow that flight path.