Disclaimer - I do not in anyway, shape or form own Rio! or gain anything from this story.
Authors Note - Hey! Well...first story :) I saw Rio i was like...hmmm... I wonder how they met and why is he wearing a bottle cap? and this just popped in to my head! I think it would make an amazing sequel to do the story of Nico and Pedro :) Un-betad so sorry for any grammer/spelling mistakes, i'm not to good with it. Erm...please rate and review, but not flames please! :) Thankyou and enjoy!
It was another scorching day in Rio de Janeiro, there was not a single cloud in the sky and the sun was making the clear water sparkle like a diamond. Children were playing volley ball on the beach and adults were conversing with one another; all the while a lone red-crested cardinal bird was sat above them all on a thin telephone wire, watching them and admiring the views Rio had to offer for a creature who was able to get a 'bird's eye view' whenever they so wished. He was a relatively small bird in stature, but was quite rotund around his middle, his eyes were narrowed in a sleepy state but they suddenly shot open as his relaxation was interrupted by his name being called.
"Pedro!" Shouted a much larger scarlet macaw. "Pedro! We have a problem!" She yelled urgently, the macaw reached Pedro and landed clumsily on the wire, nearly detaching Pedro from his perch.
"What's the matter Ruby? You woke me up" Pedro replied with a very unimpressed look on his feathered face. For a second Ruby looked slightly guilty but shook it off as she carried on relaying the information to Pedro.
"The club! It's gone!"
"Gone? What do you mean gone!" Pedro now had a look of pure confusion and anger on his face. How could his club have just disappeared?
"The warehouse you had it in has just been knocked down. The entire thing is in ruins! We got all the sound equipment out when we saw the wrecking ball but there was nothing we could do." Ruby replied sadly as she looked down in guilt. As if a bird could have stopped a giant wrecking ball anyway.
"Damn it… And carnaval is soon to! Looks like I'm going to need to go on the hunt for a new place…and fast." With that he jumped up and flew away to look for a new area to set up his dance club.
Later that night found Pedro still searching for a perfect spot to set up his new club and essentially his home, but he had yet to find a place suitable enough to reach the needs that his old place met, so he figured he had no choice but to sleep outside tonight. He flew out of the still loud and lively city and again went in search, but this time for a safe and quiet place to settle down for the night. By the time he found a tree far enough from the town that he could no longer hear them, but close enough to the ocean so he could hear the waves, it was night time and the sky was dark shade of blue with little yellow stars scattered throughout the clear canvas. He settled himself on a low hanging branch that stared out on to the slow moving sea and fell asleep.
At around six in the morning the sleeping bird was abruptly awoken by the loud squawking and screeching of a flock of seagulls below him that were fighting over whatever they had surrounded. Annoyed at having been so rudely awoken, Pedro flew down with his small but sharp talons out and squawked at the seagulls. They all stopped and looked up at him only to scatter in fright at the sight of his talons.
Pedro landed on the golden sand with a huff. "Damn seagulls…" he muttered to himself as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He spun around to turn back to the tree, planning to fly back up and get another couple of hours sleep before he awoke to go in search of an area for his club again. But as he turned he saw the item the seagulls had been fighting over. It was a tinted green glass beer bottle with the cap on that had been washed up in the night. It was so close to the sea the waves still sloshed up against the side of the bottle, threatening to wash it back out to sea.
But the most interesting thing was the small golden blob inside the bottle, what it was he had no idea; he couldn't make it out from this distance. So being the curious bird he was he decided to venture closer to it and find out what interested the seagulls so much as to fight over it. But as he got closer his face became more and more horrified, his speed increased and his heart beat faster and faster in his small chest.
Inside of the capped off bottle, was a tiny yellow canary.
His wings beat furiously as he tried to reach the bottle faster. He skidded to a stop at the side of the bottle and pressed his wings and face up to it, trying to see if the small bird inside was even alive. At the sound of his beak hitting the glass the miniature bird inside cracked open an eye half way and stared at him. Although his vision wasn't very focused and seemed almost like he was looking right through Pedro, as if he couldn't even see him. The bottle was laid flat on the sand and canary was lying inside with his back and head slightly propped up against the back of the bottle, his wings fell out to either side of him and his head rested against his chest. He looked incredibly malnourished and his feathers were a mess, covered in dirt and blood, although there were no wounds to be seen but they were most likely hidden under his mess of feathers. His tiny chest rose and fell with uneven breaths and his half open eye was blood shot from exhaustion.
As Pedro took in the site of the bird he rushed around to the front of the bottle and watched as the little birds eye followed him, showing that he had at least took recognition of Pedro being there. Pedro turned away from the bird and looked towards the bottle cap, trying to figure out how he was going to get the bird out of there without breaking the bottle and hurting him in the process.
At first he tried grabbing the bottle cap with his feet and flying to try and pull it off, but he only succeeded in jerking the bottle further up the beach. He landed back on the ground trying to figure out his next move. He looked back to the bird inside only to panic when he noticed the bird no longer had his eyes open and was just lying there motionlessly. In a panic he grabbed the edge of the bottle cap with his beak and started to twist, turn and pull frantically until eventually he fell backwards as the cap flew off and landed behind him somewhere on the beach. He jumped up and ran towards the bottle just to realize he was way too big to fit through the opening to be able to reach the canary inside.
"Hey! Can you hear me! Can you get out?" But there was no answer from the feathered occupant inside. So instead he went around to the back of the bottle were the bird resided and lifted it slowly, allowing the bird to slide down and out of the bottle.
Pedro dropped the bottle and rushed around to where the unconscious canary lay in the sand. He stared at him sadly and went and got a beak full of water from the sea. He flew back over and emptied the water on the bird's small face. The small yellow canary's eyes shot open and he took in a deep gasping breath. His eyes covered a large portion of his face, they were a chocolaty brown colour and were backed onto a much darker portion of his feathers and it looked almost as if he was wearing eye shadow but it was completely natural. He had a small light yellow shield on his chest and the tips of his wings were shaded the same colour of his eyes. All in all, he was a very handsome bird. Pedro ran behind him and pushed him up in to a sitting position to make it easier for him to cough and breathe; eventually the bird's breaths evened out and he stopped coughing. Pedro peered over the bird's shoulder just to find the bird had fallen asleep. Pedro smiled and shook his head then lifted the bird up and into the tree he had took residence in that night. He gently laid the bird down and then settled himself in for a few hours sleep, even if it was probably mid day by now, saving bird's tired one out.
Again Pedro was awoken rather abruptly as he heard a terrified shout. He jumped up from his perch in alarm and scanned the area for predators until his eyes landed on the tree trunk at the end of the branch he had slept on; pressed up against the tree trunk was the yellow canary, looking as if he was trying to press himself as far into the tree trunk as he could. His large eyes were darting around but always landed back on Pedro, his entire body was shaking and his beak was slightly open and he took fast shaky breaths.
"¿Quiénes son usted… y dónde están yo?" Asked the bird in-between breaths. But Pedro just stared at him confusedly not understanding a single word the bird said. What language was that?
"¡Contésteme!" The canary shouted, obviously getting more scared and aggravated that Pedro had yet to answer him.
"Woah little dude! Calm down! Erm…'.you!" Pedro quickly answered, holding his wings up in a surrendering position. This seemed to cause the canary to visibly relax a bit more as he realized Pedro was no threat to him.
"Sorry… Who are you? And where am I?" The canary whispered, his voice hoarse. He slumped back down on to the branch, exhausted from having stood up for so long in his current state. Pedro looked at him concerned but spoke anyway.
"You're in Rio de Janeiro!" He answered. At this the bird looked up surprised, his beak agape.
"Rio? As in Brazil? Oh my…" he exclaimed, he donned a look of being completely lost and it only grew the more he seemed to think about it.
"Why, where'd ya come from?"
"Morocco…" The bird answered still looking very much lost and just sat there staring down at his wings which he had turned upwards resting on his spread out legs.
"Morocco? Wow that's quite far. Did you come all that way in that bottle?" Pedro asked, but realized his mistake when the canary's eyes narrowed and he shivered at the mention of it.
"Not intentionally… Some stupid human children thought it would be funny to see if the tiny birdie was light enough for the bottle to still float…" He muttered, his face twisted in disgust at the thought of such twisted minds.
"Ugh…sick. Humans are pure evil. How did you get the wounds though?" Pedro asked still trying to piece together what happened to the unfortunate bird.
"Oh these. A cat got me. Then the humans found me and stuffed me in the bottle and threw me in the water. A whole week! That's how long it took me to get here. No food or water…" The canary at first jumped up in anger but soon trailed of as he started to sway.
"I'm not feeling to good…" he said as he fell back on to the branch. A ray of sun shone through the leaves at that moment. They mustn't have slept for long. And beat down on the poor canary's face.
"Ouch that's bright" he commented as he squinted his large eyes and brought up his wing to cover the sun. Pedro looked around himself trying to find something to help the bird.
"Aha!" he exclaimed as he flew down and picked up the bottle cap that lay forgotten on the sand. He flew back up to the branch and placed it on the birds head, effectively blocking out the harsh light. The small bird stared up at the cap and smiled, tweaking it a bit so it sat right on his head.
"Well… I think it's about time we got you something to eat and drink. Then we'll get you fixed up and you'll be better in no time!" Pedro said encouragingly.
"Thank you so much…"
"Hey no problem at all! Now before we fly off. My name's Pedro!" At this he stuck his wing out for the other bird to shake. The bird at first hesitated but then confidently took his wing and shook it.
"Nico" Replied Nico as he smiled happily at Pedro.
(10 Years Later)
"PEDRO! Get me the blazing hell out of here!" screamed Nico from the tiny hole in the ground he was trapped in because he had been day dreaming so wasn't looking where he was going. Even though he had doubled in height over the years and was nearly as big as Pedro, he still couldn't get out. The hole was just deep enough that he couldn't climb out but was only just wide enough for him to stand up in so he couldn't spread his wings to get out either.
"I'm coming buddy hold on!" Yelled Pedro as he looked down at his terrified friend. His eyes were constricted in stress even though it was dark in the hole, his entire body was shaking and his breaths were coming a mile a minute. Pedro grabbed on to the edge of the whole with his foot and reached down. He just about managed to reach Nico and snatched him up with his beak, pulling him free.
Nico landed on the ground with a huff and Pedro landed next to him. Nico was still trying to get his breathing and heart rate under control as him and Pedro looked at the small and should be unoffending hole. If it had been any other bird that is. Pedro and Nico turned to each other and shared a sad smile before as always they cheered up. They stood and Nico fixed his bottle cap hat, then they leaped in to the air; flying away.
