If you asked me a year ago that I was going to write a nearly 90,000 word story about Rio, I would've called you crazy. But now it's done, and I'm moving on the next thing in line: Book Two! So many more surprises await everyone in the second installment! Remember that I plan on finishing this and Book Three before Rio 2 comes out in April! So hang on tight, my friends! Book Two is about to begin.

Just a quick note: I'm changing the format of conversations between characters. I'm no longer adding explanations about who's talking every time there's a quote. It's taking up a lot of space and makes the book appear to be written in an immature manner. I think everyone's capable of figuring out who's talking. I hope everyone enjoys!

Chapter 1

For most, sleeping in after a long, tiring day is inevitable, if one's schedule allows it. That irresistible lethargic feeling of staying asleep captivates the masses and allows for a more enjoyable experience. This is the case for the vast majority of the birds of the forest. Well, except for the Hyacinths, who rarely do anything normal at all.

The sun had just risen across the magical city. Without a moment to spare, the eyes of Newton, the group's self-appointed temporary leader, peeked open onto the early morning forest. Newton, in the same mindset as his friends, enjoyed getting work finished at the earliest convenience. His primary objective: talk to Luiz regarding his witnessing of certain events on the first night of the conflict. Newton hoped that key details in the events will reveal more about future plots against their friends, the Sanctuary, or the city of Rio itself. Nothing was out of the question.

In an attempt to avoid waking anyone else, Newton stretched his wings and silently walked to the edge of his nest. With a quick forward pull of his weight, he sent himself dropping out of the nest towards the ground, head first. He extended his wings and caught the air just feet from the ground and pulled up just in time. Though he didn't show his emotions through speaking, his face showed excitement and spirit.

Exiting the forest, Newton first cruised down to the Samba club, since it was the place where he had last seen Luiz. Once he arrived, however, there was no sign of him.

"Must've gone home," Newton muttered, taking off and heading for Santa Teresa.

When he arrived at Luiz's garage, he wasted no time putting the passcode into the keypad and gaining access to the garage.

"Luiz," Newton called out. "You in here?"

The sound of a rattled can filled the garage, and claws scraping on concrete were heard. Out from behind the rusty truck came Luiz, who was in a daze.

"Who's there?" Luiz called back, staggering into the main garage area. "I'm a bit tired."

"It's me. Newton," Newton replied, walking up to Luiz. "I need you to answer a couple of questions for me."

"I'm listenin'." Luiz took a seat in front of him and was all ears.

"Nico and Pedro broke the news to me," Newton explained. "They told me that you have some information regarding events that you encountered two nights ago on your way to the club."

"Yeah some stuff happened," Luiz acknowledged. "I didn't really think that any of it was important, though. Just some people stuff."

"I'm under the impression that what you saw was much more important than just 'people stuff'," Newton countered. "Just give me a rundown of what went on."

Luiz thought for a moment. "I was in the back of this truck. I was heading down from my neighborhood to go to the club. After such a long day, I was pretty tired, so I fell asleep in the truck. When I woke up some time later, I was at the docks. These two guys were talkin' about some big plan, and the guy in the truck went to retrieve something from up in the forest. You wanna run up there quick and take a look?"

"Yeah I'll do that," Newton replied, walking to the exit. "Which way?"

"Head up the mountain past the neighborhood," Luiz instructed. "Once you reach the woods, just check in the area for some downed trees. You'll find it."

"Cool, thanks." Newton took off and headed up the mountain, above the neighborhood. After just a few minutes of inspecting the forest, he noticed a clearing near the other side. Swooping down near the area, Newton spotted the wrecked and decrepit remains of a human object, overgrown with rainforest plants reclaiming the area.

Newton landed near the object and took a closer look. Seeing a cockpit, large props, and wings were enough to tell him that it was an airplane. Satisfied with his discovery, Newton took off and returned to the garage.

"Did you find it?" Luiz inquired as he landed back inside.

"There's a wrecked plane underneath the canopy," Newton reported. It's been there for some time. I'd say about—

"—A month," Luiz chimed in and said it in unison with Newton.

Newton was surprised. "How did you know that?"

"Did no one ever tell you about the love story?" Luiz was begging the question.

"My entrance into this group of people was pretty sudden," Newton explained himself. "Enlighten me."

"Blu and Jewel, man," Luiz started. "Their love story is like, beautiful. He came from America, and she's a wild Brazilian native. They went on a pretty interesting journey during Carnival. Yanno he couldn't fly 'til he came here?"

"I might've heard the story before," Newton thought if he did or not. "Do you know why he couldn't fly?"

"No one really knows," Luiz replied, "not even him."

"Where did he spend his childhood?" Newton prompted to know more.

Luiz looked out into the streets. "He spent it in a little town in Minnesota. I think it was called Moose Lake. Best guess is that if you wanna know more, go talk to 'em."

Newton looked out into the street out of curiosity and saw nothing. "So how does this story have anything to do with the crashed plane?"

"They were captured and were getting smuggled out of the city via a plane." Luiz examined his garage. "Jewel broke her wing in an accident, and Blu still couldn't fly. The smuggler dudes escaped the plane after something went wrong. Blu and Jewel fell out, kissed midair and Blu gained the flying ability just in time to save them."

"So something was left in the plane that those guys wanted." Newton checked the garage.

"Some kind of animal," Luiz described. "White hair or feathers. It was hard to see in the bad light."

"Where did they go next after leaving the docks?" A can rolled on the floor nearby.

"Some jail," Luiz licked his chops. "They broke in and freed all the guys in there. Three of 'em followed the truck to the airport. A man in the truck gave the guys the animal, tickets, and ID's and they were on their way. Then the last guy just drove into the city and parked the truck. Not long after, he blew the truck up!"

"These humans are planning something," Newton concluded. "If what you say is true and accurate, this city is in for something serious. We know too much. We need to communicate with the humans." He cursed himself. "Ugh if only our friend was here."

"Your friend?" Luiz was curious.

"Way back when I was in the care of humans," Newton elaborated, "one of the men's names was Chris. Chris had schizophrenia, a neurological disorder. In addition, he possessed a rare form of autism, a brain development disorder. It gave him greater control of his brain. During my time with him and his friends, his condition worsened. His social skills became close to zero, but his brain power was exponentially increased. Get this: my old friend Da Vinci communicated with the man!"

Luiz couldn't believe that a human was capable of communicating with animals. His eyes widened.

"He spoke to him and he understood his every word, translating them to other humans. My friend was injured in an escape, and I never saw the humans or Da Vinci again. If they return and we find them, I believe that Chris may possess the ability to translate Da Vinci. We need to find someone that somehow has connections to humans."

"Blu's owner lives in the city now!" Luiz was happy to have a solution. "They live down by Botofogo."

"They?" Newton was clarifying. "I thought you said he had one owner."

"She's married now," Luiz nodded. "I think her hubby's name's Tulio."

"Do you know his last name?" Newton was on the edge of his seat, not literally of course.

Luiz tried hard to think. "Man I got nothin'. Blu should know, though."

"You are invaluable my friend," Newton patted Luiz on the back. "Sorry that I disturbed your sleep. I'll let you rest."

"Hey anything to help out, right?" Luiz turned around and pranced back to his bed. "See ya."

Newton chuckled a little and took off, heading to Blu's nest to talk to him about Tulio.

In the human world of Rio, Tulio's alarm clock went off. He smacked the button as hard as he could manage, and its annoying beep ceased. Also awoken by the clock, Linda rolled over to go back to sleep. Tulio said nothing and hopped up out of bed. He showered, changed, brushed his teeth, and went downstairs to prepare a quick breakfast before heading to the office.

Using a skillet he had recently purchased, Tulio made a few fluffy pancakes to start his day off with. As he was sitting down to eat, something rang in his work bag. Confused that his cell phone in his pocket was not ringing, he got up and opened the bag. Inside was the satellite phone given to him by Agent Billy's partner two nights earlier. It was ringing. Tulio picked it up and answered.

"Hello?" Tulio listened closely to the call.

"Mr. Monteiro," a voice replied. "It's Connor, Bill's partner on the Andre case. Bill wants to speak to you right away. I'm going to patch you though to him. These satellite phones are bit more secure than normal phones, so we do this for security."

"Patch me through," Tulio replied, waiting. The call disconnected from Connor, and about five seconds later, there was a response.

"Tulio," Bill's voice came on the phone. "Are you reading me?"

"Yes I can hear you," Tulio turned and looked out the window at the sun's rays through the buildings. "What do you need?"

"I have very important information regarding the case," Bill explained. "I had the opportunity to view the crime scene at Richard's house. It's pretty clear to everyone that they made a mistake. They killed the wrong man."

"Do they know who they were after?" Tulio inquired.

"I didn't until I received a call from a very important man, someone that you need to meet. In fact, after the funeral this afternoon, he's returning to Rio for the first time in over 30 years: Sergeant Chris Hawkins of the United States Marine Corps, Retired."

Tulio couldn't believe his ears. "My father's old friend? The one that was here with you?"

"That's right. Most of us forgot about him, to be honest. He doesn't even really have a home. After the service, he was enrolled in various programs to help him out."

"What was wrong?"

"Chris is a very special man. You see, he developed a brain disorder as he grew into his 20's, and soon enough, he lost nearly all of his social capability. But he gained something the likes of which have never been seen before in human history."

"What did he gain?"

"Tulio, Chris has the ability to communicate with birds."

Tulio was in disbelief. "How is that even possible?"

"It's very limited in scope," Billy continued. "We've only ever seen him communicate with one bird before."

"What is it?"

"Remember the little talk we had about the Hyacinths? Remember the one that we couldn't find named Leo? Well, we found him now. As we suspected, he's been living with Richard. There's a reason why we believe that they were really coming for Chris: Chris can talk to Leo. Uninformed assailants wouldn't have known what Chris looked like, so they must've assumed that Richard was Chris. I feel so terrible. We lost an innocent and valuable friend for no reason."

"Did you find Leo?" Tulio wanted to know. "Is he alright?"

"The assailants didn't find Leo," assured Bill. "But we sure did. He's perfectly fine."

"So why are they coming for Leo and Chris?"

"We've read the recent stories: dead birds near Sugarloaf Mountain, massive formations of birds blocking the sky over the city, and a prison break involving smugglers that you know. It's all fitting together now."

"What's fitting together?"

"Those people we talked about? Marcel Jr.? Tipo? Armando? The smuggling ring? Your testimony that helped put them away? Did you know that they own a bird?"

"They do?" Tulio was surprised.

"They own a rather famous bird, actually," Bill confirmed. "His name is Nigel. He's a white Cockatoo. He's seen better days. He once had a children's television show here in Brazil. Once he got too old, they took him off, replaced him, and privately auctioned to an owner. We have all of the records. He was purchased on August 18th, 1995 by Marcel Piquet, Sr. himself. This bird's been around for quite some time. That package the group was carrying at the airport? It may have been Nigel."

Tulio thought for a moment. "I think you have something wrong."

Billy was surprised. "What do we have wrong?"

"I don't think that Richard was killed by accident," Tulio hypothesized. "I think that they may have killed him because he may have been protecting Chris by keeping Leo away from him. They wouldn't kill Chris. They need him. They want a connection to Nigel's world. And if he can only talk to Leo, they'll need him too."

There was silence from Billy's end of the phone for about 10 seconds. "That's a very good point," Bill admitted. "We're going to look more into where these guys are going. The US State Department and the Department of Justice are all over this. If they've left Brazil, this is an international issue. We'll have to notify Interpol."

"Keep me updated. I'll be at work so you can call me whenever you can."

"Sounds like a plan. Take care, Tulio." The phone hung up. Tulio washed off his plates and utensils and grabbed his bag as he headed out the door. He proceeded over to his SUV, got in, started it, and began driving to the Conservatory.

Well guys, I'm back! I know this isn't a very long chapter, but I felt it was long enough to get everyone back into the story. Hope you guys enjoy! I hope everyone likes the cover art as well, crafted by yours truly! It tells quite a bit, actually.

Looking ahead to Chapter 2: Newton's search for the truth, Tulio at the Conservatory, and a few wake-up stories!