Alright peeps! This is the sequal to Remember Rio, which I really hope you have read if you're looking at this. If you havn't I beg you to please read it first, or you'll be confused.
Anyhow, if you have read Remember Rio: a)I made some edits that I think made it a bit better, and b)you're gonna love the edits on this story! ;) There are going to be a lot of changes. New scenes, new emotions, new detail, and, of course, new songs. I hope that my work will be to your liking and if so please tell me. Even if you think there are a few little things that need to be fixed let me know, NICELY!
Now I'll can it and let you read the goods!
I OWN NOTHING FROM THIS EXCEPT THE PLOT LINE AND ORIGINAL CHARACHTERS! THANK YOU!
ALSO A SHOUT OUT TO BLUESKY STUDIOS: WITHOUT YOU GUYS WE WOULDN'T BE HERE SO THANK YOU SO MUCH! XD
Return to Rio
Chapter 1
Home Sweet Home
"Good morning Sunshine." A soft voice cooed in my ear as feathers brushed across my face. I didn't open my eyes to reply.
"Fivmoreminutes." I grumbled, nearly inaudibly, turning away from the voice and wrapping my wing around my chest. I heard the voice chuckle softly, and I received a soft shake and a gentle peck on my cheek.
"C'mon sweetie. Pedro's already trying to get the speakers working. The concert is in two hours." The honey-like voice of my Nico informed me gently. I jumped up, eyes wide. As I sat up, I was immediately wrapped in the bright yellow wings of my sunbeam. He held me tightly in his strong wings and spun around. I laughed in a surprised way, until he stopped. When he did, though, he didn't put me down.
"Let me go! I have to get ready." I told him and wiggled a bit.
"You know I just can't do that," He turned back to our nest and tossed me down into the bowl of moss and feathers, then lay down next to me with a smirk. "Without a tickle war first!" Then he grabbed me just above my hips and I yelped.
"Oh that's how you want it?" I gasped through my laughter.
"Of course!" He chuckled as I poked him in the side. This made him back off ever so slightly, and I jumped up and ran into the guest bedroom. I heard Nico fly after me and hid just behind the door. He walked in the room crooning, "Sonny. Soooooonny. Come on baby." I had to put my wing over my mouth just so I didn't squeal. As he walked further in, I silently tip-toed out, but, heaven forbid, I brushed past a few vines a little too quickly and they scraped against my feathers making a scratching sound.
"Oh no!" I breathed and whipped my gaze to Nico. He had a devilish smile on his face as he ran forward to catch me. I squealed and tried to run, but tripped on the threshold and crashed to the ground. This was in conjunction with Nico tackling me, and we rolled across the floor of our hollow until we came to a halt. I had him pinned down on a moss rug, my wings on his shoulders, and our beaks inches apart.
"Well, that'll show you to tickle me." I fell into his eyes and was suddenly utterly breathless.
"I guess it will." He murmured quietly and I leaned down to kiss him. There was a new type of ardency in the kiss, but I was able to turn my brain on, and sat up when Nico placed a wing on the small of my back. I stood and walked out of the room trying to calm my pounding heart. That was a little hot… I thought with mixed emotions. I heard Nico do the same and follow me out into the kitchen.
Making sure I was on the other side of the counter, I looked at our little fruit pile. There was a perfectly round orange on the top, and I took it and started peeling for us to share.
"Mmm! My favorite!" Nico said lightly leaning on the counter. I turned and beamed at him. There was just something about the way he smiled, and the way his eyes twinkled that made me feel alive.
"I love you." I told him randomly and handed him half of the orange.
"I love you." He replied and took a huge bite of the orange slice in his wings. The juice exploded all over the counter and on our feathers. But unluckily for me a few drops flew into my open eyes.
"Ahh! Nico! You got juice in my eye!" I wailed and rubbed at my stinging eyes furiously.
"I'm so sorry!" He exclaimed and ran around the counter to me.
"No, no. I'm fine." I blinked a few times and got my eyes to tear up. Finally the pain subsided and I was able to see clearly again. A few of the tears rolled down my cheeks and Nico brushed them away and pulled me into a hug.
"My bad." He whispered.
"No worries." I replied and pecked his cheek. Then I remembered the concert, "Two hours huh?"
Nico was confused at first but the change in subject clicked quickly. "Oh yeah." He murmured and held me in a loose hug.
"Well, give me thirty minutes and I'll be on the stage. Try and keep Pedro alive till then." I joked.
"I doubt you need that much time, but I'll do my best. We'll be testing the equipment. Love you!" He pecked my cheek and soared out the door.
"Love you more!" I called after him.
Nico circled the tree shouting, "I seriously doubt it!" I just laughed as he heads off for the club, after a final wave.
"'I seriously doubt it.' The little flirt." I chuckled and ruffled my feathers. "Suppose I should go and actually get ready." With a quick glance around, so I didn't run anyone over, I soared out of the hollow and off to the waterfall. Soon I arrive at the semi-circular pool with the wispy falls cascading around the rocks.
There were several small pools that were constantly being refreshed with new water, where everyone came to clean up. With a small laugh I glided behind the deafening waterfall and found a little pool where no one was. Hello old friend. I thought and cannonballed right into the crystal clear water, and choked on a shriek; it was FREEZING! I jumped back out and caught my breath.
"Ok…ok…Let's take this a little slower." I breathed and inched my way back into the water. "Ahh. There." I sunk up to my beak, and dove beneath the surface, scrubbing my feathers and watching the dirt sink to the bottom. I loved the feel of the fresh water flowing through my feathers, all the way to my down, then touching my skin in the crispest of touches.
For a while I kept diving and resurfacing, making sure I was completely clean. When I finally met my terms of cleanliness, I shook the last droplets of water off my sunshine yellow feathers, creating a small rainbow in the afternoon sunshine. I found a sharp rock and filed my talons to the perfect length and sharpness. Carefully I ran a feather along each one and enjoyed the feeling of their honed edges. Perfect.
Then I flew out from behind the falls and felt the warm afternoon breeze dry my feathers. Performing a few crazy moves, my spiral included, I dried my feathers all the way and felt amazing. With a happy little cheer I took off through the trees and back to my beloved Canary Corner. I had left the door open and soared in right to our room.
Plopping down to the vanity, I started on my concert look. I smoothed down my, now incredibly soft, feathers, took a pinch of glitter and sprinkled that around my head. When satisfied with the level of sparkle, I walked over to a little dresser I had made out of a matchbox, and chose a tan-gold scarf. With a few flicks of my wrist I wrapped it around my neck and smiled at my mirror.
"Lookin' good!" I click my tongue and laugh at my own goofiness. Then I sat back down to the vanity and took my necklace off its little hook.
The colors on the inside of a small speckled clamshell, danced as it twirled around, untangling the chord it was attached to. My mother had given me this shell as a gift on my sixteenth birthday as a reminder that love is what moves us, what makes us feel the samba. After nearly getting myself killed by a crazy owl by the name of Luís, I had felt let down; hopeless. Only a few years later I had been reminded of samba when Nico found me and made me remember everything before the incident.
As a gift, Nico had taken the shell, in secret, and made it into a necklace. The chord it hung on he had woven himself, with some special string and had strung sequins of different colors in the weave. He had also found someone to engrave the inside with the words:
I love you now, and forever; as long as samba fills the Rio air, and I can be with you. You'll never forget because this shell will be your reminder of everything that our love is. I love you with all of my heart Sonny.
~Nico
I wore it absolutely everywhere, and never went a day without reading those words. Gently, I slipped it over my head and rested it on top of the scarf. "Perfect." Mumbling to myself I walked back to the front door. Leaping outside I shut the door tightly behind me, and headed off for town.
The flight to town was short, but beautiful. The jungle was in full bloom, and everybird was paired up. I waved to Patty and Fernando as I soared by their hollow. "Bien suerte anoche!" The green parrot called and waved with his wing that wasn't wrapped around my friend.
"Muchas gracias!" I replied and flapped past with a bright smile. Fernando spoke mostly Spanish as he migrated here from Costa Rica several years ago. Being the great bird he is though, Fernando was trying to teach his language to us, and vice versa.
"Sonny! Hope tonight is as incredible as you've been making it sound!" Rafael caws from his platform nest. Ralphy is one of the best friends in the world, and had helped save my life the night I had been attacked.
"You know it will be! Bring the kids; they'll love it!" I called circling around a few times and drawing the kids attention to me and away from their exhausted parents.
"Sounds like a plan to me. What do you say kids?" Eva, proud toucan mother of six, asked her little ones. Cheers erupted from the hatchlings. Angel (Spanish enunciation, boy's name) Ezzy, and Pablo were the oldest and hovered off the ground a bit. Sophia, Maria, and Alejandro were the newest additions and could only hop around. They were all crazy balls of energy and feathers, and did their best to make the whole jungle get grey feathers.
I danced around the platform, dipping, diving, and spiraling around. This aroused more cheers from the Toucan family. Ali had a thing for collecting feathers, and whether they were attached to the bird when he saw them didn't matter. I had my fair share of welts from being plucked, and narrowly avoided losing a flight feather as a warm draft hefted me upwards.
I rode it up and shot through the canopy sending emerald green leaves flying in all directions. I hovered above the trees taking in the serine view of the city. The bay was sparkling in the sunshine, and every inch of the city was, again, ready for Carnival. I breathed in the scent of my home deeply, and glided out over the rooftops at a leisurely pace.
The Three Amigos had been touring all of South America for the past three years. We had just returned home and were having a welcome home concert at our beloved club: Three Amigos. While we were gone we had had to close it up, but our friends had kept it in good repair.
Seven days ago we had flown in, and had received a huge welcome home party. It had taken place at The Branch; an old club and the place where, well, all of our lives changed to say the least. After saying hello to our friends and family, they had escorted us to our club and showed us some of the renovations they had done while we were away.
We now had almost a foot extra on every side of the stage, and some hummingbirds had put together a colored glass disco ball. They had also constructed a huge dance floor, and made room around that for tables and a small bar. It was completely incredible. When I had seen our, now enhanced, club that night, I couldn't help but tear up at the wonders our friends had worked!
My parents, along with Rafael and Eva, had kept our hollows in a clean state. We had come home to freshly cleaned nests stuffed with down feathers and soft moss from the waterfall. As tired as we were from our long flight, the nests were like dreamy clouds, and we had collapsed in them instantaneously. Most of the next day went by before we woke up, and for the past five days we had just chilled out and readied the club for tonight.
I began to descend as the lights of our sign came into view. When I reached the door I strolled through calmly, just to see Pedro up to his neck in cords, and Nico trying, and failing, to untangle his poor brother. "Pedro! Did you trip again?" I sighed, gliding over to them.
"No. Nico pushed me." Pedro replied in a strangled voice.
"I did not! You tripped!" Nico pouted.
"Did too!"
"Did not!" I laughed as they continued to bicker, and examined the cords. I circled around them and found the single cord causing the problem and yanked on it, hard. With a scream, Pedro begins to spin around and around like a top until the cord ended. Then he flew into the air, with another squeal, and landed face-first on the dance floor.
"Ow." He lay there for a moment after squeaking out the word and I started to think he passed out.
"Pedro?" Nico and I stepped over to him and, thankfully, he rolled over.
"Girl, I think you broke my beak." The red-capped cardinal whined and placed his wing on his grey beak.
"Oh come here you big baby bird." I reached out a wing to touch his beak and he yelped and ran away. "What are you? Three?" I asked with a smirk.
"You've done enough damage!" He cried and Nico laughed.
"You're a baby," the canary teased, "Sonny has the golden touch." He beamed at me and brushed my wing. "See? Now I'm all yellow!" I rolled my eyes and kissed his cheek.
"You're a goofball." I murmured.
"Ah yes, but you like it!" He shrugged his eyebrows and I giggled.
"And I suddenly feel sick…" Pedro grumbled and walked back over to us.
"Sorry." I told him. Then a devilish smile played across my face. "At least it's not like that huge spider in Chile! She really had the hots for you!" I laughed out loud and jumped behind Nico as Pedro lunged at me. Let's just say that Pedro had acquired a life-long fan...
"Ha! What about that little finch in Venezuela?" Pedro cawed as he regained his balance.
"He's lucky he got away before I realized what was going on," Nico growled, while puffing up and placing a wing protectively around me, "I would have destroyed that little preener!"
"That's not even funny." I told Pedro.
This little, red finch had come into my room, unauthorized, and had begun to bother me; saying weird things like "Hope you enjoy our fair country, we don't want you here," and "Leave this place now, or face the consequences." I tried to make him go away but he couldn't be put off. Nico and Pedro had been making their way to my room, and I had screamed for help, when the finch drew a dagger. Just as they reached my door the bird lots his gusto and fled.
Later that night, somebody in the crowd had fired fireworks directly at us while we were performing. It had been an attempted murder, and we had fled that night to Colombia. There wasn't another problem, but it still gave us the heebie-jeebies.
"Don't even go there. We were all scared out of our feathers." I punched the grey bird's wing lightly, with my own wing that wasn't held in Nico's. Then we shivered off the memory, and turned to the stage, "Now for tonight…"
OK so I know the beginning is a little steamy, but the rest was good...right?
