Hey guys, this is just a short preview of a possible new story, Gone to Hell and Back.
Now I know, "Marco, finish Tournament of the Mighty".
I know, but I just wanna give you gnarly dudes (and Dudettes) a chance to decide whether or not this is a good idea.
Premise:
Blu was born in the Amazon, in the same tribe as Eduardo and Jewel.
He is 13 years old now and has just proclaimed his love to Jewel, who felt the same way.
But when a group of smugglers and a certain cockatoo attack the tribe and kidnap Blu, he is torn away from those he loves.
He must now find his way home, from the Lion City or Singapore as we call it.
He meets new friends and old enemies, will he get home?
And if so, what awaits him upon his return?
Amazon
Blu was laying in his nest, against the wall of his family's hollow.
His father was out looking for food and his mom was out with friends.
But Blu was silent, he was not sad, but absolutely delighted.
Earlier that day he had proclaimed his love to the girl of his dreams, Jewel.
Amazingly, Jewel felt the same about him.
Blu was going to go on a date with her that night, he was just waiting for his parents to come back so he could tell them.
Blu heard fluttering at the entrance of the hollow and turned to see his mother, Ruby, landing.
"Hey mom, I got some great news!", said Blu, loudly.
Ruby covered her ears, "No need to shout son, but what is the good news?".
Blu smiled, "I have a date with Jewel tonight!".
Ruby smiled, "Oh, my son has a date!" she yelled, completely ignoring her own rule, "And with Jewel no less".
She hugged her son, "Oh, my little man is 13 and already dating".
Blu playfully pushed Ruby off, "Thanks mom, but you're gonna mess up my feathers".
Ruby understood, "oh, of course. I must tell your father. Oh Jose will be so happy".
Blu smiled before noticing the sun outside, "Oh no, I'm gonna be late!".
He flew to the hollow's entrance, "Bye mom, wish me luck".
"Good luck, sweetie" replied Ruby, "*sigh*, they grow up so fast".
Jewel
Jewel sat on a boulder in the middle of the jungle, looking up at the stars.
The way the randomly arranged dots of light formed art was beautiful to her.
"You know" came a voice behind her, "The stars are the second most beautiful thing out here tonight, after you".
The voice revealed itself to be Blu, carrying 2 large mangoes.
"Aw Blu, dating for a day and you already came up with a sweet line", she cooed.
"Anything for my Jewel of the Jungle", he replied.
"And a cute nickname" Jewel chuckled, "you're good at this".
Blu bowed, "What can I say, I have a way with words".
Jewel hugged him, "Well how are you doing?".
Blu smiled, "I'm doing great, mom overreacted a little when I told her I had a date".
"Same with my dad, he hugged me, then laid down some rules and basically interviewed me about you".
"Well, is he okay with me?", Blu asked.
Jewel chuckled, "if he was in my place he'd marry you right now".
"That sounded kind of weird", Blu admitted, "yeah, I agree", said Jewel.
"Well, want a mango?" asked Blu, "You know me".
Blu handed Jewel a mango and sat down next to her to watch the stars, admiring the glistening glow they gave off.
They cuddled together, like a cute couple.
Blu looked at Jewel, the moonlight seemed to only enhance her beauty.
Jewel noticed this, "looking at something, Blu?".
Blu noticed his error and began to blush, "sorry Jewel, you just look so… uh… pretty".
Jewel chuckled and grinned, before catching Blu with a long, passionate kiss on the beak.
After 30 seconds the 2 lovebirds seperated and continued watching the stars.
After several hours of this they kissed each other goodbye and returned to their respective homes.
Blu tried to sleep, but found himself thinking of Jewel.
"Oh, Jewel. I love you with all my heart", he sighed and fell into the gentle embrace of sleep.
8 months later
6:00 AM
Blu and Jewel are still dating, their love stronger than ever before.
"Today is the day" Blu told himself, "today is the day you propose".
He held in his talons a diamond he found and fashioned into a ring.
"Let's hope this goes well", he left his hollow, his parents still being asleep.
He had the small ring in a leaf pouch, wearing it across his body.
Blu flew around for several minutes before finding a mango tree.
As the cerulean bird lighted onto a mango tree he heard a peculiar sound.
It was loud, like a volcano erupting, but had a mechanical sound to it.
Blu flew towards the sound, wanting to know just what it was.
He bobbed and weaved through the trees until he came across a clearing, where several men and some trucks were setting up camp.
Blu quickly dove onto a branch of a nearby tree.
He surveyed the clearing closely.
One man seemed to have a cockatoo standing on his shoulder.
"Smugglers!" he gasped, "gotta warn the tribe".
As he turned to leave the cockatoo, Nigel, spotted him.
Nigel quickly flew up to Blu, who could only brace as he was pushed back and into the tree trunk.
Blu quickly got up and attempted to fly away, only to be with clawing by Nigel.
Blu screamed as the sharp claws raked across his skin, drawing thick crimson blood.
Blu returned with an attempt at clawing Nigel, but missed and was kicked in the head.
Our cerulean friend felt his head shake as he tried to stay focused, Blu managed to kick Nigel away long enough to make a run for it.
Blu bobbed and weaved through the trees, using one of his talons to cover the wound he had just received.
After several minutes of rapid flying he finally reached the tribe, his wounds and blood drawing the attention of many bystanders, "HUMANS! SMUGGLERS! NEARBY!".
The birds were now sent into panic, all the yelling attracted Eduardo and Jewel, who quickly spotted the yellign and wounded Blu.
"Blu, what's wrong?!" asked Eduardo, shouting over the scared birds around them.
Blu looked at him, "There are humans nearby, I think they're here to try and hunt us".
Jewel then noticed the cut on Blu, "what happened?".
Blu looked at her, "The smugglers have a cockatoo with them, he did this to me".
"Are you talking about me?" came a cruel voice behind them.
They turned to see Nigel, "it is rude to talk about others behind their back, y'know".
Nigel grinned, before diving toward Jewel.
Blu kicked Jewel backwards, helping her dodge Nigel.
But Nigel managed to grab Blu, flinging the macaw like a ragdoll into a tree.
Blu quickly recovered and was about to charge when the sound of men shouting filled the air.
Blu looked to the ground, to see men yelling and trying to catch birds with nets.
One man dropped a cigarette, burning the dry leaves on the jungle ground and turning into a forest fire.
Blu looked at Jewel, the red light of the flames cascading a red look onto her face, "Jewel, get my parents and run!".
Jewel just nodded and flew off to gather any remaining macaws and run.
Jewel
Jewel was cruising through the air, the thermals being given off by the flames helping her stay high up.
She dodged the flames, and the burning trees that were falling around her.
She soon spotted a pair of spix macaws flying forward, Jose and Ruby, Blu's parents.
"JOSE!, RUBY!", she called, the 2 older macaws flew to her, "Jewel, what's going on?".
"Look, smugglers are attacking the tribe" she panted before continuing, "we need to evacuate, now".
Ruby nodded, "Let me get Blu first".
Jewel shook her head, "he's in the square holding off some of the smugglers".
Ruby had a face of fear, "Let's go help him!".
The other 2 macaws nodded and began flying back to the tribe center.
They expected to find bunches of smugglers, with the whole tribe captured.
But they only saw 3 humans, and no spix macaws.
"Dammit, we didn't catch any of them!" yelled the lead one, Marcell.
"Hey Marcell! Nigel got one" yelled a fat human, Tipa.
Tipa raised a cage with a bruised, bleeding and unconscious Blu in it.
"BLU!" yelled Ruby, but was quickly grabbed by Jose, who motioned with his wing to be silent.
Back with the humans, Marcell was kind of happy.
"One of the last spix macaws on earth, this thing's gonna make us rich", Marcell motioned to Nigel, who grabbed the cage and loaded it into the back of a a truck.
As the smugglers piled into the truck and began to drive away from the raging forest fire, Jewel, Ruby and Jose began flying after it, trying to save Blu.
Jewel pushed herself, flapping her wings like a hummingbird.
For 10 minutes they chased the car, trying to keep up.
But the car was too fast, it slowly increased the distance between them until it disappeared across the horizon.
Jewel collapsed to the ground, crying.
Ruby soon joined her, Jose went back to the burning clearing to search for something.
He noticed that Blu didn't have his leaf satchel when he was captured.
After a short search he soon found the satchel resting next to a tree.
He dived down and grabbed it, quickly rising back up and above the flames.
The heat slightly burned hi, but nothing some water won't solve.
He checked inside for the certain item he needed, and found it.
The ring.
He instantly flew back to Jewel and Ruby, who were still crying.
Jose exhaled and landed behind them.
"Jewel, there is something Blu wanted to give you", he handed her the satchel.
Jewel opened it and found a diamond ring, she began crying lightly.
"Blu was going to propose to you today, but then this happened", said Jose while looking down at his talons.
Jewel just hugged Ruby and continued crying.
Blu
20 hours later
Blu slowly opened his eyes, but quickly closed the right one.
He put his wing to it and felt blood, dried blood.
Blu looked around with his left eye, noticing that he seemed to be in a cage.
But his ears and stomach were saying that he was up high in the air.
A voice echoed throughout the room he was in, Alright boys, we're about to arrive in Singapore. Remember, our buyer is going to meet us at the Marina Bay Sand's Casino.
"Where am I going?" asked Blu, he received an answer from a toucan in the cage next to him.
"Singapore, the Lion City. We're gonna be sold to whoever wants us" The toucan looked sad, he groaned and continued, "Seeing as you're a spix, you can expect some sort of breeding camp", Blu wore a face of fear.
"B-b-breeding camp?",the toucan nodded, "Names Rafael, I live in Rio, how about you?".
"Name's Blu, I'm from the Amazon".
"The Amazon, huh. In Rio, I have the most beautiful wife, waiting for me. Too bad I'll never see her or my kids again", Rafael now had tears appearing in the corners of his eyes.
Blu stuck a wing out of his cage and placed it on Rafael's shoulder, "don't worry my friend, we'll get out of her. I promise".
"Oh, I doubt that" came the voice of Nigel, whe landed in front of Blu's cage, "you 2 are going nowhere".
Blu put on his most defiant face, "Screw you Nigel".
"Oh, I wouldn't talk like that to the one who crushed you in our little 'fight' earlier", replied Nigel, grinning.
The memories of the fight played back in Blu's head, Blu looked at his talons, the countless cuts and bruises on his body barely showing through his feathers.
His right eye still stinging, Nigel flew away laughing as he went.
Rafael looked at Blu, who leaned against the side of his cage.
"I'm sorry Jewel, I'm not coming home", the tears forming in his eyes stung as they descended to his wounds and his wounded eyeball.
Rafael wanted to get Blu off the thought of smuggling, "So, Blu. Got anyone important to you back home?".
Blu nodded, "I lived in a tribe with my mom, dad and friends. A couple months ago I finally proclaimed my love for the most beautiful girl ever, Jewel. Amazingly she loved me back, and we've been dating eversince. I was going to propose to her tonight, but that cockatoo and humans got in the way".
Blu now had tears streaming down his face, "I just wish I could have told her I love her, one last time".
Rafael was saddened by the tale, he too had tears streaming down his face, "But, how were you caught? And what was that cockatoo talking about?".
Blu exhaled, "he and the smugglers attacked our tribe, I got caught in fight with him, and failed".
Amazon,
21 hours prior
Blu and Nigel continued flying and fighting, clawing, biting and kicking each other in the hopes of knocking the other out.
But Blu was getting fatigued, he was not used to fighting, much less against an experienced warrior like Nigel.
Blu flew backwards, hoping to catch his breath, but Nigel would give him no such luxury.
Nigel punched Blu in the chest, knocking the wind out of the macaw, before following up with an elbow to Blu's back.
Nigel then picked Blu up and flung him towards a tree.
Blu managed to recover from this and rest in the air.
But Nigel charged again.
He kicked Blu, sending the macaw through a wall of flames and into a burning tree.
Blu hit the tree, feeling his back arch as he struck the hot wood of the plant.
Blu fell to the ground, trying to get up.
After several seconds Blu finally dragged himself to his talons, his beak bleeding, his bones cracked and body bruised.
Nigel descended in front of him, "well, well, well, I must say it takes a lot to put you down. But I bring a lot to the table", Nigel charged forward with lightning like speed, swiftly sending his talons to Blu's right eye, cutting across it.
Blu screamed in pain before another kick was sent to his stomach, forcing Blu to kneel down in pain, clutching his center.
His satchel fell to the ground beside him.
"Why, why are you doing this?" asked Blu, groaning in pain.
Nigel kicked Blu's back, "Because I need to make a living, and I enjoy causing pain".
Nigel walked in front of Blu, winding up his wing for a punch, "Say goodnight, blue boy".
The last thing Blu felt was Nigel's wing impacting his face, rendering him unconscious.
Nigel smirked and grabbed Blu, before dragging him back to his masters.
Plane
Present
"And that's how I ended up here, thousands of miles from home", Blu finished his story.
"Harsh man" Rafael replied, suddenly the plane bumped and began slowing down.
Little did the birds know they had arrived to their final destination.
The plane came to a rolling stop before turning into one of the private airport gates.
Blu had to close his one remaining eye when the door to the cabin opened allowing bright sunlight to flood in.
Marcell, Tipa and Armando walked in and began unloading birds.
Blu instantly began formulating a plan, "How do I get out of here?".
The light illuminated the door of his cage, upon walking to it he studied the lock, it was a slide bolt.
Blu used his beak and fiddled with it for several seconds before finally opening it, Rafael noticed this and mimicked him.
In no time both of the birds were free of their cages.
Blu and Rafael both bolted for the exit, charging straight past the smugglers, "Nigel, get them!" yelled Marcell.
In seconds Blu found Nigel on his tail, gaining slowly.
"Rafael, split up!", he yelled.
Rafael nodded and banked right, while Blu banked left.
Nigel followed Blu, him being the more valuable target.
Blu dived for the public airport, dodging the cars and planes that crisscrossed the runways.
Blu soon got to Terminal 1 of the airport, flying through an open window and into the terminal itself, with Nigel following.
Blu's entrance attracted the gaze of numerous travellers as he bobbed and weaved through people, carts and signs.
Nigel was now inches away from Blu, his talons outstretched to collect his prey.
Blu flew into a ventilation system, the narrow walls giving Blu the advantage of the shorter wingspan.
Blu raced through the ventilation system until a loud humming sound filled his ears, the sound resonating from a fan blade, spinning rapidly.
An idea popped into his head, a gruesome one, but an idea nonetheless.
Blu noticed a turn right before the blades, he rocketed towards the blades, Nigel following.
"I've got you now, BLU!", Nigel, however, was not expecting Blu to dive into another vent, letting the cockatoo crash into the blades.
His screams filled the air as his body impacted the spinning blades of the fan.
Blu didn't even look back, he just flew away from Nigel, as quickly as possible.
Upon exiting the vents he perched upon one of the trees they kept in the airport.
He looked around the airport, humans looking back at him.
"Gotta get out of here" he whispered to himself before flying back into the vents and outside the airport.
Where Rafael was waiting, "So, Blu. How'd it go, amigo?".
Blu smiled, "I took down the bastard, for now at least".
Rafael high fived Blu, "well, I think we should find a doctor for you. That wound looks nasty".
Rafael pointed to Blu's eye, which was becoming infected.
"Yeah, we probably should", replied Blu.
The 2 flew off to find some help, and figure out how to get home.
Doctor
Rafael and Blu landed at an aviary far away from the main city.
The building was small, about the size of a house, but inside it was a bustle of activity as several ornithologists healed injured birds and releasing healed ones.
Upon seeing Blu, an ornithologist ran forward and picked him up, "GUYS, WE GOT A SPIX!", the mention of a spix macaw drew several doctors over to him.
Blu was scared and nervous around all the new faces and huge humans.
He didn't know what was happening until he was placed onto a bed and a plastic mask was slipped onto his beak.
He started to feel dizzy as he breathed in the weird smelling air of the mask, until he passed out.
The moment Blu was out, the doctors began examining his cuts and bruises, as well as his infected eye.
"His eye is infected, poor guy will probably go blind in that one", said one of the doctors.
"Very well, we can give him an eyepatch, but for now disinfect it and wrap it up. I'll start wrapping up his cuts and bruises", replied another.
Rafael watched as Blu was basically cut open and put back together.
Blu's normally chocolate brown right eye was now a grey, cloudy color.
The cut had become too infected and blinded him, the talon marks around his eye were going to scar him for life.
Some of Nigel's talons left scars across his body, specifically across his chest.
After almost an hour of operating, the doctors finished.
Blu had bandaged crisscrossing his body, some were slightly red with blood, others still snow white.
The plastic mask was taken away from his beak, allowing Blu to wake up in an hour or so.
Rafael flew up to Blu and sat next to him, "don't worry, amigo. We'll get back home soon".
1 year later
Blu and Rafael were still in Singapore, still trapped.
They had found out Blu's injuries were very severe, forcing them to stay there until they healed, along with that there was a worse problem.
They found no way to return home.
No flights returned to Rio without changing at another city, and the only other way to return would be flying through Asia, Africa and across the Atlantic.
Their last option (and most viable) would be to take the day long flights from Singapore to San Francisco, and from there fly south.
But the problem with that idea is that they would have to get on a plane, and the airport was prowling with animal control.
Blu and Rafael were sitting atop the Marina Bay Sands, drinking some juice and watching the sunset.
Blu had to admit, the city had its charms, clean streets, lots of food and lots of other birds.
Rafael also enjoyed the city, but he was continuously bugged by hornbills who wanted to be with hi, but he told them he was taken and they usually backed off.
Their appearances have changed, no longer push overs, they were powerful warriors, with looks to match..
Blu now wore a bandana across his face and a cowboy hat, along with a 2 bowie knives across his waist.
He also had with him a small satchel of basic survival gear, water bottles, some food, moss and bandages.
Rafael wore a cowboy hat and had a small sword slung across his back.
Why were they so heavily armed? You may ask.
Well it is simple, due to Blu's rarity many people have attempted to catch them, most fail.
But some get a little too close for comfort and a swing of their sword gets them off.
The 2 had gotten the drinks from a bird bar at the bottom of the huge hotel, the club was booming music inside, one of the reasons neither Blu or Rafael spent much time there.
They were thinking about the family they had left home, the friends who missed them.
Blu was thinking about Jewel, how she must be doing without him and about his parents.
Rafael was thinking about Eva, and his children he left behind.
Rafael and Blu heard a laugh behind them, they turned to see the 3 smugglers who had dragged them to this god forsaken island city walk up to the roof top bar of the hotel.
They seemed to be, laughing?
"Yeah boys, good haul this time. But I have gotten word, there is a flock of spix macaws outside of Rio about 100 miles north. Since we lost that spix last year, our main buyer has been demanding more, so I say we capture the whole flock and sell them to this guy, or anyone else who wants one!", declared Marcell, the lead one.
This announcement caused the other 2, Tipa and Armando, to cheer.
Blu pulled Rafael away, hiding behind a tree.
"Rafi, we need to get back. I don't care how long it takes, we need to get back, NOW", said Blu.
Rafael nodded, "We may be able to sneak onto their plane. If they're going there, we might as well go along?", replied the toco toucan.
Blu nodded, "alright, let's follow them around until they leave".
The 2 birds nodded heads and began spying on the trio of humans, after several hours the trio left the hotel, with Blu and Rafael following.
Our heroes hid at the hotel's taxi stand, knowing that the smugglers were too… inebriated to drive on their own.
Our 2 heroes saw the 3 smugglers hobble into a cab.
As the taxi began to move forward, Blu and Rafael landed onto it.
Blu stabbed one of his bowie knives into the roof of the cab, allowing Rafael to use his other knife to do the same.
The idea helped out when the cab began rocketing down the highway, like a bullet.
The 2 managed to stay on, if only because of their knives.
After a grueling, high speed, 20 minute ride they finally arrived at the private airport.
Blu retired his 2 miniature bowie knives from the car and slid them into their sheathes, before following Rafael, and the smugglers to their plane.
Blu and Rafael watched from behind a luggage cart as the 3 humans warmed up the plane's engine.
The 2 birds bolted out at the last second, managing to hide in the landing gear of the plane.
Rafael got in first, as the plane began to move forward.
Blu quickly flew after the quickly accelerating aircraft, th plane turned onto the runway, instantly launching forward at insurmountable speed.
Blu followed it, his hat and bandana flapping with his feathers in the wind.
Rafael stretched his wing out to his friend, "Come on my amigo, reach!".
Blu reached out for Rafael's wing, just grabbing it before the plane took off and the landing gear closed.
Blu and Rafael began to slow their breathing as the plane slowly gained altitude.
Blu relaxed, "don't worry Jewel, I'm coming home".
Thanks for reading, please review and give me feedback on what I did well and what to improve.
See you next time.