Two weeks had passed since Salvia had returned home. Salvia, a light blue-feathered, hazel-eyed Spix's Macaw with dark blue-feathered wingtips, was back in Rio after ten years of living in the States. Thanks to the curiosity of one man, she had gone back home, met her parents, and met Jalin, her boyfriend. All was fine until the truth about why she disappeared was exposed. It turned out to be a plot between her brothers and sister to get rid of her because of a simple emotion called jealousy. Depressed, she went back home. After a month of being in the States, that man named Abe came into the pet store again, but this time, he held Jalin. Jalin, exhausted from his trip, told Salvia that he was sorry and wanted to be with her, explaining he flew thousands of miles to be with her. Salvia, still wanting to be with Jalin after their fight, forgave him, and both birds went back to Rio to start a new life together.
The two weeks back in Rio were fun. They had spent time together, and Salvia was introduced around the jungle community. She was quite familiar with Pedro, Nico, Rafael, Eva, Luis, and Fides. She did see Pepito, a Lear's Macaw saved by Blu and Jewel, once, but she never saw him again. He had gone to find a mate somewhere in the deep jungles of Brazil. Also, Blu and Jewel mentioned they had another clutch during the time of her very long disappearance, but they rarely visited and moved to the northern part of Brazil. Jewel only prayed they were okay. So the gang that Salvia became acquainted with included her parents, her parents' first clutch, Rafael and Eva, Luis and Fides, Nico, and Pedro. They had spent the time doing things birds usually didn't do like play volleyball, raced on RC cars, and had rap battles with birds not even native to Rio, which was possible through the internet.
Today, the sun was shining down. Salvia opened her eyes and stretched her wings. She smiled in bliss. She looked around in the den and noticed something, more like someone, was missing. Jalin was gone. Salvia wasn't that concerned though. It was morning. Jalin was probably fetching some breakfast. Not within five minutes of thinking Jalin was most likely getting breakfast, a dark blue-feathered bird with amber eyes entered the den. He looked almost like his father, but he was a tad bit taller and had a blacker beak instead of a charcoal-colored one. Jalin came into the den with some berries and two small melons called goiabas. Jalin set the food, which was mounted on a jumbo leaf he carried, down near the entrance of the den and approached Salvia with a smile. Salvia was still lying down on her belly as she looked up at Jalin. Jalin bended down and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
"Good morning, my Sweet Salvia."
Salvia giggled a little. She was never used to nicknames before she met Jalin. She thought they were cute, especially how Jalin said them.
"Morning my Joyful Jalin… Uh…"
"What is it?" wondered Jalin, confused on why she seemed to be rethinking about the name.
"There are not enough j-word adjectives that mean something sweet and sexy at the same time."
"What do you mean?"
Salvia stroke the back of her head with her right wing.
"Well…like take my name for example. Words that can mean both sexy and sweet and go with my name are sweet, seductive, sexy, scrumptious-"
"Stop," said Jalin, covering his earholes and starting blushing. "You don't need to think of a word that has to be sexy and sweet."
"But you do it all the time."
Jalin thought about it, tapping his right wingtip on his chin and looking slightly up. After a few seconds, he looked back at Salvia.
"You're right. I never thought of it."
"Then let me think of something."
"Alright. You want my help?"
"No," said Salvia, waving her wing up and down. "I'll think of one on my own. Now then. Um, jolly? No. How about jacking? Definitely not. Jittery? How about if I combine them?"
Jalin's eyes flew open with worriedness, and he shook his head.
"Combine them? Honey, no. I don't want you to call me Joyful Jittery Jalin or-or Jolly Jacking Jalin."
A small smile formed on Salvia's face, and she soon busted out laughing. Jalin realized what he said and blushed. Watching Salvia laugh made him blush harder. Pretty soon, Salvia settled down, wiping the small, forming tears from her eyes.
"Jolly Jacking Jalin," she chuckled. "Oh, Jalin. You always seem to make me laugh, even if it's unintentional. That's one of the things I love about you."
"Salvia…uh…can we eat?" a still bashful Jalin asked. "I'm quite hungry."
"Of course… Hey! I just got one."
With a smile, Salvia cleared her throat.
"Umph, umph, umph. Let's eat, my Jazzy Jalin."
Jalin grinned.
"That one…that one is good. Alright, Salvia. Would you like a berry or a goiaba?"
"You brought goiabas?"
Jalin nodded. During the short period Salvia had returned and made Rio her new home, Jalin and the rest of the Blu family introduced her to the native food. There was the acai berry, the araca, the jaca, the caju, the goiaba, and several others. She liked the goiaba the best because it reminded her of the watermelon. She remembered the summers she spent with Angelica. During Fourth of July, they would spend the day eating summer foods like watermelons and sugary sweets and would finish the night seeing the fireworks. Jalin handed her the goiaba. She took it with content and started gnawing at the fruit with her beak. Jalin grabbed the other rock-sized watermelon and ate it while savoring the flavor.
"Jalin?"
Jalin stopped eating and looked up at Salvia. She was just staring at her goiaba in her wings.
"Um, what do you remember most about your adventure before coming to get me?"
Jalin scratched his head, confused. Salvia had heard his tale, about eight times now. She, being a very understanding bird, could tell the story exactly as he would. Why did she bring it up again? Jalin sensed something was wrong.
"Uh, Salvia, I don't want to be rude but-"
"I know I've heard the story a few times now. It's just that… It's just that you explored…and I haven't. Hearing it from you always widen my eyes."
Jalin smile and placed his fruit down.
"Okay. Probably the tribe almost eating me alive was the one I remember the most. Probably because it was the most frightening near-death experience I had. Also, the imagery of two humans doing it… Egh! It never fades away."
"I don't mean that, Silly. What did you see that was most memorable; sight-seeing-wise."
"Ohhhhh. Um, well, there was the University of Arizona. Mexico City has beautiful buildings. The Aztec Pyramids were so bad. Uh, there was the Golden Gate Bridge, and San Francisco itself was breath-taking, even though I almost got hit on by a gay pigeon. San Diego was also fun to be in. The beaches in San Carlos were a sight to see, however, I believe the beach in Rio is much better."
"It seems, uh, fun."
Jalin looked at Salvia curiously. She sounded like if she yearned for something. He wasn't sure what, but being silent never solved anything.
"Salvia, is something wrong? You can tell me? After all, we're together."
Salvia felt Jalin's soft feathers touch her left wing and held it ever so gently. When her half-eaten gioaba in her right wing, she gently sent it down on the ground and looked at Jalin. She saw the charm he gave her.
"Well, um, Jalin. It's just that I also want to visit somewhere special."
"Special like what?"
"Something I will always remember. You know. Like a honeymoon."
"A honeymoon?"
Salvia smiled, "Well, technically, a honeymoon is done after marriage, but since birds mate as a token of marriage and can't go anywhere because of the eggs…um…I guess this would be more like a couple retreat, but I think it's still the same thing."
As Salvia rambled on, Jalin was trying to figure out what a honeymoon was. He never heard those words growing up nor knew a word like this ever existed. Seeing that Salvia paused, he took the opportunity to ask.
"Salvia, what's a honeymoon?"
Salvia just smiled.
"You're kidding, right?"
As time shortly passed, Salvia noticed the bewilderment Jalin had. She dropped her smile.
"It seems that you aren't. Well, a honeymoon is a trip a recently married couple go on just to spend time together."
"Oh. That sounds pretty good, but, um, aren't we together now? Why do you want to go somewhere?"
The glimmer in Salvia's eyes dwindled away as Jalin's questions pierced through her heart. She tried her best to make Jalin not notice. She put her smile back on her face. She slowly moved her wings away from Jalin's grasp. She waved her right wing up and down in front of Jalin.
"You're right, Jalin. We don't need to go anywhere. Forget that I brought it up."
"But Salvia-"
"Oh, I almost forgot. Elena invited me to spend the day with her. We're taking her chicks for their first swim. I'll probably be back by midafternoon. Love you."
She kissed Jalin quickly on the cheek and exited the den. Jalin watched through the entrance of the den as she flew away. Still confused, he scratched the top of his head.
"Did…did I say something wrong? What did she mean by honeymoon?"
Jalin thought about it for a while longer. If he just used the words' proper definition of this compound, he could probably piece it together. Honey was sweet, so honeymoon probably meant that the moon was sweet. It didn't make any sense though. He had listened to Salvia describe a honeymoon, and it was a trip for a couple. It seemed it was to spend time together, but couldn't they just spend time together in Rio? But Salvia seemed so sad. Jalin huffed.
"Only one thing to do: ask Mom and Dad."
With that, he took a few more bites of his gioaba, finishing it, and flew off to his parents' den.
So there is the first chapter of a new story. If you see any grammar errors or misspelling, please let me know. That way, I can fix it before moving onto the next chapter.