Ch. 2
Dominic's home was on the edge of the jungle just outside Rio. It was a hollow in a very tall tree with a thick branch just outside of it. The entrance itself was fairly big, probably to accommodate Dom's tall structure. Inside, it was surprisingly spacious, with a medium long space in the center, what Cyrus guessed was Dom's 'room' on the left, and two 'guest rooms' on the right.
"Not much to say. I'm tired, so I'll go to bed. I'll let you two get settled," Dom yawned before retiring to his room and falling asleep, tired from a busy night of bartending.
Cyrus and Roxie looked at each other before saying good night and doing the same.
In the morning, it appeared as though Cyrus and Roxie were the first ones to wake. Cyrus felt well rested, whereas his sister did not. So, as his sister went back to sleep, Cyrus flew out of the hollow to go survey the city.
He flew past many buildings, abandoned and busy alike. He flew over busy streets as he searched for a place to land. Eventually, he found an abandoned office building in the middle of the city. This concrete building was covered bottom to top in mold, cracks, cracks filled with mold. Almost all the windows were broken, if not completely gone, as well as covered in dust and dirt.
Cyrus flew through the jagged hole of a broken window, and landed on the soft, dusty carpeting. From what he could tell, the place actually looked better inside than it did outside. He could see barely any cracks in the walls or tiled ceiling, although paint was peeling off the walls.
Before he could take anymore than a step forward, he felt a group of talons wrap around his neck and pin him to the ground. He looked up slowly, catching a black foot standing on his stomach, connected to a stark white body, all the way up to the face of a cockatoo, with pink bags under its eyes and a slightly mangled, flared crest.
"Hello, pretty bird. What are you doing in my home?" he asked in an aged, not necessarily old, British accent, bring his face uncomfortably close to Cyrus', staring him right in the eye.
"I'll tell you if you step off of my throat," Cyrus said in a slightly strangled voice due to the weight on his throat.
The bird on top of him only smiled more menacingly and tightened his grip on his captive's throat. "I think not. Only when you tell me what you're doing here."
Cyrus sighed as he quickly caved, due to impatience. "My wings were exhausted, so I chose to land here. Happy?"
The cockatoo stepped off of his throat, allowing him to get up and take some deep breaths and fill his lungs back up with the proper amount of oxygen. "There. Was that so hard?"
"Mainly because you made it that way, yeah," Cyrus said, rubbing his probably-now-bruised throat with his wing. He'd heard some birds were fierce predators, and never took that into full consideration until now. "Got a name I can call you other than a colossal-"
"Nigel," the cockatoo replied, cutting off the other bird before he could make any more smart remarks.
"Cyrus," he said, ignoring the fact that this guy just cut him off. People like that annoyed him. You know, people who threaten your general well-being and also happen to not respect being called profanities. Or birds in this case at least.
"I think your wings have rested long enough," Nigel said impatiently. This bird's smart-aleck attitude really annoyed him. He'd thought about leaving this bird with a painful present, a lesson to stay away from his home, but it didn't seem worth it anymore. Now he just wanted to be left alone, to plot his revenge against the very bird who wronged him.
"I whole-heartedly-"
"Cyrus! Where are you?! CYRUS!" a familiar voice called, cutting off Cyrus, who replaced the end of his sentence with a long, exasperated sigh, hating having to deal with this situation again.
He then saw a blue and gold blur streak by the window, which he assumed was his sister. He's gone for a full half hour and this happens. To be fair, he should've expected it since she did it in the previous worlds.
"Sounds like you should go, and take care of that," Nigel said with a smirk, putting great emphasis on the word go.
This earned him an eye-roll from Cyrus. "Sisters. A blessing from the Lord himself? Or a curse from Satan? I honestly can't tell sometimes."
With that, he turned around and flew out a broken window. He felt very strange as he went. It was almost as though he felt he would meet this malicious bird again.
After spending some time chasing after his sister, Cyrus finally was able to catch up to her and calm her down. Then, they went off hunting for some breakfast, having not eaten for an hour after waking up. So, taking about twenty minutes to fly out of the city, they reached the rainforest and searched for anything that looked edible, but not poisonous.
Eventually, they found an acai fruit tree. The blueberries growing on vines hanging from the higher branches. Cyrus and Roxie lighted down onto a thick branch, just below the fruit growing on the snake-like vines.
Just as they were about to start eating, they saw a family of blue macaws land a couple branches away. There were two mates, and their three chicks. The mother was a sleek, light blue with jet black talons and eyes that reflected her plumage. The father, on the other hand, had plumage tinted a darker blue, with talons colored a softer black, accompanied by amber eyes.
Then there were the chicks. One of them, a young girl, seemed to retain most of her mother's features, but seemed to have come out rather plump. The other girl, who looked like the oldest, had her mother's build, but had a thin neck and a round head, as well as having blue eyes like her sister. Finally, the youngest, was… Not a great sight to look at. He had his father's dark blue feathers and amber eyes, his mother's body, and a HUGE head. As well as a thin neck. He had a small sprout of head feathers, which were just about is scraggly as the rest of his plumage.
The father of the three chicks looked over, noticing Cyrus staring at them as his sister waved a wing in front of his face. Cyrus snapped out of his thoughts as he batted his sister's wing away, only to notice the father of the chicks looking back at them, his mate asking him what was wrong. Cyrus knew exactly what to do in this situation.
"Roxie, it's rude to stare at other birds! You should be ashamed of yourself!" He scolded his sister, quickly blaming her for his little slip-up, riling her up fast.
"Me?! You were the one staring at them Cyrus! Quit trying to blame me for your stupid mistakes!" Roxie shot back, all too familiar with this behavior.
"Really? Your calling me stupid?! You're the one who thinks I can't handle myself if we're separated for as little as half an hour! But look! I'm just fine! I've been fine!" Cyrus shouted at his sister, who came to a quick decision.
"FINE! If you're JUST PERFECT by yourself, I'll just leave!" Roxie retorted before flying off.
"Roxie! Ugh!" Cyrus called after his sister, regretting even saying anything from the beginning. He mentally kicked himself for what just happened. Again.
"Hey, are you and your mate alright?" the blue parrot asked Cyrus, who buried his face in his wing.
After about a minute of silence, Cyrus looked up at the blue parrot, and took a deep breath. "We're fine. This happens occasionally; she just needs time to cool down. I apologize for making a scene in front of you and your kids."
"It's okay. But are you sure your mate will be okay? She seemed to be pretty mad," the female parrot replied, genuine concern in her eyes.
"Yeah. And we're not mates, that was my sister. Like I said, it's happened before; she'll come around," Cyrus stated with a heavy sigh.
"Wait, how is it possible that she was your sister if she's a Blue-Gold and you're a Scarlet Macaw?" The father asked.
"Well his mom or dad had to have been a Catalina Macaw," the mother replied.
"Yeah, my mom was a Catalina Macaw. But enough of my family. I'm Cyrus, it's nice to meet you," Cyrus stated.
"I'm Jewel, and this is my mate Blu. As well as our kids, Carla, Bia, and Tiago," Jewel replied with a smile. "It's nice to meet you too."
Cyrus smiled back. He then noticed their chicks huddling close to them, most likely shy about this new bird having a conversation with his parents. He gave them a kind smile, trying to assure them that, although he was a stranger to them, he wouldn't endanger them. "Well, I should probably head after her. Don't want her to be taking her rage out on other birds."
The family opposite to him's eyes widened. "That's happened before?"
"Well yes, but it hasn't happened recently," Cyrus stated nonchalantly.
"Do you want me to come with you then, in case you need help with her?" Jewel asked him worriedly.
"I couldn't ask you to do that. I mean, you have a family to feed. Literally," Cyrus pointed out, gesturing to her family.
"Oh that's ok," Jewel replied, not looking worried at all. "Blu can look after the kids. I'm not very hungry right now anyway."
"You're sure?" Cyrus asked her, wanting clarification. He wanted to make sure she wouldn't be having any second thoughts. Roxie used to give people that mind-set. But that was then.
"Yes," she clarified. "Besides, how bad can she be?"
Cyrus just stared at her.
"Cyrus?"
"I'm not going to answer that," he replied finally, wincing inwardly as he recalled eighth grade.
Roxie used to have insecurity problems in middle school. So she would make herself feel better by putting others down with some very creative, yet hurtful names. Sometimes, if she was mad enough, she would get physical. And that was never pretty.
"Anyway, come with me. My sister usually leaves a path of mental destruction when she's angry, instilling fear in the hearts of many. So she shouldn't be hard to find," Cyrus explained nonchalantly, he and their mother having dealt with this behavior before.
Jewel nodded before joining him and flying off, leaving behind her mate and three chicks.
"Dad, mom's going to come back right?" Tiago asked his dad, worry clouding his eyes.
"Tiago, your mother is a strong bird. One of the strongest I've met. Of course she'll be alright," Blu assured the young chick, helping him to feel better.
The only thing was that he hoped she'd be alright. After all, they'd just met, and now his mate just flew off with one of them. They didn't know these birds.
And he was correct, they really didn't.
Back out on the edge of the rainforest, a vertical rectangle of white light appeared just in front of the trees, in a clearing of tall grass. Out of it came a woman with long, shiny teal hair, who wore a white version of the Nobody cloak, with the hood pulled up, concealing her perfect face.
She had a slight tan, thin eyebrows, sea-green eyes, and a dark-red, almost crimson-lipped smile. This woman pulled down her hood and took out a glass tablet with a steel power button at the bottom. She pressed the button, powering on the tablet, and spoke into the Siri-esque function.
"Give me Estelle Rockefeller, RAL," the woman commanded in a gentle, yet serious voice that commanded authority.
"Of course, Miss Cynthia," the tablet voice answered in a light, British accent.
Cynthia waited a moment before the video feed popped up on her communicator. Waiting there on the other side of the window, was a smaller woman in an obsidian-black dress with smoky purple hair, angular features, and bronze framed, and oval glasses. She sat at a crystalline, not quite glass, table with a vase of similarly crystalline flowers to the side.
"Cynthia. You've arrived in Rio de Janeiro I assume," Estelle stated, her hands folded in her lap, tone commanding confirmation.
"Yes Ms. Rockefeller, I have," Cynthia confirmed, turning the tablet so her superior could see the waiting city.
"Very good Sandshell. Do you remember your objective?" Estelle asked her agent.
"Yes. Find and collect Cyrus and Roxanne Hoffmann, using force if needed. Then bring them back to Headquarters for further observation," Cynthia replied in a calm tone.
"Very good Cynthia. Report back once you've found them," Estelle commanded.
"Yes ma'am," Cynthia replied before ending the transmission and slipping the communicator into her cloak.
She then whispered a spell of invisibility, watching her visible form seemingly vanish into thin air. Cynthia then flexed her shoulders, causing shiny, sapphire-blue wings to slowly sprout from her back, flapping them a few times. She also furled and unfurled them, ridding them of the stiffness they once suffered from. It'd been nearly a month since she'd used her wings, and was aching to fly.
With a few powerful flaps, she was soaring high into the sky at speeds one could only dream of. Cynthia, after flying around for a bit, headed in the direction of the city, the air blowing her hair straight back, eliciting a laugh mixed with high-pitched cheering. She'd nearly forgotten how free and alive flying made her feel, so much so that she nearly forgot her mission. But, she would find those teenagers, and tale them with her whether they wanted to go or not.
Little shorter than the first chapter, I will admit. But I promise, more will come. I'd originally intended for Cyrus to be this way, WK. R 'n' R, skip over the parts where the pairing is most prominent if it bothers you. Anyway, thanks and here's to another chapter!
Stay cool everyone!
B-Dog
