Chapter 2: Departure
(Wolf's P.O.V.)
It had been a week since my gliding incident, and I had learned to fly as a bird within that time. I had been especially careful to make sure no-one saw me change or anything like that. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered I could understand a bird, but they wouldn't trust a human, and I didn't want to appear loony to anyone walking by, so I kept silent unless I was in a bird form, and when I had flown around a bit, I saw how different birds had different personalities; I even found a flirty female wood pecker, well, flirting with a duck. Finding food as a bird was easy, but not one of the things I did when I was hungry, and every once in a while, a cat would come up to me, and sniff my leg, or shoe, while I was sitting down. During the past week when I was learning to fly, I had thought of a place I would like to visit most, and I knew how I could get there.
The entire day was spent making sure I had a backpack full of water and food that I would need to take with me. I don't know how, but when I would turn into any other animal, everything I took with me, clothes, shoes, backpacks; would still be there when I turned back into a human.
I stared at the map I was holding, and I studied it so that I wouldn't get confused about anything during my flight, and had to mentally prepare myself for this trip. Stuffing the map into my pocket, I glanced around myself, and made sure no-one, or anything else was around me, and focused my mind on a Peregrine falcon. I had flown as other birds, even a few exotic ones, but I wanted to fly fast for right now.
When I saw that I had changed, I spread out my wings, and swiped them down hard and propelled myself into the sky. I looked down to see the ground was already far below me, and I angled to the south, towards my next target. As I was flying, I made sure no other birds were looking at me, and I was glad to see only a few seagulls flying ahead of me.
As I zoomed on, I couldn't help but think of what I was leaving behind. I guess I should have given a few things away, but this money will help me when I do get to Rio. I'll try to live in the jungle as an animal, so to preserve as much money as I can for the long run. I heard how it is a truly amazing place to visit, and the forest there has some wonderful places to see. For the long run, I will be doing better than that 'man versus wild' and still live well. Good thing my today was the last day I needed to pay rent, or else it would have been a waste to pay for another month to stay there.
(Blu's P.O.V.)
Something didn't seem entirely right, the warmth that was usually below my wing wasn't there, and I heard a soft and soothing sound coming from the breeding room, and the curiosity got the best of me, and I flew down from the hallow and landed on the ground near the edge of the fake foliage. As I started to walk towards the sound, I could make out faint splashing noises, and pushed some of the foliage out of my way. I was so close to the noise now, I suddenly realized it was the voice of Jewel.
The big fountain that created a waterfall was in the way, and I thought that was what was making the splashing noise, and as I rounded the corner I was going to call out for Jewel, but I froze with shock and fear, and I felt my feathers rise up, along with my heartbeat. Jewel had her eyes closed, and she was standing in the waterfall water. Her feathers were sticking to her body rather closely, showing her feminine form, and as she opened her beak, her voice rang out,
"All the birds of the feather,
ooOoo OO ohh,
Do what we love most of all!
ooOoo OO,
Morning and the stars, strumming guitars,
That's why we love carnival!"
"Loving our life in the jungle…"
As she opened her eyes in the last part, she saw me, and froze on the spot, and the only noise that was heard was the water splashing, and Jewel asked, "How long have you been their!"
I was just as embarrassed as Jewel, except I wasn't the one bathing, "A-All the B-B-Birds of the F-Feather…?" I stuttered out, and I was finally able to bring my wing up and block her body from my sight and added, "S-Sorry."
I heard some water splashing, and I heard a flurry of droplets splattering the general area, and when I slightly damp wing was placed on my wing; I flinched and closed my eyes. I felt Jewel pushing my wing down, and after it was at my side, I felt the pressure be removed, only to be placed on my beak. A flash of memories washed through my mind; how Jewel reacted when I first tried to kiss her, the way she acted as we moved through the jungle, the fight outside of Luis' garage, and how she attacked Nigel. All those memories of how violent Jewel could be made me tremble slightly as I felt her moving my beak to where I guess she was.
I felt her once again remove her wing, and I felt her wrap her wings around me into a hug, and I heard her sigh. She said, "It's alright Blu. Just please be more… considerate, next time."
Her words soothed me enough to where I wrapped my own wings around her, not caring if they got damp, and I nodded.
"Good, because now we both need a bath, you're filthy…"
I looked up at Jewel and saw she was smiling, and I looked down and saw how I was covered in dirt, and I had just got dirt all over Jewel again. When I looked back up into her eyes, I felt myself get dazed, and I accidently murmured, "Your eyes are so beautiful…"
I heard Jewel giggle, and saw some of her feathers twitch up slightly, but they were still water logged from her bath.
-One day later-
(Wolf's P.O.V.)
I was glad with the progress I was making, I didn't think it was possible, but I was now flying over Texas, and I was getting close to the Gulf of Mexico. I had discovered that if I would flew up at a slow pace, but continued to fly straight at a decent speed, and did that until I was high in the air, I could dive down and cover a larger distance faster and easier. I guess I was living up to the speed of these birds, and I saw the ocean far below me, and I was off the coast, flying towards South America. I was angling up at the time, so I knew I would be over South America before noon today. I had flown through the night, and I didn't mind, considering how the cold air kept me awake, and the excitement in me also kept me wide awake.
Glancing down, I saw I had flown higher than usual, so I started my dive again, and I kept it shallow, but steep enough to get me where I wanted faster than I would normally get. I was watching the ground below me speed on by, and I saw the green expanse of jungle to the front of me and smiled, maybe with my luck, I could be in Brazil by four, and then I could find somewhere to rest. It would be a while though, since I was way up in the sky.
I angled down steeper, and I could make out the ground below me moving, that was how fast I was going now. Ha-ha, I wonder how fast I can go, and what else would happen if I did that. Well might as well go for it now…
I tilted my body until it was vertical with the ground, and tucked my wings close to my body, and plummeted towards the ground. Damn… I must have flown really high up… I saw the ground coming closer, and closer… and while I was still a few hundred feet above the ground by my estimation, I spread my wings out, and slowly leveled myself out, and it was extremely hard, considering how fast I was going.
I saw a plane flying ahead of me, but I was still fighting to level out, and I heard a loud 'POP' noise sound off to either side of me, and when I looked to the right of my wing, I could see an air trail being left by my wings. I don't know how fast I was going, and how that was possible, but I leveled out, and shot past the plane like a bullet. I was just gliding fast now, and when I opened my beak, I yelled out, "WOOOHOOOO!"
I closed my eyes, and reveled in how the wind felt, and I heard someone yell, "LOOK OUT!"
When I reopened my eyes, I saw a flag pole coming up, and I tilted wings to avoid it, but I was too late. I slammed my wing into the pole and felt an explosion of pain in the right side of my body, and I felt numb everywhere else as I slowed down dramatically, and saw a shocked bird who I think yelled, in front of me near the forest. Considering how I now hurt my wing fairly bad and I couldn't keep flying, so I plummeted towards the foliage and crashed hard. Luckily the leaves shielded my body from acquiring any large cuts.
I groaned, and heard a flapping noise, and kept my eyes closed as I tried to move, but a firm hold, and a masculine voice said, "Don't move, you dislocated your wing. Let me go get some help." When he stopped talking I heard him fly away, and I felt tired, but not death tired.
Shortly afterwards, I heard two pairs of wing beats growing closer to me, and I heard a feminine voice gasp, "Meu Duis! What happened to him?"
The other voice I heard before spoke, "He flew into the human's pole. He was going quite fast… faster than I ever seen before…"
I just groaned again, not able to form a proper word and I felt someone grasp my wing, and give it a quick shove. A crunching noise filled the air, and I felt relief sweep through my body, and as I opened my eyes, I saw two dark blue birds with yellow near their beaks looking down at me. I grinned weakly and said, "Thank… y-you…" and I felt myself slipping in my mind, and I soon felt my head tilt to one side.
…
Shooting pain, but not too harsh to cause me to make noise, is what I woke up to in my right side. I slowly opened my eyes, and saw how it was dark out through a hole, but where I was, I didn't know where I was, but I saw three dark blue areas, and remembered how I had crashed into the flag pole, and a blue bird had landed near me and helped me. As I sighed, I noted the colorful hues flashing around outside, and looked towards my saviors. I saw two older blue macaws sleeping next to each other, and a smaller one was sleeping away from them, but close enough to not be alone.
I looked at my right wing, and couldn't suppress the groan that escaped my beak, and I quickly quieted down, as to not disturb the sleeping macaw family. As I looked at them, I studied each of them, and deduced that they were a family of Hyacinth macaws, and that could explain their size. I noticed how two of the three macaws where slim, and had a sort of elegance to their bodies, while the largest one was thick with muscle, but had a calm atmosphere around him. I noticed how the smallest one seemed to shift uncomfortably, and I guessed it could feel me staring through its sleep.
The sun was now out, and cast a reddish haze over the tree tops that I could see, and I just sighed… seems I won't be going anywhere anytime soon.
The time seemed to tick by while I tried to sleep again, but I soon heard someone standing up, and as I lifted my head up, I saw the biggest macaw stretch, and when he looked at me, I opened my beak to say something, but he held a feather up to his beak, and I closed it again. He carefully walked towards me and whispered, "I'll be right back, and I'm going to go get the morning meal."
Nodding my head in understanding, he turned around, and took off into the morning sky. I lowered my head again, and slowly started to doze off again, and I was about to fall asleep. I was thinking of what I could do for the day, seeing as my wing still hurt badly, and I didn't want to walk through the jungle as a human.
A shuffling sound caught my attention, and I saw the male had returned, and he was using a large leaf to carry an assortment of fruit and nuts. I glanced at the two smaller macaws, and saw they had started to awaken. The smaller one looked at me, and I could see two sparkling green eyes look over at me, and the other, bigger macaw looked at me as well. I was starting to grow nervous with all the attention I was receiving, when the largest one, the male, said, "Ok, breakfast is here. Eat up while I talk to our guest."
He motioned for me to walk over to near him, and I stood up and ambled over to him. He started to walk towards the entrance, "let's go talk on a branch." While we were walking towards a branch conveniently placed near the entrance, we walked a fair distance down the branch, and when he sat down, so did I.
Before he could say something, I asked, "Can I trust you?"
He looked at me shocked, and said, "I was going to ask you the same thing. You're a bird of prey, and I don't want my family to be harmed in any way."
When I saw the determined look in his eyes, I said, "Well, since you helped me, I wanted to show you a secret, so that you can trust me."
(Azure's P.O.V.)
The young Hyacinth macaw known as Azure peeked her head out of the hallow, and could see the strange bird talking with her father. She was interested, considering she didn't see many predatory birds, and this one wasn't as rude as the other ones she had heard about.
While she was peeking out, Wolf's back was to her, and her father was on the other side of him and couldn't see her poking her head out, "My secret is one I wouldn't want many to know, you will be the only other living thing to know of this."
As Wolf started to shimmer, he started to resemble a Hyacinth macaw, and Azure gasped, and ducked her head back into the hallow as her father, and the strange bird looked towards the hallow.
(Wolf's P.O.V.)
"Did you hear that?" I asked. I looked back to the Male macaw and he said, "it was probably my daughter, I found some black berries for her. And turn back into that other bird, we should show my family. Also, my name is Ray."
"Nice to meet you Ray." I shifted back into the falcon form, and we started to walk back towards the hallow, "and my name is Wolf." I added when I looked over my shoulder.
Ray chuckled, and when we walked into the hallow, I could see his daughter and wife talking. When we entered the hallow, they stopped and looked at us and I cleared my throat and said, "since Ray had helped me when I wasn't able to help myself, I decided I could trust your family with my secret."
I looked back at ray, and he nodded. When I turned back around, I focused my mind on Azure, and I felt my body growing slightly bigger. When I was sure I had finished changing, I stopped looking at her, and closed my eyes. Doing that is tiring…
When I opened my eyes, I could see Azure studying me closely, but when I looked at her, she turned away, and I saw her feathers lift up slightly. I heard Ray's wife chuckle and say, "Don't worry about Azure, she hardly see's other Hyacinth macaws… and attractive ones at that."
I chuckled nervously as I felt my feathers rise up, and I couldn't help but glance back at Azure. Her feathers had risen as well, and a shocked look was all over her face as she stared at her mother, "Mommm…" when she whined, her voice sounded melodious. When she looked towards me, we had eye contact for a brief second, and we broke it fast, feeling our respective faces growing warm.
While I and Azure weren't facing each other, I felt a rumble in my stomach, and I heard Ray's grumble as well, and he said, "Well, let's eat and get on with our day. And you two will need a bath; you haven't left this hallow for four days, and you crashed into dirt yesterday…"
I looked down at my body and laughed, "I am dirty…" but as soon as I thought about it, I stopped laughing and turned around and whispered so only Ray could hear me, "umm… how do I put this? I was a human to start with, so I don't know how to take a bird bath…"
Ray had a shocked look on his face, and he slowly said, "Well, I guess I'll have to teach you later."
Smiling, I thanked Ray, and I heard my stomach growl again…
A.N.: I know birds can't travel so fast that they break the sound barrier, but Wolf is a 'special'kind of bird/human/thing. So yea, hope you enjoyed.
also, he can transform into any animal... he's specail XD
