Chapter 2: A Shocking Revelation
February 6, 2011 3:41 PM
Blu and Nanashi munched on a small plate of cookies and a cup of hot chocolate as Linda talked with her mother on the phone about a visit to her parents' new home out-of-state, in Cleveland, Ohio. "But even if I did come up there, who would take care of Blu and Nanashi?" A pause. "No, Mom, they don't make kennels for birds. I wouldn't want to put them into a cage they're not comfortable with, anyway." Another pause. "Okay, sorry, Mom. I'll talk to you again soon. Of course. Bye."
Linda hung up the phone, walking to the front of the bookstore where the 'Yes, We're Open!' sign hund proudly for all to see. "You guys enjoying your hot chocolate and cookies?"
Blu nodded, too engrossed in his October to March ritual of counting every one of the six marshmallows in the cup of hot chocolate. Nanashi laughed. "Yes, we're fine. Thanks again for this."
"Of course!" Linda scratched Nanashi by the feathers under his beak, and he clicked it in contentment.
Suddenly, Blu was startled by a snowball hitting the glass of the bookstore. Blu gently tilted the cup of hot coca back to its proper position and glared outside to the two large black-and-white birds perched on the bench outside in the cold, preparing to throw another snowball. "Oh, it's you. What do you two want?" Nanashi raised his eyebrow in more than a slight amount of irritation at the two birds' antics.
"Just wanted to check out the famous bird and his weak lackey as always." Nanashi was normally a calm bird, as most members of the raven clan were, but that got on his nerves. He started growling, a sound that was more likely to come out of the mouth of a dog or wolf. "Migrated to the breakfast nook again, I see?"
"Linda, can you open the door, please? Bob and James over there have ruffled my feathers for the last time." Nanashi called out to Linda.
Linda got up and opened the door for Nanashi. "Here you go, Nanashi. Now, don't be too rough, okay?"
"Unfortunately, rough is exactly what I'm going to have to be to get the message to these two featherbrains not to mess with me or Blu."
Meanwhile, Blu shot back at the birds' statement, a triumphant grin on his face. "Doesn't matter, because you can't hit me at all. See, I'm protected by this magical forcefield… called glass? Ever heard of it?"
Nanashi sighed, flying over to the bench and putting on a burst of speed to make sure the two idiots didn't try to escape. Bob and James didn't even notice Nanashi land behind them, a benefit of his mostly white feathers.
Nanashi gently tapped both birds on their spine, and the two turned around, eyebrows raised, only to eat a faceful of wing. The two birds stumbled back, both holding a wing to their slightly bruised beaks. "What was that for, brick-hugger?!"
"For not getting it through your thick skulls that none of us want your stupid time-wasting attempts at bad jokes and bullying. I'm sick of your attitudes, and when you mess with Blu, you mess with me, so I'm going to tell you this now: you had best scamper off to the nest you came from, now. And if I catch you hanging around here, trying to torment my little brother again, I'm going to rip off your tailfeathers and shove them so far up your asses, you won't be able to sit, walk, or fly straight for a week, got it?" Nanashi briefly heard Linda gasp in shock for his usage of a curse word, but right now, he couldn't care less. These two birds had ruffled his feathers for the last time.
The two quickly nodded their heads and ran off to the other side of town down Main Street. Nanashi sighed, flying back into the bookstore as Linda closed the door, and landed next to Blu. "Nice job, little brother. You took that like a champ and fired right back, just like I showed you."
Blu chuckled. "Thanks, Big Bro. And thanks for dealing with them, too. Hopefully, that'll get rid of them for good."
"Yes, hopefully." Unfortunately, pesky featherbrains were the least of their problems, as they watched a man with a very tan complexion approach the same bench, only with a different set of birds, making noises and strange postures that Nanashi could only assume were a feeble attempt at conveying human mannerisms into the avian language.
The birds were quickly scared off with squawks of indignation, and the man, who Nanashi could tell was not used to the weather of north-central Minnesota, slipped on the snow and ended up catching himself on the back of the bench in a very awkward angle.
He spotted Nanashi and Blu and quickly approached the window, making the same gestures and noises, until he ate a faceful of glass and slid down into the snow and dirt.
Linda opened the door and looked to the man, who was now getting up, and letting him in. "Oh my gosh, are you alright?"
"Oh, y-yes." The man rubbed his hands and shoulders in a mostly vain attempt to stave off the cold. "I'm sorry… I'm just not built for this kind of weather."
Linda chuckled, casting a side glance at Nanashi and Blu to make sure they weren't too freaked out. "Well, would you like to check out a book or three?"
"Oh no, no, no, no. I have come six thousand miles looking for them," the man said, gesturing to Blu and Nanashi.
Nanashi blew a little air out of his beak in frustration. Why am I not surprised?
"I am Dr. Tulio Monteiro, and I'm an ornithologist," the man, Tulio, said as he showed Linda a card that read the same. "I came here because your blue Spix's macaw is the last male of his species. We've recently found a female, so now we can bring the two together to save his species!" Tulio remarked, explaining his reason for the sudden appearance.
Linda's face lit up, both in surprise and realization. The female must be somewhere close by! "Well, that's great! When can she come over?"
"Oh, no, she is not here. Blu must come to Rio de Janeiro!" Nanashi's entire body froze and he snapped his gaze to Tulio.
He has to be kidding. There's no way Linda would make a six-thousand-mile journey to the other side of the planet, even for something as imperative as this! But even if she would… Rio… my old home. Would I be able to see my friends again? I've missed them so much, I've always held out hope they survived the smugglers. But is it worth the risk? Nanashi stood still, what felt like an eternity passing in less than the blink of a human eye, before he made his decision. Yes, we need this. Not just me, but Linda and Blu too. We can save a species, I might have a chance to see my friends, and Linda can finally go out and see a big city like she wanted to do in middle school. Besides, Carnaval is less than a month away, and I can't pass up the opportunity to visit it, not after my first intended trip was cut so tragically short.
Linda's jaw nearly dropped. "Oh-hoh-hoh no, we can't come to Rio. We… we have a routine here, something we're used to. We can't just drop everything to go to Rio. We're not even that big on travel. Heck, Blu… can't even fly."
Nanashi flew over to Linda and nudged his beak against her face to provide a little comfort, and Linda smiled and scratched his head in return.
Tulio got up. 'What? Of course he can fly! He's a perfect specimen!" Tulio picked up a now very agitated Blu, who struggled to get out of Tulio's grip.
"Wait, what are you doing?!"
Tulio prepared to throw Blu across the room. "Don't worry, their natural instincts always take over." He threw Blu, and was the only one in the room surprised when Blu squawked in panic, before landing beak-first on the hardwood floor. "Heh… well, almost always."
An unspoken line had just been crossed, and Linda got up and started pushing Tulio out the door of the bookstore. "Okay, look, it was nice and fun having you barge in and squawk around and throw my bird, but now it's time for you to leave."
Tulio, now slightly panicked, apologized. "Wait, Linda! I'm sorry, okay? But this is the only chance we have!" He didn't get any more out before the door was shut in his face. He sighed, before kneeling down and peeking in through the door's mail slot. "Please, Linda. If we don't do this, his whole species… wil be gone!" He slipped his business card back in and let it fall to the ground. "Please… just consider it?"
Linda sighed as she watched Tulio walk away. "Alright, guys, I'm going to go make some dinner, okay?"
Nanashi numbly nodded, still in shock over the fact that a chance to return to his home was being presented on a silver platter. Blu nodded as well, unsure what to think about this new development.
The next morning, Blu, Nanashi, and Linda were sitting on the ground under the overhang that was the entrance to Linda's room on the second floor of the bookstore. Linda sighed as she looked at the two birds she'd raised for the last fifteen years. "And what do you think about this, Nanashi?"
Nanashi cleared his throat. "I think we should go. While I do agree that this Tulio guy w=could have handled his introduction much, much better, he does make a point. Blu and this female are potentially the last two blue macaws this planet will ever have, and if we don't do something, we'll be at least partially responsible for the eventual extinction of an entire species.
"Even setting aside the implications of that and what it would do to our consciences, I won't allow myself to be selfish and say we should stay here. Blu has to at least meet another member of his species and see what life for them is like. Besides, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to go myself. You still remember the story I told you about how Rio was my old home?"
"Of course I remember, Nanashi. I couldn't ever forget something like that." Linda said in a comforting tone.
"Well, this is the one and probably only chance I'll have to return to my old home in a long time, probably for the rest of my life. I can't pass this opportunity up, especially if I have the chance of reuniting with my old mentor, Rafael. I may have lost all the friends I used to have, but I know he'll at least still be around. He wasn't in the jungle the day the smugglers came. Not only that, but maybe if we go to Rio, Blu will finally learn how to fly."
Blu turned his head in Nanashi's direction. "Big bro, are you sure?"
"Maybe not one hundred percent, but it's certainly possible. You remember the story I told you about the day the smugglers came?"
Blu nodded somberly. "Yeah, big bro. I remember. You said I might have post-traumatic stress disorder, right?"
Nanashi nodded, just as serious. "Yes. You probably don't remember since you were only two days old, but I was on a branch right next to the nest your older brother lived in. You were getting ready to make that jump that would have awakened your natural instinct when the smugglers attacked. The shock of such a disaster more than likely caused you to unintentionally suppress your instincts, and that sensation of falling without being able to have control of it is probably why you can't make that jump."
Blu nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right,big bro. But Rio de Janeiro? We won't even be on the same continent."
"Hey, I showed you how to deal with those pesky bullies, right? Surely we can cope with a brief change of scenery."
Blu nodded hesitantly. After a moment, he nodded more confidently. "Yeah, you're right, big bro. We can do this."
"That's my little brother." Nanashi turned back to Linda. "It's been decided. We're heading to Brazil!"
Linda smiled and nodded. "Alright. In that case, why don't you two go read a book or something, maybe study up on where we're headed? I have to make a couple calls and start packing for the trip."
Blu and Nanashi nodded, getting up and letting Linda start preparing for their trip to Rio de Janeiro.
