Chapter 4
Hostilities
"That's the second time today." Jewel complained as she was awoken from her peaceful (yet short) slumber.
"Sorry my angel, I`m sure they didn't wake you up on purpose." Blu assured her.
"What are you two still doing in bed, the sun is out and the Canary cove is packed with birds!" Pedro told them.
"Canary cove, what is that?" Blu asked.
"It`s a secret beach that the humans can't get to, It's one of the last places in the city where birds can hang out in the day time, besides the clubs which are always open." Jewel explained, smiling fondly at the memories.
"Yea, It`s where we first met the King of Carnival himself!" Nico told them.
"What do you say Blu, want to go to the beach for a day? " Jewel asked.
"Sure, sounds like fun." Blu replied happily.
"Yea alright, now it's gonna be a party!" Pedro exclaimed.
"Go ahead and get to the beach guys, we`ll catch up. I remember how to get there." Jewel told the dynamic duo.
"Alight, see you guys later." Nico said cheerfully as they left.
After they left, Blu prepared to go grab some breakfast but Jewel stopped him as he prepared to take flight. She had a sad look in her eyes.
"What's wrong angel?" He asked her, obviously very concerned.
"I know that if I go to the beach, I`m gonna end up feeling left out. Everyone will be swimming…but me." She murmured.
"Jewel, I can teach you how to swim. I know a lot about the ocean. My time in Linda`s book shop has given me lots of time to read about a lot things. I promise you`ll be fine out there." He assured her, putting both of his wings on her shoulders.
She gave him a quick peck on the beak.
"Why do you do this to me?" She asked.
"Do what to you?" He replied.
She giggled at his confuzzled face.
"You make me adore you more and more every day." She replied.
Blu smiled, and then said:
"I gonna go get us some breakfast to go, then it`s off to the beach."
"Alright, I`ll get some palm leaves we can sit on so sand doesn't get all over our tail feathers." She replied.
About 30 minutes later, the duo was preparing to land at the beach. A band was performing up on top of a makeshift stage. The cove was surrounded by rocks that would be pretty dangerous to walk over, for humans anyway. Small waves were slowly rolling into the cove, there were birds surfing out on the water others were just swimming. A brave few were leaping off a tall rock spire and into the deeper areas of the cove. Hundreds of other birds were on the beach, soaking up the sun, dancing, playing volleyball, soccer and Ultimate Frisbee. When they landed, the heat of the sand stung their feet. Only a little, however, the sand was very fine and looked almost like salt. The smell of the crisp ocean breeze, coconuts and various fruits lingered in the air. The song the band was playing echoed across the cove.
Dear mother,
Can you hear me whining?
It's been three whole weeks
Since that I have left your home
This sudden fear has left me trembling
Cause now it seems that I am out here on my own
And I'm feeling so alone
Pay attention to the cracked streets
And the broken homes
Some call it the slums
Some call it nice
I want to take you through
a wasteland I like to call my home
Welcome To Paradise
"This place is amazing!" Blu said with excitement.
"Yeah, only cause you're here though." Jewel said with a wink.
Blu blushed a little at that, he still wasn't used to a girl complementing him like that.
"So…uh…are you ready to get in the water?" He asked.
"Um…yeah...sure, let`s put our stuff down first." She told him.
They quickly found an empty spot on the sand and set their things down. Jewel slowly made her way to the water, while Blu was practically tripping over himself as he ran into the ocean.
Jewel carefully waded into the surf as small waves created some resistance against her advance to deeper water. Soon she was waist deep in water; she stopped dead in her tracks, imagining her feathers turning a pale white. Blu was swimming around in the cove, up to his neck in the clear warm Atlantic water. Then he swam over to her, and gently wrapped his wings around her and slowly took her out to deeper water.
"Blu, I swear if you…oh…I feel like I'm gonna be sick." She grumbled.
"Don't worry angel, I won't let go for anything." He assured her.
Soon they were at an adequate depth, where Blu could begin his lesson.
"Ok, the first thing you need to learn is how to float." He told her.
"Yeah, that would be a good starting point." She replied with a somewhat enthusiastic nod.
"Ok, so what I want you to do is take a nice deep breath and fill your lungs." He instructed.
She nodded and did as she was told, having complete faith in her nerd of a bird.
"Ok, that`s good, now I`m going to lay you down on your back. What you're going to do is keep your lungs as comfortably full as you can. I will still be holding onto you the whole time." He explained, then began to recline her.
She felt her pulse accelerate as she felt the water surround her head, but she managed to stay on the surface. She grinned as a sense of accomplishment filled her. Then she glanced at Blu who held his wings up in the air to show her that she was indeed floating without any assistance.
Then a wave raised her up a little before she felt herself fall back down. All the while she was being carried closer to shore. Blu quickly noticed that these waves were significantly large, and quickly rushed to Jewel`s side.
"What do I do?" She asked in a panicked tone, as the she got closer to shore.
"Ok, what you`re going to do is get yourself upright and kick your legs and move your wings in swiping movements. Almost like your grabbing a mango from a marmoset!" He explained, trying to get her to tread water, still trying to get to her.
Jewel quickly did what had been asked of her and found that she was indeed floating; although she would falter every now and then she learned to time her bursts of power with the waves so that she maintained position as the waves seemed to leave her alone.
Blu then swam up to her and grinned.
"That`s my girl." He cooed affectionately.
She smiled.
"I have a good teacher." She replied.
"Now come on, we have one more lesson." He told her.
He wrapped his wings around her and carried her out to the very mouth of the cove.
There he told her begin treading water.
Then he stuck his head underwater for a minute or two, before coming up for air.
"Ok, take a deep breath and when you're ready take a look at the reef below us. Make sure to exhale out of your nose every once and a while, but don't inhale. When you come back up tell me what you saw." He told her.
She nodded, then inhaled sharply and then stuck her head into the water.
What she saw made her want to gasp.
Dozens of tiny colorful fish swam around through a maze of colored rocks; it looked as if someone had quite literally took every color known to bird kind and placed it underwater. Strange snake like creatures were peaking out of their caves, as if they were waiting for something. Large grey creatures with wings and tails slowly glided through the water, peacefully watching over the smaller creatures of the reef. Then a massive turtle passed by merely a foot away from her. She heard a strange chattering in the distance, she quickly surfaced and saw two large fish jump out of the ocean.
"It`s amazing down there!" She exclaimed.
"Yup, all of that is directly connected to us." Blu replied
"No way, we fly and they swim." She protested.
"True, but without the ocean the sky wouldn't be blue, and the oceans create half of the air we breathe, the other half is made by the trees we live in. If the oceans die, we die." He explained.
"I had no idea." She replied.
"Most people don't, but the humans are working on it." He replied.
"Well, my legs and wings are getting sore and I want to catch some sun. So how about we get back on shore." She told him.
"Sure thing my agua angel" He replied, wrapping his wings around her and heading back to the beach.
Soon the duo was back on shore, Nico and Pedro were singing "Let`s get it started", Jewel was laying on her stomach and napping, and Blu hurriedly opened his grandfather`s journal.
May 10th 1948
Midwestern Cerrado, Brazil
Continued
I rocketed ahead, leaving the "legendary" Rahat in the dust. The stubby reptile cursed and grumbled as he tried to catch up. Soon he had in fact managed to come within my view again. He slowly started pulling alongside me as we crossed an old dirt road, but I had to gain altitude quickly and Rahat yelped as a car nearly killed us both.
The climb to avoid the car made me lose speed and Rahat quickly pulled ahead of me. I dove low to the ground in an attempt to gain speed. Soon the path we were following became a set of small wavy hills. Rahat increased speed as he was forced to struggle up a hill, and then slow as he came down. I was soon right on his tail and slowly gaining.
Then I poured on the speed, slowly but surely over taking Rahat. He growled as I did this and snapped at me with his jaws.
"Screw off slowpoke!" I snarled.
"I will eat your innards like Spaghetti!" He shot back.
"Oh yeah, like that will improve your relationship with Tara." I chided.
"How dare you lecture me!" He growled, snapping at me again with his jaws.
I simply barrel rolled, the powerful down strokes of my wings sending dust and dirt into the reptile's eyes.
"See you in an hour or so." I told him with grin before speeding ahead.
He hissed at me in anger, and then picked up speed. Well he tried to.
I simply sped ahead, dodging, ducking and weaving in between trees, tractors and humans out on a late night stroll.
Rahat, who was a persistent little bugger, remained hot on my tail, but I still had a considerable lead over him.
I saw the turn up ahead and slowed just a little, and then I turned as tightly as I could then as I came out of the turn I picked up speed and accelerated back towards the fort.
I grinned as I passed the fort; I had this in the bag.
That's when I heard the cannon go off, thank god for my peripheral vision. Time slowed as I decelerated as fast as I could, I then rolled up and to the left inverted after gaining some altitude. I then turned myself upright after dodging the chain shot. I quickly thought of the name, the inverted corkscrew for the maneuver I had just performed.
Then a second cannon shot echoed through the air and it felt as If I had been pin pricked dozens of times on my right wing.
I knew there was foul play involving this. Then Rahat raced by me, I tried to accelerate but my right wing was still in extreme pain and it`s movements seemed sluggish. I was bleeding severely in multiple places.
"Sh%*." I snarled.
I knew I was probably going to crash or land with wounds this bad…after I won the race.
I gave it all I had left; my wings were sore, my heart pounding, sweat soaked every inch of my feathers, my mouth felt like cotton and my lungs felt nonexistent.
Somehow though, I began to gain ground as the finish line rapidly came into view. I sporadically began to lose altitude. But soon I was neck and neck with Rahat. Everyone one was in front of the bar. Mr. Reynosa grinned when he saw that:
I was leaving a steady trail of blood in my flight path
Rahat was slowly pulling ahead
Then with one last stroke of my wings I flung myself ahead of Rahat and rolled across the finish line, winning the race.
Tara and Roger rushed to my side armed with gauze and water.
"What happened to your wing?" Roger asked me.
'The fort….trap…fired an old grapeshot." I panted in between gulps of water.
Roger walked over to Mr. Reynosa with a scowl on his beak.
"You could of killed him you pompous son of a-"Roger shouted punching the noble bird square in the beak, knocking him out cold.
Everyone was shocked.
"Come on you two, you're staying with me tonight." Roger said to Tara and me.
Blu prepared to continue when Jewel suddenly got up in his beak and asked:
"Wanna go surfing?"