Chapter 3- the problem with the toucan chicks

Sounds of dog and cat whimpers emanated from a hole in the ground as Broccoli, Daisy, Pelusa, Ebony, James and Nevado groaned from the pain and dizziness caused by the impact of the fall.

"Oooh, what a fall."

"Is everybody alright?"

"Oooow, I've landed right on my shoulder!"

In the pit, the six four-footed mammals sorted themselves out. James was grasping his right shoulder with his left front paw, his face twisted in agony while Broccoli rubbed his back, a weary look on his face. Daisy helped Nevado and Pelusa to their feet while Ebony shot suspicious looks at the pit's walls.

"Trust you to talk about pitfalls, Daisy," muttered Pelusa as she struggled to her feet with the caliby's help.

"We've just fallen right into one," added Nevado, "Honestly; you're like a black cat."

"Hey, don't blame me!" snapped Daisy, "I had anything to do with this!"

"And besides that," added Broccoli, "The idea of black cats being bringers of bad luck is nothing but silly stuff."

Then he and Daisy began to examine the pit as Ebony reached a conclusion.

"Looks like this pit has definitely been purposely dug and then subsequently covered with dirt to conceal it so that an unsuspecting victim would fall right into it," said the black greyhound indignantly, "There's no way this was done by accident."

"Maybe some silly humans have dug this hole?" asked Pelusa. At this, Nevado shook his head in disagreement.

"No, check the depth of the pit, Pelusa," he said, which Pelusa did, "It's too shallow for it to have been dug by humans."

Pelusa continued to examine the depth of the pit from its top to the bottom and saw that Nevado was right. The pit looked as though it had been dug by a group of smaller creatures and based on its depth that rose above even James and Ebony's heads; it appeared that not just one culprit, but a group of them had done this. James continued to grasp his shoulder, his teeth gritted.

"I think this stupid pit has been dug and then covered as part of a prank," he hissed angrily through his teeth.

"Well if that is so, then this prank is borderline malicious," growled Broccoli, "Not even Tiago and Matilda would do such a thing as this for they know how injurious a pitfall trap prank would be to anyone who falls into one."

"Especially birds which could lead to a broken wing or foot if the pit is dug deep enough," added Ebony.

"Who is responsible for this ROTTEN THING!?" snarled Daisy fiercely, her white and ginger, black and brown mottled fur bristling. After that sentence let her mouth, mischievous laughter reached the cats and dogs' ears and as the six looked up; sixteen black feathered heads with large beaks appeared and peered into the pit, laughter escaping their beaks. All sixteen heads had large beaks, many of which were orange with a black tip but three of them were lime green with a magenta tip, like Eva's beak. Above the beaks were sixteen pairs of eyes, all flooded with mischief. The laughter from the beaks of these birds, along with their mischievous eyes and the way they gazed at the cats and dogs struggling in the pit made Broccoli and the other five arrive at only one conclusion: this group of sixteen birds, which were toucan chicks, were the culprits responsible for the pitfall prank. The moment realisation came upon them; Broccoli shot the sixteen chicks a furious glare and began to scramble out of the pit. The toucan chicks backed away as Broccoli emerged from the pit, childish laughs still escaping their beaks.

As he reached the top and clambered onto the ground with Daisy, Nevado, Pelusa, Ebony and James shortly following, the latter who was helped by Ebony and Nevado due to his hurt shoulder, Broccoli shot the group of laughing toucan chicks an outraged glare.

"That was NOT FUNNY!" he bellowed, "We could have got SERIOUSLY HURT!"

"In fact, I believe that prank of yours might have caused James a shoulder injury here," shouted Pelusa. However, the sixteen toucan chicks continued laughing as James continued clutching his shoulder, his face twisted in pain. Then Daisy stepped forward, a look of outrage lacing her face. "You lot SERIOUSLY need some DISCIPLINE!" she snarled.

"Yeah, dangerous pranks that could cause injury to the victim, such as pitfall traps," put in Ebony, "Are NOT SOMETHING to LAUGH ABOUT."

The sixteen toucan chicks, however, continued laughing despite Ebony's statement, much to the annoyance of the six mammals.

"I think those baby toucans have an attitude problem," muttered Nevado.

"More like a twisted sense of humour," said James, his paw firmly clutching his right shoulder. Then one of the toucan chicks stepped forward and called out to the bushes nearby.

"NOOOOOWWW!" it called. At this, Broccoli, Daisy, Ebony, Nevado, Pelusa and James shot the toucan chicks a perplexed glare but before the six knew it, the bushes rustled. The three cats, two greyhounds and Shih Tzu's gazes darted to the shaking leaves. Then out of the leaves emerged several dozen more toucan chicks.

"Oh, tunas and herrings," hissed Broccoli as dread came over him. The toucan chicks' faces were laced with utter mischief and in their wings were berries, tubes and slingshots. Based on their appearance, these slingshots appeared manmade. Daisy immediately knew what these chicks were about to do.

"RUN FOR IT!" she screeched. No sooner than these three words had exploded from the mouth when suddenly, the air was shattered by toucan screams followed by colourful comets flying from the toucan chicks as berries and pieces of fruit began to fly from their wings or slingshots and surge like missiles towards Broccoli's group, the first sixteen chicks joining in the chaos. Along with the fruity missiles, seed bullets flew from the chicks armed with tubes. The berries and fruit pieces splattered all over the three cats and three dogs while seeds bounced off them. Overcome with panic, the group began to make a break for it, the group of mischievous toucan chicks following and pelting them with more fruit and seeds. James was forced to limp along with Nevado and Ebony's for his injured shoulder hindered his ability to run properly. The cats and dogs' eyes were screwed shut to protect them from the incoming bullets and missiles flying from then toucan chicks. One of the berries flew at Nevado's face and splattered into his screwed shut left eye while James and Ebony were constantly battered by more fruit and seeds while Broccoli and Daisy were pelted in the face by flying seeds.

"This is HONESTLY getting beyond a JOKE!" screeched Broccoli as he protected his face with his front paws from the bullets.

"STOP IT AT ONCE, you BUNCH OF MENACES!" shouted Daisy, hoping that her rebuke would make the toucan chicks stop. However, to her dismay, it fell on deaf ears. The gang of toucan chicks continued throwing, shooting and firing their ammo of fruit and seeds at the cats and dogs with their wings, slingshots and their peashooter sticks, laughing mischievously all the time as their ammo bounced off or splattered all over their six victims, and Nevado got a peach square in the face, some of the flesh entering his mouth. At this, he shook his head, sending bits of peach flying everywhere, and spat out the rest of the peach from his mouth, spluttering repulsively for he hated the taste of peach. Another fruit, a guava, flew at James and struck him in the face.

"Let's get OUTA HERE," screeched Broccoli and with that, the group of six quadrupedal mammals sped up their hasty retreat. The toucans kept throwing fruit, shooting seeds and firing more fruit at the tabby cat, the caliby cat, the Persian cat, the Shih Tzu and the two greyhounds until they were out of the jungle. Tittering mischievously, the little flock took off into the forest with their peashooters, slingshots and remaining ammo of fruit and seeds to search for someone else to target.

Later

Broccoli, Daisy, Pelusa, Ebony and Nevado stood close to the fence enclosing Susan, her husband Bernardo and sister Lucy's garden while James was under the care of his aged parents Dash and Ginger and sister Avellana who had come to visit. Dash and Ginger were well on in their years, the light grey fur of Dash and the ginger coloured fur of Ginger strewn with silver hairs due to their age. They were not as energetic as they once were when they were younger and their time of having more puppies was long gone. However they were still as lively as they had been in their younger years, if less energetic. James lie on his left side in a large dog basket, an ice pack applied to his shoulder by Avellana while Dash and Ginger examined him for any more injuries. Broccoli and Daisy gazed at the greyhound worriedly while Pelusa, Nevado and Ebony stood back by the gate, equally worried looks fixated on James. The group had managed to wash the fruity mess from their fur and were now clean again and had told Dash and Ginger everything, such as the pitfall trap dug by the toucan chicks and the subsequent pelting of fruit and seeds by those same naughty chicks. Then moments later, Dash walked over to the five.

"Is he alright, Dash?" asked Broccoli. The other four looked on hopefully. To their relief, Dash wore a small smile.

"His shoulder is not too seriously injured, just a bruise," he said, but then his face fell and became serious. "But it could have been much worse."

"Sounds like an emergency trip to the vet's has been averted," said Nevado as the others breathed sighs of relief.

"Not to mention the effect it would have on our club," added Pelusa.

"Or the reaction of our owners, especially James's owners," put in Daisy. Then Ginger walked in, a frown on her face.

"Those pesky chicks honestly have a behaviour problem," she muttered, "According to Kipo, our rosette spoonbill friend; the problem with those toucan chicks has just gotten worse over time."

"Someone ought to knock some sense into their negligent parents' heads and get them to discipline their kids right now," hissed Broccoli, "But as far as we know, they seemed to have done nothing about it, regardless of the amount of complaints they keep receiving from the other residents."

"The behaviour of their offspring has honestly spiralled right out of control as a result," Daisy muttered.

"And because of that, most of the Blu Bird Sanctuary is riddled with gangs of those pesky toucan chicks and adolescents, most of them descendants of many of Rafael and Eva's many, many offspring," muttered Dash, "Honestly, they're causing the other residents a lot of trouble."

Ginger, Broccoli, Daisy, Pelusa, Nevado and Ebony nodded in agreement and went over to James. Just then a family of large navy blue birds appeared. Six were adults while another was a pre-adolescent chick and the eighth an even younger chick. One of the adult males wore a leaf bandana over his left eye while another adult male wore a fruit shell cap, and one of the females had unusually violet feathers with a three-symmetry crest like an iris flower.

"James, are you okay?" asked one of the adults, named Neptune when he saw James lie in the bed with an ice pack on his shoulder.

"We heard what happened a while ago," said Ultramarine. The other hyacinth macaws, Triton, his girlfriend Iris, sisters Indigo and Violet and brother-in-law and Indigo's mate, Victor, touched down, the young chick who was Victor and Indigo's daughter named Gertie, riding on her father's back.

Triton, Indigo and Victor had grown much larger over the past three years and were now the size of a fully grown hyacinth macaw while Violet was still fairly short but taller than Carla, Bia and Tiago and their other smaller friends. Triton wore his leaf bandana over the left side of his face, concealing his damaged left eye and most of his scarred face while Victor wore his trademark fruit-shell cap. Victor and Indigo's chick, Gertie was like a spitting image of his mother. Like all hyacinth macaws she had navy blue feathers, dark grey talons and beak and yellow eye rings and a beak lappet. She had inherited Indigo's slender build and feather ruffle but she had Victor's brown eyes. She did not have any purple tint to her feathers unlike her mother. Iris was a pretty female hyacinth macaw who was just Victor, Indigo and Triton's age. She, too, had yellow eye rings and a beak lappet as well as near-black beak and talons but she had some rather unique and unusual traits. Unlike most hyacinth macaws who were navy blue or sometimes a lighter blue, Iris's plumage was violet. Her eyes were green and her crest was as unusual as her plumage colour. The crest was three sets of head feathers arranged like the petals of an iris flower. One of them protruded forward over Iris's forehead while the other two streaked backward. It was this bizarre feather arrangement and her plumage colour that led Broccoli and Daisy, along with Inky the King Charles spaniel dog, to name her after the iris flower. Iris also bore two scars across her chest, similar to Victor whose scars were still visible in the navy blue plumage of his front, a souvenir he had received from the Great Battle three years ago when one of the flying foxes had slashed him across the torso, much like Triton's facial scars and damaged left eye.

Iris had once belonged to another owner and was used as some sort of item to attract tourists and their money. However, she had been kept in a cramped cage, was underfed and was mistreated by her owners. She had been rescued by Broccoli, Daisy and Inky when they saw this poor hyacinth macaw who then nursed her back to health. Then she met Triton and his family and became friends with the former and eventually his girlfriend. It was possible that Iris had been captured from the wild as a young chick and sold through the pet trade but she did not want to talk about her past for she found it too painful to discuss. As the eight hyacinth macaws looked on, James carefully rose to his feet.

"Careful, bro," said Avellana, "You'd aggravate your shoulder."

"It's fine, Avellana," said James but Avellana was still unsure. Then James walked over to the hyacinth macaws, limping slightly because of his bruised shoulder and the dull pain it kept emitting. He kept the ice pack over the area of injury.

"I'm fine, just a bruise," said James, "Thanks for your concern."

He then removed the ice back and showed the hyacinth macaws the bruising. The area that took the brunt of the impact was marked by a large blue-black bloom and that bloom was emitting the dull ache.

"I actually thought he had suffered a broken bone from the fall," said Ebony before her face formed a frown. "Honestly, those toucan chicks were a bunch of outright menaces."

"I know," said Indigo with an agreeing frown, a glance at her daughter Gertie as she left her mother's side to examine a flower in the lawn, "There are dozens and dozens of those rambunctious brats scattered throughout the sanctuary."

"So often up to no good," said Victor, "One group seriously picked on our daughter Gertie once and greatly upset her. We had to move to somewhere else away from the place where that gang of toucan chicks lived."

"And to make things worse, their parents didn't seem bothered about their offspring's behaviour," put in Ultramarine. Then Indigo's eyes travelled to Gertie as she gazed at the flower, a daisy, in fascination. Nevado's eyes then travelled to her.

"If Gertie were ever that naughty," said Indigo, "I'd seriously cuff her."

"We would do the same if we had our own chicks," put in Iris. Her gaze then drifted off into a dream-like state, much to Triton's amused smile. Then his single-eyed gaze returned to James.

"But at least you're alright," he said, "That's the main thing."

James smiled and gazed at the bruise on his shoulder.

"So, why are you here?" asked Daisy. Not too far away from Indigo and Victor, Gertie continued examining the daisy and its floral pattern, unaware that Nevado had entered stalking mode.

"We've come to bring good news," said Neptune, and at this, Dash, Ginger, James, Avellana, Broccoli, Daisy, Ebony and Pelusa cocked their ears to hear it. "Blu and company are going to visit here, bringing their new grandkids with them."

"Carla, Bia and Tiago and their respective mates Justin, Virgil and Matilda have had chicks, as had many of the other couples in their circle of friends including Sebastian and Stella," said Ultramarine, "Who have had pups. They are going to bring those kids over to Rio to visit us."

"Oh, that's excellent news!" cried Ginger elated.

"We look forward to seeing their new offspring," said Broccoli.

"So will we," said Neptune until his face fell. "Too bad we've missed out on witnessing many of those kids' births but… we felt we wanted a change of scene so we returned to here."

"And to get Triton away from that bratty ex Penelope because of the scarring on the left side of his face," put in Ultramarine and with that she gazed at Triton who nodded with a sad face.

"We heard he lost an eye during that war with that bunch of savage flying foxes in the Amazon," said Broccoli.

"Actually, I've lost sight in my left eye," said Triton and with that, he reached up to his leafy bandana and lifted it up to show Broccoli the damage he had received from the war three years ago. Broccoli and Daisy, Dash, Ginger, Ebony, Pelusa, James and Avellana gazed at the three thin streaks of scar tissue running up the entire height of Triton's left face like tiger stripes. Those tiger stripes ran over his left eye which was misty and faded. The cats and dogs gazed at the scars and eye before Triton readjusted his bandana over his left eye again. Then Victor stepped forward and showed the cats and dogs the scars on his front.

"I got this from protecting Indigo from one of the savage bats during the fight," he said.

"Wowee," murmured Broccoli in horrified awe.

"My two scars were inflicted on me by my cruel owners," said Iris, a wing pointing to the two streaks on her chest, "How they got there I won't discuss it."

Then Triton spoke up and pointed to his damaged left face side.

"This was what made Penelope break up with me and then mock me with her friends and new boyfriend," said Triton, "She kept calling me 'Scarface' and 'Cicatriz-bird' and all that."

"Cicatriz?" repeated Broccoli in confusion.

"That's the name of the deranged flying fox patriarch that led the colony in the Amazon rainforest," explained Ultramarine, "He attempted to take over our homes with his colony but failed. He had been blind in his right eye, caused by fighting with a bird when he was younger."

"Because of how evil he had been," added Victor, "That name had gained infamy over the past three years, along with 'Iracebeth', which had been the name of that bat's mate."

"She was equally as evil as his mate," squeaked Violet. Dash was about to comment when suddenly, Pelusa saw past Indigo and Victor and glared at a certain cat stalking a certain chick. At this, alarm tore through her.

"Nevado, you leave that hyacinth macaw chick ALONE THIS MINUTE!" she barked. Neptune, Ultramarine, Indigo, Triton, Victor, Iris and Violet, and Dash, Ginger, Broccoli, Daisy, Avellana and James turned and saw a white Persian cat duck, his eyes fixed on a hyacinth macaw chick as she continued fiddling with the daisy in the grass. Alarmed, the group, especially Indigo and Victor, surged towards Nevado and seized Gertie before the cat could pounce on her. Nevado, taken by surprise, shot a group of hyacinth macaws a surprised gaze until Broccoli, James, Pelusa, Ebony and Daisy came up to him to talk to him. While they did that, Dash said to Neptune and his family, "I suggest you lot leave while he's around."

"Sorry to cut your visit short but Nevado there has a thing with birds like most cats," added Ginger.

"Thanks for visiting us though," said Avellana, "And we look forwards to seeing Blu and company when they arrive here."

Neptune, Ultramarine, Indigo, Triton, Victor who held Gertie, Iris and Violet all nodded and with that, the hyacinth macaws all opened their wings and lofted into flight to return to the jungle.

"And I hope James recovers from his bruise as well," said Ultramarine as she left.

"And I also hope you don't run into too much trouble with those troublesome toucan chicks and gangs," added Ginger. The hyacinth macaws nodded and soon, they were out of earshot. Avellana smiled.

"We certainly will be meeting some new additions to Blu and company's families," she said. Dash and Ginger then turned to James, Broccoli, Pelusa, Ebony and Daisy as they continued talking with Nevado about birds. Nevado kept protesting and shrugging his shoulders.

"That is why James has strictly forbidden his club to all birds," said Avellana, "A lot of the feline attendees to his club, such as Nevado, have a tendency to try and catch birds."

"He doesn't often mix with birds, I can tell you," said Dash. Then a minute later, James and company gathered around the three greyhounds.

"Ultramarine wishes you well," said Dash.

"Oh, does she? Thank you," said James. He then felt hope bubble within him. "Am I free to leave?"

"Yes, but stay well away from the jungle for one," said Ginger firmly, "And also any of those toucan chick and adolescent gangs for another."

"We don't want anyone else getting hurt," said Dash. Broccoli, James, Pelusa, Ebony, Nevado and Daisy nodded in agreement and left for the gate to return to James's club.

"We'll have to make sure that Lightning, Cometa, Travis, Sunset and their kids and grandkids are aware of those rambunctious toucan gangs as well," said Dash as he left for Susan and Lucy's house.

"Same with Blu and company when they arrive," said Ginger as she followed, "They are going to have to be careful with their kids whenever those toucan gangs are around."

Avellana gazed at the trees across the cityscape of Rio, dread in her eyes about the potential consequences the toucan chick gangs might entail on the chicks if any of them were to mix with them, or worse. Pushing away these thoughts, she turned and followed her parents into the house.