Chapter Nine: Long Distance Relationships
Blu and Jewel were flying off for what seemed like hours. They heard Eduardo scream Jewel's name to come back until they traveled too far away to hear his cries. Jewel was having trouble keeping up with Blu now, and Blu took notice of it and started to worry. "Is everything alright, Jewel?" Blu asked as they continued flying.
"Just, just…" Jewel started to say, but fainted in midair.
"JEWEL!" Blu shouted as he dove for her. He caught her and started flying himself. He saw a hollow and bolted towards it. He carefully laid Jewel down. "Jewel, please wake up." Blu said, shaking her. She moaned a few times, but her eyes never opened. It was nearly pitch black out, and you could barely see anything since the clouds just rolled in, starting a rainy night
"What are you doing!?" a strange voice said.
Blu jumped. "I'm sorry for intruding on your home, sir. My wife fainted in the air and I didn't know what to do. I'm sorry, I'll leave." Blu said as he started to pick Jewel up.
"What's going on?" another voice said.
"Oh, nothing honey." the male said.
"Wait, who are these two?" the woman asked. She could barely make out the figures.
"I'm sorry ma'am, my wife fainted in the air and I caught her and brought her here. I didn't know you lived here. I'm leaving, and I am sorry once again."
"John, let them stay. It's raining outside." the female said.
"Fine. Only until she's better." He said, pointing towards Jewel.
"Oh my gosh. Thank you, thank you so much. How could I repay you?" Blu said, putting Jewel back down.
"Don't worry about it." The female said.
"I'm sorry, but I didn't get your names." Blu said.
"Oh, where are our manners, John? I'm Mary, and this is Jonathan, but you can call him, well, John." Mary stated.
"I'm Blu and this is my mate, Jewel, though she is unconscious for a reason I do not know." Blu said as he laid Jewel down close by the hollow entrance. "Again, I do not know how to repay you two."
"Again, don't worry about it. I'm glad we could help." Mary said. John snorted and started heading deeper into the hollow. "Mind him, he's not use to company." Mary said. She took a step towards Jewel. Blu sat down, and he sounded exhausted. She barely made out Jewel's appearance in the darkness in their hollow. "She's a beautiful young lady Blu. She is sure lucky to have you." Mary said.
"Yeah, I guess. I wish her father understood that." Blu said.
"So you married her without his blessing?" Mary asked. I thought he might have had more dignity seeing how well he's acting. She thought.
"It wasn't like that. When Jewel and I met, we were the supposedly only two surviving birds of our kind. Humans brought us together and I fell in love with her and she fell in love with me after we had a crazy adventure together with smugglers and airplanes." Blu said as he chuckled. "We married and as we did so, some other birds of our kind show up and try to take us as their own, separating us. We fled to the amazon to hide from them so they couldn't hurt any of our friends or us. The problem was that once we arrived, we met a blue macaw tribe, lead by her father." Blu said.
"Where!?" Mary asked, eager to know.
"Uh, I think just south of here. It's a few hours flight." Blu said.
"Ah. So why did you two leave?" Mary asked.
"The reason we left was because I was imprisoned for something that wasn't my fault and her father didn't like me and insisted that I was locked up anyway." Blu said.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Mary said.
"It's not your fault. You have helped us too much already for you to apologize." Blu said.
"Continue." Mary said.
"Her father wanted another macaw to marry her. I was taken for a 'training' session with her father, and that got me locked up. I don't know what happened with Jewel that day, but I do know that Jewel found me in the hollow cage thing and we escaped. We fled to here, where you guys helped us. Please tell me if I could do anything for you guys for helping me and Jewel." Blu said. Mary felt sorry for these birds.
"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad we found you guys before anyone else did." Mary said. "Now get some rest, it sounds like you've had a long week." She said as she started walking off to her room with John. She lied down.
"I don't like those birds, Mary." John said, startling Mary a little.
"John, I got to know them a little better and it sounds like they've had a long week with a lot of problems in it. Just give them part of the hollow for a few nights." Mary said.
"Really? What kind of problems?" John asked as he snorted.
"They've both been running from other birds that want to ruin their relationship." Mary said.
"Sounds rough. Oh, fine. They can stay here for a little while." John said, feeling guilt.
"Thanks, John." Mary said as she kissed him. "One more thing."
"Hmm?" John said as he started to doze off.
"They are a couple of blue spix macaws. We found others, John." Mary said, shaking John a little to help contain her excitement.
John turned around. "Well, maybe our luck has finally turned around." John said as he fell asleep.
Later that night a few hours after the rain ceased, Blu flew back into the hollow with the fifth load of food. He had brought the two birds that helped them some food as a token of his gratitude. He had managed to bring ten mangos and a number of brazil nuts. He tried to eat a nut, seeing as he had training from Eduardo that day, and managed to bite into it and eat it. He didn't really like it, but he wanted the mangos to be for tomorrow when he really needed them. He lied down next to Jewel and wrapped his wings around her. She unconsciously felt this and snuggled her head into his chest. "Goodnight, Jewel." Blu said, giving her a kiss on her head and fell asleep soon after.
The following day, Jewel started to wake up. What-What happened? She thought. She couldn't recall anything after them flying away from her father a few miles, then it hit her. She had fainted in mid flight. She looked up and saw Blu and his wings wrapped around her. My hero. She thought. Why couldn't my father understand why I chose him? She started to get up, but she noticed they were not alone.
"Morning darling." Mary said.
"Who are you!?" Jewel barked.
"Calm down, now. Your mate brought you here last night so you could get better. This is my hollow." Mary said.
Jewel felt guilty she lashed out. "I'm sorry, I-I didn't know." She said. Blu woke up from that incident a few moments later.
"What's going on?" He asked, yawning.
"Nothing dear. Is this food for us?" Mary asked, pointing towards the food.
"Yep. I couldn't thank you enough, so take what you want." Blu said, yawning again. Jewel felt her stomach growl. "And you can have some, too." Blu said, giving Jewel a kiss.
"Where would I be without you?" Jewel asked. She got out of Blu's embrace and walked over to the mango stash. "Want one, Blu?" Jewel asked.
"Yeah, I'll take one." Blu said. Jewel rolled a mango his way, and the three started to eat. As Blu finished his mango, he saw that Jewel was on her second already. Mary was surprised too.
"Man, I'm stuffed." Jewel said as she threw the pit out of the hollow.
"Are you okay? It looks like you haven't eaten in ages, dear." Mary said.
"No it's fine. I'm just pregnant and…"
"What was that Jewel?" Blu asked.
"I'm, wait, I haven't said anything yet?" Jewel asked.
"No. Are you saying, we're going to be…" Blu couldn't finish his sentence as Jewel nodded. Blu got up, picked Jewel up and spun around. "Ha ha! We're going to be parents!" Blu said as he put Jewel down. "How do you know?"
"Well, I ate a ton of brazil nuts yesterday, and Mimi diagnosed it. I fell behind last night because of this." Jewel said.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Blu asked.
"Well, we weren't in the best situation."
"I know, but I could have carried you, you know that, right?" Blu said, taking her wing into his.
"Yeah, of course I do." Jewel said as she nuzzled beaks with Blu. John came into the room.
"What's all the noise?" John asked.
"Here, sweetie. Have a mango." Mary said.
"Thanks, dear." He said.
"Don't thank me, thank Blu, here." Mary said, pointing towards Blu.
John froze. He looks, familiar. He thought. "Thanks, Blu." He said.
Author's Note: He froze up because he couldn't see his appearance last night due to the rainstorm.
"No, thanks for letting me and my wife stay here." Blu said.
John bit into his deliciously ripe mango. "Mmmmm. So what was the noise about?" John asked.
"Jewel's pregnant and Blu just found out." Mary said to sum things up.
"Oh, wow! Congratulations, you two." John said as he took another bite into his mango.
"Yeah, I've got to look for a hollow around here so we could raise the chicks." Blu said. "It's nice to know not all blue spix macaws are crazy on ruining our relationship." Blu said, wrapping a wing around Jewel.
"So I heard." John said. "You look familiar, Blu." John said.
"Oh, well, I don't think I've ever been around here before. I hope you find your mystery bird." Blu said.
"Something about you…" John mumbled to himself.
"Well, Jewel and I are going to look around for a hollow so we aren't a burden to you two." Blu said.
"Alright, just come by and tell us where you are!" Mary said as she waved goodbye at the two.
"Well, they're nice." Jewel said as they flew off in search of a hollow that was hopefully close by to Mary and John's.
"Mary, I think I know the Blu fella." John said.
"How so?"
"Maybe a colleague, or something else." John said.
"I don't remember you ever introducing me to someone like that. Besides, he looked like he was around sixteen or seventeen years of age. You, my mate, are a little older than that." Mary said, teasingly.
"Ha ha. Something about that guy is going to keep nagging at my mind all day. He..." John stopped. A huge realization came to him.
"What is it John?" Mary asked.
"S-Samuel?" John said. Mary realized what he had said. Their presumably dead son that disappeared seventeen years ago just spent the last few hours with them, and they didn't even know it.
Author's Note: Hey ya'll! I have been extremely busy as you can probably see since I haven't posted in over a month. Merry Christmas, by the way!. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this story, and the title, "Long Distance Relationships" was meant to be a joke where 'long distance' represents the time that passed since Blu and his family have been together. I know it may not make sense, but I hope the chapter was good. It's good to be back and my Rio: A New Bond story is coming next. So, I hope to see you all read my stories and leave reviews. I can't thank you all enough for the support. :D