"Azalea!" Felipe called, for the eighth time. She ignored him, flying as fast as possible, but he was fast enough to stay close. "Stop!" Azalea, with great reluctance, slowed down to land on a branch. Her head hung, almost in shame, as Felipe lighted down too. Her beak shook but didn't open to form words. "Azalea..."
"Please don't." She murmured, but Felipe sat down anyway.
"How long?" Felipe asked, in a voice that wasn't to be argued with. Azalea hesitated. Terrifying thoughts spun round her head, as she worried about what that group would do to her, if they found out she could spoil their fun. She wasn't the only victim, but she was their favourite. "How long has this been going on? Tell me." Felipe asked again. It took almost a minute for her to answer.
"...a few months." She managed, wings hugging her own body, as though to protect herself from their horrible words and attempted clawings nobody knew about. Felipe noticed the scab on her face Heliconia had referenced, where it interrupted the unmarked white skin. He turned her head slightly, so he could see it better, but she shook him off.
"They did that?" He asked, appalled. Azalea turned her face away.
"Sapa did that. I said something out of line, and... she lost it. Luckily Rojo started yelling before she could do anything worse." Suddenly Felipe's former dislike towards her faded. All he saw was someone who was scared and on her own, with no one to turn to.
"Why do they do it? Why haven't you told anyone?" Felipe asked, trying to put as much kindness into his voice as he could, to show Azalea that she could trust and talk to him, despite their strained relationship. Azalea made a tight grimace, eyes glassy.
"I guess I didn't help myself when I was little, always miserable and sticking to Adelaide like glue. Plus with my mom and... my father... they had a lot to tease me about. And I couldn't tell mom. I don't feel... I don't..."
"You don't feel close enough to her?" Juliana and Azalea weren't as close as a mother and child should be, as the bullies had pointed out; Azalea had been ignored for the first few weeks of her life with Juliana in misery, during the key bonding time between mother and hatchling. Azalea still had a little resent there, angry that Juliana hadn't put her over her grief.
"Yeah. I don't think she'd understand. Plus there's never been a right time. Most of my life, she's been missing that waste of space... after that, stuck in her grief for Nita. I don't feel as though I can talk to her." Felipe thought about his own relationship with Rojo. He couldn't confide in someone who was supposed to love and support him. He hadn't helped that, but still.
"But why didn't you tell Adelaide?" Azalea looked embarrassed and ashamed, her skin flushing pink; her eyes flooded with fear at the thought of what could happen.
"I'm afraid of what they'll do to me if I tell somebody. You know what they're like. They're the sort that'll come after you if you tell on them."
"I'll make sure that doesn't happen..." Felipe felt a sickening dread at the thought of Azalea being on the receiving end of their cruelness - and he'd heard some of things they'd said. He wondered why he felt protective of Azalea, when they had never seen eye to eye. "I know you don't like me much, but -"
"I don't hate you." Azalea sighed with closed eyes. "Honestly, I don't." Felipe blinked in surpise, a frown creasing his brow. She wasn't lying; he saw it in her eyes.
"Then... why do you make it hard for me to talk to you? Why are you so..."
"It's just..." Azalea hesitated before speaking. "To start off with, I was so moody I was already horrible to you. But as I got over it, you started dating Adelaide." Felipe blinked. "Adelaide's all I have. I suppose I was worried that she'd forget about me when she started going out with you. That I'd lose my only friend. I know how childish that sounds..." Felipe was so surprised, it took a long time for him to think of an answer. That was what she was afraid of?
"Oh, Azalea... that wouldn't happen. Adelaide's always saying how she loves you like a sister, she'd never put me over you."
"... and it's Rojo."
"Huh? What's he got to do with this?"
"I... don't laugh. I suppose I'm jealous. You have a father." Felipe went to protest that he didn't really, but Azalea spoke before he had the chance. "I know, he can be... horrible. But you had the choice, of how things would be. I didn't." Azalea's hard, emotionless shell was falling away to reveal the soft, emotional pool within. Her heart slowly moved onto her wing.
"Talk to me, Azalea." Felipe saw now that Azalea needed to talk about it; she'd bottled up her feelings all her life, and she'd been winding up for a long time. She shook slightly with this long-contained anger, and finally, she unclenched her talons. Somehow she felt comfortable, telling the bird who'd she'd felt threatened by until now.
"My first memory... is my father storming round the hollow, stamping like a chick, shouting at my mother. I was so little, but I remember." Felipe thought that sounded familiar; one of his earliest memories was Juanita rushing into the hollow while he was still crawling around his nest. She'd been frantic, telling Perlina: "They'll kill each other!" That was all he really remembered, but then he thought he'd seen a male that resembled a Green-Winged - Azalea was part Green-Winged, afterall - storming across the kapoks, disappearing into the trees.
"They were circling each other, having it out. He was screaming at my mom, blaming her for having me, although it's obviously his fault too, which she screamed back. It's all your fault, he said. He was telling her he didn't sign up for a kid, how they had just gotten together, all that..."
"He told her he didn't love her, that he'd find someone... better. It was horrible, and they started fighting there and then, rolling about the hollow, almost onto me; I swear, he seemed to be trying to do just that, to crush me. So then she screamed at him to leave, and... do you know what he said, right before he left, to put more salt in the wound? He said she should've thrown my egg out of the tree before I hatched."
"That's..." Felipe was lost for words. He imagined such a traumatizing scenario, so young and innocent, brought into a world of resent and violence. No wonder Azalea had grown up so bitter and hostile; she didn't want to get hurt. "...that's horrible. I didn't know it was that bad. I just thought he left quickly and... not so explosively."
Azalea kept back her tears. "He didn't want me, but do you know what hurts most? My own mother didn't want me either. She blamed me for him leaving. She told Nita to get me out of her sight, the moment he left. She ignored me, came to see Juanita, and she'd just walk right be me. She'd coo over Adelaide, but ignore me. She snapped out of it, and she was sorry, but... I don't know if I can forgive her."
"Nobody wanted me, Felipe. So as I got older, I kept thinking... neither did anyone else. I still think it now. They... Heliconia and her pathetic gang... they've drummed that into my head too. I grew up miserable, thinking about my father and my mother, feeling so self-conscious and just like a - a nobody."
"That's not true, Azalea." Felipe was stunned by this revelation, but he somehow found words. "You're not a nobody. You're not unwanted, either. Adelaide loves you, and Juanita adored you. I remember when you and Adelaide came out of the hollow for the first time, she was so loving and attentive to you. When you're not around, everyone say how they want to talk to you, but they can't, because you won't let them." Azalea's brow furrowed as she contemplated this. Now she thought about it... she didn't feel so angry about her father, or Juliana, anymore. Not now she'd told somebody. She looked back on her misery, and wondered why she'd been so cold.
"...I suppose." She said, in a soft voice. She looked at him. "Thank you. And... I'm sorry for being so cold to you, since... well, all the time."
"Come on. We're going to go back, and I'm going to tell each of their parents what they've done to you. And from what I've heard, a lot of them don't take too kindly to this sort of behaviour."
"But what if they come find me?" Azalea asked, shuddering at the thought.
"I'll - we'll protect you." Felipe extended his wing to help her up. "Friends?" Azalea looked at his wing, considering - this time, she took it.
"Friends." She said, almost cautiously. Only the second one she'd ever made.
Meanwhile
"The dolphins don't talk. They won't tell my parents, and besides, they wouldn't stir things." Jewel said, when Adelaide worried. They'd been flying over the river, when the river dolphins had started leaping along with them. Eduardo and Tia loved flying alongside them - they had a silent bond, since they couldn't understand the high-pitched sqeauks and clicks made by the dolphins. So they'd never know Jewel and Adelaide had been flying together.
"If you're sure." Adelaide shook off the worry, before kicking the surface of the water, showering Jewel in droplets. She gave Jewel a look of innocence.
"Oh really?" Jewel smirked.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Adelaide released a high-pitched sqeaul when Jewel slapped the river surface and sprayed her with water, and they began kicking tidal waves toward one another, shrieking in laughter, blissfully unaware of the shadow growing over them. But then Jewel caught sight of her reflection, and the looming grey face above.
With a screech, Jewel pulled Adelaide out of the way; a huge set of talons plunged into the river where Adelaide had been, and for a brief moment, Adelaide let this sink in, that Jewel had just saved her - but then the talons lashed forwards, bringing her to reality. Adelaide sprang clear, and began screaming at Jewel to flee.
I used to play hide-and-seek with them! This time, Roberto wasn't the one chasing her, simply pretending to be the bloodthirsty predator. This was a real Harpy eagle, twice the size of a Hyacinth, with hellish yellow eyes and ragged feathers the colour of slate. It's crest rose like a mountain on its head, risen by the excitement of the hunt. It's beak was like a fish hook, curved and glinting in the sun, and from this beak, an ear-splitting screech tore the air apart. Genuine bloodlust shone in its gaze.
Jewel and Adelaide raced into the trees, but to their horror, the eagle followed, screeching, lashing it's talons. Jewel felt the air whoosh past her tail feathers as the eagle tried to swipe her from the air. "This way! Follow me!" Adelaide raced through some vines, and Jewel followed; for a moment, the eagle crashed against the vines, unable to get through - momentarily, they slowed, thinking it couldn't get through.
Hiss. Jewel whirled round. A brown vine was hissing, coiled on a branch before them. Jewel's heart leapt into her throat as she realized it was a snake. Dappled black and brown with huge black eyes, it was slithering towards the edge of the branch, closer. "Let's get out of here!" She shrieked, veering left - but then she realized she was the only one moving. "Adelaide! What are you doing?!" Adelaide was frozen in shock, staring at the snake. Fangs, piercing into Juanita's chest.
The eagle was fighting through the vines, not seeing the snake, screened from view by Adelaide, who was stiff as a board despite her hovering wings. The snake recoiled ever so slightly, but Jewel knew that it was going to spring. "Adelaide! For goodness sake -" She threw herself forward, plunging into Adelaide, sending them flailing towards the forest floor, where they hit the ground and went flying into some ferns.
Where Adelaide had been, the snake leapt, and at the same time, the eagle broke through and went flying forwards - seeing the snake, it released a shriek of panic. The snake landed on the eagle, and attempted to coil, but the eagle fought back, and the snake started slipping off. Just like Juanita's killer, it started flailing towards the forest floor, while the enraged and traumatized eagle went crashing through the trees.
Jewel picked herself up from where she'd rolled to a stop - or been abruptly brought to a stop by a large rock. She lay there, face-down in the dirt, momentarily stunned by a blow to her head. "Argh..." she put a wing up to her temple, where she'd felt something sharp - it came away red. "Great." She stumbled to her feet after a few dizzy moments, staggering slightly. Slow, gradual anger began to build as she remembered the stupidity. Adelaide had been frozen in the path of both a snake and an eagle; she could've gotten them both killed.
What was she thinking? Idiot!
Angered by this, Jewel ventured into the ferns where she'd seen Adelaide go flying. She found her, facing away. Jewel let her rage spill, unknowing. "What were you doing? You froze! If I hadn't gotten you out the way, you'd be in the middle of being digested by now, because of that stupid snake!"
"Shut up!" Adelaide whirled round, and Jewel leapt back in shock. Adelaide's eyes were flooded with tears and terror, and grief made her voice high-pitched. She shook like a leaf, caught in a memory.
"What's wrong? It was just -"
"My mom was killed by one! Happy?" Adelaide's face crumpled as she remembered the green bolt, first sinking its teeth through Felipe's wing, and then through Juanita's chest, where she'd floundered like a dying fish. The tears spilt, and she broke. It was so spontaneous and out of the blue - she hadn't remembered the event for so long - but this was her first encounter with a snake since. She covered her face, tortured by the boa constictor's black eyes, black as death. The Harpy eagle was completely forgotten.
"I'm sorry." Jewel's voice broke through Adelaide's visions of a thousand snakes chasing her, Juanita's screams replacing their hisses. Not sure what else to do, Jewel did the only way she knew how to comfort somebody - she hugged Adelaide, and she didn't resist. Adelaide let Jewel hold her tight, as she waited for the tears and screams to stop.
After a few minutes, Adelaide pulled away from the hug, the tears finally at a stop. "I'm sorry for freezing up..."
"Don't be."