"When will you be back?" Roberto followed Tia, worry churning in his belly. Will you be back? Santiago had returned a little while ago to tell them Rojo accepted their arrangement to meet at the place where leaders met, and before he'd left, the Blue-and-Gold patriarch had had a word of advice to Eduardo about being as civil as possible.
"Depends on how long the talk takes." Mimi said, grimly, from where was sat in the corner.
"... so why are you taking forty reinforcements?" Roberto asked, nervously. Tia paused, and turned round with soft teal eyes. She looked at him in the same way that his own mother used to, when she had been alive.
"It's just in case. Hopefully it won't come to that." Behind the softness however, there was real worry. Tia didn't want bloodshed, but she knew Rojo did. Eduardo didn't want her and Mimi to go with him, but they'd insisted. Naturally Roberto and Jewel had been banned.
"Please let us go with you, I'll be freaking out back here, not knowing what's going on!" Roberto blurted out, not for the first time. Tia stopped pacing, closing her eyes. Mimi got up quickly.
"Out of the question!" She insisted. "It's too dangerous, Roberto."
"Not if we hide in the trees... it'll be as if we aren't even there -"
"Hi." Said a flat voice. Jewel came in, dragging her feet. She'd waited until her eyes had returned to white and her face had dried before coming back, not wanting to be asked if she'd been crying. She'd lost her best friend, and she felt as hollow as her bones. She'd told Adelaide so many things she hadn't even told Roberto, which was saying something. Adelaide was like her, which was why Jewel was drawn to her - she was actually concerned about Rojo and wasn't burying her head in the sand, she knew what it was to have a temper like Jewel, and she was misunderstood by her peers. But that could all be forgotten now. Adelaide never wanted to see her again, and Jewel had never felt so low.
"Are you okay, Jewel?" Tia, immediately, knew something wasn't right.
"I'm fine. I'm just tired." Jewel lied, trying not to burst into tears for the fourth time since dragging herself away from the place Adelaide had left her. "Can I go with you to the meeting?"
"See! Jewel wants to go too!" Roberto exclaimed, neither he nor Mimi picking up on Jewel's sadness. "We'll be fine, if we just hide in the trees! We'll have each other if anything happens, they won't know we're there..."
"A thousand times, no..." Mimi began.
"Well..." Tia broke in. "If it'll give you peace of mind..." Mimi looked at Tia with surprise.
"What?"
"Seriously?" Roberto was surprised as well. Jewel looked at her mother, shocked.
"I'll ask Eduardo. He'll probably say no, but... I'll change his mind. I'd rather know where you are, and not be worrying about you sneaking along anyway."
"Come on, when have we ever done that?" Roberto asked, innocently, and Tia hugged him, before going to Jewel. She crouched to be eye level with her, holding her face with soft, dark blue wings.
"Are you sure you're okay?" She asked, gently. Jewel couldn't bring herself to tell her; but she allowed Tia to pull her into an embrace. Her mother's scent was like rain-soaked jasmine. It was an aroma she'd never forget - Jewel briefly wondered why she'd thought that. In what scenario could she forget something like that? Tia would always be there, and that thought comforted her over her broken friendship.
Across the forest, Felipe had felt his grief melt away to fury within minutes. Not at Adelaide, but at someone he hadn't laid eyes on since the match. Rojo. He'd harshly wiped away his tears, and headed back to the kapoks. His face stormy, he flocked from tree to tree, demanding the same question. "Where's Rojo?"
"I haven't seen him in days..."
"No... we thought he was holed up with a migraine."
"He's vanished, hasn't he? Even his friends have been scarce..."
Member after member shook their heads, because Rojo had done a disappearing act. Whenever Felipe had seen the inner circle in the previous days, they'd been in a hurry to get somewhere. He was adamant they'd started the border skirmish, and he was also sure he'd seen Rojo's eyes at some point. He was finally going to confront Rojo and his inner circle cronies. Maybe, if Adelaide heard he'd finally stood up to them, she'd take him back...
"Felipe! Have you seen Adelaide?" Felipe's heart split a little more as he heard her name. Azalea's hazel eyes widened when he turned to face her, and her face creased with worry. "Have you been crying?"
"No! Of course not!" Felipe insisted, suddenly realizing why everyone kept asking him if he was alright. Azalea gave him a searching look, but didn't pressure him, sensing he'd snap if she did. "I haven't seen her. But have you seen Rojo? I have to find him, urgently."
"Well, not him, but... I saw Caesura and Drizelle running off somewhere about two minutes ago, looking... dodgy."
"Where?" He asked, sharply. "Would Anastasiya know where?"
"She doesn't talk to them anymore, so probably not... but I thought I heard Drizelle mention the Dead tree. If you hurry, you might catch them. If anyone would know where he is, it'd be them..."
"It's something! I've got to find him..." He whipped round, desperate to fins Rojo.
"Felipe, what's wrong with you?" Azalea asked, lightly touching his wing with her own. She was warm, and sounded genuinely concerned for him. Like how Adelaide once had. "Have you and Adie been arguing again?"
"It doesn't matter right now. I have to talk to Rojo, I'll see you later." Felipe shook her wing away and hurried for the Dead tree, leaving a confused and concerned Azalea. She looked after him, a look of curiosity on her face, wondering whether to follow.
"Azalea." Said a torn voice, a few minutes later. Azalea turned, and found herself staring in surprise. Tears tumbled down Adelaide's cheeks, her face flooded with distress. "I messed up, Azalie. I messed everything up..."
Meanwhile, Felipe tore through the forest, raking his vision for any sign of Caesura and Drizelle, or better, Rojo. His wing still hurt, but he barely felt the pain. He wanted to kill Rojo - which although he couldn't do - this thought drove him on. Felipe had to confront him and open the floodgates, to let him know what he truly thought of him, which he'd held back for months.
The sun was half-sunk behind the horizon, but Felipe couldn't see it - the sky was smothered by rainless clouds, turning everything blue-grey as the night crept in. It was hot, smothering, the forest as dry as bone, from where it hadn't rained for several weeks. Brown had started to consume some of the green, but the wind was strong. Felipe still pushed on into unfamiliar land. It was part of their territory, close to where all four tribe borders met. This area was rarely explored, because diseased and now dead Walking Palm trees had rendered it brown and ugly. Of course a parasite like Rojo would be hiding there.
The Dead tree was an ancient, long-dead Kapok that, while not particularly tall, was wide with a huge, hollow trunk. It's base was almost as wide as one of those ghastly yellow tree-eating machines that carried humans. It had grown out of control before becoming a corpse. The branches were bare yet thick and wild, forming huge knots and strangling other trees around it. Huge, wooden teeth-filled mouths gaped in the wood, where it had been battered by the elements over the years. Other climbing plants were now possessing it, so the tree bristled with spiky leaves and thorns.
The personification of Rojo.
Felipe landed outside, and began climbing up, so he'd be unheard. He heard voices already, all adults he despised. His blood grew hot with rage when he heard Rojo's amung them. He reached a gap in the tree trunk, and crawled in. He was screened from view by a series of old vines and cobwebs. He swatted away a spider in irritance, and blinked down below.
There they were, with Rojo pacing at the front. Felipe was surprised, but not concerned, to see the state of him. Rojo hadn't preened himself in days, his feathers messy with dead leaves caught in them. He was covered in claw marks, and there was another nick out of his beak. What had he been doing? Picking fights in his angered, deranged state?
"So, Santiago dropped by and gave a message to a patrol. Eduardo wants me to meet him, when it gets dark. He's obviously plotting to trap and kill me." If only, Felipe thought. Eduardo would try and talk it out. Trapping and killing was more Rojo's style. In fact, Rojo was planning something, Felipe knew that. If only he'd listened to Adelaide... "So, we'll meet him. But -"
Suddenly a pair of talons sank into Felipe's back. He shrieked as he was brutally shoved through the dead vines, landing in a heap on the floor. Caesura and Drizelle perched where he had been, staring down at him with blazing, panicked eyes. I got here too fast. Felipe struggled to his feet, to find the inner circle staring at him, mortified. Then fury erupted.
"You interfering little -" Alfonso began, but his voice was drowned by a series of hisses and insults from the rest. Felipe was backed into a corner, as they swarmed forwards. But then there was a squawk from the back, and the inner circle spun round to face their leader.
"Wait here." Rojo barged to the front, seizing Felipe. "Move, Caesura!" Felipe was in shock as he was yanked along by Rojo, until he was outside; the inner circle were no where to be seen, but Felipe knew they were watching like hawks from the tree. Rojo dropped him, and Felipe landed with a thud, but he leapt up immediately.
"So, this is where you've been hiding since the match!" Rojo was staring at him, horrified. Felipe bristled, realizing something. "It was this lot who attacked the blue macaw patrol, wasn't it? A bit of a coincidence, that the red patrol consisted entirely of your ridiculous 'inner circle'? Have you lost the plot?"
"Shut up and listen!" Rojo gripped Felipe by the shoulders, so tightly Felipe tried to struggle free, his beak clenched to stop himself yelping in pain. Rojo's eyes were pale, wild, and they didn't stay still. Like someone who had lost their mind and gone mad. "There isn't much time. I got word Eduardo is luring me to the grove to attack -"
"He isn't, you nit-wit." Felipe said, bluntly. "You and I both know he wouldn't do that. This is a little game you've invented in your head, where you wind him up until he's angry, and you use this as an excuse to launch an attack. I don't need to hear you say the words, it's obvious!"
"You are clever. Perhaps I underestimated you."
"I should've listened to Adelaide. She's right, you have been planning something, but I was too stupid to listen -"
"Oh, that girlfriend of yours. You ought to forget about love, it just makes you weaker."
"Ha!" Felipe shrieked with sarcastic laughter, infuriated further by the reminder of his failed relationship, his love for someone who shut him out. "You're only doing all this because you loved mom! You hypocrite! Or is she just an excuse for you to get back at Eduardo?"
"Don't you see? I'm doing this for her! Those blue fiends killed her!"
"And you're too stupid to realize she probably got sick before she went into their land, or you're using it as an excuse. You don't just go into land healthy and come out and drop dead minutes later!" For the first time in his life, Rojo flinched at Felipe's words.
"She seemed fine to me before she left!"
"On the surface!" Felipe insisted.
"We both lost Perlina, and we need closure!"
"Both? When she was on her deathbed, where were you? I was barely flying for a week, and I had to watch her die!" Felipe finally let it all out, all the secrets that had been locked away since Perlina had gone. He bristled, shrieking in his father's face - Felipe was thrilled by the fear entering Rojo's yellow eyes. "You've never been there for me! You're so self-absorbed and always hidden away plotting your petty revenge schemes, causing a war for no reason! I've never called you 'dad', because I don't know you! You think I don't see who you really are?"
"Felipe -"
"How could mom have ever loved a parasite like you? Love really is blind!"
"Help me with my plan, son, and we can avenge her!" Rojo hadn't taken in a word, his eyes blazing with madness. Felipe broke inside as he realized Rojo had lost his grasp on sanity, that nothing he could say would stop the oncoming mayhem.
"It's not what she would have wanted!" He cried, his blood boiling. Rojo tried once more to bring Felipe to his cause.
"We're the same, you and I, Felipe. You're -"
"I'm nothing like you!" Felipe lost it. He leapt at Rojo with outstretched talons, bowling him over, landing a set of claw marks on Rojo's neck; Rojo was so shocked, he didn't fight back. But then dozens of claws were sinking into Felipe and dragging him off. Felipe was pinned by his wings, by the inner circle. He thrashed and struggled to free himself, screeching at the top of his voice. Rojo staggered to his feet, blood streaming from the wound on his neck. His eyes fixated on Felipe, with not one trace of care. He'd forgotten that Felipe was his son.
"We can't let him warn them! Make sure he doesn't!" Rojo disappeared from view as Felipe was seized by the inner circle, and dragged. "I'm going! Wait for me outside the meeting point, my plan will become clear!"
What the heck does that mean?
"Get off!" Felipe spat, lashing out blindly with his claws, but after several moments, he was suddenly thrown into darkness. Felipe felt around, realizing he was surrounded by walls of soil. Scraps of nest material showed it was once a burrow. He leapt to his feet and spun round, seeing the moon roll across the sun. Suddenly, he was eclipsed in blackness.
"You need some time out!" Caesura shouted with glee, through the rock that had been put across the entrance. Felipe blindly threw himself at the stone, shoving against it with all his strength. But it was too heavy for him to move. Panic surged through him; he could barely see his wings in front of his face.
"Hey! Let me out of here!" He screamed, hammering on the rock. "I'll kill you, Rojo!" There was no-one to hear his shrieks. Felipe continued to fling himself against the rock face, until his wings were bruised, his throat raw from shouting. "Somebody, help me! Get me out of here, let me out!"
But there was nobody.