Chapter 36:

The sunrise still hung low upon the horizon painting the world with the slumbering grey haze that only comes from early dawn. Jewel and Blu smiled to one another as they seated themselves in the shade just below the hollowed tree. Their three kids gathered around them, each one smiled to their parents as they took their seats upon the ground. Even though no one said a word, they all thought the same thing. This would be the final time they would all be together for quite some time. Many things in there lives would change before seeing each other again… the only question which rang through their mind though was how?

Jewel had prepared a quick but special breakfast to memorialize the occasion. She placed a wide assortment of fruits out on a small dock leaf, and began to speak to her assembled family. "Right, we have mangoes, kiwis, papayas, and brazil nuts, it's not much to look at, but I figured it was better than wasting a lot of time and it is the thought that counts, right?"

All four of her family members nodded their heads in complete agreement. Blu nudged her playfully. "So, there were passion fruits, eh?" he grinned, staring into Jewel's eyes with a mischievous look

"That's for later, Pet." Jewel passed him a sideways glance and an equally mischievous grin, "for when you come home to me."

Blu studied the small helping of fruits laid out on the small leaf. He licked his beak hungrily all the while reaching to steal a small mango with his talon.

"Not yet, Blu," Jewel giggled, playfully swatting at his talon with her wing. "Buster thought it would be fun to sing a special song to protect you and Rose during your journey. He is very excited about it."

"Buster can sing?" Blu and Rose said in unison arching their curious eyes. "I didn't know that…" Rose finished, "When did he learn how to do that?"

"Just listen," Jewel grinned, "and be nice to your brother, the boy is very sensitive when it comes to things like this."

Buster got up onto his talons, eyeing both his father and sister, he cleared his vocal pips and sang out loud and strong.

"You leave today to find a rose

Our hearts go with you, so you know

Two full days, you'll travel far.

Your journey will be long and hard.

From the direction of the morning sun

A jumbled shout will be lots of fun

Your family you must leave behind

Your safety will be on their mind

Your thoughts must dwell upon your task

A doomed fate will stop you from wearing the hero's mask

Shout is where you must go

Walk fast, do not slow

For three trials you shall face

Defeat the snake of blue sur face

Decrease the space and you will see

What the trial is supposed to be

Teeth the teeth, they'll eat you down

If you touch the thing that makes you drown

Travel through fire the land of grim

Journey through death and find its brim

Find the forest, you shall see

Stay away from the trees.

Beware the sand, it sinks you slow

It swallows you down into a hole.

After all of this you will see...

You are there, you made history.

You are there you're not quite done.

Find the one who holds the sun.

Follow his impressive gaze.

That's the puzzle through the maze.

Your reward awaits you, you are done

Monkey's there will have their fun

The blood orchid, you now have

Beware the thorns, mui gulav

A single prick will end it all

Be a hero, rise or fall?"

Rose's eyes widened as she peered through her book, coming to a small inscription on the page. She read the text word for word, eyeing her brother with a sly smile and threw a piece of fruit at him.

"You little thief, you stole that from my riddle map."

Kinski's jaw dropped in silence as he peered at his brother. Buster himself traced his talon across the grass. He eyed the food and reached out to grab it, only to be stopped by his mother who had her eyes narrow.

"Buster, did you take Rose's book without asking her permission?"

Kinski nodded his head remaining silent.

Buster lowered his head. "Yes, mom, I just wanted to look at it," he pouted, "I also wanted to feel like I was a part of the quest too."

Jewel's eyes softened as she nodded her understanding for the young boy.

"What you did was wrong," She said, "But I can understand why you did it. It's not fair for those of us left behind but that is just how things are."

Blu rubbed his feathery head. He eyed the book and began flipping it in all directions as he tried to make heads or tails of the instructions written upon the sheet of paper. "It's really pretty, I like it," he smiled doing a little dance as he repeated the first few lines. "But none of it will help me unless I can figure out just what exactly the words mean. All I see is a really long and complicated riddle."

Rose raised her head triumphantly, "That is precisely why you have me coming along with you. I'm really good at puzzles like this."

Blu nodded and peered at the food, he had forgotten all about the effort his wife had taken to prepare it for them.

"Well, we won't be starting just standing around here talking about it. Let's finish this food and let's get moving."

Blu ate automatically as he shoveled the food into his mouth. He knew it would be a long while before he could taste fruit this good again. Stuffing a whole mango into his jaw, he chomped noisily until he was able to swallow the melon down his throat. Once down, he belched as loud as he could.

Rose turned to her mother, disgusted by her father's embarrassing display. "What do you see in him?" She whispered, "Has he always been this weird?"

Jewel stifled a giggle and whispered back. "Honey, when I first met your father, this behavior would actually be considered normal."

After the food had been properly eaten, Jewel bid Buster and Kinski off to play. Rose and Blu sat staring at the parchment of paper, they spoke amongst themselves.

"So where do you think we should start?" Blu asked.

"The puzzle doesn't give us an exact starting point but let's take it one line at a time." Rose admitted, "You leave today to find a Rose, our hearts go with you so you know. Two full days you'll travel far, your journey will be long and hard."

Blu nodded his head as he looked at the small section Rose had read aloud. She noted the words and began to voice her thoughts.

"You leave today to find a Rose, that's the opening. It obviously means that these are instructions to find the orchid."

Blu nodded his agreement. "Right, that makes sense. What about, our hearts go with you, so you know?" he cocked his head to one side as he thought about it as hard as he could. "Why would paper have a heart? Unless it's from the paper-mate company, they make pens and pencils you know?"

Rose shook her head, "I'm guessing that's a message from the person who wrote this thing, I mean he or she would have had to have travelled the whole way and therefore this would be a passion project of his. He would have to face all the dangers, and knows how long the journey actually is… see the next two lines? Two full days, you'll travel far, you're journey will be long and heard."

Blu nodded in understanding. "Oh okay, so this guy is wishing us good luck with finding the orchid."

"Exactly, the first few lines are preparing us for the journey ahead. I think the length of the adventure is located two days… I believe he's saying it will take two full days to make it to where we need to go."

"But which way?" Blu asked, "There's six hundred million miles of jungle out there. Do we head North, South, East, or West?"

Rose continued to study the riddle and nodded her head. "From the direction of the morning sun, a jumbled shout will be lots of fun…." Her eyes widened in delight as she put the pierces together. "The morning sun rises in the east, so we're not going that way, and if you rearrange the letters in shout you get…"

"SOUTH!" Blu jumped to his talons, "We must head south."

"Right," she nodded, "The next few lines are about leaving our family behind, than I believe the rest are instructions beginning with the line about the three trials and a snake of blue sur face."

Blu shuddered remembering his first experience with the Brazilian rainforest. A rather large snake swallowed a frog with very little effort.

"I don't fancy meeting any kind of snake." Blu swallowed hard. "Couldn't we just skip that trial and move onto the next one?"

"I don't think it works that way, Dad." Rose rolled her eyes, "But we'll deal with that when we get there. Come on, we've got our starting point, we need to go south. No point in sitting around here any longer."