Emori was woken by a sudden jolt. She bolted up, woken rather abruptly. On her right, Daniella stirred, and propped herself up on a wing. Her lavender gaze flickered once again to the door, but then she shook herself. Emori tried to remember why, but she had been too tired and half-asleep to quite process what had happened.

Something about the four-legged thing? Emori had lived on an island her whole life - she didn't know what a dog was, but she was fearful of it. She was especially wary of the two-leggeds Daniella called humans. They were weird and ugly - tall, with bare skin covered up with fabric, like the ribbon in her head feathers albeit less shiny and pretty. They were speaking in a foreign language she didn't understand. Daniella looked up, toward the sound - she was relieved to hear the language again. "It's Portuguese." She said, at Emori's puzzled expression.

"You understand that mumbo jumbo?" Emori asked, very impressed. After living on the island in a crowd of various languages, all Emori knew was English. South American residents spoke Portuguese, but after years from home, the language - amongst others - had phased out to English, the most widely spoken on the island. A few still spoke their own, such as the kiwi and kakapo who both spoke Maori.

"My parents taught me - mostly my dad, since he was brought up with it." Daniella smiled. Emori was about to ask whether Daniella could teach her, before the boat jolted again. There was the sound of Portuguese language above their heads. "We're slowing down. Apparently we're... almost there." Daniella went quiet, but Emori reacted differently. Overwhelmed with excitement, she was under the floorboard faster than Daniella could blink, and on the other side of the door. Daniella rushed to follow, calling for Emori to wait, but she was unheard. They went up the short flight of steps to the deck, flying into the open air.

The scent of the ocean was heavy as Emori flew up to the roof to get a view. She landed on the roof, and spun round. She held onto a pole with one wing, while hanging forward, the wind running through her feathers. She stared out, both terrified and excited, wondering if it was everything she'd dreamed. Daniella landed beside her, talons dug into the metal below, barely breathing - then they both saw it.

Daniella could have wept in joy as she saw the Christ the Redeemer, arms spread to welcome them. The city swarmed below, but Daniella had never been so happy to see something urban in her whole life. Brazil. I'm home. Her heart filled with delight as she imagined seeing her family again.

Emori didn't utter a word. She drank it all in - it was so different from her island. Not my island. That was never my home. Could this be? She'd once dared flying some distance from the shore to look at Alegria - it had been a simple mound rising from the sea, small and insignificant. But this land didn't end. It raced from each end of the horizon, part of it brown and grey, and around it, green, in the sun.

She looked back at the grey and brown towers and boxes, bewildered by it all. It was unlike anything Emori had ever witnessed. Boats like the one they are on speckled the bay, which stretched in the afternoon daylight - the longest beach she had ever seen. Strange buildings lined the shore and spread into the land, hard edged and made of stone. A stone human overlooked the city, and a mountain shaped like half an oval towered over the bay. "This is Rio?" She asked.

"What do you think of it?"

"It's... so strange, so vast." Daniella glanced at Emori, but Emori's beak was curling into a smile. "I love it."

"We'll get off now..." Daniella smirked - for the first time, she initiated the fun, when she used to follow along with the suggestions of others. "Race you to the mainland!" Daniella launched off the boat, Emori racing after her. Daniella's wings beat frantically, so desperate to get back to land - but then she spotted her reflection on the sea surface.

"Daniella? What are you doing?" Emori asked. Daniella skimmed close to the water, feeling the seaspray bouncing on her feathers - she sunk down her talons, so they dipped into the water. It was cool and refreshing, the fluid feel, the scent of seawater, making her feel liberated. "You're not afraid of it anymore!" Emori exclaimed, proudly. Daniella had barely thought about how much water had once terrified her - she didn't even remember the faces of Camille, Valentina and Ivanna.

"Just wait till I tell them what you've done for me!" Daniella looked sideways at Emori. Emori slowed at that moment. "Emori?" Daniella hovered over the water, at her frown.

"What will I do when we get to the Amazon?" Emori asked, worriedly.

"What do you mean?"

"I can't exactly live in your ravine... I'd be the odd one out." Daniella had never thought about that. Emori was right - and what if someone picked on her for being the only non-Spix's macaw in the tribe? Someone was bound to.

"Well... we'll cross that river when we come to it. But there is a smaller group of Chestnut-Fronted macaws living not far away. We'll work something out." Emori's eyes filled with curiosity, for she had never encountered her own kind. "You... whatever happens, you will visit me, right?" Daniella asked, nervously.

"Do you honestly think after all we've been through I'd never see you again? I'll see you everyday - look out!" Daniella looked ahead, and saw a large male human in an inflatable ring, drink in hand. At the sight of the bird coming his way, he wobbled and ducked to the right, his weight making the ring tilt dangerously. He plunged into the water, drink flying into the sea.

"That was expensive!" He protested, as Daniella and Emori frantically flew upwards to avoid the crowded beach. Emori stared at the sight, the noise of Brazilian music and shouting humans, overwhelmed. Seawater splashed them from humans leaping into the sea and splashing one another.

"As I was saying, I'll see you all the time. That's a promise." Emori's gaze was then fixed on the bizarreness of all she could see. She'd never seen a car, buildings - now hundreds were in her view. As they flew over the road, Emori gasped. "Uh, what is that horrible smell?" She looked overwhelmed, beak clamped shut to try and block it out. Daniella realized what Emori meant, when she noticed the familiar reek.

"Of course, you've had no experience of a road. That's the fumes from the cars." As someone so isolated from humanity, Emori would have always breathed pure air.

"The what?"

"Those!" Daniella indicated to one, which rumbled by below. "Come on, we'll fly higher to get away from the fumes." It wasn't normally this bad - she saw the source of the problem, a broken down van smoking heavily with the cars frozen in the traffic not making it much better. They flew far above, to the top of a hotel where the scent of traffic was almost non-existent. Emori looked relieved as they got away from the smell and noise of the road, as they landed on the hotel top. She took a moment to collect herself, filling her chest with better air, before noticing the city.

"Oh, my." Forgetting the unpleasant encounter, Emori flew to the opposite side of the roof, stepping forward, looking over the top of the hotel side. She overlooked her first city. Humans moved below like ants, frantic and in a rush to get somewhere. They were everywhere, as far as she could see - on the streets, moving behind windows, and even on the other roofs. The height was dizzying. She loved flying high, but she'd never perched upon something this giant - no tree on Alegria was as tall as this building, she was certain.

"I know it's a lot... I was shocked by the first city I encountered." Daniella gazed over the edge too. "Imagine being born somewhere like here. My mother was, although to be fair, that was away from the busy part." There was the sound of movement behind, and she glanced over her shoulder. She blinked at a wobbling stone, but she assumed it to be wind. It was picking up, afterall. It was there that she noticed the tourists on the beach beginning to clamber out of the sea, or leave the beach entirely, for the waves were growing as the dark clouds moved toward them. Another storm? Emori noticed it too, glancing over her shoulder at the sight.

"I think it's time to find your family." Emori said, looking uneasy at the approaching weather.

"Me too." Daniella agreed. "But I... I don't know the first place to start." There was a powerful gust of wind, almost knocking them off the building. Daniella looked around against the buffeting wind, wondering whether to go to Luiz's garage - but then, she didn't know how to get there from here. She had a rough idea, but the jungle was nearer. It'll be better for Emori if we search somewhere she's comfortable in first. The city must be so weird to her. "We'll get to the rainforest. Before we were separated, we slept in several places - maybe we can start searching there." Daniella looked over her shoulder, skin prickling.

"What's wrong?"

"Do you feel as if we're being..." Daniella paused. "Never mind."

Meanwhile

Linda leafed through the photos and fridge magnets she had taken from the cottage fridge. The fridge was being replaced so the pictures had been placed in a plastic bag, which she had taken with her to the store today to keep them safe. The house was a bit of a mess at the moment, so she didn't want them being misplaced. She smiled and adjusted her glasses, looking at wedding photos, Emma's baby photos, and the ones of the bird family. She smiled, finding one of her favourites; the one with her, Tulio and Fernando with Blu and Jewel, as well as Bia, Carla and Tiago when they were chicks. It was dated just before the 2014 new year - was that really eight years ago?

"... the destructive weather system has taken meteorologists by surprise." Said the newsreporter, on the book store television, drawing her attention away from the fridge papers. Linda glanced up, turning up the volume. Emma sat on the desk chair, playing with her favourite toy, a fluffy penguin they'd bought on a holiday to New Zealand. "...it was thought that the system had dissipated completely, but it seems as though one final storm is on it's way. The people of the east coast of Brazil are advised to stay indoors and stay away from the coast, the winds expected to grow so high power cuts are possible -"

"It's terrible, isn't it?" Amalia, one of Linda's most loyal customers, had a book under one arm while looking through the magazines. She was a Brazilian, pretty, with short, spiky hair partially hidden by a sun hat. She was around the same age as Fernando, working on a market stall nearby. She came into the store several times a week, to browse - or, Linda suspected, as an excuse to talk to Fernando. Amalia dropped a coin into the charity jar Linda had for the slum dwellers.

"It's awful." Linda agreed, pushing her glasses further up the bridge of her nose. She heard the coin rattle in the poverty jar. "I feel sorry for the people living in favelas especially." Emma dropped her penguin on the floor, and began looking around for it, frowning. Linda looked from Emma to the stack of heavy books in her arms, but Amalia smiled, stooping and giving it back to the toddler. "Thanks, Amalia."

"She's so cute." Amalia said, as Emma bounced the penguin in her lap. "So, where's Fernando? Isn't he usually working today?" She sounded disappointed that he wasn't there, as she made her decision and placed a book on the desk. Linda scanned the barcode as Amalia rummaged through her satchel in search of money.

"Oh, I let him finish early - the new refrigerator's being delivered. Since it's a distance away they had to deliver it later." That was the one problem of living in the jungle cottage - deliveries and large parcels were a nightmare. "Is this all?"

"That's perfect, thanks. See you later, Linda - tell Fernando and Tulio I said hi, and watch the weather!" Amalia smiled as she put the book in her bag and handed over some notes. "O adeus, cutie." She playfully tapped one of Emma's reddish brown curls, making it bounce, before heading out the door. Linda looked back up at the television, frowning at the large, brightly coloured patch on the Brazilian coast as the weatherman indicated to certain areas. She glanced outside, where posters had been torn off walls by the wind, and bags flew about - Amalia's hat went flying, and she spun round and ran in pursuit, disappearing from sight.

"Maybe we'll stay here till the storm ends, Emma. We can entertain ourselves for a while." Linda deduced. It was quite a bus ride to the jungle edge and a long walk through the trees to get back to the cottage. She sat down next to Emma, preparing to read her a book, before the new photo of Bia and her little family caught her eye. I haven't seen them in a while. I hope they're okay... She glanced outside, seeing a woman with a loose bun - the wind tore at it, and another hat went flying. For some reason she didn't think she should go back to the house, but she shook it off. "Emma? The Little Mermaid, Rapunzel, or the Snow Queen?"