Chapter 37- ending and epilogue

A few weeks had passed since Lysandre's group had been arrested and taken to Manaus to be dealt with by the authorities and their falcons and crows taken away to be shipped to Europe and released into a protected nature reserve there, things slowly returned to normal. Since the incident with the poachers, Tulio had had the security surrounding both the Blu Bird Sanctuary in Rio and the Sanctuary de Amazon out in the Amazon rainforest tightened and all the ecologists had been required to get licences to reduce the chances of poachers sneaking into the Sanctuary de Amazon to illegally poach birds again. As the weeks passed, Blu, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Ceres and Pluto and all their families stayed in Rio for the rest of the summer, though Venus and her family, despite the weight of grief of Tornado's death hanging over Zephyr especially had returned to Rio to tell their friends of the news that Jupiter was alive, much to everyone's gladness and joy. Things have improved for Veggie, Dash and their families, and Susan and Lucy as well. Susan and Lucy's house had been fully repaired and Tulio had generously helped the two sisters with the repair costs. Ginger's pregnancy was well on and her and Dash's second brood of puppies were soon to be born. As for their older litter, two had been sold to owners: James had been sold to the owners of Pelusa the Shih Tzu and Nevado the Persian cat after seeing how much James liked their pets, and Avellana had been sold to a family who lived on the other side of the city. Esperanza had recovered from Nigel's savage attack but the ordeal had scarred her, and Eduarda's scratch had healed. Broccoli's paw had also fully recovered and he was able to walk again, but, like Esperanza, Broccoli had been scarred by Nigel. It took him weeks to get his damaged confidence back. Things were indeed improving for everyone, though there was one more tragedy: Catina had died from an infection as a result of Nigel's savage attack on her. Veggie, Broccoli, Thomas, Daisy and Collette and the others had grieved the loss of their mate, mother and friend, and Veggie had chosen not to find another mate to have any more kittens due to the uncertainty of how they would mix with his bird friends. After all, cats and most birds did not often mix, and Veggie had hoped that his two sons and two daughters would be sold to loving owners soon.

While things had improved for Blu and company, Travis, Sunset, Eustace, Milo and Rosa had settled back into their birdhouse and the three sulfur-crested/Major Mitchell's hybrids had managed to make friends with other cockatoos in the city. Furthermore, Travis and his family, together with Blu and the other macaws, spent some of the summer trip with Rafael and Eva, Nico and Pedro and some other friends, including Cometa and her new friend Lightning. In the Sanctuary de Amazon in the red macaw tribe's territory, Jupiter, Ruby, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto continued to spend the rest of the summer in their Amazon home. Jupiter had fully recovered from his traumatic ordeal with Nigel, and like Broccoli and Esperanza, he had been left with a scar carved into him: he had developed an aversion to rushing water. Though Jupiter did not mind flying over a rushing river, he always kept his distance from it as it brought back terrible memories of his ordeal with Nigel including his barbaric look on his bloodied face, those deranged brown eyes and the iron grip around his neck as the cockatoo attempted to drown him. Furthermore, Jupiter had had something else on his mind. What was that mysterious group with the three flying foxes and that group of birds, among them some Cuban red macaws? However, over time, Jupiter eventually put it off, believing it to be a dream or a hallucination from a near-death experience, but based on what Leonel, the elderly hyacinth macaw who had led the patrol group who managed to find him that night, had told him that they had found him in a patch of ferns, that encounter with the mysterious group as being some sort of dream had been open to question. However, Jupiter did not care about that. He was glad to be reunited with his family and friends and looked forward to seeing the others after they had returned to Rio. Furthermore, he had been glad to have shoved Ruby and his chicks out of the way when Nigel had attacked them in his deranged fury. Ruby, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto would have died if they fell into that rushing stream had he not taken action.

As for Nigel, his ending had been quite different. Like Jupiter, he had managed to haul himself out of the rushing river too despite his broken wing and so many other injuries and like the scarlet macaw he had attempted to drown; he had been swamped by exhaustion. The following morning after the night of Jupiter's recovery, a group of botanists had found Nigel and had immediately taken him back to Rio to be treated. The whole turn of events had left Nigel in a battered and even worse state than before. The majority of his body was covered in claw marks, and his face looked like he had been in a fight with a cat. His vest was tattered and torn and he was missing his distinctive crest entirely. However, these injuries and the loss of his crest, as well as a near-death experience from losing so much blood had not even changed Nigel much and his gloating over tearing Jupiter's family apart had never left him despite his close brush with death. However, he was soon to face even more humiliation, especially at the mercy of his former hench-frog Gabi and her immense affections for him, but it seemed to have been magnified when Gabi saw the change ion Nigel, especially his lack of a crest. As soon as he was back at Tulio's Aviary recovering from his injuries, the moment Gabi, who had been waiting in Tulio's Aviary waiting for his return the entire time, had laid her eyes on the battered cockatoo, her affection for him multiplied by ten times over. She had emitted a piercing scream of swoon, had steam coming out of her ears and had lost all control in her delivery of smooches all over Nigel's face much to his disgust, and Nigel ended up receiving hundreds of smooches from the little frog at a rate of ten to the dozen, much to the immense laughter of the employees and the birds present at Tulio's Aviary. Looks like Nigel will be facing a huge and continuous barrage of Gabi's smooches to his face in the coming days. XD

By the end of the summer period, Blu, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Ceres and Pluto had their mates and chicks had finally departed from Rio and had returned to the Sanctuary de Amazon. They had received a warm welcome back by their friends in their respective tribes and clans and had reunited with Jupiter. Then soon, life in the Sanctuary de Amazon returned to its normal pace, the macaw tribes and clans safe in the knowledge that their human friends had tightened the security of the place to very greatly reduce, though not completely eliminate, the chances of poachers sneaking into the nature reserve. However, the macaw tribe and clan leaders had issued a heightened awareness to their tribe and clan members and all the birds not part of a tribe or clan to take extreme care around humans just to be safe.

In the Spix macaw tribe's territory, a funeral for Tornado had taken place and his body was buried in a patch where deceased tribe members were buried after they had died, or a remembrance flower or plant had been planted in honour of any macaw that had been stolen away and their body never recovered. Some had been planted for Jewel, Zephyr, Brisa, Tornado and Gael after they had been reported missing after a fire had torn them from the tribe when Jewel, Zephyr and Brisa had been young, and Venus had planted four flowers in this patch as well to commemorate her deceased family. She had planted one flower for her mother Clarinda, one for her father Erico, and the other two for her two sisters. The other macaw tribes and clans also each had a patch in their territory, sort of like a cemetery in a way, where deceased members from their groups had been buried or a plant planted to remember unaccounted for members, and the funeral design was basically similar in design. In the Lear's macaw tribe's territory, Mercury had also planted some plants to commemorate his mother Lola, father Tomas, and three siblings. The atmosphere was emotional for the Spix macaw attendees, especially for Tornado's family. Zephyr, Brisa, Gael who was now a widow, Viento, Nuvem and Venus, Justin, Charlotte, Matilda, Virgil, and were especially fraught with grief and anguish. It was going to be a difficult time for them and the friends of Tornado in the coming weeks. Tornado had been one of the most respected members of the tribe, and had been one of Eduardo's closest friends, so Eduardo and Mimi felt great grief for his loss as well. It truly was a sad time for the Spix macaw tribe but they will eventually get over it and move on but Tornado will always be remembered by everyone.

Later

At the border of the Spix and red macaw tribes' territories, a certain group of Spix and red macaws sat at the Brazil nut grove chatting and eating fruit including a few Brazil nuts. Around them, scarlet, green-winged and Spix macaws flew about, either foraging for food or coming to the border to meet their red macaw friends. Nearby, a few young Spix and red macaws played. Among the group of adults were Zephyr, Venus, Mars, Chiquitita and some of their friends, Cherie and Tito from the red tribe and Nuvem from the Spix macaw tribe and Zephyr and Brisa's cousin. Nearby, Charlotte and , two of Venus and Zephyr's six chicks, played with Phobos, Deimos and Alexandre and some other scarlet, green-winged and Spix macaw chicks. Justin, Matilda and Virgil were back in the ravine with their friends including Carla, Bia and Tiago. They were having a game of air-ball, an aerial equivalent of ground football similar to the games the tribes and clans played in the Pit of Doom. Mars watched on as he sipped some coconut juice from a half coconut shell.

"You know," he said to the others, as he watched Charlotte skilfully dribble the ball past her red opponents, "Zephyr and Venus's daughter certainly has got the knack for playing soccer, hasn't she?"

"She certainly has, Mars," said Zephyr with a smile, "She once told me that she wants to become part of our tribe's Pit of Doom team when she grows up."

He and Nuvem had pretty much got over their grief of losing Tornado but the grief was still there, looming in the background.

"Callisto seems to be excellent at soccer too," said Mars with a smile, sipping from his coconut shell, "I've seen her manage to outmanoeuvre even the most skilled chicks at air-ball once."

Suddenly, the fruit shell used as the ball flew over to Mars. At this, he bopped it away with his head, allowing to catch it and take it back into the area used as an arena. Chiquitita then watched Turquesa as she chased after and kept his back from their red opponents.

"I have noticed that Maximillian's daughter has become closer to your son, Zephyr," she said, "Could they soon be starting a…?"

"They're just friends at the moment," said Zephyr, knowing what Chiquitita was going to say, "They're too young to enter into a relationship at the moment."

"Speaking of relationships, have you heard the news about Roberto and Brisa?" asked Nuvem. The others looked at him with smiles on their beaks.

"They're discussing about becoming mates," said Nuvem.

"Really?" asked Tito with a smile, his wing slung around Cherie.

"Yes," said Venus.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it. Good for them," said Cherie cheerfully, "I hope they do become mates."

"Those two do seem compatible," said Venus, "I look forward to having some nephews and nieces soon."

"And our six chicks will be having some cousins," said Zephyr excitedly, his grief over losing Tornado overridden by this possibility for a brief period. But then the sombre look on his face returned.

"We heard about the death of your father," said Tito with sympathy, "It must have been tragic…"

"How did he end up mortally wounded during our fight with the poachers, anyway?" asked Cherie.

"He got badly scratched by one of the falcons," said Zephyr, "And then some crows attacked him later. Tulio and his team were unable to save him in time."

He then bowed his head as the grief over losing his father welled. Venus put a wing around his back, remembering her own grief over the loss of her family. Then Nuvem moved onto something else.

"By the way, how are Jupiter and his family?" he asked. His face fell. "It must have been a horrible ordeal he must have faced when this Nigel cockatoo tackled him and they both fell into the stream."

"They're doing alright," said Mars, "However, Jupiter once told us something rather confusing. It was something about some flying foxes with a group of birds…"

"A group of flying foxes with a group of birds?" repeated Zephyr in wonder. Then he shook it off.

"It must have been a hallucination or dream or something," he said, "We've never heard of any of those flying furballs that are friends with any birds of the Amazon…"

"Definitely," said Venus. Nuvem nodded in agreement.

"He might have managed to escape the stream and fly to here only to pass out from exhaustion," said Chiquitita, "That's my theory, anyway. Leonel and his patrol group just told us that they had found him in a patch of ferns that other night and that was it."

Then Zephyr, Venus and Nuvem gazed into the direction of the red tribe's territory, seeing the flashes of red, blue, turquoise, green and yellow of the scarlet and green-winged macaws through the trees.

"But at least Jupiter is safe and sound now," said Zephyr with a sigh. The others nodded in agreement. At this moment, above the trees of Felipe's tribe's home patch and the busy red macaws as they flew about, a certain pair of scarlet macaws and their chicks flew around the patchily blue sky and sun. One was a vermillion male with a muscular build and the other was a darker red female and there were four chicks. Ruby and Jupiter, together with Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, danced together in the air. Jupiter and Ruby stopped into a hover and nuzzled beaks, before flying together and began to playfully chase their chicks. The family was glad to be together again and it was clear that Jupiter will be alive to see his three daughters and son grow up and possibly have chicks of their own, but that is another story.

That's it. That's the end of this story. I am impressed how this story had turned out, and I feel that it is better than the previous version without Brutus involved. And believe it or not, this chapter and story is my last and final chapter and story of 2016, finished just before Christmas. Stay tuned for a possible sequel coming soon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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