Chapter 32- one more worry and conclusion
The light of the morning finally arrived. However, the skies were still flooded with cloud but the rain had slowed from a torrential downpour to a reasonable drizzle. As the light of the rising sun hidden by the clouds grew brighter and chased away the final darkness of the night of the disaster caused by the fire, Tulio and his team in Rio, and the team of humans in Manaus had finally received the signal to go out into the jungle for the rains had eased off. So the two human groups did just that. They had boarded their helicopters and had flown to the Amazon rainforest. Then as soon as the two human groups touched down in a deforested area, they disembarked the helicopters and set up a mini hospital using tents. Their location of choice was exactly where the Spix macaws and many of the other animals had had their epic fight against the loggers. Though the human teams were setting up their tent-hospitals, the helicopters themselves had been designed as special air ambulances and had their own medical equipment, used for transporting truly injured animals to the animal hospital in Manaus for treatment. However, plans to build a proper hospital actually in the Amazon were being put together.
As the humans set up their mini hospital in the clearing with sheets erected and spread out over the 'rooms' to keep them dry, some scouts from the macaw tribes and clans had seen them and had flown away to alert their leaders. Though very few to no macaws in the Spix, red, blue-and-gold, Lear's and green tribes, and the blue-throated macaw clan and the two hyacinth macaw clans the Bluewings and the Navyfeathers, were injured, quite a number of glaucous macaws were. Then as soon as word had reached the ears of the leaders of the tribes and clans including Rudi and Valeria, who had gathered the surviving macaws of their tribe back together to prepare to move into the unoccupied trees with the Navyfeathers, the tribe and clan leaders prepared to take their casualties to the humans. It had taken a lot of convincing of Rudi to take the injured macaws in his tribe to the humans for treatment for he was still fearful of them but at Eduardo's gentle convincing, he reluctantly relented. This was a good thing since it would confirm the existence of his tribe's species and that they will be immediately added to the Sanctuary de Amazon. So while Valeria had some of his tribe members take the casualties to the humans, Rudi was led by Flavio to check the cluster of trees to see if he would like it. While the other macaws and the human biologists and vets prepared to go to work, as the sun rose, the extent of the damage caused by the fire last night was brought to light.
In the darkness of the night, the forest had looked terrible but now in the light of the morning, the full extent of the damage can be seen even better. A vast area of the rainforest's trees had been reduced to nothing more than blackened trunks and skeletal-like structures stripped entirely of colour, among them green. The undergrowth looked like it had a fire-breathing dragon that had gone on the rampage through it with its fire breath. A large amount of shrubs and ferns had been reduced to nothing more than charred skeletal structures or a pile of black ash or burned plant material. Smoke still continued rising lazily from the charred vegetation here and there but any clumps of flame that remained of the fire had finally been extinguished by the rain. The blackened vegetation smothered the entire area occupied by the Lear's macaws, the blue-and-gold macaws and the green macaws, and a very large part of the Spix and the red macaws' territory, indicating clearly where the fire had spread, and the cliff-face homes of the Lear's macaws had also been blackened, though not burned. As for the territories of the Navyfeather Clan and the Bluewings and blue-throated macaw clans, only a small fraction of their trees had been burned but thankfully, their home trees had been untouched, and part of the flying fox colony's territory also had burned trees. However, the devastation caused by the fire will soon fade as the rainforest will recover in the coming months like how it had always done. But certain parts of the rainforest had already recovered, especially from water loss as a result of the drought.
The lakes, rivers and the soil, had begun to be replenished by the rains, but the contraction of the water bodies' sizes and the receding of the waterline had been unbelievable, and this indicated that their replenishment will take a number of weeks. The waterfall of the Spix tribe's ravine had shrunken while the stream that ran through the Lear's macaws' ravine was almost nothing more than a trickle, but in time these water streams will return to normal size with more rains. While the macaws and the other birds living on the Sanctuary de Amazon prepared to carry their casualties to the human doctors for treatment, in Falkor's cave, some of Flavio's clan members had come to help Falkor take some of the birds too injured to be treated to the humans as well. However, one particular macaw did not seem very well at all.
While some of the birds in the large cavity of the cave were being escorted to the hyacinth macaws waiting outside by Falkor's parakeet helpers, Fedor and Ámbar had gone to check on Aurora. Zephyr and Tornado were still asleep, resting in a pile of moss against the cave wall not too far away. Ámbar checked on a Jandayan parakeet (not the one Soleado's tribe of blue-and-gold macaws had found injured by some flying foxes) treated for minor injuries and to her gladness, the parakeet seemed well enough to leave and not receive treatment from the humans.
"How is that parakeet doing, Ámbar?" asked Fedor the hoatzin.
"Very well," said Ámbar, "She's ready to leave."
While she began to talk with the parakeet, Fedor went over to Aurora. However, when the hoatzin approached the Spix macaw's side, he noticed something not quite right with her at all. Aurora looked horribly weak and her feathers were flat against her body. Her breathing was laboured and she seemed to be quivering. Fedor, a horrible thought blooming within him, raised a wing and touched Aurora's forehead to check her temperature. However, the moment his feathers made contact there, the hoatzin's brown eyes widened in horror.
"Ámbar," said he, making the lutino blue-and-gold macaw turn round. "Aurora's forehead is hot to the touch!"
Concern welling within her, Ámbar scuttled over to Aurora's side and touched Aurora's forehead to check for herself. The moment she did, her eyes widened with worry. Aurora's head felt like as hot as a piece of freshly burned wood but then Ámbar noticed something else. Aurora looked in pain, her breathing was quick, her feathers flat and she was trembling as though cold.
"Get Falkor here, quick," commanded Ámbar, "While I wake Zephyr and Tornado."
Fedor nodded and left to fetch the milicinth macaw while Ámbar hurried over to Zephyr and Tornado and quickly nudged them. The father and son stirred and groggily turned round to face Ámbar.
"What is it?" groaned Tornado. Zephyr let a yawn escape his beak and opened his wings to stretch.
"It's Aurora," replied Ámbar, her pale pink eyes swamped with worry, "She's got a high temperature!"
The moment the two male Spix macaws' brains picked up these words, their grogginess was replaced by concern. Zephyr immediately jumped out of the moss and hurried over to Aurora's side to place a wing on her forehead. Tornado and Ámbar followed. When Zephyr felt how hot Aurora's forehead was he began to tremble.
"Oh, no," he groaned in a low voice of dread. Then the pattering of two pairs of talons, one small and the other large, reached their ears. Fedor and Falkor had entered the scene and when Falkor saw the horrified and worried looks on Ámbar, Zephyr and Tornado's faces as Zephyr retracted his wing, he immediately went over to check Aurora's forehead himself. As he placed a teal and blue wing on her forehead and felt it burning, Falkor's eyes widened.
"She's got a fever," he said, withdrawing his wing. He then checked her breathing rate. Zephyr then began to quiver more violently despite Tornado's attempts to calm him down.
"I d-don't understand," he stammered as stress once again took hold of his body, "When I checked her temperature last night, it was just lukewarm. She claimed it to just be a cold she must have caught while flying through the forest in the rain and I believed her."
"What other symptoms did she display?" asked Falkor.
"She was restless, unable to sleep," said Zephyr, "Honestly; I think it could be a cold like she said…"
Falkor, however, made a firm looking face; his eyes clearly glinting with disagreement. When Zephyr saw this, he was confused.
"You don't agree with me?" he asked. Falkor confirmed it with a shake of his head.
"It's definitely not a cold," he said firmly, "Her fever's too high, her breathing is shallow and laboured and she is trembling and weak. Those are symptoms of something much more serious."
The moment Zephyr and Tornado's ears picked up these words, their beaks dropped open. Then Falkor turned to Ámbar sternly. "Have you checked her wounds, I have a bad feeling about this."
Ámbar and Fedor exchanged glances at these words and walked over to Aurora's leaf-bandaged back and right wing to remove the leaves. Tornado and Zephyr could only watch as the lutino blue-and-gold macaw and hoatzin carefully rolled Aurora onto her front and then set to work at untying the vines used to keep the leaves onto her back and wing.
The moment the coverings came off and were tossed aside, Ámbar drew in a sharp, horrified gasp while Fedor backed away with eyes wide and beak agape, stricken and in disbelief. Falkor came in and also gasped.
"Oh, no," he moaned in horror. Zephyr and Tornado then came over and when their eyes landed on the scratches marking Aurora's back and the tooth marks on the arm part of her wing, their eyes widened in horror too. Five or six streaks ran down Aurora's back from near the back of her head to the base of her tail, similar to the claw marks on a tree made by a jaguar. The bony part of her right wing was dotted with tooth punctures where that bat pup had bitten her, but both looked very bad. Before Ámbar and some parakeet assistants had set to treating the wounds, they had been mostly red and pink, fresh, blazing and angry, but now, they had more colour to them. The edges of the scratches and tooth marks were lined with a sickly, crusty substance, coloured pale green-yellow, and a milky white substance oozed out of some of their places, particularly from the scratches. The centre of the scratches were still red and pink but the area covered by them had been reduced by the additional, more grotesque colouring, and the wounds had a foul smell to them. Falkor immediately knew this meant only one thing.
"Her wounds have become infected," he whispered. This was met by disbelief from Fedor and Ámbar, and also shock and fear from Tornado and Zephyr.
"No," said Tornado in a low voice while Ámbar became confused.
"B-b-but I don't understand," stammered the lutino blue-and-gold macaw, "We've thoroughly cleaned the wounds with fresh rainwater and applied fresh leaves to them the moment we found Aurora, and we replaced the leaves regularly throughout the night."
"How come they have become infected?" asked Fedor. Falkor shot the hoatzin and lutino blue-and-gold an equally confused glare, before moving his glance from the two to the two Spix macaws.
Zephyr was deathly pale and he looked he was about to faint any moment. Seeing his mate with this new threat was beginning to pump his body with adrenaline again, and Tornado was also equally worried. At first, they couldn't understand how Aurora's wounds had become infected in the first place but then Zephyr remembered Aurora's explanation of how she managed to survive the fire and what happened in between that and her being found by Falkor and some of his assistants.
"Could anything have got into her wounds before we found her?" asked Falkor. Zephyr immediately answered the question.
"Well, she did say that as those flying foxes chased her through the jungle intent on killing her, Aurora got scratched by their leader and then bitten on the wing by one of the bat pups. After that, she was forced to coat herself in mud and camouflage herself from those bats. Maybe that could have something to do with it?"
As he said this, Falkor, Tornado, Ámbar and Fedor's eyes all widened. That seemed to have explained a lot. When Aurora had been chased by Voldemort and his gang, her life was in mortal danger. Shortly after being scratched by Voldemort and bitten by one of the pups, Aurora had been forced to coat herself with mud to utilise camouflage to escape the bats and because she had so little time in doing so, she did not focus on her injuries when she applied the mud. Mud may be an effective camouflage tool, but it was not a hygienic material for a macaw with open wounds to use. It was possible that Aurora had got bacteria from the mud into her wounds, but that might not be all. A flying fox's foot claws were not very hygienic either since they often walked around and always use them to hang from trees. Voldemort could have had his foot claws in anything: soil, mud, even near animal carcases, especially from those of birds when he had made a kill or had accompanied young bats out on their hunting trip for their first trophy in the form of the feathers taken from their slain avian victims, and the bat pup that had bitten Aurora didn't have a very healthy oral hygiene either. As realisation dawned upon the five as they stared at the infected claw marks on Aurora's back and tooth marks on her wing, Falkor broke the silence.
"We need to get her to the humans and quick," he said urgently as he saw Aurora beginning to breathe harder and twist her face in pain. Infected wounds like the ones on Aurora's back and wing, can be deadly, fatal if not treated quickly. By now Zepohnyr was having a panic attack. The skin under his blue-white and blue feathers was pale and he was finding it hard to breathe. Tornado tried to calm him down.
"Breathe, son," said Tornado gently but Zephyr still continued hyperventilating.
"I can't," he cried and he began to tremble and sob, shouting Aurora's name. Falkor then immediately opened his large wings, took off and carefully wrapped his large talons around the weak Aurora's wings.
"I'll be the one to take her to the humans," he said as he gently picked her up.
"But I wanna take her," protested Zephyr but Falkor was insistent that he do the job.
"No, I'll take her," he said, "I'm almost twice the size of you and have bigger wings, and birds with big wings can cover more distance than smaller birds like you Spix macaws. Therefore, I can get her to the humans quicker than you can."
Then without another second's hesitation, he left with Aurora toward the entrance/exit tunnel, calling "Excuse me', emergency coming through."
Fedor, Ámbar, Tornado and the panicky Zephyr followed as the parakeet helpers diverged to let Falkor through. Then soon, Falkor emerged from the entrance to the cave and was outside. The moment he emerged, he took to the air, carrying Aurora with him. The four smaller birds took off and followed.
As Falkor then began to rush Aurora to the humans, he passed by a few familiar hyacinth macaws and a glaucous macaw. They were Phoebe, Marinho and Flavio, and Levi. Cobalto, Zebedee and Indigo, and Lapis Lazuli, Tristan, Quincy, Larimar and Trixie were back in the home patch of the Navyfeather Clan, helping the glaucous macaw tribe move into their new home. When Flavio saw Falkor, his face morphed into a look of surprise when he saw the milicinth macaw begin to rocket off with a bundle of maya blue feathers in his talons.
"Falkor?" he asked. Falkor shot him a glare.
"No time to stop and explain everything, Flavio," he replied, "Aurora is not well at all and needs medical attention from those humans fast!"
And with that, he shot off as fast as he could, a green and teal blur with blue tipped wings and tail. Phoebe, Marinho and Levi hovered with perplexed looks on their faces when suddenly; two blue and blue-white blurs appeared and shot by. Zephyr and Tornado, both too focussed on Aurora and Falkor, did not acknowledge their three friends and just rocketed on.
"What's going on?" asked Phoebe. Then Fedor and Ámbar appeared.
"Aurora has been injured," explained Ámbar, "She has a large scratch on her back and a bite on her right wing, but both of those wounds have become infected."
"Oh, no," cried Flavio in disbelief. Marinho, Phoebe and Levi reacted with a horrified flinch and gasp each.
"So Falkor is rushing her to those humans that had come to help us treat our casualties," said Fedor. Turning to Phoebe, he said, "You might want to return to the Spix tribe's ravine and let them know, especially Tornado's family and Zephyr and Aurora's chicks that Aurora won't be coming back to the ravine this morning. We had hoped that she would be well enough to return to Eduardo's tribe but… due to the condition she is in, that's been delayed."
Phoebe then flashed Flavio a look and then turned round to carry out the command. "Okay, I'll let Eduardo know right away."
And with that, she was gone. Then Levi began to ask a thousand questions.
"But how did Aurora end up with infected wounds?" he asked, "What happened...?"
"It's a long story," said Fedor, cutting him off, "But to cut that short, she had been attacked by a few of those flying furballs from that deranged Cicatriz's colony, after the fire had been calmed, and they scratched and bit her."
When Flavio, Marinho and Levi heard this, they gasped again. Then Flavio's horror was replaced by rage. However, he managed to control his temper as Ámbar said, "We believe those flying foxes that had attacked Aurora might have been separated from the colony by that fire. One of the blue-throated macaws that had helped to bring in an injured toucan family told us that the fire had spread into those bats' patch as well."
"Well, we'll let them off this once," said Flavio with a low growl, but he was trembling with rage at what had happened to Aurora, "But if any of those flying furballs are ever caught on ANY of our territories, I'm going to advise the other macaw tribes and clans and smaller bird groups who catch them to aggressively drive them out. However, if those bats refuse to comply, they have my permission to kill them."
"We've had a report of a flying fox attack on a Jandayan parakeet from the blue-and-gold macaws as well," said Ámbar, "Thankfully it happened outside the blue-and-gold tribe's territory border but Soleado has been sending patrol groups to keep an eye on it just in case."
"Well, that's good," said Marinho, shuddering at what Aurora must have been through at the clutches of those flying foxes. Levi also quivered as he remembered Lapis Lazuli's story. Then Fedor stole a glance at the busy infirmary cave.
"Anyway, we'd better get back to work," he said, "Our assistants will be needing our help for we still have quite a few casualties to deal with."
Ámbar nodded in agreement and with that, the duo turned round to leave in the direction of the cave. As they did this, a hyacinth macaw came in with six glaucous macaw chicks and an adolescent. They were the same seven youngsters Zephyr and Tornado had found during their search for Aurora in the fire. When Flavio saw the seven young glaucous macaws, he said, "I believe those seven are from Rudi's tribe, are they, Pedro?"
"Yes," said Pedro, Victor's father, looking down at the seven youngsters, "They were found by Zephyr and Tornado according to Falkor and Phoebe and had brought them here. They just need taking back to the glaucous macaw tribe."
"Great," said Flavio with a nod.
"I'll do that," said Marinho and with that, he commanded the seven young glaucous macaws to follow him. Obediently, the six chicks and adolescent followed Flavio's nephew and they left for the Navyfeathers' home patch. Levi smiled as he watched them leave.
"I'm so glad that Rudi likes that cluster of trees and that his tribe is moving in smoothly, Flavio," he said, "It's large enough to house his tribe with room to spare, and there is plenty of food to support both of us and your clan, and the glaucous macaws will be safe from the touch of loggers and poachers."
"It was an excellent idea Phoebe had," said Flavio gratefully, "At least those trees and the surplus food will get used. Though we hyacinth macaws do need quite a lot of food compared to the smaller macaw species, we have an awful lot of food in our territory, so much that we always have loads and loads left over. But that surplus will be enough to feed Rudi's tribe."
"Lapis Lazuli is very happy as well," said Levi joyfully, "As am I. Our chicks will be surrounded by friends and will get to visit Phoebe's family every day, and the chicks of Rudi's tribe will get to play with the chicks from your clan and have no more worries about inheriting the awful conditions the glaucous tribe had before."
"Interestingly enough, I'd never thought that so many glaucous macaws had managed to escape the siege on their home by those barbaric bats," said Pedro, "It's amazing really. Rudi must have been very prepared for such an event. Normally, bird tribes and clans don't stand much of a chance against a huge wave of attacking flying foxes."
"Aurora only got a taste of what it was like to be attacked by those dog-faced furballs," said Flavio, "But that is nothing compared to what the glaucous macaws and the red-fronted macaw clan faced…"
He then sighed and stared into the unburnt trees and said, "I just hope Falkor gets Aurora to those humans in time before those infected wounds kill her."
Levi and Pedro nodded in agreement.
Later
The makeshift animal hospital tents were finally erected and were working full tilt. A variety of animals such as monkeys, capybaras, and various species of birds had been found and brought in by Tulio and the other humans to be treated. Among them were Susan and Lucy for they had been called to help. While the humans were up to their work, a news report team had also touched down to shoot the footage. Back in Rio, in Susan and Lucy's home, Dash, Ginger, Veggie and Catina and their offspring, the puppies Esperanza, James, Avellana and Danny and kittens Broccoli, Daisy and Collette, watched the TV. They had been put under the care of a neighbour by Susan and Lucy before they left for Tulio's Aviary, so the neighbour was in charge of looking after the house and the pets while the two women were away. The neighbour also watched the TV as the news began to play.
"Well, after that devastating fire last night," said the newswoman to a camera in the medical treatment setup area, "It seems that the majority of the animals on the Sanctuary de Amazon had managed to survive. We have had reports from the air filming team that the flocks of Spix macaws, the Lear's macaws, the green macaws and the other flocks have also survived the fire…"
"Yes," said Veggie with utter joy. That joy also washed through the other cats and dogs.
"It's almost like a miracle," said Dash, "In a fire like that, a flock of birds often don't stand much of a chance."
"They must have taken refuge somewhere," said Ginger.
"Tulio ought to be relieved," said Catina. As if on cue, the camera pointed to Tulio and Linda who were among the dozens of humans helping to treat the injured animals. Fernando, Jack and Jill were also there, visible through the gap between Tulio and Linda as the two began to express their joy at the news.
"Yes, thanks, Alexandra," said Tulio, a wide smile clearly shining on his face, "Thanks for letting us know about the Spix and Lear's macaws and that they are still alive. We are also glad that the fire had died down but it had been awful last night. I had been swamped with worry about the Spix and Lear's macaws…"
Nearby, Lucy also smiled and uttered a prayer of thanks to God in her mind for keeping the macaws and other animals safe from the fire.
"We still haven't had any news about the glaucous macaws yet," said the newswoman named Alexandra. When the cat and dog families heard this, their faces fell. But then suddenly, Jack's voice sounded.
"Tulio, Linda; LOOK OVER THERE!" he shouted. The two adults turned round and saw Jack point a finger in a certain direction. Tulio and Linda followed the point and the moment their eyes landed on what had caught Jack's attention, awed and disbelieving murmurs began to sound throughout the medical setup. The cameraman filming the footage then turned his camera and began to follow some of the humans.
"What's going on?" asked Veggie. The other cats and dogs also looked perplexed but then the centre point of the commotion finally became clear.
"There are some glaucous macaws coming toward us," shouted Tulio's voice, "Unbelievable..."
The moment the cats and dogs heard this, their confusion turned to shock.
"What!?" gasped Ginger.
"Glaucous macaws!?" added Catina. The kittens and puppies also widened their eyes as the TV camera then showed a small flock of Spix macaw like birds then fly towards the humans. However, it was clear that they weren't Spix macaws. Most of the birds' body feathers, and wings and tails were either blue or more commonly, turquoise, sometimes with a greenish tint, and azure. Some of the macaws had greyish tail undersides but all of them had grey heads and necks, and a strip of yellow bordering their eyes and a yellow piece of skin behind their lower beaks. As soon as the flock of glaucous macaws were near the humans, they slowed to a hover, some of them revealing some more glaucous macaws in their talons. Those macaws looked injured. Some had gashes marking their bodies while a few speared to have fractured wings. The moment the humans came near, animal medics immediately began taking the injured macaws away to treat them. While they did this, Tulio turned to the camera, his eyes sparkling with utter shock and joy.
"Looks like we have full confirmation that a flock of the macaw species believed to have gone extinct in the wild with the last recorded sighting in the 1960s is living out here!" he cried, barely able to control his excitement, "We'd better locate where they live and include their habitat as part of the Sanctuary de Amazon straight away!"
Dash smiled with amusement as he watched the lead ornithologist jump up and down.
"He's like a kid excited over a new toy," he said.
"I'm not surprised," said Ginger, "It's a remarkable discovery."
Then Broccoli recognised one of the glaucous macaws. "Hey, Mom, Dad, guys, isn't that Mr Levi?"
He pointed a paw to the screen. The others looked and sure enough, they saw a teal-tinted turquoise glaucous macaw with sandy brown eyes hover nearby, much to Susan and Lucy's shock.
"Levi!?" gasped Susan, "What are you doing out here?"
Then a white parrot with a yellow crest appeared on the screen.
"And Travis too," said Ginger.
"Looks like they have survived the fire as well," said Catina.
"Unbelievable," said Veggie. Then the kittens and puppies cheered loudly as Travis was hugged by Susan and Lucy. Then as the group of humans began to treat the injured glaucous macaws, another familiar macaw appeared on the screen.
"Wait, is that Aurora?" asked Dash, recognising the macaw. The others looked closely and saw that it was a Spix macaw with a pair of pigtail-like head feathers. What other macaw, than Matilda, had a set of head feathers like those?"
"It is," said Veggie.
"She looks in bad shape," said Catina. Indeed Aurora was. She was lying in a bed of soft tissue and paper. Her back and right wing were bandaged and Aurora's head was gently held up by a gloved human hand. The other human hand, also gloved, had some sort of tube that narrowed to a smaller cylinder that entered Aurora's beak. Inside the tube was a clear liquid and a pushing piece was pushing the liquid into Aurora's beak at a carefully controlled pace. Linda began to give the description of what was going on.
"This Spix macaw was brought to us by one of her friends," she said, "As it turns out, it is Aurora, the former pet or animal companion of Susan and Lucy. She was brought here with a bad scratch on her back and what I believe was a bitten wing based on the puncture wounds she had on it. Both of the wounds were horribly infected but now we have thoroughly cleaned the wounds and bandaged them up and we've been given her antibiotics to help kill any bacteria that have entered her body. As you can see here, Amy is just finishing giving her the next dose…"
After Amy, the one holding the transparent tube called a syringe, had finished giving Aurora the next dose of antibiotics, she retracted it from her beak and moved her hand away from Aurora's head. Veggie looked on in shock.
"Infected wounds?" he said.
"She must have been attacked by a predatory bird or something," said Ginger. (More like vicious bats, Ginger).
"Yeah, being new to the wild is often fraught with dangers lurking around every corner," said Catina. Then Daisy, one of Broccoli's sisters, asked, "Will we ever get to visit the Amazon?"
"Don't be silly, Daisy," replied Veggie with slight irritation at this impractical desire, "We're housecats. We're not built for such an environment as a rainforest like how jaguars are."
"Yes, you wouldn't survive for long," said Ginger. Then Veggie remembered when he and Dash had to spend the night in Tijuca forest after escaping the smugglers. "In fact, Dash and I did get a taste of staying in a wild forest during the night after we fled that psychotic cat Brutus and his band of cats and their smuggler owners. I never liked it out there at all. It's definitely not for domestic cats and dogs."
"Absolutely not," said Dash, also remembering that night.
"But having said that, did you know that all domestic dogs are descended from a wild dog that is adapted to living in a wild habitat?" said Veggie, "The grey wolf of North America is the ancestor to every breed of dog now in existence. Bia and Poinsettia told me."
"Really?" replied Ginger surprised.
"I didn't know that," said Dash.
"And yet there are so many dogs with so much variety," said James.
"It's so mind boggling," said Esperanza. Avellana and Danny nodded in agreement. Veggie then winked with a smirk at the greyhounds.
"It's clear that that dogs have an amazing variety of physical traits, my canine friends, as brought out by artificial selection," he said, "We cats also have a LOT of variety too. Examples of cats adapted to different environments include us domestic cats for the human home, the jaguar for the rainforest, the tiger that lives in India's jungles, the speedy cheetah, the burly and master tree-climber leopard and the mighty lion of the plains of Africa."
The cats and dogs all burst out laughing.
"You know, you certainly have spent a lot of time with Bia and Poinsettia, my dear," said Catina.
"You'd probably become almost like them if you spend enough time with them, Dad," said Collette. Veggie smiled. "Well, I'll never get my head around mathematical and physics equations, genetics and other complicated sciences, my daughter."
The group then entered another fit of laughter again. Then Dash opened his eyes and saw Susan look over Aurora in horror. "Well, I hope Aurora recovers from her infection and returns to living with the other Spix macaws with Zephyr and their chicks."
"Yup," said Ginger. The others nodded in agreement sand continued watching the TV as the news carried on.
Midmorning
The humans' setup of the medical tents and use of the helicopters had reached maximum activity. Animals such as a few macaws were being treated for a variety of injures, among them burns, broken limbs, gashes and more. While the humans carried out their work, a sea of colourful feathers perched in some trees on the edge of the deforested area. Eduardo sat with Mimi, Blu, Jewel, Carla, Bia and Tiago, Roberto sat with Brisa, Zephyr, Tornado, Gael, Nuvem and Viento, and Cassia the lead tribe nurse sat with Nuvem. With Zephyr and Tornado sat Justin, Charlotte, Matilda and Virgil. Near the Spix macaws, some green (military and great green), Lear's, blue-and-gold, blue-throated, hyacinth, scarlet and green-winged, and glaucous macaws sat together. Valentino and Rosalind sat next to Alonso and Verde while among the crowd, D'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, Phoebe, Levi, Travis and all their mates and chicks sat with their extended families and friends. Tornado had been the one to bring Aurora directly to the humans after managing to catch up with Falkor the milicinth macaw with Zephyr. Falkor had carried Aurora for most of the way but he did not want to be seen by humans and thus mistaken for a new species, so he had Zephyr and Tornado finish the job instead, as soon as they had found the human setup. Tornado had taken Aurora from his talons and had quickly rushed his sick daughter-in-law to a group of humans, who had taken her away for immediate treatment. After this, Zephyr and Tornado were reunited with Brisa, Nuvem, Gael, Viento, and Zephyr and Aurora's chicks, Justin and his three siblings, as well as their other friends. Now they were watching from the sidelines. There was a moment of silence enveloping the air above the macaws, but then finally, Alonso broke it. Turning slowly to Valentino who stood right next to him, he raised a wing, but not hostilely.
"I presume a lot of your territory has been badly damaged by the fire, hasn't it?" he asked, "Including the cliff face in which most of your tribe stays in."
"Yes it has," said Valentino in a voice not laced with hostility, "I suppose a lot of your territory's been damaged too, hasn't it?"
"Yes," said Alonso. Then he sighed and thought. "You know, I think it's time for us to start anew… time to turn over a new leaf…"
As he said this, Aramis, Esmeralda, Chlorophyll and Petunia looked up hopefully, as did Sapphire, D'Artagnan, Miranda, Jasmine and Annette who had been allowed back into the Lear's tribe by Valentino. Valentino sighed and said, "I agree."
Then he turned to face the green tribe patriarch and raised a wing.
"This feud," he began. Alonso also raised a wing and joined it with Valentino's.
"Ends here," he said, finishing Valentino's sentence. Their respective mates, Rosalind and Verde smiled as cheering erupted from the other macaws behind them, especially from the Lear's and green macaws. Then the latter two began shaking wings. Waldo shook wings with Lewin and Luis, his bitter rivalry with the two brothers having dissolved and Rosalind shook wings with Verde. Aramis, D'Artagnan and their families smiled widely, the feud between their tribes now finally dissolved. Then Alonso remembered the camu-camu fruit grove.
"Well, now that we're going to make peace," he said, "I just had a thought about the camu-camu fruit grove. I was thinking about giving the entire grove to you Lear's macaws."
"No, you keep it," said Valentino. Alonso was about to disagree when Drake flew in.
"Alonso," he said. Alonso turned to him.
"Yes, Drake," said the green tribe patriarch.
"I believe we may have found a cluster of camu-camu fruit near the green/blue-and-gold border," said Drake, "At the moment they're a pile of burned sticks and leaves but they do bear a strong resemblance to the camu-camu grove we shared with the Lear's macaws."
Then Verde looked at Alonso with hope. "It could solve the problem of the camu-camu fruit grove conflict we have had with the Lear's macaws for so long, dear."
Alonso then thought. After thinking, he said, "Right, after this, Drake, I would like you to take me there and show me those supposed camu-camu bushes."
Drake smiled and returned to his perch. Valentino flashed Alonso a smile.
"At least we don't have to face so much competition with you green macaws," he said. He then felt a twinge of guilt flare within him. The years of conflict his tribe had with the greens had come to mind.
"Look," said Alonso with a wing on his shoulder, "Those days are gone now. We start anew. From now on, we are going to be friends and will stand together. This fire has changed all of us."
"Yep," said Rosalind. Then Valentino shot a glance at D'Artagnan and said, "Oh, Alonso, about that little incident leading to our match in the Pit of Doom for the whole camu-camu fruit grove?"
"Yes?" said Alonso.
"It wasn't that macaw D'Artagnan over there who crossed into your territory," said Valentino, "It was actually one of my other macaws, Archie. For some reason he did not like D'Artagnan at all and had set him up to get rid of him. However, I've evicted him for this mess he has got us in with you green macaws."
Then Verde raised her head.
"Oh, Valentino, about that," she said, "Some of our patrollers did find the body of a macaw in the clearing of un-owned land between our territory's border and that marking the flying fox colony's territory after the fire had died down. It had navy blue feathers; teal tinged facial feathers, the yellow-orange eye rings and beak lappet, green eyes and had a muscular build. It appeared to be male and he had a short feather ruffle behind his head. We believe that macaw could be from your tribe that might have got lost in the fire."
Valentino put together the description of the macaw and realised that it was Archie.
"Is that macaw alive?" he asked hopefully. Alonso and Verde shook their heads sadly.
"No," said Verde, "Our patrollers had checked his pulse and he definitely wasn't."
This news made Valentino's face fall. Then Sapphire began to weep, so D'Artagnan put a comforting wing around her shoulders. Archie, despite his hatred toward D'Artagnan and the trouble he had caused him to be with Sapphire, had been one of her closest childhood friends and his death had devastated the macaw greatly. Alonso then put a comforting wing on the saddened Valentino's shoulders again.
"We're so sorry about that, but it's true," he whispered.
"How did he die?" asked Rosalind.
"He's been found with lacerations on his torso," said Alonso. He then winced as the description of the carcass the patrol group that had discovered Archie's body brought back to him repeated in his mind. "It's too gruesome to describe, but we believe that it was the flying foxes' doing."
Valentino and Rosalind's sadness turned to horror and they winced in revulsion but Alonso nodded to confirm that it was true.
"It was definitely not caused by a predatory bird based on the description that patrol group brought me and Verde," he said. Rosalind then shook as she stole a glance from D'Artagnan.
"That pigtailed Spix macaw friend of his was almost slaughtered by a group of them as well," she said, "according to Flavio, the head of the Navyfeathers Clan."
"Huh, talk about a close brush with death their friend must have faced," said Alonso as he stared at D'Artagnan and then at Aramis. The others nodded in agreement. While the Lear's and green macaws were making peace with each other, Rudi sat next to Eduardo and next to him, Flavio stood with Phoebe, Cobalto, Zebedee, Indigo and Marinho. Rudi was indeed dwarfed by the adult hyacinth macaws and was only half the size of them. Valeria was back in the glaucous macaws' new home with Alberto and Lorenzo, their two sons.
"You know, I can't thank you enough for providing us with a home," said Rudi to Flavio, "It's the sort of home we've been looking for years since we lost our last one to the flying furballs."
"Well, there you have it," said Flavio, "If your leader had asked another tribe or clan in the first place rather than settle in a vulnerable spot as refugees, you wouldn't have had to live like that in the coming years."
"We heard that a clan of red-fronted macaws had been driven out," said Rodrigo who sat nearby, "That reminded us of when they attacked us…" he then quivered with guilt and looked at Levi and Lapis Lazuli with their four chicks, "…and how I abandoned Lapis Lazuli when we were adolescents."
He then smiled at the couple. "At least she has a mate who truly cares for her now. I'm just not the right sort of guy for Lapis at all."
"You ought to count yourself lucky I didn't evict you from our tribe, Rodrigo," said Rudi angrily. Rodrigo sighed. Then Rudi moved on.
"But it was very difficult in getting over the reluctance to show ourselves to those humans who are now treating the injured members of my tribe," he said, "And provide proof that our species is still in existence."
"That's how we lived," said Eduardo, "Until we realised that we were in the wrong."
Rudi smiled and nodded in agreement. He couldn't have been prouder and was glad to have revealed his tribe to the glaucous macaws and move in with a clan of caring hyacinth macaws who had kept their now occupied cluster of trees open in case a bird clan or tribe wanted to move in with them. Two major changes had taken place over the fateful night last night despite the terror the fire had caused all the residents in the Sanctuary de Amazon. The glaucous macaws moving into the safety of the Sanctuary de Amazon where they will be protected from poaching and logging as well as revealing themselves to Tulio and his team who will then work to include this vulnerable flock into the protected reserve, and the Lear's and green macaw tribes making peace… at last.