Chapter 36- Athos's encounter with a strange group

Later

Athos lay on something soft, like moss. His consciousness was beginning to seep back into him and his vision was beginning to clear. As the world before his eyes began to clarify, starting from a blurry mess, Athos looked up and saw some strange amorphous, blurry shapes before him. It was as though he was swimming through a dreamy atmosphere. However, he did not feel any raindrops pattering against his face and his feathers felt dryer. Then a voice of one of the shapes echoed in his ears, as though Athos were in a large room.

"The scarlet macaw's coming around, Lily."

Athos gazed at the blurry shapes with his still-blurred vision which continued to clear. Some of the shapes appeared bird-shaped for they were brightly coloured and had blobs on their head below a pair of smaller white blobs, indicating faces but a few of the other shapes appeared strange and unrecognisable. One of them was white and did not appear to resemble a bird at all. Two other bizarre and unrecognisable forms stood by the white form. One was reddish and the other dark brown with a white splotch on its front. As Athos's vision became clearer, he saw that the shapes had two pointed triangles above a pair of what appeared to be eyes. Ears. Draping down towards the ground on either side of the bodies of the three creatures like cloaks appeared to be wings but they weren't wings made out of feathers. The brightly coloured forms, however, did have feathered wings and were thus indeed birds. As Athos's vision continued to clear such that his vision acuity reached its normal, recognition of the three odd forms' species, and type of animal, pricked at him. Confused groans and murmurs escaped his beak and Athos's head felt like lead, as though he had been violently thrown against a rock or tree trunk. He tried to move a wing or a talon but felt a painful surge come from the muscles in his limbs. Athos's muscles had eased up, a consequence of their rigorous use during his escape from the stream. His wing muscles were not as painful as his talon and leg muscles but Athos felt like he had run a marathon entirely on foot, including on his left one, the one that had been bitten by Nigel. He winced in pain from his aching muscles and continued to groan tiredly. Then he heard some of the shapes speak but they sounded less echoed than a few minutes before.

"To hear that he had managed to crawl out of that rushing stream in your territory Lily, Marcus and Ana is an absolute shock. He could have drowned in a rushing stream like that."

"We found him on the bank of that stream, Fidel, and we deduced that he might have crawled ashore from it. There's no way he could have flown in the rain into our territory based on his sodden plumage and where he lay."

"We didn't have time to deduce how he ended up in our colony's patch, anyway. We had to get him to safety before any of our colony-mates found him and killed him. You know the majority of our colony. They absolutely DESPISE any bird on their territory and will not hesitate to kill them…"

While the forms continued to talk, Athos flinched in fright. Colony-mates? 'You know the majority of our colony. They absolutely DESPISE any bird on their territory and will not hesitate to kill them'?

The last sentence made Athos's guts turn as a horrible feeling bubbled within him. 'Don't tell me some of these creatures are flying foxes, are they?' he thought, remembering what those bats were like with birds. Then Athos examined the three forms that had the bizarre, featherless wings and to his horror, he realised that they were. But what was even more surprising was the fact that the other forms were birds. BIRDS!? Athos felt utter flabbergast wash over him. 'What is a group of birds doing with some flying foxes!? I thought those flying foxes despised us birds and would kill us on sight,' thought the scarlet macaw. Athos was utterly confused and when his eyes, which were able to see clearly by now, examined the feathered forms, he realised that some of them were macaws while a few others were parakeets and some other bird species. However, the macaws Athos saw weren't any species of macaw he had seen before. One or two of the macaws resembled scarlet macaws but Athos noticed that the feathers on their heads faded from red to golden orange or yellow towards the back. The macaws' fronts were a red-orange, similar to the colour of Athos' son Alexandre's plumage. The wings of the macaws were various shades of blue but unlike a scarlet macaw which had a yellow band of contours dividing the red from the blue or teal flight feathers, those contours also sometimes fringed with green, the contours on the wings of these macaws were burgundy and rusty brown. Their tails were red with blue tips and their lower backs were mostly blue. The other macaws and birds appeared to have bizarre colours that Athos had never seen on parrots, such as pink or neon yellow.

Some of the macaws and other birds appeared small, indicating that they were either youngsters or birds of small species like honeycreepers. Athos blinked, especially at the scarlet macaw-like parrots. These macaws' plumage colours made them resemble a certain extinct species of macaw he had seen in a book of birds at Linda's bookstore in Rio, while the other birds appeared to be species completely undiscovered by humans for he had never seen birds like them in any book he had read. Cuban red macaws!? But those macaws have gone extinct in Cuba well over a century ago, and what are those other birds!?

Several of the birds in the crowd, however, appeared to be more recognisable species. There was a golden conure standing beside the chocolate brown and white flying fox and a few honeycreepers dotted some sort of perch nearby. Athos then thought he saw a wall creeping with snake-like structures and realised he was in some sort of shelter. A tree hollow, perhaps. Suddenly, the delirious scarlet macaw flinched in alarm as a membranous wing supported by long fingers was extended from the white form.

"Relax, scarlet macaw," said the creature in a soothing female voice, "You've had a close brush with death."

"We actually thought you'd have drowned when we saw you," said the male reddish creature. Still Athos refused to calm down. He was trembling violently and very frightened. He had no idea where he was, or who these creatures were.

"He's seriously scared, Lily," said one of the bizarre macaws.

"I'm not surprised, Fidel," said the white creature, "Our colony is very greatly feared by the majority of birds in the Amazon rainforest because of what they have done to so many bird tribes and clans in the past and what they still do now."

This sent another wave of shock coursing through Athos. He had been told time and time again about the dangers of the flying foxes and their murderous attitude towards all birds of the Amazon but these three seemed different from what he had been told. Too different to believe, in fact. Overcome with the utter shock of seeing three flying foxes who appeared to be friends with a group of birds and how sympathetic they were, Athos's vision began to blacken again. However, he heard a few of the occupants in the room speak as he slipped into the black world of fainting.

"I don't think he should stay here any longer, Lily, the shock is too much for him. Do you think we should take him back to where he belongs?"

"But it's dark out there, Fidel, can't it wait until morning?"

"I know, leave it to us golden parakeets. We'll take him back. If his family or his tribe know he's missing, they'll be searching for him…"

These were the last words Athos heard of this mysterious group before he finally slipped into the world of blackness once again as he fainted in shock.

A while later

The darkness of the starless night continued to shroud the rainforest, and the rains had eased somewhat. The eerie sounds of the nocturnal animals continued to fill the air and a few flecks of light from some fireflies danced over some lakes and in the bush like moving stars, flashing on and off. However, the night time patrol groups from the macaw tribes and clans continued their search for Athos in the dark rainforest, searching around the stream in which he had fallen. However, hope of his whereabouts in that area had begun to fade, and some other night patrols were being sent out for a general patrol trip.

In one part of the dark jungle, a small mixed group of blue-throated and green macaws approached the border of the Bluewing Clan and blue-throated macaws' territory to the unprotected land outside to do some border checking for any flying fox activity. Among the group were Franco, one of Carolina and Erijko, Ariel and Fernanda's parents' friends and the captain of the blue-throated macaw clan's Pit of Doom team, and Lewin and Luis, the twin brothers and friends of Esmeralda and Aramis and now Waldo, D'Artagnan and Sapphire. The brothers had opted to join the group on the night check on the border for a change after helping to search in and around the stream for Athos after hearing of his demise and Ruby's devastation. As the group of macaws searched along the border of the Blue-throated and Bluewing clans' territory, checking for flying foxes, the leader, an aged male hyacinth named Leonel indicated by streaks of silver strewn through his navy blue plumage and knobbly talons, and one of Demetrio and Violeta's inner circle birds, issued the others a stern warning and reminder.

"Remember folks," he said, carrying some sort of lantern on a stick, "We must NOT stray beyond these trees and into those bats' territory, especially at night, or we're definitely dead if we're ever caught by those bats on their land."

The lantern was a woven leaf ball containing some fireflies attached by a vine to a stick which night time patrol and search groups used when doing night patrols and searches or lost tribe or clan members at night, such as after a fire. Violeta's grandfather had been the one to devise the idea after seeing the artificial lights humans used to navigate through the jungle at night. Since then, firefly lanterns had been used during night-time patrols and searches for daytime birds such as macaws could not see well in the dark. Some of the other macaws in the patrol group also had these firefly lanterns.

Lewin, Luis and Franco then searched one of the feather-marked trees to check for bats, Lewin carrying one of the firefly lanterns to provide light for the other two to see the dark patch easily, but found nothing there to their relief. While they continued their border patrol which then led them down into the canopy, Lewin was still in disbelief over Athos's demise.

"I still can't believe that such a psychotic bird would do such a thing to Ruby's family," he said, perching onto a branch to rest, "The chances of any macaw or non-water bird coming out of a stream of rushing water alive is pretty slim."

"Yeah, absolutely, especially if the flow is choppy," said Luis.

"The searchers looking for him in and around that stream are losing hope of finding him, actually," said Franco, "In fact, they have been searching from where Athos's friends who had witnessed him fall into that stream with that bird had indicated the spot where it happened, all the way down to its forking and where the stream continues to flow. They have searched in and around both forks, checking under every fern and other forest floor object in case Athos may have pulled himself out of the stream and into shelter, but could not find anything."

"That stream forks and one of its branches runs into flying fox territory, doesn't it?" said Luis. Then a dreadful thought hit him.

"What is it?" asked Lewin. Franco also gazed at the great green macaw. Luis shot them a dark look.

"What if he might have been carried by that stream to the flying fox territory?" he asked. Franco and Lewin's faces fell as their hopes of finding Athos began to flow out like sand. Suddenly, a voice of one of the hyacinth macaws, a female, jolted the three out of their thoughts.

"Guys," she called through the dark clutter of vegetation, also carrying a firefly lantern on a stick, "I think we may have found who we have been looking for in that stream. How he ended up here, I don't know."

Lewin, Luis and Franco exchanged glances and flew over to the female hyacinth macaw who was accompanied by two blue-throated macaws.

"What is it, Gloria," asked Leonel as a flurry of flapping wings filled the dark air as the other patrol group members flew over. As soon as the other patrol groups had gathered round, Gloria shone the firefly lantern over the face of a limp body of a macaw on a large branch. It had red feathers, a flat sheet of feathers on the back of his head and it was a large macaw. Lewin and Luis immediately recognised him. They had seen him with Ruby and their three chicks while they were on an outing with Aramis and his family in their territory and had waved to him.

"That's it," said Lewin, "That's Athos."

The group let loose a small and relieved cheer that they had finally found the missing macaw, and on their night patrol of the border to the flying fox territory as well. However, they were confused as to how Athos had ended up here if he had fallen in that stream some distance away but the answer to that was nearby.

From a nearby bush of leaves, a few pairs of eyes peered at the group of macaws. These eyes were awash with gladness that Athos had been found for the macaws seemed to know him. Then with a few exchanges of glances at each other as they shared their happiness on a task complete, the cloaked figures left their hiding place, so silently that Leonel's patrol group did not notice them. This hidden group had spotted Leonel's patrol group based on their lanterns and had placed Athos close to them without their presence being alerted. Now that this task was done, they left to return to where they were. Next, Leonel checked Athos's breathing and pulse.

"He's alive," he said, "But he's unconscious. Let's take him to Felipe's tribe's home and alert the others."

And with that, he opened his large wings, wrapped his talons around Athos's wings and prepared to carry him to Felipe's tribe's territory. Then a few seconds later, Leonel's group had taken off for Felipe's patch, the unconscious Athos in tow.

The red tribe's home patch

Ruby and Pearl were perched outside the hole to Cherie's home, watching as Cherie tucked Spinel and Poinsettia to bed. The three chicks were being shared between Cherie and Tito and also between Pearl and Felipe, and at this moment, Cherie was looking after Spinel and Poinsettia and Tito was looking after Alexandre. Tito's hollow was not too far away and Tito had already tucked the boy into his nest. Ruby watched as Cherie said goodnight to Spinel and Poinsettia and sighed. Since Athos's plunging into the stream with Nigel, the three chicks had been on edge throughout the afternoon and into the night. Because of this, all three siblings had been too restless to settle down. This was one of the reasons why they had been put under the temporary care of Cherie and Tito and also Felipe and Pearl who had hoped their cousins' presence would help settle them as Ruby was too swamped with negative emotions and heartbreak over Athos's loss to care for the chicks at the moment. Overhead, the sky was cloudy and the moon and stars were screened from view and the rains had eased, but small flashes of thunder loomed in the distance, implying another thunderstorm.

"Those two girls and their brother had been awake WELL past the time they should be in bed, Pearl," said Ruby to her sister wearily. The pressure release through her sobbing had made her feel better but the heartbreak over Athos's loss still remained on her heart. But then Ruby felt an utter wave of disgust.

"At least Nigel will be enjoying his accomplishment of inflicting this deep wound on us by doing this to Athos," she growled bitterly.

"Nigel?" asked Pearl in confusion.

"He was that infamously sadistic cockatoo who loved to torture exotic birds, Pearl," said Ruby, "I haven't told you much about him have I?"

Pearl shook her head to confirm it, so Ruby began to explain what Nigel's involvement in the events of the past two days had been about.

"Nigel used to be a star bird until a parakeet replaced him, leading him to detest exotic birds and join a group of smugglers so that he could take his wrath out on them by abusing them. He actually enjoys abusing those poor birds. Anyway, during the past few days, Nigel wanted to devastate Aurora and Levi and their chicks by killing Zephyr and Lapis Lazuli respectively like how he had done to them when he killed their families when they were only a few months old. Also, he wanted revenge on Blu and Jewel for crippling his ability to fly. I haven't met him that much but based on Blu's account of that cockatoo's following him and his family into the Amazon, it seems that revenge had been on his mind even before he met those poachers. Anyway, when Nigel's plans didn't go accordingly, Nigel eventually lost his temper and his mind, and as a consequence, a few of us suffered. Several of our city cat and dog friends back in Rio had been at the mercy of that cockatoo's wrath and as a result got injured: one of our cat friends has suffered a broken bone in his paw while trying to protect Carla, Bia and Tiago while we were out and the intruders attacked, and his mother and one of our greyhound friends had been badly injured, the greyhound taking the brunt of that cockatoo's wrath not once, but TWICE…"

Pearl winced when Ruby mentioned what had happened to Broccoli and Esperanza.

"That cockatoo must have been some barbaric piece of work," she said.

"He was," said Ruby, "He absolutely was. He was completely obsessed with revenge till the very end," Ruby then gazed at Spinel and Poinsettia as they slept in the nest in Cherie's hollow, Cherie looking over them. As Ruby told Pearl about Nigel, she felt the burden on her heart lighten. "But I believe Nigel will have devastated countless exotic birds he has tortured and abused during his time as a smuggler's cockatoo. Sadly, Levi and Aurora had been two of them. I just hope I and my chicks are the last victims of his…"

"Oh, Ruby," whispered Pearl sympathetically. A tear then ran down Ruby's cheek as she felt like crying again.

Suddenly, the two sisters were jolted by a loud squawk that shattered the quiet, followed by a flurry of many wings and a few shouts. The pair shot startled looks into the night air and saw many shadowy figures of macaws flying out of their home hollows and converging to a specific spot. Ruby looked at Pearl while Cherie poked her head out of her hollow.

"What's going on?" asked Cherie.

"I don't know but it sounds serious," said Ruby and with that, she and Pearl opened their wings and took off. Cherie flashed a glance back at Spinel and Poinsettia in the nest before following the two sisters. In the hollow belonging to the red tribe's leaders, Felipe emerged from the entrance when he heard a loud squawk. He had just put his chicks Benjamin, Regina and Alfonso to bed and had come out to gaze at the night hanging over his tribe's home when he was alerted by the noise. Then next, he heard the flurry of many wings and saw the shadows of some of his tribe members fly and converge to a specific spot. Then he heard someone shout, "Someone get Felipe, and Ruby and Pearl! Athos's been found!"

The tribe patriarch froze and listened to the shout. The moment he heard the name 'Athos', hope flared within him and he opened his wings and took off. At the point where the red tribe converged, some shadowy figures carrying balls of light on sticks approached the group of scarlet and green-winged macaws. It were Leonel and his group and in Leonel's talons was a bundle of red, teal and yellow feathers. As the scarlet and green-winged macaws touched down on the branches nearest to Leonel and his group, Leonel gently placed Athos onto a large branch. As soon as he had done this, the aged hyacinth macaw backed away and stood with his patrol group, including Franco from the blue-throated macaw clan and Lewin and Luis from the green tribe. Then seconds later, Felipe's voice sounded.

"Excuse me, out of my way, thanks," he said to his tribe members and they all parted to let him through. Felipe then landed beside Athos who wearily gazed back at him with half-open eyes. The moment he saw that the missing scarlet macaw was alive; Felipe pulled Athos into a tight and relieved hug just as Ruby and Pearl appeared. When she saw her mate alive and well, Ruby cried, "Athos!"

At the call of his name Athos looked up after breaking the hug with Felipe who moved out of the way.

"Ruby?" he moaned tiredly. Immediately he was pulled into a tight hug with his relieved mate. Ruby had never felt so relieved in such a long time. As she hugged him, Ruby's eyes streamed with tears while the red macaws congratulated Leonel and his patrol group.

"Where did you find him?" asked Felipe, "I-I-I thought he fell into that stream as we have sent our patrol groups to search around there."

"We found him in a patch of ferns in the jungle," said Leonel, "How he ended up there is anybody's guess but at least we've found him."

"We're gonna have to let the other tribe and clan leaders know that Athos has been found and get them to call their patrol groups back from the stream in which Athos fell as indicated by his friends," said Lewin.

"Right, you do that and we'll take care of Athos," said Felipe, "Thank you so much for bringing him back to us."

And with that, he shared a hug with Leonel and then with some of the other patrol members including Lewin, Luis and Franco. Pearl then came in and thanked them as did Ruby. Then after receiving more thank-yous from some more red macaws as well as goodnights, Leonel took off and led the patrol group away into the darkness and towards the territory of the green macaw tribe to drop off the green macaws first. Athos looked up as the macaws left but he was soon pulled into a passionate kiss by Ruby. This jolted him out of his tiredness and made him realise where he was. After Ruby broke the kiss with him, Athos began to look around.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"You're back in our tribe's home," said Ruby, tears of relief streaming down her face. Athos shook his head in disbelief. But then he began to shudder as the dam holding the shock of being bowled into by Nigel and dragged into the stream began to break by a flood of memories of the deranged cockatoo's bloodied, lacerated and murderous face, the swirling water and his floundering in the current. Furthermore, his muscles were aching and his feathers were still wet though not sodden.

"You need to be taken to our tribe nurses to be checked over now," said Pearl firmly. Athos tried to get up but Felipe stopped him.

"No, we'll carry you there," he said, "I can see you're exhausted and you might be too exhausted to fly."

"Actually," said Athos, "My muscles are aching, especially those in my legs…"

"I wouldn't be surprised," said Pearl, "You must have struggled against the current of that stream and perhaps had to fly super-fast to get out of those deranged bats' territory since that branch of the stream leads right into their turf…"

Athos widened his eyes but then tiredness swamped him and he fell back down against the branch. Felipe nodded to some macaws nearby.

"Take him to the tribe nurses," he said. The macaws obeyed, flew over to Athos and gently picked him up. Soon, Athos was carried away in the direction of the tribe nurses' hollow. Ruby followed closely behind. Then the shouts of three young chicks sounded. "Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad!"

Ruby turned and saw Alexandre, Spinel and Poinsettia flit towards Athos with Cherie and Tito close behind. The latter two must have awakened them with the good news and now all three chicks were eager to see their father again. However, they were stopped by Felipe and some of the other macaws.

"Wait until he's in the tribe nurses' hollow, my two nieces and nephew," he said firmly. The three chicks obeyed and flew over to Ruby.

Then moments later, Athos was taken into the hollow of the tribe nurses and placed onto a bed of moss by his carriers. After this, the macaws stood back to allow Felipe, Ruby, Pearl, and Poinsettia, Alexandre and Spinel in. Four of the tribe nurses, one of which was named Tomas, a green-winged macaw and the leader of the medical group, came forward to assess Athos. Athos then tiredly looked up at them. When he saw his three chicks rush towards him, he shakily raised a wing and shared a hug with them. However, the hug didn't last long.

"Come on, kids," said Pearl gently, "You need to leave your father to be treated and to get some rest."

"Yes," said Felipe, "It's way past your bed time, anyway."

The three chicks gave their father one final gaze. Alexandre breathed a relieved sigh and left. Then Poinsettia whispered a, "I love you, Daddy. Glad that you have been brought back," and followed her brother. The last one, Spinel paused to take one last look at Athos before finally leaving after her older brother and sister. After this, Ruby and Pearl followed them. Only Felipe remained and he stayed behind for a little longer as Tomas and the other three examined Athos. After a little while, Tomas gave the report on Athos's health.

"He's very tired, got fatigued muscles," said he, "And also a healed cut on his leg. He's also shaken but he'll be fine."

"He may have to stay here for a couple of days at least," said a female tribe nurse, a scarlet macaw. Felipe then walked over to Athos as his eyes then slid shut as tiredness had overtaken him once again.

"He should get some rest anyway," whispered the scarlet macaw patriarch, "I'll come back in the morning with Ruby and his kids. Until then, look after him."

Tomas and the other three tribe nurses nodded and with that, Felipe left the hollow and returned to his own hollow, leaving the four tribe nurses to look after Athos, who was now asleep, for the night.