Chapter 100- time to pick up the shattered pieces
By the time the sun was half-set beneath the horizon at its setting point, all the badly behaved toucans and their equally bad chicks, the remaining ones after a lot of them had died in the fire through stupidly playing with it had been caged at last and now Tulio's team were packing them away into trucks to be taken away and flown out of Brazil and sent to other sanctuaries. The crowd of Blu Bird Sanctuary residents and the majority of Blu's group continued to watch the toucans get loaded into the trailers of trucks with glares as devoid of any sympathy as the majority of the forest in the sanctuary was of greenery and colour due to the fire caused largely by the toucan chicks' antics with it, and the badly behaved toucans were all saturated with pure shame, fear and bitterness. They knew that their time on the sanctuary near Rio was over and that they were to live out their lives in other nature reserves outside of Brazil and even more despairing for these toucans, NONE of them will be sent to the Sanctuary de Amazon where their still-numerous kids could wreak havoc for the other animals in that area. However, despite this definite knowledge of this fact, some of the toucans were still gazing pleadingly at the crowd of glaring Blu Bird Sanctuary residents, hoping that some of them would change their minds and set them free from their cages.
From their cage, Marco and Anastasia, some of the numerous kids they had left by their side, many of which were encased in bandages, among them Isabella as a result of playing with the fire-lit branches in which they were manipulated to do by the evil chameleon Dalek, continued to gaze pleadingly at Rafael, Eva, Diantha, Rita, Carlos and some of the other toucans who had reformed in time as they continued to stand with the other birds and animals of Rio and Blu Bird Sanctuary. The two toucans clung desperately to the cages with their eyes shedding pleading tears. Behind them, Fernando and some of his friends were picking up a few of the cages containing some of the couple's many, many siblings, in-laws and nephews and nieces and taking them to the trucks parked nearby.
"L-look, we're VERY SORRY about…" begged Marco but, as always, all his remaining family did was look away or shook their heads.
"Look, we don't wanna hear your apologies OR know whether you're sorry or not, Marco," snapped Rita bitterly and sadly as she stood with a still-heartbroken Diantha and an infuriated Carlos and the other good toucans, "So please don't EVER say you're sorry."
"And besides that," put in Carlos, "It is FAR too LATE for your futile APOLOGIES!"
"We've heard ALL your lousy excuses and attempts to get out of trouble before," added Travis who stood near Rafael and with Sunset, Eustace, Milo, Rosa, Serena and Clemont, their crests fully flared and their faces saturated with pure thunder, especially the latter four, "and like your father here said," Travis stole a glance at Rafael who nodded in agreement, "YOU have brought this all on yourselves."
"Yes, this is ALL ON YOU!" added Sunset in a snarl.
"B-b-but…" began Anastasia but Jewel angrily stepped forward and cut her off.
"Look, we have WAY MORE important things to think about than hearing YOU LOT try to claw your way out of the deep pit you have dug yourselves," she shouted, "So your protests aren't gonna get you anywhere."
"Now YOU LOT focus on settling into your NEW HOMES!" put in Athos furiously as he stood with D'Artagnan, Sapphire, Aurora, Zephyr, Ruby, Porthos, Orquidea, Aramis, Esmeralda, Phoebe, Cobalto, Levi and Lapis Lazuli, all of who also wore enraged faces, "And STOP TALKING!"
"Yes, your begging is gonna get you NOWHERE!" shouted Zephyr.
"You have gone WELL AND TRULY TOO FAR!" put in Aurora. The other macaws with them nodded in agreement. Marco and Anastasia flinched at the macaws' words and only gazed back at them and the others and began to weep and shudder, with their kids also weeping, especially Isabella who was heavily bandaged, along with a few other of her siblings and cousins who had either been messing with the fire or who had been caught in it. Then a pair of hands appeared and took hold of their cage and lifted them off the ground. Marco let loose fearful whimpers which soon developed into mournful wails as he watched Fernando carry him, Anastasia and some of their chicks away towards one of the trucks. However, Athos and company continued to stand and look on silently and without any sliver of sympathy with the other birds and animals as Marco and his family began to boil with desperation in the form of loudening wails as Fernando continued to carry them away towards the trucks. Then Phoebe and Cobalto's gazes turned in the direction of a certain couple of hyacinth macaws.
"We're gonna check on Zebedee and Iris, you lot," whispered Phoebe to the other smaller birds.
"Okay," said Athos.
"And I'm gonna go and check on Blu and some of the others still in Tulio's Aviary coming too," said Jewel and with that, the two hyacinth macaws began to pass through the crowd of birds, saying 'excuse us' on the way and telling them to part to let them through, and continued in the direction of Zebedee and Iris's location.
Not too far away, Zebedee gazed into Iris's green eyes with his single eye and clouded eye sat in three scarred tiger stripes running down the left side of his face with an ecstatic smile. The two hyacinth macaws were in an embrace and letting loose romantic laughs.
"I-I-I don't believe it," Zebedee said in happy shock, the first sort he had felt in years since Penelope dumped him over his scarred face, "You actually wanna be my mate?"
"Yes, absolutely," replied Iris lovingly, before flashing a glare at the caged badly-behaved toucans and returning her gaze to her boyfriend-now-turned future mate, "And when all those big-beaked hoodlums and their destructive brats of chicks over there have been transported away for good, I wanna plan on starting a family with you."
Zebedee blinked with surprise. He was still unsure of becoming a father to a brood of chicks but the love he felt for Iris and the desire to be with her for life kept trampling that uncertainty underfoot.
"I cannot imagine myself being a father to a clutch of chicks," Zebedee replied, before his wing went to his scarred left facial side and blind eye, "Especially with this souvenir from the war with Cicatriz's colony I have had to put up with since I received it from that savage winged beast that nearly slaughtered Augustus's two daughters and son when we were young…"
An assuring frown came on Iris's face, "Look, what that ex of yours has done was totally insensitive, especially after such a brave act you carried out in saving a helpful flying fox's pups from certain death, and I'm sure Augustus is proud of you as well and would like to see you wit chicks."
Zebedee gazed silently into Iris's eyes with his right eye, the only functioning eye he had left. A short distance away, Augustus watched on with Melissa, Sebastian, Stella, Luna, Soren, Anabelle, Sandalwood, Acerola and Ferdinand, smiles on their faces. Then Iris's wing went to Zebedee's left cheek and stroked it lovingly, to which Zebedee's wing rose and stroked it in return as he nuzzled against it.
"You'll make a loving father to our future chicks," whispered Iris lovingly, "And besides that, your parents would love to see you have chicks, as would your sister and brother-in-law, and your niece would love to have some cousins to play with."
Zebedee just gazed back at her silently but before he could form words, Iris had pulled his beak close to hers and the two shared a kiss before pulling away and hugging each other tightly. Augustus smiled at the other flying foxes present and Melissa, Sebastian, Stella, Luna, Soren and Anabelle smiled in return.
"You can tell they're dearly in love, can't you?" said Melissa in admiration of the couple's romance.
"Yeah, and I hope the two DO get to starting a family," said Sebastian.
"It was something Zebedee had wanted to do with Penelope back in the Amazon a few years ago," added Stella, before a look of disgust appeared on her face, "Until that brat decided to dump him because of what he had done for us when our lives were in danger at the claws of one of that deranged Cicatriz's minions…"
"I'm still furious with her for devastating him after the distress he had to go through with the realisation that he will only see with one eye for the rest of his life, along with the scars on his left facial side where that brute of a bat struck," put in Luna. Anabelle and Soren nodded in agreement while Sandalwood, Ferdinand and Acerola, the latter two who wore 'Eew' faces as they watched Zebedee and Iris in their tight embrace silently. When they had been told how Zebedee's left facial side became the way it was, they had been utterly horrified, and Sandalwood and his two cousins had thought it must have been very bloody when the hulking flying fox that had threatened Sebastian and his sisters, one of who was his mother, with killing them had slashed his claws over the left side of Zebedee's face, leading to loss of sight in his left eye and the unsightly scars carved into his facial feathers. 'No', thought Sandalwood, ''Unsightly' should NOT be used to describe the scars and clouded eye on Zebedee's left facial side; it should be called a brave souvenir of his rescuing of Mom, Aunt Luna and Uncle Sebastian'. Sandalwood also wrinkled his face in distaste at using the word 'unsightly' to describe the marks on Zebedee's face as well. Then he resumed gazing at Zebedee and Iris as they continued their embrace, holding each other as though they did not want to let go.
Nearby, Phoebe and Cobalto walked in and smiled on before continuing over to Augustus and the other flying foxes to talk with them. However, as the pair continued towards the flying foxes, Zebedee and Iris's romantic scene was also witnessed by some of the badly behaved toucans in their cages who were yet to be picked up by Tulio's team members and carried to the trucks, and in their glares were scorn and disgust. One of them even cooked up the audacity to spit an acidic insult at the couple.
"You think you'll make a great father with that disgusting face, Scarface?" he growled, his mate looking on in agreement, pulling Zebedee's attention to him as he continued to embrace Iris, "I don't think so."
"What chick would want YOU for a father with that ugly, grotesque face of yours, anyway," said the female toucan, "You look like something straight out of a horror movie and because of that, any chick would be ABSOLUTELY AFRAID of you and see you as a MONSTER… CICATRIZ!"
That did it. These poison darts stabbed Zebedee deep and threw him out of the romantic moment with Iris. Breaking the hug with his future mate with his seeing and clouded eyes weeping offended tears much to Iris's surprise, Zebedee whirled round and dashed off as his hurt feelings began to bleed like an open wound.
"Zebedee!" called Iris and with that she began to chase after him. Phoebe, Cobalto, Augustus, Melissa, Sebastian, Stella, Luna, Soren, Anabelle, Sandalwood, Acerola and Ferdinand flinched at the sudden change in mood with the couple, especially as Zebedee wailed tearfully at Iris, "LEAVE ME ALONE!" and continued rushing away with sobs escaping his beak, Iris following and protesting after him. However, she was stopped by the sounds of scornful and smug laughing erupting behind her. The unusual purple hyacinth macaw whirled round and when her eyes landed on the source of the sound, hot rage burned through her and prompted her to storm over to the laughers and confront them.
The badly behaved toucan couple who had spat the acidic porcupine quills at Zebedee, destroyed his romantic moment with Iris and drove him away continued laughing, some of their siblings in adjacent cages also giggling and congratulating them for throwing those insults at the highly sensitive hyacinth macaw until they found themselves on the receiving end of a volcanic glare from a pair of green eyes through the bars of their cage. Their laughter flashed to surprise and fright when they saw the eyes of Iris pierce them like a fiery laser, and those eyes were saturated with fury. In the crowd, Zebedee's parents and the flying foxes had heard Zebedee's massive wailing and had left to rush after him but then Phoebe, Augustus, Luna, Anabelle and Sebastian spotted that Iris had gone over to confront the toucans that had insulted her soon-to-be mate while Cobalto, Stella, Soren and Melissa, after leaving Acerola, Sandalwood and Ferdinand in the care of Orton, Kipo and the other spoonbills, had continued their chase of Zebedee. Back with Iris and the toucans, the pair of insulters tried to throw on an innocent look to deter the enraged Iris but to their dismay, the unusually purple hyacinth macaw with the three-symmetry flower crest remained there, obviously not fooled.
"Did you just insult my future mate and destroy our romantic moment, you two?" demanded Iris in a harsh voice that was on the verge of screeching for her anger was threatening to erupt. No reply from the toucans that threw those insults.
"Oh, don't play pretence, you two," growled Iris angrily, "Now answer my question, did you hurl insults at Zebedee about his scarred face?"
Still the toucan pair refused to answer but then the male spoke, "If we have to answer, flower-crest, will you let us out of this miserable cage?"
Immense disgust tore through Iris and she flinched. There was no way she was going to let these toucans out of their cage after what they and the other bad toucans had done for everyone on the Blu Bird Sanctuary. In the background, Phoebe, Augustus, Anabelle, Sebastian and Luna continued watching the confrontation and thought about helping Iris. However, Augustus told the others, "Let Iris confront those two toucans since I believe she had heard what those toucans might have said to Zebedee more clearer than us," to which the other four obeyed and allowed Zebedee's future mate to continue with her confrontation of the pair of insulters.
"What, even after all the DAMAGE your chicks have done with the fire!?" snapped Iris in disbelief, "You've gotta be kidding."
"Look… just let us out," begged the female toucan, her voice threatening to break. However, Iris did nothing and stood back with her wings folded.
"I'm afraid I'm not gonna do that, you two," said she flatly, "The decision is final on every side, both on the humans' and the Blu Bird Sanctuary residents'; YOU lot will be taken to other sanctuaries outside this country… where you'll live out the rest of your lives in disgrace."
The toucan couple gazed back at the hyacinth macaw with despairing and distressed eyes. Then Iris began to ask the question again.
"But before those humans pick your cage up to pack you into one of those trucks, I wanna ask you again," she said, "Have you insulted Zebedee based on his scarred face?"
However, the toucan couple kept their beaks shut and remained silent, much to Iris's frustration.
"Humph, is that all you wanna do? You're deliberately refusing to tell us of your misbehaving deeds, and that of those your kids as well, like always," hissed the hyacinth macaw in disgust, "We'll be glad when all that bad-behaviour denying antics of yours is removed when you are transported away for good."
The male toucan finally let loose the truth, but as he did, his scorn returned.
"And what are YOU gonna do miss?" he said snidely, "Are you gonna start a family with that scar-faced creature that had just left?"
Iris shook her head and threw on a flabbergasted look as the female them took her turn to mock Zebedee.
"Your chicks are gonna be UTTERLY AFRAID of his face, lass," she crooned, before turning to pick up some of her and her mate's own chicks, "Our OWN chicks would NOT want HIM to be their carer, much less any biological chicks he might have with you…"
"Well, THEY will be EVEN MORE AFRAID of YOUR MONSTER CHICKS than HIM," snarled Iris in retort, frightening the toucan chicks with her shouting and making them cringe, "Because of WHAT YOU and the OTHER BADLY-BEHAVED TOUCANS HAVE ALLOWED those YOUR CHICKS to BECOME!"
"Our chicks are NOT evil!" snapped the female toucan, her glance on her many, many offspring in her cage and those placed in cages around her as they began to weep and whimper.
"And they are NOT monsters!" put in the male and the female's mate.
"Well, at least ZEBEDEE will be BETTER FATHER and PARENT than YOU and your SIBLINGS AND IN-LAWS," snapped Iris in an angrier voice and her purple-blue feathers bristling wildly as her composure began to erode. In the background, Phoebe, Augustus, Sebastian, Anabelle and Luna continued to watch the scene.
"HOW do you THINK THAT SCARFACE is GONNA MAKE A BETTER PARENT than ANY OF US when HE'S GOT THOSE HORRID SCARS running up the left side of HIS FACE that would FRIGHTEN ANY KID he COMES ACROSS!?" snapped the female toucan bitterly. Finally, Iris's composure completely crumbled and her temper was let loose in a violent torrent of lava.
"I JUST KNOW THAT he WILL!" she bellowed at the top of her voice, "You rotten PAIR OF BREEDING RABBIT-LIKE TOUCANS who HAVE ABSOLUTELY neither CARE nor LOVE for your CHICKS at ALL!"
The faces of the two toucans suddenly flashed to volcanic fury and the pair began to tremble rigidly as this statement struck a sensitive nerve. In the background, Phoebe, Augustus, Anabelle, Sebastian and Luna drew in horrified gasps and rushed over to Iris as she retreated from the cage when she saw the EXTREMELY ANGRY looks on the two insulters of Zebedee and as one of the humans came in to chase her off and seize the cage containing the mocking insulters. After Phoebe and the four bats pulled Iris back to the safety of the crowd, some of the Blu Bird Sanctuary residents applauded her.
"That was AMAZING!" cried Orton with a smile as Sandalwood sat on his head. As Iris then began to calm down, she began to shudder with rage.
"I think what I've said to them is absolutely true," she said, "They have ABSOLUTELY no love for their kids whatsoever. But still, I can't believe I lost my composure so much that I practically yelled at them."
"Well, those brats are extremely stubborn, as always, Iris," said Kipo. Iris just flashed him a gaze as Murphy, who stood nearby, briefly broke through his grief over the loss of his mate and said, "Those toucans' pride just got burned to the ground by our BRAVE hyacinth friend!"
Iris just let loose an exhausted groan before her mind travelled to a more important thing.
"Can any of you tell me where Zebedee has fled to?" she asked, "I wanna help comfort him after those two toucans had insulted him over his scarred face."
Murphy, Orton and Kipo pointed a long, salmon pink, lanky foot in the direction of Zebedee's running away, prompting Iris to dart off in that direction with Augustus, Phoebe, Sebastian, Anabelle and Luna following. As the six hastily left in the same direction as Melissa, Cobalto, Stella and Soren who had left earlier after an extremely upset Zebedee, Sandalwood carefully climbed down onto Orton's bill and gazed at Zebedee's insulters as they uttered caustic insults about Iris behind her back as Fernando carried them away.
"I don't think Miss Iris could reason with those two now," he said.
"Yeah," tittered Orton, "She REALLY made those two brats mad."
"And then she totally denounced their so-called parenting skills to their faces and opened a wound in their pride," put in Kipo to which Acerola and Ferdinand shared a glance and shrugged. Then sympathy welled within Kipo as he turned in the direction in which Zebedee had run off, "And I sure hope Zebedee's feelings aren't too badly hurt…"
"Haven't you spoonbills realised how sensitive his feelings are about his scars and clouded eye," asked Acerola on Kipo's head, "They're still like a fresh wound."
Kipo's eyes rolled up to her, "Really? I thought he would have at least overcome that now."
"His anxiety yes, he has but he's still sensitive about his face," said Sandalwood on Orton's beak. Then a flash of outrage at the two toucans that had interruptedly shattered and destroyed Zebedee and Iris's romantic moment tore through him, "I just cannot believe that some of those disgraceful birds had the audacity to take the final opportunity to insult Mr Zebedee based on that and ruin his lovely moment with Miss Iris."
"Well, hopefully, Iris's statement on them being unloving and uncaring to their chicks will have a lasting effect on them," said Kipo with an unsurprising gaze at the enraged insulters of Zebedee as they were carried away, "I agree with her completely. I don't think they love or care for their kids at all."
The others including Sandalwood, Acerola and Ferdinand nodded in agreement.