Chapter 58- so it's TRUE!?
Back in Rio
Ruby sat on a branch, her sad gaze fixed on a certain hollow in an adjacent tree. This hollow was where she and Athos had settled in and had Alexandre, Poinsettia and Spinel all those years ago, and those memories of herself, together with Athos and their two daughters and only son of their first brood, peering out of the entrance/exit hole was as vivid as yesterday. This hollow was quite close to the outskirts of the jungle and had an excellent view of the Rio cityscape as well as the rising sun every dawn in the distant oceanic horizon and Ruby clearly remembered waking up almost every morning, depending on the weather conditions, to the rising sunlight that streamed like honey into her family's former hollow. Around the hollow's tree were several fruit trees such as a berry tree, a few mango trees and a papaya tree. These trees were sometimes decorated and festooned with the cheerful and colourful clusters of the ripe fruit that they produced, the fruit which were picked by Ruby and Athos themselves and by their neighbours. However, that was then. Now, these trees looked nothing more than a miserable, dismal cluster of green leaves, and the air hanging over Ruby's family's former home and neighbourhood was devoid of any flash of feathered colours and drabber colours of fur from the climbing mammals that also lived here, presumably due to the overpopulation of Rafael and Eva's countless descendants, and there were still a lot of those troublesome, even maniacal, big billed birds saturating various parts of the Blu Bird Sanctuary. As for Athos and Ruby's former hollow, which had formerly been the home of a small group of parakeets after Athos, Ruby and their three first-brood chicks with Aurora, Zephyr, D'Artagnan and the others to go to the Amazon Rainforest in the wake of Blu and company's journey, was now inhabited by one of the families of the very troublesome toucans who Ruby had presumed had made their home in it after the parakeets left due to the trouble they caused. This assumption sent disgust tearing through Ruby as she continued to gaze at the currently unoccupied hollow (its current occupants were on an outing), and the thought of her family's former home which had become the home of some of the parakeets being taken over by some of those trouble causing toucans made Ruby's blood boil, and she simmered in bitter rage as well.
As Ruby continued gazing into her family's former hollow, a voice pulled her attention from it.
"Ruby," came Orquidea's voice. Ruby turned and saw Orquidea, accompanied by Cobalto and Lapis Lazuli, flew in and perched onto a branch nearest to the one Ruby was on. The latter two wore an immensely guilt-saturated look on each of their faces.
"Did you manage to find Zebedee and Iris?" asked Ruby, regret also lacing her voice.
"Yes we did," said Lapis Lazuli much to Ruby's relief, "In fact, Ónix the red-tailed black cockatoo, together with Cometa, Velocity, Lightning, Zelda and Spike, had found the couple hiding in two holes in two roofs of two of the humans' houses and have brought them back to Susan and her family's cottage."
"Zephyr has explained everything to them regarding Zebedee's framing," put in Cobalto, "and he, Diantha, Tom, Vulcan, Orion and Hermione have shown Zebedee and Iris the suit Vulcan had found in Mable's family's hollow to prove that the culprit that had sent the marmosets to attack Nico and Pedro's club had dressed as Zebedee and set him up…"
"Have Nico, Pedro, Rose, Sparkle, Rafael and Eva been informed of this?" asked Ruby.
"Yes," said Orquidea, "In fact, they're at Susan and Lucy's cottage as well, giving Zebedee their apologies…"
Ruby then suddenly felt the urge to fly to Susan and Lucy's cottage surge within her for she had yet to apologise to Zebedee about assuming him to be the culprit that had sent the marmosets to attack Nico and Pedro's club despite his protests.
"Alright, take me back to the cottage right away," she said. Orquidea, Lapis Lazuli and Cobalto nodded and darted away. Ruby abandoned her perch and her family's former hollow and followed.
Back at Susan and her family's cottage and its garden, a certain pair of hyacinth macaws stood gazing in utter disbelief at the navy blue feathered cloak, the bandana-like leaf, the parrot beak-shaped fruit shells and the bottle of yellow human makeup spread out on the grass before them. Zephyr, Vulcan, Orion, Hermione, Tom and Diantha gazed at Zebedee (who had a new leaf bandana for his left eye and face) as he examined the navy blue feather cloak which was complete with flight feathers, like those of a hyacinth macaw's wings and tail. Iris was looking over the parrot beak-shaped fruit shell pieces, a rather intrigued, but also outraged, look lacing her face. Standing next to Zephyr's group, Nico, Pedro, Sparkle, Rose, Rafael, Eva, Cometa, Spike, Zelda, Lightning, Velocity and Ónix gazed at the materials Vulcan had found, disbelieving looks also lacing their faces. Behind the group, Travis and Sunset were talking with Mumble, Balthazar and Ginny the penguins while Sapphire, Roberto, Brisa, Porthos and the still-bandaged Esmeralda helped Justin, Matilda, Virgil and the others including Anabelle, Sebastian, Melissa and Andromeda (who was still worried sick for Eragon and Marella after hearing of their kidnap by the poachers at Tulio's Aviary alongside Neytiri, Luna, Trixie and Tristan) watch over the seven kids and Violet, Indigo and Zebedee's younger sister with Broccoli, Daisy and Collette the cats, Dash, Ginger, Avellana, Rusty, James and Ebony the greyhounds. Among the kids were Cleo and Fido, Avellana and Rusty's two puppies and they played with the chicks and Ferdinand the flying fox pup, and also Eustace and company's chicks Yolanda, Peach and Vincent.
Zebedee then shot a one-eyed gaze at Zephyr's group after examining the navy blue feather cloak while Iris put down the fruit shell.
"So let me get this straight," the hyacinth macaw said, "Someone has used these materials to dress up as me to send those marmosets to attack Nico and Pedro's club to make it look like I was the one who was responsible for the incident?"
"I can see that the culprit has concocted a very devious idea and has gathered the right materials for the deed," put in Iris, her dark purple-tinted navy feathers threatening to puff out as hot rage flared within her.
"That's what we deduced," said Zephyr. Then Rafael walked over to the little bottle of yellow human makeup and picked it up.
"From what I can tell," said the old toco toucan and Diantha's father in a raspy, aged voice as he examined the bottle and its contents, "It seems that the culprit might have applied this yellow makeup to his or her face in such a way as to resemble a hyacinth macaw," his brown gaze then travelled to the other materials: the bandana-like leaf, beak-like fruit shell halves and the hyacinth navy feather cloak, "Combined with wearing those other materials to resemble Zebedee."
Then Diantha stepped forward.
"Then let me dress up in these materials to test the theory," she said. Rafael put the makeup bottle down and stepped back to allow Diantha to put the costume on herself. First Diantha took the bottle of human makeup, took off its cap and applied some of the yellow substance around her right eye and below her lower mandible but she did not do her left eye. The others watched on in wonder as Diantha then took the bandana-like leaf and tied it over her unpainted left eye in the same way Zebedee tied his. Next, the colourful-billed toucan took the parrot beak-shaped fruit shells and put them on her upper and lower beak. Finally, Diantha dressed herself in the cloak of navy blue feathers with her wings under the 'wings' of flight feathers of the cloak. However, the cloak was so large that most of it trailed off on the floor behind the toucan like a massive navy blue cape. When they saw this, the watchers threw on sceptical looks and exchanged glances while Zebedee and Iris gazed at each other and shrugged.
"That certainly looks WAY too big for you, daughter," said Rafael as Diantha, the makeup, 'bandana' leaf and fruit shell on her face gazing down at the trailing cloak behind her.
"I know right," said the toucan in agreement. Then Iris said, "Didn't that marmoset say that the culprit that sent him and his gang to attack Nico and Pedro's club was the size of a hyacinth macaw?"
"Then that means two participants our size would have been inside that cloak to double the first culprit's height to that of a real hyacinth," said Tom and with that, the pure toco toucan mate of Diantha went over to his mate and requested her to do something. Diantha, at first was a little hesitant but she relented. The watchers looked on as Tom ducked down and allowed the cloaked Diantha to place her talons on his shoulders. As soon as Diantha was fully on his shoulders, Tom (with his wings wrapped around Diantha's feet to prevent her from falling), then stood up. This raised Diantha higher off the ground and pulled the cape-like cloak of feathers around Tom and within moments, both toucans were concealed under the navy blue feathers with Diantha's height reaching just slightly above that of Zebedee and Iris. As Nico, Pedro, Sparkle, Rose, Rafael, Eva, Cometa, Spike, Zelda, Lightning, Velocity and Ónix, Zebedee, Iris, Zephyr, Vulcan, Orion and Hermione took in Diantha and Tom's simulation of the real culprit', or rather culprits' impersonation of Zebedee by circling the dressed toucan couple and examining them from every angle, they finally reached a conclusion.
"Dat definitely matches th' description o' dat marmoset gang leader alright," said Nico with a firm frown.
"Yellow marks around th' right eye and below the lower mandible," said Nico's partner Sparkle as she examined Diantha's face, "Parrot-shaped beak… leaf bandana tied around th' left eye and part of th' face like Zebedee's bandana…" the female canary then flitted down next to Pedro and Rose, "Yep, it's a match alright."
"The size of the impersonator, or should I say impersonators, of Zebedee is definitely the size of a full grown hyacinth macaw," said Zephyr. As he said this, Broccoli, along with Justin, Matilda, Virgil, Daisy, Collette, Dash and Ginger watched on in utter astonishment.
"Diantha and Tom greatly resemble Zebedee dressed like that," said Justin to his brother and sister and also the three cats and two greyhounds.
"No wonder the marmosets were so greatly duped," said Matilda. Virgil, however, had a flash of outrage tear through him.
"Not to mention devious of the two culprits," he hissed to which Broccoli, Daisy, Collette, Dash and Ginger replied with, "Absolutely". Zebedee continued to examine Diantha and Tom in the suit, a massive wave of appal and offense washing over him the more he continued to take in the disguise utilised by the two culprits to land him in trouble with Nico, Pedro and everyone else.
As the examination continued, Orquidea, Ruby, Cobalto and Lapis Lazuli turned up and when they saw the dressed up Diantha and Tom in the 'hyacinth macaw' suit and how greatly they resembled Zebedee, a mixture of awe, astonishment and outrage tore through them. Then after finishing taking in the disguise at all angles, Tom stooped down and allowed Diantha to hop off his shoulders before subsequently removing the cloak and the other materials. As soon as Diantha had cleaned her face off the yellow human makeup as fast as possible to rid the remains of the disguise, Zephyr gazed at her and Tom with a confirmatory glare.
"Well, I'd like to thank you both for showing us what the culprits looked like dressed up in that suit of materials," he said, a flashing glance at the discarded navy blue feather cloak, bandana leaf, bottle of makeup and fruit shells, "Now the next thing we gotta do is find those impersonators and confront them."
"But Zephyr," said Rafael, bringing Zephyr's attention to him, "If those culprits are any of those rebellious toucans, they'll vehemently deny it and may drive us away."
"Yes," said Ruby as she walked in with Lapis Lazuli, Orquidea and Cobalto, "You remember all those previous times those arrogant pieces of work dismissed our complaints as mere nonsense?"
"Such as Tiago and Matilda's attempts to convince Marco and Anastasia of their daughter Isabella and their comrades' involvement in Sandalwood's incident," put in Cobalto. Matilda's eyes flashed with pain at the memory of this, and Travis and Cometa also winced. These three who had gone to confront the said two toucans with Tiago, Jewel, Stella, Soren, Augustus and Athos clearly remembered the fierce and adamant denials of Isabella's involvement in Sandalwood's incident before snidely directing the blame on Bellatrix, the daughter of Matilda and Tiago, saying that she had been the one to tie up Sandalwood and shove him off the end of that branch (not to mention calling her a 'murderous psycho-chick' in the process), and subsequently marring the reputation of the poor family and their friends. However, all that had been fabricated by Isabella and her comrades so that they could get out of trouble and dodge the beam of blame and responsibility by deflecting it at someone else (in this case, Bellatrix).
As Zephyr listened to the objections from Rafael, Ruby and Cobalto and examined the agreeing faces on the others including Zebedee, Iris, Diantha and Tom (who were all too aware of their countless siblings and cousins and siblings and cousins-in-law's horribly negligent parenting and now borderline-psychotic attitude towards Carla, Bia, Tiago and company), the green-eyed mate of Aurora's face fell.
"I'm sorry, Zephyr," said Cometa, "But it's true. Those rotten toucans will NOT listen."
"They NEVER listen to ANYONE!" shouted Diantha in utter rage and despair. Zephyr gazed at the colourful beaked daughter of Rafael and Eva and the peregrine falcon when suddenly, a black greyhound came in.
"Susan's coming!" shouted Ebony. Zephyr and company, together with Eustace, Milo, Rosa, Clemont, Serena and everyone else including the seven kidsall directed their gazes at a familiar vehicle as it pulled up outside the fence. Roberto let loose a loud 'Cuck-caw!' to call in the six Spix chicks and Ferdinand while Brisa, Esmeralda, Travis and Sunset hurried off to take Mumble, Balthazar and Ginny to a safe place and out of Susan's sight.
In one corner of the garden, Sonia, Melody, Einstein, Miles, Diego and Byron were lounging around. Miles was building another mobile made from sticks, leaves, petals and other plant material like he always did, only this time he had added shells and small rocks to it, while his brother Einstein and their three cousins chatted. Diego was having a snooze, obviously not in the mood for chatting with his second cousins.
"Boy, I hope our bro Sirius and cousins Spica and Bellatrix and the others are alright," said Einstein miserably. He had been missing Sirius and the others for quite some time now.
"To hear that they've been taken to that Peru place has been quite a shock if you ask me," said Melody.
"And that's far away from here," said Sonia.
"I know right," said Byron in agreement. Just then, a 'Cuck-caw!' sound reached the five Spix macaw chicks' ears, alerting them to attention. Sonia shot Roberto, the caller, an alarmed look.
"Oh, Uncle Beto's calling us," she told the other four, "We'd better go to him."
Melody, Einstein, Miles and Byron all stopped their activities while Diego woke up. The six then darted from their spots to Roberto, Sonia in tow. Miles, however, took his mobile with him. Within moments, Roberto was surrounded by a small ring of blue feathers of various shades and a bit of drab brown colour from Ferdinand's fur as Ferdinand dashed over to Anabelle and hoped onto her breast, his mother scooping him up with her wings, whilst Zephyr hurried over to Tom and Diantha. Fido and Cleo also darted over to Rusty and Avellana and as soon as all the kids had gathered, Roberto, Brisa, Melissa and Andromeda led them away to the nearby trees, with Andromeda leading the bat-birds away as well, with everyone else following, Brisa, Esmeralda, Travis and Sunset leading Mumble, Balthazar and Ginny to under some branches by which they were intrigued for they had never seen land plants like these in their lives.
Within moments, the familiar woman that was Susan had emerged from the car. As she shut the door, she continued to chat on her mobile phone (also called a cellphone). From either in or under the trees, the exact same spot where Andromeda, along with Melissa, Eragon, Augustus, Luna, Stella, Soren and Sandalwood, Marella, Spyro, Anabelle, Ferdinand, Acerola and Sebastian first met Susan and her family, their first ever human encounter, Virgil, Matilda and Justin, who had Sonia, Melody, Einstein, Miles, Byron and Diego in their care, peered out and watched Susan as she entered the garden through a gate. Nearby, Broccoli, Collette and Daisy picked up the speaker on the other end of Susan's phone for they had sensitive ears. However, the three cats put on worrisome faces as they listened to the tone of voice of the person speaking to Susan.
"Isn't that Tulio?" asked Broccoli.
"He sounds so upset," said Collette. The animals that had been there, however, wore unsurprised looks.
"It's understandable," said Cobalto as he hid with Zebedee and Iris, "The theft of the golden fruithawks has sent him over the edge."
"We had to haul Milo and Orion, who had still been under the effects of the sleeping gas though Orion only had a tiny dose of it, away while Cometa and Lightning went to rescue Porthos and Vincent from the Aviary's medical room in a flash during Tulio's wrathful outburst over the two fruithawks' disappearance," growled Travis, before his gaze turned to the bat-birds as they hid with Andromeda, "Not to mention those winged reptiles which thankfully weren't spotted and taken by the poachers…"
One of the bat-birds, Andromeda's one named Rouge and Garnet, Spyro's mount flashed an unnerved gaze at Travis and emitted small nervous whimpers. When the gas canister flew through the window and saturated the air in the Aviary's medical room with its sleep-inducing gas, these bat-birds had dived for cover before succumbing to the effects of the gas to avoid getting spotted and seized by the poachers. That way they had managed to escape capture and they had only started to come to as the peregrine falcons went to rescue them during Tulio's time at the Aviary.
As the hidden animals continued to listen in on Susan's conversation with the speaker on the other end, which was indeed Tulio, Susan said, "So you're still got a few hours before you land in Iquitos, Peru, am I right?"
As they listened, Mumble tipped his head to one side.
"What's a 'Peru'?" he asked.
"It's a country next to this one," explained Travis. Mumble gave the cockatoo an intrigued look. Then Ebony as she hid with James, Nico, Pedro, Rose and Sparkle, then frowned.
"So it seems that Tulio has deduced where the fruithawks have been taken," she said. Suddenly, James raised a paw to tell her to be quiet as Susan spoke again.
"I've just had a phone call from Amy in the Sanctuary de Amazon about those captured intruders and their interrogation," she said, "And it's confirmed that they are working for the people of the Paradise Sanctuary in Peru and had been sent to the Amazon reserve to capture some Spix, Lear's and glaucous macaws as well as some individuals of the other super-rare and endangered species like the archaeobird and the modern pterosaur for them…"
Immense shock tore through Zephyr and company.
"So it's TRUE!?" gasped Broccoli in utter disbelief. Some of them, however, threw on very confused faces.
"A conservation group," said Rafael, "Who HIRE poachers to bring them rare animals?"
"That sounds kinda contradictory to th' aim o' animal conservation," said Pedro with a frown.
"More like hypocritical," said Rose with Sparkle nodding in agreement.
"Tulio an' his buddies would NEVER hire poachers t' pinch animals," said Nico, his wing touching his bottle cap hat as it almost slipped off his head to push it back to its usual position. Confused murmurs rolled through the rest of the group and the kids shuddered slightly.
"I'm wondering if Sandalwood and the others might have been captured by those poachers to be handed to those people of the Paradise Sanctuary place," squeaked Einstein.
"Well, we can't be sure of that yet, son," said Virgil with a frown, "But to hear a conservation group hiring poachers to capture rare animals for their area sounds utterly ridiculous to say the least, and abominable at worst."
"And unthinkable if you ask me," put in Broccoli, "When we saw the fuzzy picture of that little bat pup and some of the chicks in those pics in the magazine, we thought they had been rescued…" however, as the tabby cat and spitting image of the late Veggie said this, the thought of the opposite which was Sandalwood and the others being caught by the poachers for the Paradise Sanctuary group made his insides cringe. Then the group resumed listening to Susan as she said, "So you think that the Sanctuario del Paradíso Foundation Inc people have the fruithawks?" into the speaker holes of the phone. The animals listened as they heard Tulio's voice say, "Yes, and we're gonna demand them back under the threat of prosecution. We did say that we were gonna keep them in Rio for we had found them first…"
"What's 'prosecution'?" asked Brisa.
"It's when humans bring offenders to justice," said Porthos. His gaze then turned to his former-owner-but-still companion as she continued talking with Tulio on her mobile phone, "That'll be just the thing those Sanctuario Paradise place or whatever it's people will be facing if they are found to be behind the fruithawks' theft."
"And also some of the other animals like Tristan, Trixie and Neytiri," put in Roberto as he stood with Finnick and Diego. He shuddered at the thought of them getting whisked away while under the effects of a sleep-inducing gas. Andromeda just silently gazed at the leaf crested macaw and sighed. She had hoped that Eragon, along with the others would just be brought back to Rio safe and sound, while at the same time she had been utterly outraged towards the humans that had stolen her mate and daughter-in-law as well.
Poachers, particularly those who steal ANY member of her family, as well as of her clan, especially as mere collector's items, were something this archaeobird matriarch despised the most.