Sandalwood and his Friends and the Paradise Sanctuary- edited

by VPVPVP

Carla and company's trip to Rio goes badly wrong when some of their kids are caught by poachers. The kids get rescued and placed in a conservation area with various animals from around the world, but they soon suspect something off about the area. In Rio, Blu and the others must deal with another problem on the Blu Bird Sanctuary while figuring out a way to rescue the poached kids

81. 81- dire situations

Chapter 81- incredibly dire situations

Somewhere else in Tujica Forest once again

Two pairs of small birds were flying through the shafts of moonlight illuminating the upper levels of the trees, especially the treetop level. These small birds were Nico and Sparkle the canaries and Pedro and Rose the cardinals and they were taking some time out from their club 'Welcome to Paradise'.

"Boy it sure is a beautiful night, eh me friends an' me sweet Rose," said Pedro in his usual cheeky and amusing gangster/rapper-like voice.

"I'm wonderin' how those two love-hawks Aurum and Gylfie are doin' since they had warmed up to each other an' put aside their aggression towards humans," said Nico as he spun his bottle cap hat in his orange feet before placing it on his head again.

"They certainly did steal the show form the rest of our clubbers when they danced," said Rose with a smile, "Gylfie was E-P-I-C when she hovered in the spotlight!"

"Like how Jewel and Zephyr did durin' their first dance with Blu and Aurora," said Nico.

"And Aurum was practically in awe of Gylfie's wonderful an' dazzlin' golden plumage as it shone in that spotlight," said Sparkle. She then stopped to admire a moth as it flitted past, its bright yellow wings gleaming in the moonlight for a moment before continuing with the other three.

"She was practically like Jewel and Zephyr and also Charlotte when she danced to our song with her then-boyfriend Músculo at Skyla's club in the Sanctuary de Amazon when we went to perform there as special guests," said Pedro, remembering the time when he and Nico sung 'Hot Wings' at Skyla's club, "Charlotte was honestly like Jewel to a very great extent."

"Despite the fact that she ain't one of Blu and Jewel's daughters," said Nico. He then widened his orange beak in a smile, "I suppose Jewel must have that effect on other macaws and birds."

"Possibly," said Sparkle. The cardinal couple nodded in agreement before the uartet resumed their flight through the peaceful, moonlit forest, movement in the trees indicating the presence of nocturnal animal activity. However, that peace was about to be shattered. As the uartet of cardinals and canaries continued their flight through the upper canopy, a strange smell wafted through the branches and entered the uartet's nostrils.

"I wonder how Dino and the other evacuated birds are…" began Sparkle but Nico raised a wing at her to tell her to be uiet, cutting her off. Then Sparkle was made aware of the strange smell. The moment her nostrils picked up that smell, the female red sparkly bow-wearing canary stifled a gag and pinched her beak with a talon.

"What… is… that… STENCH!?" she hissed through the gagging.

"Smells like th' stinky smoke from th' exhaust fumes o' dose city cars," said Nico as he also smelt the smell. This was met with three sceptical gazes from Sparkle and the cardinals.

"Out here in the forest, Nico?" asked Pedro. Then a dreadful look came upon Nico's face. It was then that Rose and Sparkle saw something through the trees... an orange glow accompanied by a faint crackling sound and a pillar of black puffs snaking up towards the moonlit and star-studded sky. Then dread tore through the two girls and their respective partners.

"WE NEED TO ALERT DINO AND THE OTHERS RIGHT NOW!" Pedro's voice ripped through the dread. And with that, Nico, Sparkle and Rose whirled round and shot off like little comets into the trees, Pedro not too far behind.

Meanwhile

Katniss, Polaris and Ferdinand flew straight into an empty hollow where they hid. The two chicks and flying fox pup and Acerola's younger brother then cowered in the empty hole of the trunk as they heard the sounds of wing-flaps belonging to the flapping wings of their pursuers increase in loudness. The three then stifled the urge to puff and pant from exhaustion and terror to try and keep quiet as their pursuers, which were more toucans, some of them adults and many of them kids, began to scour the night-time trees for any flash of colour.

"Can any of you find them?" asked one.

"No, they've well and truly vanished!" said another.

"Let's check further into the trees," said a third and with that, Ferdinand, Katniss and Polaris heard the wing-flap noises recede into the distance. Slowly, Ferdinand crept towards the entrance to the hollow and peered out through the hole in the wood.

"Are they leaving, Ferdinand?" asked Katniss as she huddled in the back of the hollow with Polaris who also shuddered. Ferdinand turned his head to the left and saw the black shapes of the toucans recede into the distance through the crisscrossing clutter of tree branches and leaves.

"I think they are," he said. However, no sooner than these words had left his moth when suddenly, several pairs of toucan talons, all of them small, appeared and seized Ferdinand by the head and shoulders, making him scream. The two macaw chicks also released startled screams as they watched their flying fox pup friend get yanked out of the hollow and within moments, Ferdinand was at the focal point of around two dozen devilish glares from an equal number of toucan chicks.

"Gotcha, you sly Cicatriz bat," crooned one of them, a male, "Did you think you could outsmart us?"

"And I believe that your two little feathered friends are in that hollow too," said another, a female. Ferdinand's tongue was glued to the bottom of his mouth by extreme fear. At the hollow, Katniss and Polaris slowly crept out of the hollow but they, too, were seized by more toucan chick talons and yanked out.

"Here they are," said one of the toucans, the one that had seized Polaris by her short ponytail. Polaris, in response, shot her captor a fierce glare, raised a talon and clawed the toucan chick across the face, sending the toucan chick's head recoiling in the direction of the swipe and making him drop her.

"LET ME GO THIS INSTANT, you VILE BRAT!" she bellowed as she did it. Then suddenly, another toucan chick leaped upon her from behind and began to pull on her ponytail as hard as she could, making the Spix macaw chick scream in pain.

"Don't ya DARE claw my brother across the face, you PINEAPPLE HEAD!" she bellowed as she continued to yank on Polaris' head feathers. Then Katniss sprang into action and lashed at her captors and within seconds, a brawl erupted between the toucan chicks and the Spix and glaucous macaw chicks.

While the two macaw chicks fought against their captors, the toucan chicks of the other group had Ferdinand while some of them left to get some vines. Then before Ferdinand could register what was happening, he soon found his wings and feet bound tightly by the vines, the toucan chicks having tied him up.

"WHAT ARE YOU DO…!?" barked the brown bat pup but his speech was cut off as one of the toucan chicks tightened a vine around his mouth to stop him from talking. Then the ringleader shot the bound Ferdinand a menacing glare.

"You'll have to see, Cicatriz bat," she crooned wickedly. At first, Ferdinand whimpered in timid confusion but then the dreadful reality dawned upon him. From the brawl cloud between the other group of toucan chicks and Katniss and Polaris, the former, while she had one of the toucan chicks pinned by the throat against the tree's trunk with a talon, saw Ferdinand's captors then carry the bound brown bat pup to an outstretched branch and place him on there. Terror tore through the glaucous chick.

"Polaris," she called, "Those CHICKS ARE GONNA DO TO FERDINAND WHAT ISABELLA HAD DONE TO SANDALWOOD!"

Polaris, upon hearing this, struggled against the toucan chicks and gazed at Ferdinand as he was placed on the end of a branch before a large drop. Then Katniss finally exploded: with an enraged screech, she clawed her toucan opponents across the faces and charged towards the toucan chicks that had bound and placed Ferdinand on the end of the branch. Due to the adrenaline rush of the chaos, the group was completely unaware that an orange glow was approaching them through the trees.

Katniss rocketed towards the toucan chicks and bowled right into them like a turquoise and grey comet. Toucan chicks were sent flying everywhere. While this happened, Polaris viciously clawed her way out of the cloud of toucan chicks and surged towards Ferdinand. Then she seized him before any of the toucan chicks could knock him off the branch end like what happened to Sandalwood. This done, Polaris quickly took the terrified flying fox pup to a safe place to untie him. While she did that, Katniss began to furiously and mercilessly pursue the toucan chicks in the direction of the orange glow.

"SCREEEECH! That was SANDALWOOD'S COUSIN you ALMOST THREW OFF THE END OF THAT BRANCH, you bunch of BIG-NOSED, WORM-HEADED SLUGS!" bellowed she as she chased the toucan chicks through the branches. Polaris frantically finished untied the trembling Ferdinand from the vines binding him and threw away the green tendrils. Then Ferdinand was pulled into a relieved hug by her.

"That was what happened to Sandalwood wasn't it?" sobbed the brown bat pup as he relished the hug with his friend. Polaris broke it and glared at him with a scowl.

"Yes, and you were almost shoved down that path after him," said she with rage in her voice against the toucan chicks. Polaris could not believe that those toucan chicks were inspired by what Isabella and her group had done to Sandalwood and their attempt to replicate that accident to traumatise Ferdinand. As these facts played in her mind, Polaris' urge to give those chicks a piece of her mind began to boil dangerously inside her but she was glad that she had pulled the flying fox pup out of that incident just in time. However, the moment of relief was immediately shattered when the pair heard the sounds of screeching through the trees, but the screeching was not saturated with anger, but with terror and panic. Polaris and Ferdinand turned round in time to see a number of comets zoom back towards them, the orange glow brightening behind them. At the front was Katniss, to Polaris' surprise, but when Polaris checked her face closer, she realised that the glaucous macaw chick's face was laced with unspeakable terror, her eyes practically inflated as far as they would go. Seeing this, she lofted into flight while and Ferdinand dropped from the branch to catch air under his membranous wings. Then the two hovered and gazed in alarm at Katniss as she screamed like she had never screamed before.

"FLY FOR IIIIIT!" yelled she.

"What's going on?" demanded Polaris, but nothing could prepare her and Ferdinand for what came out of the petrified glaucous macaw's beak.

"THERE ARE SOME TOUCAN CHICKS ARMED WITH BRANCHES OF FIRE!" bellowed she as she shot past the two. Polaris and Ferdinand gazed after her with surprise and confusion but then Ferdinand turned round and let loose a massive scream, prompting Polaris to turn round but the moment her eyes landed on orange glow behind the flock of toucan chicks (those that had seized and attacked her, Katniss and Ferdinand), and the dancing orange fingers that spread through the branches ahead of them accompanied by the crackling noise of burning wood and columns of black puffs, those eyes were inflated out of their sockets in terror.

"FLY FOR IT, FERDINAND!" screamed Polaris at the top of her lungs and with that, she and Ferdinand whirled round and tore after Katniss. The toucan chicks (not those armed with those branches), along with the adults, were also racing through the forest with fear after the trio.

The orange triangles continued to spreads amongst the branches of the trees, consuming everything that was burnable in their path and when one tree was ablaze, the adjacent ones kindled. Below the kindling trees, burning branches and cinders rained down like flaming fireballs and fiery red snowflakes and hail from a volcanic eruption, the branches making a fiery 'splash' on the forest floor as they crashed down there, sending bits of burning wood, as well as a sprawl of flames from the impact. In the orange inferno, the toucan chicks that had the flaming branches were struggling to put out the fire after realising that the 'new fascination' introduced to them by the stranger earlier turned out to be extremely hot and dangerous, but their realisation had come upon them far too late. Saturated with panic, the terrified toucans tried waving the branches to put out the flames but it was no use; the flames kept running down the branches and towards their talons holding them. Then as soon as the burning triangles made contact with their talons and feathers, the toucan chicks began to screech and squawk in pain, especially as their feathers caught fire. Stricken by extreme pandemonium and the agony of the fire, those toucan chicks screamed, dropped the still-burning branches, and dove to the forest floor to try and find a way to put out the fire consuming their feathers. While this happened, some more toucans, among them a few adults dived into some hollows in the hopes of escaping the flames. Big mistake, the moment the toucans entered the hollows, they soon found themselves trapped by the flames as they sealed off the entrances, locking them inside where they began to suffer from the extreme heat and menacing orange monsters.

Katniss, Polaris and Ferdinand were well aware of the dangers of fire and had been taught about its dangers, along with the other kids including Sandalwood, Acerola, Sirius, Bellatrix and the rest, including those back in the Amazon Rainforest such as Cody, the son of Felix and Turquesa, and Lilac, Lavender and Garrett's daughter. The majority of the birds and animals living on the Blu Bird Sanctuary, including some of Rafael and Eva's massive family such as Diantha, Tom, Gladion and Lillie and also Rafael and Eva themselves, were also aware of how dangerous fire was, and these animals always, ALWAYS avoided ANYTHING that could ignite other things on fire, such as matches and flint stones. Even Andromeda, Eragon, Spyro, young Bambi and Marella and their archaeobird clan were aware of the dangers of fire and had warned their chicks of them, especially if fire got into the wrong or careless hands which could lead it from escaping its confines like a wild animal and the resulting destruction it could wreak. Examples of this included the devastation of the two previous fires that tore through the Amazon, the one that separated Jewel and Zephyr, Brisa and their parents Tornado and Gael and some other birds from their tribes and clans that was the result of logging activity and the most recent one presumed by most humans and animals to be the result of some natural disaster or careless handling of fire-related things by humans (the latter was true for the previous fire had been caused by a discarded and still-burning cigarette end, but no-one was aware of this). The archaeobirds knew how to contain fire very well and they never took it out of their territory. They sometimes carried flaming branches and used them as torches to navigate at night but they knew very well how to keep the flames from burning their wing fingers and feathers and knew how to safely put them out once they were done with those torches, and young archaeobirds were given special training in the careful handling and containment of fire. Chicks, though they were introduced to fire briefly, were NEVER allowed to handle fire, or even ANYWHERE near it, until they were old enough, and once they were at a mature age, they were safely and properly introduced to it. The archaeobirds also only used fire for warmth, cremating their deceased, roasting snacks and in some of their dances, and NEVER used it offensively against other species, though they did use their torches as a deterrent against the intruding flying foxes when Cicatriz and his colony threatened the Sanctuary de Amazon who, like most of the other animals of the Amazon, despised fire, and it had been a last resort for the archaeobirds had been extremely vulnerable to those brutal bats. Fire was useful for certain things such as cooking and keeping warm as used by humans but if handled wrongly or carelessly, as Eragon, Andromeda and their clan had said and pointed out time and time again, fire can become very destructive with DIRE consequences indeed. However, it seemed that the majority of Rafael and Eva's offspring had not bothered to learn about the dangers of fire despite Rafael and Eva having taught them from a young age, and pass it onto their chicks, resulting in their naiveté around the subject. And those consequences of that naiveté regarding fire were showing themselves here and now.

"How in the world did those toucan chicks figure out to SET THOSE BRANCHES ON FIRE!?" shouted Polaris, flashing a glance behind her at the spreading orange glow of fire.

"I have NO IDEA!" cried Katniss, "But I daren't FIGURE OUT THE REASON BEHIND THEIR IDEAS!"

"Look OUT!" cried Ferdinand. Katniss looked up and saw an outstretched arm of a branch head her way. Suddenly, a dark grey talon appeared and seized the glaucous macaw chick by the wing, pulling her out of the arm's way just in time. Katniss thanked Polaris, who had done this, as she released her wing.

"This is gonna cause sheer panic for everyone in the jungle," yelled Ferdinand worriedly as he flapped madly after the Spix and glaucous macaw chicks who didn't reply to this. Under the terror of seeing the fire, confusion as to how the toucans had got hold of the destructive force in the first place boiled within the three's minds. However, the trio did not want to worry about this for their top priority was to escape the fast-spreading flames and get to safety as well as warn anyone they came across of the impending disaster.

While the flames continued to spread through the trees of the jungle, Sofia and her comrades were flying through another part of the jungle with Betelgeuse, Rigel and Antares in their clutches. Like every other kid of Bia's group, the daughters and son of Sheldon and Spinel were bellowing and screeching at their captors to let them go but to their dismay, their pleas to be released only fell on deaf ears. Sofia then glared at the three three-quarter scarlet chicks and uttered a scornful hiss.

"I can't believe that Spinel would be stupid enough to have kids," she growled, "I'd never thought that she'd become a mother."

"She is a pathetic parrot with a bratty temper, I can tell you," said Marcel, Sofia's mate, equally scornfully. The other toucans uttered murmurs of agreement. However, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Antares only replied to these scathing comments with volcanic scowls on their faces, terror also mixed in with them.

"Mom and Dad are gonna go BERSERK if they find out what you're doing to us," shouted Betelgeuse as she writhed in the talons of one adult toucan. Rigel and Antares also writhed in the talons of another adult toucan.

"As will Mr Blu, Mrs Jewel and EVERYONE ELSE!" shouted the former

"Yes, you BUNCH OF BEAK-BEAKED SNAKES!" screamed the latter. Suddenly, the three flinched and stifled a startled gasp when they found themselves on the receiving end of a bitter brown-eyed glare above a large orange and black beak.

"Well, I'M steamed that my nemesis Spinel would find a mate and have YOU THREE, you three little BRATS!" retorted Sofia bitterly, spittle flying from her beak as she spoke, "She SHOULDN'T HAVE HAD YOU THREE IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

"We WERE wanted," retorted Antares, "At least Mom doesn't have the desire to breed like insects like HOW YOU DO, HAG!"

Sofia flinched at this insult as it jabbed her like a porcupine spine.

"Where do you want to put these three annoying chicks, Sofia?" asked the toucan that carried Antares and Rigel, "Their squabbling and foul beaks are starting to irritate us."

Sofia turned to Antares and Rigel's carrier to speak but before she could get any words out, a foul smell wafted into the nostrils of the group. This brought the little flock of toucans to a hover.

"What's that smell?" asked Sofia in a distaste-laced voice, a talon pinching her nostrils shut. Marcel then began to sniff at the polluted air. However, as the identification of the smell's source took hold, a dreadful look emerged on his face.

"Smells like… burning… wood… and vegetation…" he said slowly to the other toucans. Horror tore through Sofia and her comrades and also Betelgeuse, Rigel and Antares when they heard this.

"Burning…" began the former in confusion but before the realisation dawned upon her and the other two half-ruby chicks, a piercing scream erupted from one of the female adult toucans nearby.

"FIRE!" she yelled. This prompted the rest of Sofia's group in looking in her direction and soon enough, all eyes were on the incoming orange glow and ahead of the glow were some orange fireballs. In their immense shock, the two toucans carrying Betelgeuse, Rigel and Antares dropped the three said chicks. The three siblings screamed as they plummeted through the canopy and as they fell, the three were separated. Betelgeuse tried to flap her wings to slow her fall but with her still-tattered wing thanks to Dalek's deed in grounding her to make her an easier target to catch by Carnassial and his gang back at the Paradise Sanctuary place; her attempts at trying to slow her fall were futile. Betelgeuse continued flailing like a fish as she continued to hurtle through space until the foliage of the trees, branches and leaves began to strike and scratch at her as she approached the forest floor. Betelgeuse covered her face with her wings to protect her eyes and beak from the cruel claws of the twigs as they pummelled her face and body and rotating her on the way down. Then within moments, the oldest of Spinel and Sheldon's chicks landed like a stone onto the forest floor in a shower of dirt. After this, Betelgeuse struggled to her feet and shook her head to eliminate the dizziness caused by the chaotic fall but then she realised that Antares and Rigel were missing. Alarmed, Betelgeuse began to shoot terrified gazes at every direction of the dark forest.

"Rigel, Antares!" she called, "Where ARE YOU!?"

As she continued to shout her younger sister and brother's names, an acrid smell and a polluting cloud of mist drifted her way and began to irritate her lungs, eyes and nose. Betelgeuse began to enter a fit of coughing and spluttering as her mucous membranes became irritated by the mist. Her eyes began to water and she began to try and escape to the clean air, for behind the mist was an orange glow and with it, extreme heat and its appetite for anything organic, dry and burnable; wet things being its most loathed type of food. Worries for her sister and brother continued to plague her mind and she knew she had to find them.

However, as Betelgeuse began to struggle through the foliage, her eyes continuously weeping and blinding her as the mist continued to irritate them and more coughs escaping her irritated throat, she heard chaos and commotion in the above canopy.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THOSE FLAMING BRANCHES, KIDS!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THEM!?"

Sofia's voice and Betelgeuse could hear the immense horror, distress and flabbergast saturating it. Then she heard the voices of the other adult toucans.

"PUT THOSE FLAMES OUT! PUT THOSE FLAMES OUT!"

"PUT 'EM OUT, NOW!"

The shouts were accompanied by the screams of agony erupting from the baby toucans which chilled Betelgeuse all the way to the bone but before she could lay a talon toe on the cause of those toucans' screams, she suddenly found herself bathed in an orange glow. Terror flaring within her, the little red chick shot a horrified gaze into the above canopy ands to her extreme alarm, an orange fireball was plummeting towards the forest floor, heading straight towards her. Letting loose a terrified scream, Betelgeuse leaped out of the way as the fiery comet landed and splashed like a liquid onto the forest floor, sending small flames spreading outward and kindling everything around them, such as ferns, within their reach. Betelgeuse then gazed with terrified eyes at the pool of flames as they stood taller and thinner from their burning substrate and realised that the substrate was a set of branches. Then another fiery comet plummeted from the above canopy and crash-landed not too far away from the chick, pulling her horrified gaze in its direction. A third and a fourth fireball also plummeted from the above canopy and slammed in a fiery splash onto the forest floor, and Betelgeuse watched these in extreme horror. It was then that she saw several smaller fireballs, this time with screams of agony exploding from them, as they dived down into the dirt and began to roll about to put out the flames, and Betelgeuse inspected the living fireballs closely, she realised that they had orange and black beaks. This realisation sent frosty chills of terror coursing down her spine, through her nerves and skin and turned her blood to ice. Several more of these screaming fireballs then descended from the above canopy and began to do the same in the dirt, the black and colourful beaked forms of the adult toucans flying down after them and shouting at the blazing and screaming toucan chicks to put out the fire consuming their feathers. Betelgeuse could see the terrified and panic-stricken look on each of the toucans' faces and she managed to pick out Sofia as she wailed over three of the small fireballs which the red macaw chick deduced were three of her chicks. But despite all that Sofia had done to her and her family and relatives, Betelgeuse shuddered with sympathy at Sofia as she continued yelling and screaming hysterically at her burning toucan chicks.

Not wanting to see this disturbing and frightening scene any longer, and the instinct to flee the fire beginning to violently take control, Betelgeuse yanked her gaze from the horrific scene of the panicking toucans and began to resume her search for Rigel and Antares.

"Rigel, Antares!" she screamed hoarsely; the crackling and roaring blaze of the fire attempting to drown out her voice and the smoke rising from it affecting her voice box, "RIIIGEEEEL! ANTAREEES!"

Betelgeuse then began to hop and run through the forest floor and jumping over any foliage that was in her way. She screamed again as a blast of fire erupted behind her, before she felt something burning on her left tattered wing. With a series of shrieks of agony and realising that a cinder had landed on that wing and had set its remaining feathers on fire, smoke rising from the small flames as they climbed up her feathers, Betelgeuse immediately glanced this way and that until her eyes landed on a puddle of water. Without hesitation, the red macaw chick dove for the pool and landed left side first to extinguish the fire on her wing. Betelgeuse relished the relief of the coolness of the water as well as the relief of putting out the fire before it could do her anymore damage but the small flames had left a painful after-effect on her left wing where the fire had managed to reach her skin. As Betelgeuse rose to her feet in the puddle as soon as she was sure that the fire had been put out, her plumage that had been submerged in the water dripping wet, she thought she heard two familiar voices call through the roar of the burning fire. Stopping to listen, Betelgeuse heard the voices again and wondered if they were real or not, but when recognition finally took hold, she realised that they were INDEED real.

"Rigel, Antares!" she cried hoarsely followed by a sequence of coughs as the smoke irritated her lungs. Coughing and struggling, Betelgeuse began to hurry through the kindling leafage and other forest floor material in the direction of her sister and brother's voices. Then as soon as two familiar red forms with blue, yellow and green feathers appeared through some ferns, one of them being pink-tinged, Betelgeuse immediately accelerated towards them.

"SIS, BRO!" she cried in a splintered, smoke irritated voice. The forms, which were indeed Rigel and Antares, looked up and when the two saw their sister run over to them, both were flooded with relief and joy. The three then met but before Betelgeuse could bring the two into a hug, Antares shouted, "STOP!"

Betelgeuse did so and backed away, confusion in her yellow-orange eyes. However, when she saw that Rigel's face was twisted in agony and her left wing gripping her right, Betelgeuse immediately knew that something was wrong, and Antares confirmed it with a horrified look on his face. However, he too was in agony and he was clutching his right shoulder.

"What is it?" Betelgeuse demanded. At first, Rigel did not reply, the extreme pain from her right wing twisting her face and gritting her beak and a panicked rapid breathing was filtering in and out of that beak. Then she relented and slowly moved the wing clasping the painful one to reveal to Betelgeuse the cause of the extreme pain. The moment the cause became visible; Betelgeuse let loose a horrified cry and covered her beak in horror. A short, stiff twig jutted out from Rigel's shoulder where the wing joined her body, just near the shoulder joint. It was clear that the twig, which appeared to be a splinter, was embedded in Rigel's skin, apparently the result of her fall through the canopy when her and Antares' toucan carrier dropped them. Betelgeuse then went forward to take hold of the twig to pull it out of Rigel's shoulder but then she remembered something important that Blu told her about injuries like this when a similar incident happened with one of the Spix macaws and a friend of Blu, Jewel, Zephyr, Aurora, Roberto and Brisa in the Spix tribe: splinters must NOT be removed or it could result in massive blood loss. As this memory played in her mind, Betelgeuse immediately began to look around for some unkindled leaves and moss.

"Hang in there while I search for the materials to make a makeshift sling for your shoulder," she told and with that, she began her search. As she did that, Antares called after her.

"I think my wing's been sprained form the fall," he managed to say through a gritted beak. Betelgeuse ignored him and continued her search for leaves and moss for Rigel's badly injured shoulder. As she did that, the three heard the sounds of wing-flaps above them. Betelgeuse, hearing these, turned her head upward and saw a small flock of black and red-cream fronted birds with large orange and black or lime green and magenta beaks fly past, some of them carrying the toucan chicks, many of which had been badly injured by the fire. Immediately, Betelgeuse began to scream at the toucans at the top of her lungs in the hopes that she would alert them.

"HEEELLLP! PLEASE HELP! THESE TWO MACAW CHICKS HERE ARE GREATLY INJURED!" she wailed. However, to Betelgeuse's utter dismay, the toucans did not appear to hear her. Betelgeuse's instinct to keep trying and yelling took hold and she continued to call at the toucans. Rigel and Antares did the same but as the toucans receded into the distance, despair came crashing down on the three sisters. Betelgeuse fell on her front and began to weep tears as hopelessness consumed her like the fire consuming the vegetation around her, Antares and Rigel. After one last hopeless call, Betelgeuse finally gave up and eventually broke down. The three chicks of Sheldon and Spinel were left to find their own way out of the fire… on the ground… for the three could not fly at all; Rigel due to the splinter in her shoulder, Antares due to a painfully sprained wing, and Betelgeuse due to her tattered and slightly singed wing. Then before Betelgeuse had all but given up, Antares pulled her back to her senses.

"We've gotta get outa here, NOW!" he shouted. Betelgeuse's teary despair-saturated gaze examined the environment and saw that the fire had almost surrounded them. Orange and black cinders from charred leaves rained down around the two chicks like charcoaled snowflakes. Then as soon as Betelgeuse was brought back to reality, she let loose a terrified cry and began to help Antares help Rigel out of the inferno. However, it was not going to be easy for all three chicks could not fly and with a splinter embedded in Rigel's shoulder with the threat of getting dislodged and causing a potentially life-threatening blood-loss, and Antares did not want to carry his sister for his sprained wing could make him drop out of the air which could result in disastrous consequences. Further, the three chicks had absolutely no idea of where they were in the forest. It was clear that the odds of survival seemed greatly stacked against the trio. Regardless, the grounded siblings began to try and escape the fire on foot through the vegetation clutter.