Chapter 103- epilogue and getting rid of the last remnants of the bad toucans
A few more months had passed since the Blu Bird Sanctuary's fire had either burned itself out or had been quelled by Rio's fire services, but over that time, more improvement and recovery had taken place. The burned forest's greenery had finally returned but it will be another number of months before the trees were fully restored to their usual appearances, but fresh fruit and flowers had also grown in with the leaves. Insects had also returned to the forest but the avian and other animal residents who had evacuated from the forest initially because of the massive toucan overpopulation and trouble and then the fire, had also returned to their rightful hollows and other habitats in the trees and on the ground from their places of stay in the city such as the clubs, like Nico, Pedro, Rose and Sparkle's, and Luiz's garage. Now that there were fewer of those badly behaved toucans to be found, and the toucans of Rafael and Eva's family that had been allowed to stay since they had either reformed or were already sensible and all of who were well-behaved and respectable, such as Diantha, Gladion and Lillie, the residents including Basil the bat and his small colony living in the cave can finally get their lives back on track without having to worry about facing trouble from such toucans, and any badly behaved toucans left were either banished from the sanctuary when they were found or brought to Tulio and his team to be dealt with. Things certainly were looking up after a number of months of dealing with disaster, loss, devastation, tragedy and trauma. The Chinesa Vista, with the plaque with the sanctuary's name written on it and with Blu's face in its centre had also been rebuilt had also been replaced but a new plaque had been designed to include not only Blu's face, but also the faces of Jewel, and also D'Artagnan, Aurora, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, Phoebe and Levi and their respective mates Sapphire, Zephyr, Ruby, Orquidea, Esmeralda, Cobalto and Lapis Lazuli, as well as Zephyr's sister Brisa and the first brood chicks of these couples excluding Brisa, drawn and carved into its middle as well to commemorate these birds' settling into the sanctuary before and when they had their first chicks. The new plaque was also larger and more rectangular to accommodate the additional birds into the picture in the middle, rather than the previous one which had been circular.
And that's not all. The grounded members of Blu's group were able to fly again now that their wing flight feathers had grown back and in the cases of those with broken wings, such as Athos, Connie and Neytiri, their wings had healed and these birds, and flying fox in Connie's case, were able to fly once again, much to their joy. Being grounded for the rest of their lives was not something Athos and the others wanted despite Blu's attempts to tell them of the upsides of being flightless. And as the Blu Bird Sanctuary's forests and habitats were refilled with their usual residents once again, the first-generation and first-brood offspring of Blu and company, such as Carla, Bia, Tiago, Justin, Matilda and Virgil, had decided to remain on the Blu Bird Sanctuary with their kids and make it their home for the sanctuary could do with some rare animals, such as Spix and glaucous macaws and archaeobirds, on the site, and Charlotte, Lavender, Garrett and some other macaws and their families had decided to move here too. However, they had promised Blu and Jewel and the others that they will visit them and the bird tribes, clans, smaller groups and the flying fox clan in the Sanctuary de Amazon from time to time.
The families that had opted to stay, or move to, on the Blu Bird Sanctuary were the Spix families Carla, Justin and their three daughters Sonia, Spica and Melody; Bia, Virgil and their sons three Sirius, Einstein and Miles; Tiago, Matilda and their two chicks Bellatrix and Byron; Charlotte, Músculo and their son Jason; Finnick, Kira and their three chicks Achernar, Diego and Polaris; Felix, Turquesa and their son Cody; and Lavender, Garrett and their daughter Lilac. Poinsettia, her blue-and-gold mate Wilbur and their Catalina (scarlet/blue-and-gold hybrid) chicks Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine and Thymine had also chosen to remain on the Blu Bird Sanctuary with Spinel, Sheldon, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Antares while Alexandre, Spinel and Poinsettia's brother, and his mate Estelle and son Sol, had decided to move to the Blu Bird Sanctuary too. Wilbur's brother Azul and his family, his mate Brooke and chicks Alegria and Thomas, had also decided to move to the Rio sanctuary along with Chlorophyll, Petunia's brother, and his military mate Ashley and their hybrid daughter Perdita. Petunia, Benjamin, Altair and Aldebaran had also decided to remain on the Sanctuary, as had glaucous macaws Trixie, Aiden and their son Arcturus and Tristan, Neytiri and their chicks Katniss and Canopus; Lear's macaws Jasmine, Finn and their chicks Vega and Regulus; Cuban red macaws Frodo and Ellie and their son Sylvester; hyacinth macaws Indigo, Victor and their daughter Sugilite, and Zebedee, Iris and their four chicks Celeste, Capella, Castor and Pollux. The blue-throated macaw friend of Carla and company, Ariel, had also decided to move to the Blu Bird sanctuary with her mate Eric and their daughter Elsa. Toucans Diantha, Lillie and Gladion; flying foxes Sebastian, Anabelle, Acerola and Ferdinand, Stella, Soren, Sandalwood and Connie and Luna; and archaeobirds Spyro, Marella and Bambi had also opted to live on the sanctuary as well for they had taken a liking to the place and wanted to replace the badly-behaved toucans with rarer species. Besides Charlotte, Ariel and the others, a number of archaeobirds and bat-birds, flying foxes, macaws and parakeets of the blue-throated, Spix, glaucous, Lear's, Cuban red and also the Dominican green-and-yellow, neon and pink-and-purple species had also migrated from the tribes, clans and small groups in the Sanctuary de Amazon to settle on the Blu Bird Sanctuary to establish a population of all those species on the site as well.
While everything in the Blu Bird Sanctuary was finally improving, Carla, Bia, Tiago and company were also going through the process of recovery on a far more familial and personal level. Betelgeuse had finally got used to adapting to the loss of the toes on her left foot and the scar on her face with the help of Eustace, whose left leg had also been amputated, and also Zebedee, and had eventually managed to repair her damaged confidence and self-esteem. Those that had been traumatised with water, such as Aldebaran who had been put through not one, but TWO ordeals involving water unlike the other kids, such as Ferdinand, one with Marco spitefully dunking him in the stream and the other where he was bound to a log with the other kids and pushed into another, were slowly dealing with their newfound fears of it, but for Aldebaran this was especially difficult due to the two separate ordeals he had faced. Those that had been trapped in an animal burrow by some of the evil toucan chicks, such as Acerola, Sirius, Einstein and Miles, were slowly dealing with their claustrophobia but Acerola was especially badly affected and would likely require a longer time than the others to heal. Diantha, meanwhile, had opted to remain single for the rest of her life following the loss of her mate Tom when he took Blu and Jewel's place and ended up getting impaled with a wood shard by Dalek the parrot-detesting chameleon and with Rafael, Eva and her remaining siblings, nephews and nieces help, had managed to come to terms with Tom loss and move on, with Gladion and Lillie doing the same and will have to grow up without their dad.
To add icing to the cake, the five offspring of Gylfie and Aurum, the last pair of golden fruithawks known alive, and the two white-and-silver owls, were doing well. The five fruithawks were two males and three females while the owls were a male and a female. All seven had been taken care of by both Tulio and his team and the avian residents of the Blu Bird Sanctuary but most especially Carla and company, and Travis and Sunset and their three children Eustace, Milo and Rosa; two children-in-law Clemont and Serena and three grandkids Peach, Yolanda and Vincent (who was able to fly again since his wing, like the wings of everyone else who had a broken wing, had healed). The males had been named Ganymede, after a moon of Jupiter, and Comet, after Cometa the falcon, while the females had been named Gardenia, Samara, and Gylfie, after her mother. Like their parents, these chicks had grown beautiful golden feathers with vivid yellow plumage on their heads and necks, and orange beaks and feet, though they were still young, and were all healthy which the conservationists were glad for. The two white-and-silver owls which were mostly white with silvery marking s on their wings, tail, faces and chests, were named Aragorn (the male) and Raya (the female) and were a brother and sister and like the five golden fruithawks, they were healthy too, to the gladness of the conservationists. However, the conservationists knew that the five fruithawks and two owls will require individual fruithawks and owls that were not related to them when they reach sexual maturity and become able to breed for if the siblings were to mate and attempt to have chicks, the resulting eggs would either be inviable or produce chicks with little chance of survival due to inbreeding consequences but at the moment, the chance of finding any other fruithawk or owl like these seven out in the world was extremely slim, or impossible, but Tulio and his team never gave up hope since after all, a flock of Spix and glaucous macaws had been discovered in the Amazon Rainforest while a few individuals of the Cuban and Dominican green-and-yellow macaws, macaws that should have gone extinct over a century ago in Central America, had been discovered as well. Only time will tell but at least the golden fruithawk and white-and-silver owl species had been pulled from the brink of extinction… for now.
Things certainly were improving for everyone and everything.
In the Sanctuary de Amazon, the Spix tribe's ravine
The air in the ravine inhabited by the Spix macaw tribe was alive with singing and dancing, accompanied by flashes of various shades of blue feathers that danced like blue flowers above the lilypad-riddled pool with the waterfall at the back end cascading into it. The blue forms had flashes of red and yellow pained on the faces and wingtips (for the yellow), for the tribe members had decked themselves out with red fruit paint (for the males on their faces), and yellow pollen (for the females on their faces and wingtips) and they were dancing to their tribe theme 'Beautiful Creatures'. Along the banks of the ravine pool were a crowd of more blue dotted with red, green, darker navy blue, purple, drabber brown, red, orange, metallic blue, red and a variety of other colours for individuals from the red, green, glaucous, Lear's, blue-and-gold, blue-throated and hyacinth tribes and clans, alongside those from the archeobird, flying fox and smaller bird clans and groups had come to visit and watch the dance of the Spix macaws.
Among the dancing macaws were Blu, Roberto and Zephyr, their faces decked out with patches of red fruit paint, and Jewel, Brisa and Aurora, their faces and wingtips decked out with yellow flower pollen and they danced together in pairs during a certain part of the song, alongside the other Spix macaw couples such as Zephyr and Brisa's cousin Nuvem and his mate Cassia. Also among the crowd of dancing couples were Justin, Carla, Bia, Virgil, Tiago, Matilda, Charlotte, Músculo, Finnick, Kira, Felix, Turquesa, Lavender and Garrett whose faces, like everyone else's, were decorated with red fruit paint or yellow flower pollen with the females' wingtips tipped with more yellow pollen. Sonia, Spica and Melody, Sirius, Einstein and Miles, Bellatrix and Byron, Achernar, Diego and Polaris, Cody, Lilac and Jason were also present, their faces and in the female chicks, wingtips also decorated with red fruit paint or yellow flower pollen and they all danced with a number of other chicks and adolescents, among them Luke, Linda and Eddie, the three second-brood and adopted chicks of Blu and Jewel, and Azurite and Aquamarine, Zephyr and Aurora's second-brood chicks. Carla and company were in the middle of one of their visits to the Sanctuary de Amazon, hence their presence here.
Along the banks, the crowd of onlookers who danced and clapped to the song, Stella, Soren, Connie and Sandalwood stood among the group of visiting flying foxes, and Sandalwood had managed to pick out Sirius as he danced alongside Bia, Virgil, his brothers and all his aunts, uncles and cousins, and grandparents Blu, Jewel, Zephyr and Aurora and also Mimi, Jewel's aunt who had also painted areas of her face and her wingtips with yellow pollen like every other female macaw in the flock.
"I cannot believe that the birds of this rainforest would have such AMAZING dance talent," cried Connie in awe.
"They look so AWESOME, don't they?" said Sandalwood.
"They certainly do, son and Connie," said Stella as she continued to watch the dance.
"They're ever so magnificent," said Soren, before his gaze landed on Lavender, Garrett and their daughter Lilac as they joined a line of some other Spix macaws in spinning down to the lake, skimmed the water's surface and ascended in spins back into the air, "Even though I'm an excellent swimmer, despite being a flying fox who is supposed to have more manoeuvrability than birds, I can never do that trick."
"Luna's actually quite good at that manoeuvre, as are a few other flying foxes in our clan," said Marcus nearby as he sat with Ana. Marcus and Ana were two of Augustus, Melissa and her deceased cousin Lily's friends who had helped save a lot of birds, among them very rare species along with few other flying foxes, from the flying fox colony during their reign of terror over every bird of the Amazon Rainforest. Stella, Soren, Connie and Sandalwood flashed these two a smile and continued watching and applauding the Spix macaws as they continued their dance, especially Carla, Bia, Tiago and the other Spix macaws with them as they continued to dance in a variety of patterns.
On the clifftops of the ravine, a certain hyacinth macaw family was on a tour with Phoebe and Cobalto as their guides. Victor, Indigo and Sugilite were also present but Violet, Indigo and Zebedee's younger sister was back at the hyacinth macaw clan's habitat socialising with some other young hyacinth macaws. Zebedee (with his bandana covering his left facial side and clouded eye as usual) and Iris, along with their grown-up chicks Celeste, Capella, Castor and Pollux, were scanning the ravine and the dancing Spix macaws. All but Zebedee, who was already familiar with the Spix tribe's ravine and the other areas of the Amazon Sanctuary, wore fascinated and awed looks on their faces as they examined the surroundings. Celeste, the oldest chick and daughter of Zebedee and Iris, had blue feathers similar to Blu but the shade of blue faded to a lighter one toward her wings and back. She had blue eyes like her father Zebedee but darker and had a three-pointed flower-like crest like her mother Iris. Her build was lithe and slender. Celeste was bold and sometimes sassy, but at times she was timid and shy, similar to Zebedee had sometimes been when he had been a chick. Capella was chubbier than her older sister with a build similar to Carla and Sonia. Her crest was similar to Celeste's crest but only had two parts, both pointing backward like a frigatebird's tail but the ends curving downward at the back of her head. Her feathers were dark navy blue and she had violet eyes. Capella was not as bold as her older sister and was quite timid, and she seemed to show an interest in nature similar to Bia and some of her relatives including Einstein and Miles. The egg twin sons of Zebedee and Iris, Castor and Pollux looked identical. Both had navy blue feathers, a forward-pointing tuft of feathers on their heads, and a stocky build and a ruffle of feathers at the base of their neck, on the back, similar to Blu. The boys were only distinguished by their eye colours with Castor having blue-violet eyes and Pollux having lighter aqua blue eyes. The two were slightly shorter than their older sisters due to how they developed. Both lads were outgoing and were inseparable, as they had been in their egg, and were always quick to defend their friends from trouble and stick up for them, often working together.
When Zebedee and Iris had had their clutch of eggs, which had been three, a very rare number in hyacinth macaws for one or two was most common, at Luiz's garage in Rio, having them in a nest built on a shelf in the place, the couple had been expecting three chicks rather than four. However, the couple had noticed something a bit unusual with one of the eggs when a shaft of sunlight highlighted its contents. Then after examining the egg under a bright flashlight, also called a torch with Phoebe and Cobalto's help, it was discovered that the egg had TWO chicks instead of one, unlike the other two eggs. During the rest of the chicks' development, Zebedee and Iris had been greatly worried for this egg and had expected either one or both of the chicks to not make it, knowing that eggshells were rigid and only provided enough room for one chick to develop. Then when the time came for the eggs to hatch, Zebedee and Cobalto had taken the two-chick egg to Tulio's Aviary for assisted hatching. Both chicks, which were both male, to the relief of their parents, were healthy though they were a bit smaller than Celeste and Capella had been when they were born due to space limitations inside the egg. According to Blu and other birds good with maths and science, Castor and Pollux were a pair in a billion since two-yolk eggs were extremely rare in parrots and even fewer of such eggs developed into two healthy chicks. As such, Castor and Pollux had been nicknamed the 'egg-twins', and it seemed their identical appearances save for their eye colours in addition to their similar personalities and inseparable nature had emphasized that nickname.
As Phoebe and Cobalto continued talking about the Spix macaw tribe, Sugilite, as she stood between her parents Indigo and Victor (who wore his signature half fruit-shell hat as usual) flashed constant smiles and gazes at her four new cousins for she was proud to have some close biological relatives to play with at last and was even prouder to be the cousin of such an extremely rare phenomenon of 'egg-twins' as well.
"…The Spix tribe's dance is called 'Beautiful Creatures'," continued Cobalto as he gestured to the Spix tribe as they finished their dance, "According to their former leader Eduardo, it's been their theme song for generations."
"How did it come to be?" squeaked Celeste curiously to which Zebedee and Iris smiled.
"Apparently," said Cobalto, "Some individual Spix macaws had thought it up a long time ago and after its first performance by those macaws' ancestors and it was liked, it had become their theme ever since."
"The same is true or apparently true for the other tribe and clan dances," added Indigo, "With Augustus and his clan's song being the most recent."
"Cool!" cried Capella, Castor and Pollux together and excitedly.
"We would love to see the flying fox clan's dance," said Celeste.
"We will soon," said Victor with a smile.
"I reckon it's gonna be awesome," added Iris, a wing on Celeste's head, "watching those winged mammals do their dance."
"We would love to see Sandalwood, Acerola and Ferdinand perform with the others, and the birds living with the bats as well," added Sugilite.
"We will, our granddaughter," said Phoebe with a smile, "Don't be so impatient."
Sugilite just rolled her eyes and crossed her wings much to the laughter of the other hyacinth macaws.
"Sugilite sure seems to be short of patience at times," said Indigo.
"Well, patience is an essential skill to learn in life, Indigo," said Cobalto, "You can't always get things now."
"And besides that, haste always invites mistakes and messes," put in Zebedee, his right eye forming a frown.
"Correct, Zebedee," said Phoebe, "That is why you should not or even never rush things, especially very important things."
The other older hyacinth macaws nodded in agreement. Just then the sounds of talking reached the group's ears but then that talking was cut off. Phoebe, Cobalto, Zebedee, Iris, Indigo and Victor exchanged perplexed glances while the five hyacinth chicks looked on confused. However, recognition had welled within one of them, and his single eye formed a firm frown.
"I know that voice," hissed Zebedee. It was then that Iris's green gaze landed on something hovering in the air not too far away from where Phoebe and his family were standing.
"Who are those hyacinth macaws?" she asked. All eyes followed her gaze and when they landed on a certain couple of macaws with five chicks, their reaction took on different forms. Phoebe and Cobalto's faces morphed into ones of surprise while Indigo and Victor's ones formed frowns after a flash of surprise. Iris's was puzzled while Zebedee's single-eyed one was suspicion. Celeste, Castor, Pollux and Capella, however, wore looks of confusion but Sugilite's face formed a glare for she also knew this family. Hovering before Phoebe and her family was a family of six hyacinth macaws and one of them was Zebedee's ex, and she was gawking at Zebedee, his mate and their four chicks with an agape look. Her eyes were wide and her beak was dropped wide open. She had also been carrying some fruit in her talons but those talons had slackened from the shock and the fruit was released from their clutches and sent plummeting through the canopy, narrowly missing a passing monkey in the branches on the way down. The monkey flashed an annoyed look at the hovering hyacinth macaw and her family before continuing its trip. There was a moment of awkward silence hovering above the families until finally, Zebedee's ex's mate, Brock, came forward and examined Iris, Celeste, Capella, Castor and Pollux.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing, Penelope?" asked he. The female macaw, who was Zebedee's ex Penelope, was too frozen by flabbergast to even speak. Then Brock answered his own question.
"That one-eyed freak's got a mate and a family of his own," he said, the four chicks hovering around him looking on in equal shock. As he said this, outrage flashed through the adult macaws, especially Iris, while Zebedee's right eye flashed with hurt. Celeste and her three siblings looked up at their father.
"He's a one-eyed…?" began Celeste but Iris cut her off.
"Celeste!" hissed she sharply, making the older sister flinch and shut her beak. Capella timidly ducked behind their older sister, not wanting to share the same sharp scold but Castor and Pollux were glaring fiercely at Penelope and her family. Then Indigo and Victor stepped forward, glares on the former girlfriend of Zebedee and her family.
"Look, just GET OUT, will you?" snarled Indigo fiercely, "It's obvious that you still hadn't changed your attitude towards Zebedee in the past half-year."
"Yeah, SCRAM!" put in Victor and with that, his wing went to his hat, removed it and he poised it as if to throw it at Penelope and her family to reinforce his and his mate's statement. Sugilite also came forward and crouched and opened her wings, her bitter glare on Penelope and her family, as if she wanted to leap at them. However, Phoebe and Cobalto were calmer and less aggressive in handling the situation, but they were still angry and firm.
"Look, Penelope, Brock, take your chicks and leave at once," commanded Phoebe sternly, "You're not welcome here."
"Yes, especially if you're gonna continue to insult our son," put in Cobalto. At first, Penelope continued to hover there, her gaze still on Zebedee and his family. But then she relented, especially after seeing the volcanic looks on his sister and brother-in-law, especially how the latter threatened to throw his hat at her but before she left with her family in tow, she shot Phoebe and his family a bratty glare.
"You know something," she growled, "I'm surprised that the four chicks accompanying One-Eyed Scarface weren't born resembling deformed fruit or birds with unsightly growths all over 'em or sommat since their father's so UGLY with those mini-jaguar claws and clouded eye on his face…"
That sent pure outrage and offense tearing through Phoebe's family, especially Zebedee and his four kids.
"OOOIII!" screeched Indigo and Victor at the same time. Then Cobalto's calm demeanour was instantly vaporised by a surge of hot anger.
"GET OUTA HERE NOW!" screeched Zebedee's father at the top of his lungs, "BEFORE I BRING BLU AND JEWEL HERE TO DRIVE YA OFF!"
Iris then let loose an extremely loud snake-like hiss and lurched at Penelope and her family.
"How DARE YOU insult MY MATE and CHICKS, you FOUL MOTHER!" she screeched. Now it was Penelope's turn to flash an offended look but seeing the ferocity on the faces of Zebedee's mate and family members, she turned round and rocketed off into the trees with Brock following, his and Penelope's frightened chicks in their talons.
As soon as they had gone, Phoebe, Iris, Victor and Cobalto lowered their anger temperatures.
"I cannot BELIEVE she would say SOMETHING like that," growled Victor as Iris went to ease and soothe Zebedee's bruised heart and Celeste, Capella, Castor and Pollux's burned feelings.
"Let's just help Zebedee and his family calm down," said Phoebe and with that she, Cobalto, Indigo, Sugilite and Victor joined Iris in trying to soothe Zebedee and the four new additions to their family and their hurt feelings.
On the edge of the Sanctuary de Amazon, in the former land of the flying fox colony
A certain toucan with a lime green, magenta, black and orange bill and sleek black feathers and red-cream front stood on a branch, gazing into once was the land of the feared and dreaded flying fox colony, a sad look on her face. In her talons was a little leaf-bag containing a few things, and she was clutching it while directing her gaze down to it. Her gaze then continued directly down below her and onto a stream. Diantha then released a sigh when the sounds of wing-flaps alerted her. The toucan looked up and spotted some macaws and a flying fox approach her.
"Hey, Diantha, what are you doing out here?" asked one of the red macaws, which was an unusually orange macaw named Sardonyx and she was accompanied by Greg. Greg, Sardonyx, Steven and Kevin had moved into the red macaw tribe and had been welcomed by Felipe and the other red macaws, before becoming official members of the flock. Now Greg and Sardonyx were on a small outing with Ellie, Frodo, Augustus, Rafael, Eva (who had also come to visit the Sanctuary de Amazon with Diantha, Rita and the other remaining family members) and Falkor, the milicinth (military/hyacinth hybrid) macaw. However, Diantha did not answer at first and continued gazing into the former territory of the flying fox colony. Then Augustus fluttered in.
"That's where the bird-detesting flying fox colony that viewed all birds as vermin and the causes of all the disasters used to live," he said to Sardonyx and Greg.
"Flying fox colony?" asked Greg confused. Falkor turned to him, "This part of the rainforest usually spelled death for any bird that wandered into it, even accidentally, and ironically enough, it used to belong to a variety of other bird tribes and clans before those deranged bats drove them out."
"Oh, so essentially any bird land that became part of the flying fox colony's land has become forbidden to all birds?" asked Sardonyx with shock. Falkor and Augustus nodded. Then Augustus returned his gaze into the sea of trees.
"But now that the flying fox colony had dispersed," he said, "Birdlife had returned to the area they once occupied but it's highly unlikely that the original bird tribes and clans that used to occupy the territory and had managed to survive the savage attack from the colony would ever return and repopulate that area since so many of their original tribes and clans would have been slaughtered or, if any members of the flocks had survived, too frightened to return."
Greg and Sardonyx shuddered as they paralleled their gaze with Augustus' and imagined the land being populated by a massive colony of bird-loathing flying foxes as well as all birdlife being completely decimated by their presence. They still had a lot to learn about the dark past of this part of the rainforest and Augustus had promised to give them history lessons at some point in the future.
While the couple of new members of Felipe's tribe continued to gaze into the land and distance, Rafael, Eva, Frodo and Ellie touched down by Diantha as she continued to gaze at the little leaf bag containing something.
"Your pebble bead decorations you told me you used to build with some of your siblings when you were young," said Frodo when he gazed at the leaf bag clutched in Diantha's talons.
"The bead decorations I built with Sofia, Marco and Mabel to be exact, actually," said Diantha in a sombre voice.
"So why did you bring them out here on our trip?" asked Rafael while Eva and Ellie said nothing. Diantha's face then morphed into a stern look and a deep breath was drawn through her nostrils.
"These bead decorations are the last pieces of what I have of my turned-wicked siblings, as well as the last reminders of them," she said, "I've noticed that Rita, Carlos, Fabio and the other good toucans had done away with anything they had done with Sofia and the other bad toucans, and I want to do the same with mine."
Diantha then redirected her gaze at the stream flowing into the former flying fox colony's land below as Augustus, Falkor, Sardonyx and Greg came in and touched down beside her. Then sadness came over Diantha and made her ooze a tear from her left eye.
"I want to do away with ALL reminders of those wicked siblings and their undisciplined and equally deranged chicks," she said in a low voice, "I want to put the past I had with them behind me… and start anew… with the TRUE siblings I have… both biological in the case of my good siblings like Rita, Carlos and Fabio… and the unrelated and non-toucan members of the extended family… which is Carla, Bia, Tiago and everyone else…"
Diantha then breathed another sigh, "I don't want ANYTHING more to do with Sofia, Marco, Mabel and the rest of them... anymore."
Then after taking one last gaze at the leaf bag and its contents, Diantha, without hesitation, dropped the leaf bag from the branch and sent it careening down towards the stream's water. Rafael, Eva, Frodo and Ellie put comforting wings on her back while Sardonyx, Greg, Falkor and Augustus looked on. Then a few seconds later, the group took off from the branch and returned to the Sanctuary de Amazon.
The green leaf bag landed with a small splash in the stream, before finally sinking down into the depths, the current taking hold of it and dragging it along. The bag and its contents continued to drift along until they finally disappeared to an unknown place in the stream, taking with it all reminders of Diantha's wicked siblings who had descended into villainy and UTMOST irresponsibility that eventually led to the fire that almost destroyed the Blu Bird Sanctuary… and the very near loss of the kids of a certain group of birds and flying foxes, among them Diantha's own three… several times in the case of some of them.
The end