Chapter 7- the case in the Sanctuary de Amazon continues
Later, back in the Sanctuary de Amazon
The case of the harpy eagle incident continued to be investigated in the Amazon Sanctuary. As soon as all the casualties with the most serious injuries, among them Ophiuchus, Ruby, Orquidea, Esmeralda and Cobalto, had been admitted to the animal hospital, the next important stage, the gathering of any eyewitnesses and suspects, was being carried out. Since Miranda, Annette, Larimar and Quincy had been among the eyewitnesses of the incident, they had been enlisted to help in the investigation though Quincy had insisted that he not be questioned for a while for he had a broken heart to deal with. His mate and the mother of his sons, Elliot and Marty, Bertha had succumbed to her injuries in the hospital. She had been trying to help to fend off the harpy eagle as soon as she was sure that Marty and Elliot were safe with the other chicks, flaplings and flying fox pups but had been very brutally slashed by the harpy eagle's sickle-like claws. The injuries were so bad that she had eventually succumbed to blood loss. Her passing had left Quincy as a widower and his sons motherless, so only his sister Larimar will be helping in the case, especially since she had been the witness of a blur that had knocked Annette and Quincy off the perch seconds before the harpy eagle made its appearance and so she was an important source of information, along with Juni and Celine. Also included in the eyewitnesses to be questioned were Caspian, Satsuma and Apricot, Citrine's family; Bellerophon and Pandora, and Greg, Sardonyx, Steven and Kevin. These macaws and conures were especially important for they had been the first targets for the harpy eagle attack. Not only this, they had been the eyewitnesses to Bruno the hyacinth macaw's death as well, along with the female great green macaw named Kay who had been along them when it happened.
During the questioning of the eyewitnesses, two key pieces of information about the harpy eagle incident had shortly come to light. One was the fact that the harpy eagle had been provoked deliberately, while the other was the witnessing of a blue blur zooming past seconds before the harpy eagle's appearance. This implied that the escapee was blue coloured and could fly, and was apparently fleeing from the eagle. Based on this, some of the investigators and questioners had assumed that the escapee was trying to flee the eagle and was apparently one of the victims but a few other investigators and questioners, among them Jewel, Felipe and Augustus, disagreed with this completely due to the first fact: the deliberate provocation of the harpy eagle. They had arrived at the possible conclusion that the blue blur must have been the culprit to instigate the incident by deliberately provoking that extremely dangerous aerial predator and so, they had called for suspects to be brought forward and questioned. And because blue was not a part of the palette of the fur of the flying foxes, or the pycnofibres of the bat-birds and pterobats, it was clear that the culprit was not any of these species, so the flying foxes, bat-birds and pterobats were all ruled out and no suspects were brought forward from Augustus's flying fox clan or the bat-bird and pterobat clans. With those flying mammals and reptiles off the list, it was clear that the culprit could have been a blue feathered bird, but who was its identity?
Furthermore, the blue blur had been flying so fast that eyewitnesses did not have time to determine whether it was light blue or dark blue, if it had been tinted with closely related colours like white, cyan or violet, or if it had a metallic sheen, or if it had any other coloured features. Based on this, the suspects brought forward were all blue birds; either blue macaws (Spix, hyacinth, Lear's, glaucous), conures and archaeobirds and among the macaws were Linda, Blu and Jewel's own daughter; Zephyr and Aurora's second brood son and daughter, Azurite and Aquamarine; Brisa and Roberto's second brood son and daughter Oberon and Ophelia, and to Quincy, Larimar, Annette and Miranda's utter horror, Ozzy, Lola (the two younger siblings of Jasmine, Miranda and Annette and D'Artagnan and Sapphire's second-brood son and daughter), Charlie and Bertie (the second brood offspring of Levi and Lapis Lazuli and Quincy, Larimar and also Trixie and Tristan's two younger brothers) as well. Other birds with blue in their plumage, such as the blue-and-gold and blue-throated macaws, were also ruled out for the eyewitnesses had reported the fleeing blur to be completely blue and not blue and yellow, so Porthos and Orquidea's daughters, Amalthea and Desdemona, and blue-throated macaw Ariel's sister Fernanda and her family, were not included in the list of suspects. Neither were the eyewitnesses or the leaders that had blue feathers for they had been present either at the meeting or watching the kids when the incident happened, so Quincy, Larimar, Miranda and Annette and the other Spix, glaucous, Lear's and hyacinth macaws and blue-feathered archaeobirds were exempt from the inclusion as well. Then as soon as all the suspects of the incident had been brought forward, they had been held in custody to be questioned by the birds, flying foxes and pterosaurs skilled in dealing with serious incidences like murder.
Just outside the tree where the selected suspects were being taken by security-skilled birds, flying foxes and pterosaurs (similar to how police humans took suspects of a crime into custody), that tree called the Custody Tree, Larimar stood on a branch of an adjacent tree. She shuddered as she heard the cries and yells of Oberon, Roberto and Brisa's second-brood son, as he was hoisted by two scarlet macaws towards the Custody Tree, protests of his innocence escaping from his beak. Behind him, Brisa and Roberto followed, thunderous looks on their faces, but Larimar could clearly see the reluctance in the parents' eyes as well.
"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" screeched Oberon as he was frogmarched through the entrance, "YOU KNOW I WOULD NEVER, EVER MESS WITH SUCH A DANGEROUS BIRD-OF-PREY and PROVOKE IT INTO ATTACKING ANYONE ELSE! MOM, DAD! PLEASE HELP ME!"
Larimar shuddered again as she saw the unflinching and adamant behaviour of Roberto and Brisa as their protesting and teary son who practically resembled a spitting image of his father and older brother Finnick except that he was cerulean and had green eyes like his mother, disappeared through the hollow entrance, his wings held very firmly by his scarlet macaw holders. Not wanting to see the sight and hear the futile protests of poor Oberon and anyone else arrested and brought here any longer, the older of the two daughters of Levi and Lapis Lazuli's first brood opened her wings and lofted into flight. As the glaucous macaw flew away, six more flying creatures joined her. They were Bellerophon and Pandora, the younger brother and sister of Spyro and Andromeda and Eragon's second brood children on their bat-bird mounts, and Juni the silver bat-bird and Celine the pterobat. Both Bellerophon and Pandora were metallic purple like their older brother but the former had metallic aqua blue on his wing, leg wing and tail flight feathers and head crest which was a simple flick of feathers while the latter sported metallic yellow or gold on her flight feathers and crest, which was a simple short ponytail similar in shape and appearance to the pigtails of Aurora and some of her family members. Both the brother and sister had green eyes like their older brother. The pair was still badly shaken from the incident and had been interviewed by one of Marinho's inner circle hyacinth macaws skilled in questioning eyewitnesses and suspects about the case. After an hour of intensive interrogation, the pair was allowed a break but for a short time for they had to be called back for more questioning. After all, the pair had been present when the harpy eagle struck and severely injured Ophiuchus, their uncle.
"Boy, that culprit sure has stirred up a LOT of bother for everyone, haven't they?" said Pandora with a sympathetic gaze back at the macaws and archaeobirds as they were taken into the Custody Tree, "I can see Linda protesting to her parents, Blu and Jewel, as she is being put into custody as well."
Larimar flashed a glance back at Blu and Jewel's youngest daughter as she was hoisted through the entrance to the tree with Blu looking on, a furious look on his face, and gazed at the archaeobird.
"Well, the culprit was blue coloured, and your brother Quincy and Annette were knocked off the branch by it," said Pandora. Then the archaeobird began to reflect on the harpy eagle attack on her and Bellerophon, Ohiuchus, Greg and his family, Kay, and Citrine's family; her mate Caspian and two daughters, Satsuma and Apricot.
"Boy, that savage oversized air jaguar HONESTLY gave us a scare," she faltered in a trembling voice, the trauma clearly still fresh like a freshly inflicted open wound, and she actually trembled, "Seriously, it was a THOUSAND times more FRIGHTENING than that sickly cockatoo whom we met during our visit to Rio."
"Yeah sis, especially when he lashed at me and ripped out some of my tail feathers," said Bellerophon, "No wonder Uncle Ophiuchus was so quick to inflict him with that foot claw swipe attack to the forehead to get him to release me."
"How did your uncle get injured?" asked Celine.
"When that harpy eagle flew after us, we were attacked by a blue blur," explained Pandora. Her face then fell as she shuddered again, the sight of the brutal attack flashing in her mind, "It was shortly after we had made a break for it and our bat-bird mounts rushed in to catch us so that we could fly away from the predator. However, the blue blur shot in and knocked Uncle Ophiuchus off his bat-bird and clawed Kevin across the chest, sending him flying into a tree resulting in him injuring his wing."
"Uncle Ophiuchus was knocked into the path of the harpy eagle where it swooped and struck him in the lower left side with its talons," added Bellerophon, "that's when he dropped like a stone from the air, crashed through the canopy and landed brutally onto the forest floor. As that happened, we, together with Caspian, Greg and their families swooped in with our three bat-bird mounts and seized him. Kay helped Greg and Sardonyx to carry Kevin away."
"Did you get a clear glimpse of the blue culprit's face when they attacked Ophiuchus and knocked him off his bat-bird?" asked Juni. Both the younger siblings of Spyro shook their heads.
"We didn't," said Pandora, "Everything was happening so fast that it was a blur. Our uncle getting hit by the harpy eagle, us escaping the eagle ourselves..."
"I had my back turned when it happened," said Bellerophon, "And all I saw of the culprit was that blue blur zooming off into the trees while Uncle Ophiuchus was struck by the eagle," he breathed a sad sigh and decided to move onto another subject to try and forget the incident until he and Pandora were called to be questioned again. The seven then perched onto a mango tree and began to browse the branches for any ripe fruit. Celine began to search for any insects. While she did that, Juni felt a flash of excitement pulse within him.
"Oh, did you guys hear Blu, Aurora, Zephyr and Augustus talk about some of our Rio friends coming to visit us?" asked the silver bat-bird with a smile. Larimar, Bellerophon and Pandora flashed him a surprised look.
"Carla and company are gonna pay us a visit?" asked Bellerophon.
"But isn't it a bit of an inappropriate time?" asked Larimar, "There is a serious case going on..."
"They want to bring the five golden fruithawks and two white-and-silver owls over to teach them how to be wild birds," said Celine as she munched on a grub she had found and caught, "And secondly, only some of them are going to come as Carla and company have a carnival audition project to carry out back in Rio."
"Well, I hope our big bro Spyro is among them with his son and our nephew, Bambi," said Pandora with a smile, the trauma of the harpy eagle incident pushed aside for now.
"And it will be an excellent opportunity for the seven fruithawks and owls to meet the five that live with the dragonbird clan led by Bra'tack and his mate B'Elanna," put in Larimar. Juni and Celine smiled and nodded in agreement. Then Juni's smile fell. "Mind you, coming back to the harpy eagle incident a while ago, I remember one of the golden fruithawks, Cersei, risking her life to save B'Elanna and some dragonbird chicks, among them Bra'tac and B'Elanna's sons Kion and Thor, and an adopted Spix macaw from one of those savage feathered beasts. She lost her right eye and sustained a hideous injury across the torso in the process while B'Elanna managed to drive the harpy away with a venom spray to the eyes..."
"That's similar to how Samara was badly injured by those dogs when that filthy cockatoo Nigel endangered her, her four siblings, those two owls and a number of other victims among them Sardonyx, Steven and Kevin back in Rio, those poor three scarlet macaws having to face another traumatic ordeal, this time with Greg involved, with one of those vicious eagles," said Larimar.
"Cersei's loss of an eye is just like what Zebedee suffered at the clutches of that psycho-bat," said Bellerophon, seeing the similarity between Zebedee's ordeal and that of Cersei.
"Only Cersei had lost her right eye completely and not just suffered a damaged eyeball," said Celine. Larimar, Bellerophon and Pandora winced for this type of injury was a very gruesome one.
"Did Cersei manage to recover?" asked Pandora. As she asked this, Bellerophon noticed a flash of movement out the corner of his eye. The young metallic purple and aqua blue archaeobird turned his head in the movement's direction and then left to investigate. Celine replied to Pandora's question.
"She did but now she has to wear a leaf over where her right eye used to be," said the pterobat, "and she also sports a very nasty scar on her torso, the result of that harpy's talon swipe in that area."
"It's nothing at all like the scars the colony flying foxes used to earn when fighting birds," said Larimar, "Theirs were earned via deliberately provoked fights. Cersei's scars were the result of a heroic act to save her adoptive family members, just like Zebedee's scars."
"And also the scars our grandfather Talonclaw whom Mom (Andromeda) told us about had earned from a predatory bat-bird back in Jurassic Jungle," said Pandora, "However, his were earned during an escape, not as a defensive act. In another example involving someone taking on a harpy eagle, that mad flying fox colony matriarch, but she had deliberately provoked that bird and slain it, NOT fight that savage bird out of defence or escape."
Just then Larimar spotted Bellerophon glaring at something. Curiosity at the archaeobird's behaviour ignited within her, Pandora, Juni, Celine and the two bat-bird mounts, so they walked over to him.
"Bellerophon?" asked Pandora but when she paralleled her gaze with her brother's she flinched and drew in a gasp. Larimar, Juni and Celine also spotted the form holding Bellerophon's attention but the moment their eyes found it too, the former's feathers bristled and the latter two shuddered.
Staring from a branch of an adjacent tree was a large family of massive navy blue parrots, all hyacinth macaws based on their size and yellow eye rings and beak lappets, and these hyacinth macaws, seventeen in all, were all familiar, particularly one of the females who bore blue eyes (and Larimar remembered a particular female macaw who bore blue eyes and who used to date one of her hyacinth 'cousins' only to dump him after a disfiguring tragedy Larimar knew all too well). As the family of 17 hyacinth macaws stared in shock at Larimar, Bellerophon, Pandora, Juni and Celine, the five returned the surprised glare and Larimar counted fifteen of the younger ones, remembering that the two adult macaws standing at the front of the younger ones had 16 offspring in fact. However, one was missing but then Larimar assumed that the sixteenth was back at the nest caring for an egg the female adult hyacinth macaw had recently laid based on what she had heard. There was a moment of silence having above the two parties but then the female adult hyacinth macaw made her move. Her face morphed from shock to one of scorn, especially as they remained fixed with Larimar's gaze. The adult male also formed a scornful glare as did the majority of the younger macaws. Then one of the young macaws, a hulking male, spoke.
"Hey, Mom, Dad, are those five some of the friends of that Cicatriz bat-faced freak you told us about?" he asked the adult macaws who were his and his 14 siblings' parents. The female turned to face the young male while Larimar, Bellerophon and Pandora flinched in revulsion at what had came out of the young male's beak, and Celine and Juni also winced.
"Where did that young male hyacinth macaw learn that slur?" whispered Juni.
"If Mr Augustus had been present and had heard that, he'd have exploded instantly," whispered Celine, "That name's EXTREMELY offensive towards flying foxes."
Larimar turned to the bat-bird and the pterobat with a disgusted glare.
"Well, I can tell one particular source Tybalt over there had obtained it from, I can tell you," said Levi and Lapis Lazuli's older first-brood daughter and with that, she shot the adult female hyacinth macaw, who was Penelope, an outraged glare. An idea as to how the young male had learned that anti-flying fox slur had entered her head, an idea that she didn't one bit like.
"What are you staring at, glaucous brat?" growled Penelope. As she said this, the young male, Tybalt who was one of Penelope and the male hyacinth macaw adult, Brock's sons, locked eyes with Bellerophon, hostility bubbling within him. The other members of both parties, however, did not notice.
"You know that such behaviour is considered inappropriate and impolite," said Brock to Larimar.
"Well, you oughta eat those words because THAT is EXACTLY what YOUR FAMILY IS, especially HIM beside you!" snapped Celine slightly brashly, her glare particularly on Tybalt. As she said this, Juni began to examine the features of the other young macaws while Pandora flashed the pterobat a disapproving look especially as Tybalt glared daggers with the pterobat.
"Manners, friend," she whispered. However, Celine remained fixed on Penelope and her large family, her look rumbling with thunder like a stormcloud. Juni then finished examining all 15 of Brock and Penelope's offspring present, both the looks on their faces and their physical features and comparing the latter to those of Brock and Penelope, such as their eye colour (Penelope's were blue while Brock's were green). All of Penelope and Brock's offspring had various eye shades and colours ranging in the blues and greens and their builds were closely similar to those of their parents but one of them, a female, had brown eyes. The crests of the offspring including the brown-eyed female ranged from flowing head feathers to simple flicks with the brown-eyed female having a flat sheet of head feathers like Bia. However, Juni blinked at how different some of that female's traits appeared to the rest of her family. She had some of Penelope's features such as her build but her eye colour did not match the blue and green eyes of her parents or siblings since the brown eye trait was NOT a part of their features. Furthermore, she showed absolutely NO inherited features from Brock whatsoever. Could she be an adopted member? While Juni pondered over this, he re-examined some of Penelope and Brock's offspring, including Tybalt who stood near Brock.
The names of nine of the sixteen, with the seventeenth still an egg, of Brock and Penelope's offspring were Tybalt (male), Dudley (male), Narcissa (female), Nagini (female), Benvolio (male), Margalo (female, the brown eyed one), Cedric (male), Gordie (male) and Marnie (female). Tybalt was a dark navy blue hyacinth macaw with a muscular build like Porthos, the father of Wilbur, Azul, Amalthea and Desdemona and Charlotte's mate Músculo and their son Jason, and bore lime green eyes. However, Tybalt was a VERY hot-headed hyacinth macaw with a short temper and proneness to picking fights, something he, worst of all, absolutely LOVED to do. He was the oldest son and children of Penelope and Brock and had been a nasty piece of work even as a chick. Dudley, Benvolio and Narcissa, all of who were also navy blue and had green or blue eyes, were as equally as nasty as their brother though Dudley and Benvolio loved to provoke with words and push buttons more often than picking fights unlike Tybalt. Narcissa, on the other hand, bore the personality of a queen bee. She and some of her siblings were friends with a small group of birds, all outsiders of the Sanctuary de Amazon but were mostly delinquent birds; not at all a company a bird, flying fox or any other Amazon animal with common sense would mix with for they were a bad crowd. Of the female members as well as the sisters apart from Margalo and Marnie, Narcissa was indeed the queen bee, and I'm sorry to say but this group is also a bunch of bullies who love to pick on easy targets, as we shall see later. What's worse, Penelope and Brock weren't at all bothered about who their offspring mixed with, with some exceptions. Nagini also had the personality of a queen bee but she was more accepting of Narcissa as being the leader but like Tybalt, she was sometimes a hot-headed bird. She was an exceptionally beautiful hyacinth macaw. Her crest was the most outstanding of all her siblings: they were long head feathers that reached down past her shoulders rather like a human woman's long hair and also Sapphire and some of her relatives' head feathers. Nagini bore a cute look with a rounded cherubic face, baby blue eyes that sparkled like the daytime sky and her yellow eye rings and beak lappets were as yellow as a blue-and-gold macaw's underside, or a glossy lemon, lush blue lower body feathers including on the wings and tail which were similar in shade to Blu, Roberto and some of the other Spix macaws, while the feathers on her face and head bore a brilliant purple tint to them though her long head feathers faded to blue towards the tips. Juni was mesmerised by the immense beauty of this daughter of Penelope and Brock and shouldn't be surprised if she became the centre of attention of many male hyacinth macaws though Nagini and her siblings were too young to start dating at the moment, but that may become a possibility if she reached maturity. Pulling his gaze from the cherubic macaw, Juni moved to examine four certain macaws including the brown eyed female, Margalo.
The four odd birds out, Marnie, Margalo, Cedric and Gordie, were nicer and friendlier, and were nothing at all like their siblings and parents despite sharing their physical features excluding Margalo with the brown eyes and Cedric as we shall see in a minute. However, their personality differences have put them on the receiving stick's end of shunning from their siblings such as Tybalt and Narcissa, but most especially Cedric. Unlike his other siblings, Cedric had several disfiguring traits which he had hatched with. As Juni examined the young male, he flinched at how unsightly he looked. Like most of his other siblings, Cedric bore navy blue feathers but he bore a large growth above his left eye. His right eye appeared sunken, pupil-less and dysfunctional, thus Cedric was blind in that eye. Cedric's only functioning eye which was partly closed by the large growth above it, was a shade of green while Marnie and Gordie's eyes were dark blue and cyan respectively. Cedric's left foot was also deformed, bearing extremely short and underdeveloped toes with tiny stubs for talons. Though he can still move the tiny toes, Cedric cannot use it to grip items such as food or use it to claw threats or grip perches. However, Cedric's other foot was completely normal so he was able to use it as any parrot would for their life skills. Because of his disfigured appearance, Cedric was often pushed to the back of the nest by Penelope and Brock, so he was clearly very unhappy and nervous. The other three unhappy and more 'normal' looking macaws, Gordie, Marnie and Margalo, also bore very unhappy and downcast looks. These three were socially awkward and so were often seen as weak by the other siblings as well. But there was more to their sadness than just their family's spotlighting as weak youngsters.
While Juni continued examining the four troubled-looking macaws, Penelope shot Celine a sour and thorny glare, a wing point shot out at the pterobat.
"Don't you even THINK... of speaking to my family like that, pterosaur-winged bat," growled the mother in a dangerously low voice and her feathers bristling. Behind and beside her, a roll of tittering followed from Brock and many of her offspring including Tybalt and Nagini. Then Tybalt shot an angry look at four certain macaws in the group when he saw that they weren't emitting titters.
"Oi, Gordie, Marnie, Margalo," he barked to three of them, completely ignoring Cedric and with that he seized Gordie by the wing and harshly pulled him forward. "Why aren't you even laughing!?" he demanded as he handled Gordie roughly. Gordie, his face twisted in pain just gazed at Tybalt timidly while Larimar, Bellerophon, Pandora, Juni and Celine flinched at how the hulking brother just treated one of his younger siblings. However, Penelope and Brock did not do anything about it. Neither did the other siblings including Margalo, Cedric and Marnie for they were very afraid. Then Penelope glared once again at the quintet.
"I heard that some of Carla and company are gonna come for a visit to the Sanctuary de Amazon," she growled in a dislike-laced voice about her former friends, "I hope that Cicatriz bat-face isn't gonna come with his disgusting little family..."
Immediately, Celine rose to her feet and spread open her membranous wings each supported by one long finger, her face a look of thunder and her pycnofibres bristled.
"Look, if you're gonna insult Zebedee and his family with that anti-flying fox slur..." she snarled but before she could spit a threat or insult at Penelope, Juni intervened.
"Celine, stay your temper!" he rebuked. Celine shot the silver and white bat-bird a glare.
"But haven't you forgotten what that beetle head and some of her children including Narcissa, Dudley and Tybalt had done to Zebedee and Iris's children two years ago when they visited us that time, Juni?" she retorted, "They SEVERELY humiliated them and their parents!"
Juni froze and gazed at Celine while Larimar, Bellerophon and Pandora began to replay the events of this incident. It had incredibly acidified the enmity between Zebedee and Penelope, and also their families to the point of it becoming an EXTREMELY vicious and explosive vendetta which fights always exploded whenever the two families met.
Two years ago, Tybalt, Narcissa, Dudley and some of their friends who shared their bratty attitude, had threatened Castor, Pollux and Celeste and severely humiliated them in front of a number of other young macaws and flying foxes and other animals when they tried defending a group of young birds and flying fox pups, who could not defend themselves, culminating in Pollux lunging himself at Tybalt and fighting with him when Tybalt insulted the flying fox pups with the slur 'Cicatriz bat' while Celeste and Castor fought with Narcissa and Dudley. Then when Pollux had managed to land a scratch on Tybalt's face which wept some blood, Penelope, who had seen the incident, rushed in and had brutally clawed Pollux's chest in a fit of explosive rage, before turning to Celeste and Castor and driving them away with extremely caustic threats and insults, even going as far as physically attacking Celeste and tearing out some of her feathers and clawing her, leaving her severely frightened and wounded, and also shoved Castor into a mud puddle. Then after issuing the three young chicks a caustic parting shot, Penelope gathered Tybalt, Narcissa, Dudley and their friends and left, leaving Celeste and her brothers to sort themselves and their injuries out. However, Penelope did nothing, at ALL, to discipline Dudley, Tybalt and Narcissa and instead took them back to her hollow. Celeste, who was beaten and missing some feathers, Castor who had been in the mud puddle and Pollux who bore claw marks which wept blood on his chest, were then forced to get themselves out of their predicament and had been found by several monkeys who then reported their finds to the hyacinth macaw clan and their friends, and had taken the three hyacinth chicks and the group of vulnerable chicks and flying fox pups into the safety of the trees.
When what had happened to the trio reached the ears of Zebedee and Iris and some of their friends who had gone with them on that visit, such as Carla and Justin, and also Phoebe and Cobalto, Indigo and Victor, as well as Sugilite, and some others, and they had seen the injuries Celeste and Pollux bore after they tried defending the victimised birds and flying fox pups from Penelope and Brock's malicious chicks and their friends, outrage had volcanically erupted within Zebedee and he had stormed off to confront Penelope without a second thought. Then at Penelope's hollow, after Penelope had insulted Zebedee once again and mocked his disfigured face and blind eye, yanking off his bandana and commenting scornfully at how much he resembled Augustus's brother and the last patriarch of the flying fox colony, an incredibly VIOLENT fight erupted between the two when Zebedee launched himself at his ex, Brock, Tybalt, Narcissa, Dudley and the other chicks born at the time looking on. The fight had lasted for about five minutes, but had been utterly brutal with both exes tearing out their feathers and inflicting each other with vicious claw marks, until birds and flying foxes including Iris rushed in and pulled the brawling pair apart but not before Zebedee, who was battered and bruised and covered in claw marks and patches from torn out feathers, lashed at Penelope, slashed her face with his claws and tackled her HARD into a thorny patch, the wrath at what she had done to his two sons and daughter flaring up in the form of that. That was then he watched on without a hint of remorse as Penelope, her scratched face bleeding struggle out of that patch, but Penelope had shot her nemesis a VICIOUS glare. Then after one final exchange of the most caustic-as-possible insults at each other, Zebedee yelling at Penelope that he hoped that the claw marks on her face would scar as much as possible so that she would resemble that flying fox colony patriarch and Penelope yelling at him that she would kill him if they EVER met again, parted ways. Llater, Marinho had evicted Penelope and her family to live on the outskirts of the Sanctuary de Amazon, away from the hyacinth macaw clan, for her and her offspring's behaviour, after the clan nurses had treated Penelope's injuries. Thankfully the claw marks Zebedee had inflicted on Penelope's face didn't scar for the nurses had applied a special paste to prevent this as much as possible, hence why she did not have any scars now. Since then, the volcanic vendetta between the two families had started and was felt by Zebedee's sisters Indigo and Violet, brother-in-law Victor and niece Sugilite, and their friends had also taken an absolute disliking to Penelope and her family as well but the vendetta was most caustic between Zebedee and Penelope's families. This vendetta was as acidic and as explosive as the vendetta two certain families had in one romantic play from a famous play writer. More explosive and acidic even than those two families in that play in fact.
"Listen, Penny," snarled Larimar angrily, "If Zebedee and his family DO choose to come and visit us, I want you and your MATE AND OFFSPRING to STAY WELL AWAY FROM THEM! You UNDERSTAND!?"
"Or WHAT, ponytailed porcupine face?" snapped Penelope. Larimar was about to retort in a harsher voice when suddenly, "Bellerophon, Pandora, Larimar, Celine, Juni!" rang out. Hearing this, the five and the archaeobirds' bat-birds turned and faced the callers, which were Andromeda on her bat-bird and Levi, as they appeared along with Hans, Marie who was Juni's sister, and Celine's mate Fungus. As the five landed on the branch before the seven, Levi stepped forward, a firm look on his face.
"It's time to you five to return to be questioned," said Larimar's father. Bellerophon, Pandora, Larimar, Celine, Juni nodded obediently and spread their wings while the first two mounted their bat-birds. However, a voice, that very same voice that belonged to a macaw that absolutely DESPISED a certain hyacinth macaw and his family, sounded but that voice was laced with concern this time.
"Questioned?" asked Penelope while Brock and the children including Gordie, Marnie, Cedric and Margalo exchanged glances. Levi and Andromeda shot the group of 17 hyacinth macaws a glare.
"A harpy eagle has been deliberately provoked by a blue culprit," said Levi in a stern tone of voice, being careful to restrain his temper at the sight of the bratty macaw and her family, especially after her actions regarding Zebedee and Iris' chicks, "and eyewitnesses are being questioned."
"A blue culprit has provoked a HARPY EAGLE!?" asked Brock in astonishment.
"Who would do such a thing?" put in Narcissa in disbelief. Despite her bratty attitude she, along with the other offspring were well aware of how dangerous harpy eagles were and how stupid it was to provoke them. Then Andromeda turned to them.
"You lot are coming with us," she said firmly, at which Penelope and company flinched, "You might want to be questioned regarding the incident as well."
"Excuse me, ma'am, if you THINK that ANY of us are STUPID enough to deliberately provoke the apex predator of the trees, you've got another thing coming!" retorted Brock.
"Yes, one, we have an egg back at our nest under the care of one of our daughters, Jessica," said Penelope, before gesturing with a wing to her and Brock's fifteen children, "and two, these fifteen know FULL WELL NOT to mess with harpy eagles or any other dangerous predator of the rainforest."
However, looks on Levi and Andromeda's faces were rigid with adamant.
"Well, you're still gonna come with us, you 17," said Levi, "As for your egg, we'll get you a special egg basket to bring it with you to the Custody Tree. Now come along please."
Disgruntlement rolled through Penelope and her family and they reluctantly relented. Larimar spoke to Levi.
"Some of Carla and company's friends are coming to visit us with the seven Blu Bird Sanctuary fruithawks and owls, aren't they, Dad?" she said, "What if Zebedee and any of his family are among them?" she flashed Penelope an acidic glare as she said this. Levi also flashed the hyacinth macaw a look.
"We'll see to that when they get here, okay, daughter?" he said in a low voice, "In the meantime, you prepare for your next interview on the case one of with your cousin-once-removed Rudi's inner circle birds..."
"Bellerophon?" said Hans as he gazed at a certain archaeobird along with Marie and Fungus as he glared daggers with a certain hyacinth macaw. Levi, Andromeda, Larimar, Pandora, Celine and Juni flashed the young flying fox and Augustus and Melissa's latest son a look and then followed his gaze. Soon enough, they saw Bellerophon glaring viciously at Tybalt, clearly squaring off. Larimar walked over to the former.
"Back off, Bellerophon," she said. Bellerophon, however, turned his face away from Tybalt with his eyes closed, replying nervously, "Not until that hulking hyacinth macaw does."
Penelope then flew in, a smirk on her face when she saw the faceoff between the pair.
"Now what does this classic confrontation remind me of?" she asked jokingly to the annoyance of Larimar and the others but to the amusement of Brock and Tybalt's siblings excluding Gordie, Cedric, Margalo and Marnie but especially including Narcissa, Dudley, Benvolio and Nagini, "Oh, I know: a capybara facing off against a fierce jaguar with the capybara admittin' defeat'. In this case, the four-winged rascal's the former," she smirked at Bellerophon as he timidly turned his eyes back at the glaring and intimidating Tybalt and released a titter.
"Tell your son to stop intimidating mine, Penelope," said Andromeda. At first, Penelope ignored the archaeobird clan matriarch and sniggered as Bellerophon then glared Tybalt directly in the eyes, the squaring off escalating as both the hyacinth macaw's dark blue feathers and the metallic purple and aqua blue ones of the archaeobird bristled. Pandora felt concern well within her for her brother but then Andromeda raised her voice as anger at Penelope's lack of respect for her flared.
"I said TELL YOUR SON TO CUT OFF HIS INTIMIDATION, PENELOPE!" she barked. Penelope shot her a disgruntled look.
"Fine," she growled before turning to Tybalt. "Tybalt, son, come on, we have to go with these guys to be questioned about the harpy eagle incident."
Tybalt flashed his mother a look and glared back at Bellerophon.
"This time I'll let you go, feathered dinosaur," he hissed with a threatening point to Bellerophon, his talon claw poking him in the chest, "But the next time you tick me off, you won't be so lucky!"
With that, he opened his wings and lofted into flight after his mother, father and 14 siblings, Marie and Fungus, disapproving looks clearly marking their faces, guiding them along. Then Andromeda, Levi and Hans led Bellerophon, Pandora, Larimar, Celine and Juni along after Penelope's group.
"Even after all this time, plus two years since she unleashed her fury at Zebedee's chicks Celeste, Castor and Pollux and badly traumatised them, resulting in the boiling blood feud starting up between her family and that of Zebedee, she's still as bratty and obnoxious as ever," said Andromeda. Levi glared at Penelope as she flew ahead with her large family with Fungus and Marie guiding them.
"To be honest with you, I have NEVER forgiven her for what she had done to Zebedee's three chicks when he and his sisters were defending that group of vulnerable macaw, conure, toucan and archaeobird chicks and flying fox pups from her misbehaving and menacing offspring, among them Tybalt, similar to how I had NEVER forgiven Nigel for the incident with the dogs that nearly got those victims, among them the seven Rio fruithawks and owls, killed. Not to mention those stupid toucans with the fire..." growled Levi, before his face fell, "Though that's not like me to not forgive someone, in these three cases..."
Andromeda just gazed at him and sighed. Then the glaucous macaw and archaeobird disappeared after Penelope's family in the direction of the custody tree.