Whoo... I seem to be writing a lot of 'Tough Love' as of late, don't I? I haven't abandoned 'Barely Human', Don't worry! I write more mood based. Like, right now, I'm in the mood to write 'Tough Love' and have no motivation to write a part of 'Barely Human'.

Sorry I have to tell a quick story, but it kinda explains myself for the one hundred or so people who will read this...

I've had a bad few days, and have been put out of writing temporarily, and things keep popping up that put me right out of the mood... But I'm trying my best to get back into writing, and this is attempt #1. I apologise if things aren't up to scratch... Any feedback welcome, as usual.

Enough putting off the ACTUAL story... Here we go... It's nice and long, to make up for things.

Morning? Noon? Night? Who knows.

Whatever it was that woke them up, be it a random event in their minds, or their biological clocks ticking, one bird in the acted family triangle, awoke.

Emile. The young boy who Jewel had rescued from the treatment room the previous night, had awoken.

He lifted his head, and looked at where it was rested; Jewel's soft, protective stomach. Emile sat up from his comfortable position in the hollow that he, Blu and Jewel had rested in for that night, blinked groggily and let out a yawn. He stood up, and looked down on the two sleeping birds, whom he pretended were his parents.

"I love you, mama, and papa... I hope you'll both stay with me..." He whispered to himself, full of hope. Hope, that one day, Blu and Jewel would become his adoptive parents. The words he said to himself triggered a thousand yard stare accompanied with a flashback.

Sudden? Not so. Emile, from the moment he had been separated from his parents, always hoped to find someone else to look after him.

This is the story of Emile's parents, and how he came to be lost.

Approximately 4 years ago

At this time, Emile was a tiny, pathetic mass. He had feathers, but not anything that could be considered flattering. (I'm no bird expert, and have no credible info sources, if you'd like to help me out with this sort of thing, let me know! I would appreciate the help! Right now I have to estimate, and make guesses... )

Very much as he just had in real life, Emile awoke from his slumber in a nest. He was asleep against his mother, and sat up in the nest, alongside few siblings. A brother and sister. It was very early in the morning. Something like 4am.

He yawned, and looked over at his parents, and thought about priority number one for himself. Food.

Emile's hollow was in the Jungles above Rio. Past the higgledy-piggledy rooftops of the slum district facing towards the sea. So as a result, there was plenty of resources around them. An ideal place to set up shop in every sense of the word.

With all of the things he so desired at that point in time all around him, yet just out of his reach, he decided he would wake his mum to see if she would feed him.

"Mama?" He said, feebly, to his sleeping parent.

She stirred. The sound she made as she did, wasn't able to answer his question.

"Mamaa?" He persisted.

This time he got a mumbled reply. "Huh? What is it?"

"I'm hungry, Mama." He told her.

"Well, you're going to have to wait until I wake up, then." She finished.

"But, you are awake, Mama." Replied Emile, Confused.

His mother stayed silent.

"Come on, now. She isn't going to feed you." Came a feminine reply. It was Marcia, his sister, who had came up behind him. Marcia was a lot bigger than him, and he didn't quite know why.

Bigger than her, even, was Ulisses. His brother. Who hated him with a passion.

"I mean. Why would she? You're a runt. Only the strong, can belong." Was what Ulisses had to say.

This saddened Emile. Both his siblings would pick on him, and take all the food. His mother had kept him alive, but, barely. He was very skinny, and malnourished.

"Pack it in, you lot... I won't have you bullying..." Chipped in the motherly figure in the situation. She had her back to her children, and seemed to be intently looking out of the hollow entrance, but she turned over to face them after saying this.

"But Ma, we're not wrong. He's so small." Complained Marcia.

"Yeah... Why should you bother raising him? He won't become anything..." Added Ulisses, one hundred percent willing to contribute the the argument.

"Can he help it? Do you think that... He asked... To be the runt?" Replied the mother of the chicks.

Ulisses and Marcia both couldn't argue with their mother's logic, and both said "Well, no, but..." Before being cut off.

"Well, then. Leave him be. It's up to me to decide what to do." Insisted mother.

"Fine..." and "Whatever..." were the angered replies from Ulisses and Marcia respectively. Emile was safe, for now.

"You okay... Kiddo?" Inquired Emile's mother, as Ulisses and Marcia retreated to the other side of the hollow, where they wouldn't bother them.

"Not really... They bully me..." Sniffed Emile, upset.

"They're just bigger than you. It doesn't... surprise me." Replied his mum with a cough.

"They never bullied me when papa was around. He wouldn't let them." Said Emile, still full of sadness.

Emile was not supposed to think of his father. Emile was never told of his father's fate. He was gone. Ripped to shreds. Nobody ever knew who did it.

Emile's mother sniffed. "You know how I feel about him, son."

"But it's true! He wouldn't let them hurt me with their words..." Said Emile, who was now more than a little upset.

His mother said nothing. There was a tear rolling down her cheek, and a strange rustling noise. Neither of which Emile registered.

"Mama?"

Still, he had no reply.

"Mama? Are you okay?"

Suddenly, Emile's mother cut out her strange behaviour, fixing him with a fear stricken gaze. Emile didn't pick up the panic in her eyes and demeanour.

"Random question. Do you think you could look after yourself if something ever happened to me?" She asked.

"Probably not... I hope nothing happens to you. Because you are my mama, and I love you." He said, cutely, collapsing against her warm belly.

However, Emile wasn't a complete dunce. Being young, he couldn't interpret many things around him, but one thing he had, was instinct. And when he was laid right up against his mother, the fact that she didn't immediately give him a big hug, which violated her maternal instinct, concerned him.

"Mama? Is something wrong?"

Her single tear, had grown to a full blown sob, and her vision was blurred by her tears like a car windshield in the rain.

"No! Nothing is wrong!" She said, a hysterical smile on her face. "In fact, I'll get you that food you wanted, yeah?"

"That would be nice." Said Emile. Any decent person wouldn't send someone deeply upset to do their bidding, but Emile hadn't yet learned that concept.

"Wonderful. Absolutely spiffing." She said, before calling out to Ulisses and Marcia, "Hey! I'm going to get some food!"

"About time..." Grunted the irritable Ulisses.

"Okay! Well, it's coming right up!" She said, with a crazy, hysterical laugh.

She then stood up, hopped onto the rim of the hollow, and flew out into the early morning air, and vanished from sight.

Two seconds later, a mysterious, grey figure swooped down in front of the hollow entrance in pursuit of Emile's mother. And that was the last time he would ever see her.

No sooner than the mysterious figure had swooped by, then Ulisses and Marcia came out from their hiding spot and confronted their sibling.

"Well... Mother dearest isn't here to protect her little runt, anymore, is she..." Tutted Ulisses.

"Mmm. You said it. I hope nothing happens to you while she's gone." Agreed Marcia.

"Why do you two hate me?" Asked Emile, innocently.

"Good question." Pondered Marcia.

"Luckily for you, I have an answer..." Purred Ulisses. He slashed at Emile's face with his premature talons, so hard that the middle one actually broke off and stayed in his wound. He squeaked in pain, and fell to the floor.

Ulisses looked him dead in the eye, and said in a silky smooth whisper that would be etched into Emile's mind for eternity "You hatched..."

Emile was bleeding terribly, and neither sibling had any interest in saving him. They also didn't care what their mother thought. Even though they didn't know she wasn't coming home.

Emile, wounded almost fatally, crawled to the rim of the hollow.

"You want to leave? Oh. Why didn't you say so?" Asked Ulisses nastily. He simply picked up the broken Emile, and walked unsteadily over to the hollow rim. He laid Emile on the rim, the talon from his brother digging into the right side of his face; the side which hit the rim, so he could see down to the floor, and how far down it was.

"Still want to leave?" Taunted Marcia.

Emile looked down. He had given up. "Yes."

The two wicked siblings exchanged evil glances, before simply saying "Bye Bye"

With a swift push, Emile was sent tumbling through the air to his doom.

Emile, despite his age, had given up on his life, and wanted nothing more than to be dead. His life, every day, was made hell by his siblings, due to his size.

He closed his eyes, and awaited his doom.

But it never came...

Emile hit, not the ground, but a large leaf. It broke his fall, while not damaging his back, or neck as he hit it, and he slid down into another equally large leaf, and that then left him a foot off the ground, thus, he didn't hurt himself upon landing.

He was terrified, Wounded, and didn't know what to do.

But his instincts guided him somewhat, and he found himself by a decent sized mango tree. And as if fate was smiling on him, he heard a creaking.

He looked at the source of the sound, and it was coming from one of the branches of the tree. One of the fruits was coming loose. The wooden textured stalk that held the fruit to the tree, snapped. And the effect on the fruit was immediate. It plummeted towards the ground, and hit with a great impact. The hard fruit did not break, or even rupture. It just landed, and stood there attractively.

Emile was starving and he hadn't ever eaten properly. He didn't even know how to eat, but he tried. He threw himself at the fruit, and tried to bite out a chunk. He only succeeded in digging his beak into the sweet flesh, but the juice came out, and ran down his throat. It was delicious, and tangy. He had never tasted anything quite as luscious as this. He went on biting at the fruit, hoping to dislodge a chunk. With all the strength he had left, he managed to successfully dig out the chunk, and make some attempt to swallow it. Eventually, the piece he had cut for himself, was cut down to such a small size, that he could swallow it.

He stood there. Savouring the taste, and then went in for another bite. Yet again, the juicy fruit amazed his senses, sending him into a sort of passion induced gorging. He would never have been able to eat the whole fruit, but he managed to eat a quarter. Enough to deem himself thoroughly satisfied.

His blood pumping with the good nutrients of the mango, he then saw the leaf that was growing out of a part of the stem that stayed embedded in the tip of the mango, and pondered if it would make a good bandage.

He put both wings on top of the mango, and hoisted himself up with his newfound strength. He used his beak to break the leaf off of the stem, and used his wings to fashion it against the wound, still bleeding, though not as bad. The leaf fit perfectly around the gouges, and absorbed any blood that leaked out.

Then, it was but a question of survival. How he would go about his day.

The sun was rising, and day was approaching. He had several hours before darkness would arrive again, and predators came out.

Priority number one, was building himself a shelter. But it was to be made far away from this tree... Where his siblings had tried to kill him...

He found himself wandering through the jungle. Not knowing where to go, just that wherever it he was going, he was going to get there. Wherever it was. The 'somewhere' he was going, he soon found he arrived at.

Rio.

It had taken him the best part of six hours, but he had made it to the edge of the Jungle, and the start of the city. And he had never seen anything so beautiful in his pathetic, lonely, hate filled life. And he couldn't wait to explore.

He came across a few of the houses stacked on top of one another on the edge of the slums, and spied a nice little crevice above an old TV antenna. It was rusty, and had probably not been used in over ten years, but it provided shelter from the elements that Emile needed. It was a little bit off the ground, but there was an ancient cable attached to it. Emile, full of hope and determination, shimmied up it, and sat on top of the antenna. It was one of the houses at the very top of the hill of favelas, so the view was simply breathtaking. He inspected the crevice he had seen earlier, and found it big enough for him to fit in. Albeit a tight fit.

It was his new home. One he would soon outgrow, but it was a start. A start of a new life.

Emile became pretty smart at living wild over time, and soon managed to get the hang of building himself a hollow. On the very same place he spent his first night.

It all went well until the day he was captured. The people who owned the home were not really pleased about his company, and so they told Tulio about him.

On the day he was captured, he had hurt his wing, and managed to limp back to his hollow to regather his senses. But, his hollow was nowhere to be seen... Something had destroyed it. Unable to believe what he saw, he simply broke down in tears. All his hard work was gone.

Suddenly, from over his head, a strange droopy rope came over his head, which he had never seen before. He struggled, attempting to get free, but human hands held him down, so he couldn't move. He was completely immobilised, struggling in the grip of a pair of sweaty hands, when he felt a small prick on his upper tail, and he started to feel drowsy in mere seconds. He was terrified, as he could physically feel the energy leaving him, and his resistance became more, and more weak. Until finally, he gave in to the urge he felt, to sleep. And that was the last thing he remembered.

He woke up in a cage, and waited there in great terror for what felt like hours, when he heard, or thought he heard something...

"Help" He called out, feebly.

The noise, or, half noise, halted, and then began. A regular pad, accompanied by a small tap. The sound of taloned feet hitting the tiled floor.

"Is someone t-there?" He called out.

"You okay there?" Came a mysterious female voice...

And thus, that was how Emile came to be where he is, today.

Emile concluded his flashback, and focused on the now.

He still had no idea what time it was, and Blu and Jewel were still asleep. But they were soon to rise, and a new day, soon to begin.

Whatever might happen today?