Love Hawk
Chapter Four: Flying Lesson
The next morning, Blu and Jewel set to work on breaking the chain. They were in the process of hooking one end of a long vine onto a tree branch, the other end of which was wrapped around a large rock, hung over a smaller rock. The idea was to let the rock drop on the chain, breaking it and freeing them.
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Jewel asked, her vpice slightly muffled by the vine in her beak.
"Positive." Blu smirked, pointing out some scrawling he had done in the ground. "Check out my math."
"Yeah, that's... that's comforting, thank you." Jewel said sarcastically. "Let's just get this chain broken."
"Right." Agreed Blu, as they finally succeeded in hooking the vine to the branch. "Then we can go and find Linda."
"No, you can go find Linda." Jewel corrected him. "Once this chain is off, I'm going to go back to being free in the jungle."
"Just like that?" Blu asked, looking hurt. "Without so much as a goodbye kiss?" He leaned in close, smirking widely.
"Oh, buzz off." Jewel shoved him.
The shove knocked Blu off balance. Attempting to steady himself, he accidentally pulled the vine off its hook. As it sprang forward, the loop at the end caught in Blu's beak, dragging him, and Jewel, with it. The rock it was holding slammed down on the ground, and the two chained macaws landed on the rock itself, tumbling to the ground.
"Nice try, brainiac." Jewel groaned.
A rustling in a nearby bush caught Blu's attention.
"I think something's watching us." He declared.
From out of the bush popped up two toco toucan chicks, who promptly flew over to them.
"Oh, be careful, Blu!" Jewel said sarcastically, taking one of them in her wings. "They might snuggle you to death!"
Blu had zero experience with kids. But, looking at the little toucan tug on his wing, he felt his heart melt.
"Oh, c'mere!" He beamed, taking the toucan into his wings.
This was exactly what the toucan was waiting for. He quickly began tearing Blu's feathers off with his beak. As Blu screamed with pain, Jewel was attacked from behind by another toucan chick, who pulled on her eyelids. More chicks seemed to come out of nowhere, attacking them from all sides. As Blu and Jewel attempted to evade them, they ended up wrapping the chain around themselves and falling to the ground.
"Attack!" Commanded the biggest chick, and the rest dive-bombed Blu and Jewel, jumping up and down on them like they were a trampoline. The commotion alerted an adult toco toucan, who poked his head out of his tree hollow home.
"What's going on down there?" He asked, flying down to reign in his unruly offspring. "Go, go! Off with you!"
"Daddy! Daddy!" The chicks cheered, swarming him.
"Okay, guys, guys, I've told you a thousand times!" He chuckled. "Manuela, Sofia, listen to me..." One of the chicks jumped on his head, landing on his eye. "Oww! Right in the eye!"
"Ohh, precious, aren't they?" Jewel said sarcastically, as she and Blu got to their feet.
"Kids? Seventeen of 'em! And one on the way." The father declared, before turning his attention to the hollow. "Hey, he's not a maraca, stop shakin' him!"
In the hollow, two of the chicks hastily put down an egg.
"They're giving me gray feathers! Ohhh, this papa needs a break." Groaned the father. "So, you two lovebirds headed for carnival?"
"Lovebirds?" Jewel repeated distastefully.
"Indeed, we are." Smirked Blu, putting one wing around Jewel. "Isn't that right, honeybeak?"
Jewel replied by stomping down hard on Blu's foot. As he writhed in agony, she held up the chain.
"So, do you think you could help us get this... thing off?" She asked.
"Lucky for you, you know Rafael, and Rafael knows everybody!" The father flourished his wings, sending two chicks flying into the air, and landing on his eye. "Ow! Again with the eye! Do you want me to call your mother?"
"No!" Cried the chicks, flying away.
"Works every time." Rafael chuckled to Blu and Jewel. "They're scared to death of her!"
"Call me for what?" A stern-looking keel-billed toucan marched up to him.
"Aaah! Yelped Rafael. "Eva, my love, I have to take this young couple to see Luiz."
"Luiz?" Sneered Eva. "Huh. You don't fool me for a second. You and you amigo just want to sneak off to Carnival!"
"Ah, Carnival." Sighed Rafael, walking up to Eva. "That magical time when I met the most beautful bird in the world." He took Eva's wing and kissed it lightly.
Jewel scoffed, but Blu realised that Rafael was attempting to sweet-talk Eva intoletting him go.
"Huh!" Snorted Eva, pulling her wing away.
"I still remember the song that was playing when I first laid eyes on you." Rafael smiled. "Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes
walking..." He sang, taking Eva in his wings and twirling her around. "Come on baby, sing it!"
Eva started singing... incredibly off-key.
"And when she passes, each one she passes goes... AHHHHHH!" She screeched, deafening Blu and Jewel, and sending some nearby birds flying out of their trees.
"Like a river of the sweetest honey!" Beamed Rafael.
"Ohh." Winced Jewel. "I guess love is deaf, too!"
"Come here!" Smiled Rafael, pulling Eva into a kiss, to the disgust of their chicks.
Blu had to admire Rafael's way with women. 'And I thought I was good with the ladies!' He thought.
"Okay." Sighed Eva, well and truly wooed. "Take them to Luiz. But hurry back." She stroked Rafael's beak with her wing tip.
"You are an angel!" Rafael said lovingly. "I'll miss you, my juicy little mango!"
"I'll miss you, my pudgy papaya." Eva smiled, before being distracted by her young's antics. "Hey! Marco, Carlos, put your brother down, now!"
"I can't believe she actually fell for it!" Whispered Rafael.
"So, how far is this Luiz?" Blu asked.
"Oh, not far." Shrugged Rafael. "Thirty minutes, as the crow flies!"
"And how long as a certain handsome blue macaw named Blu walks?" Blu asked, a grin on his face.
"Bobo here can't fly." Said Jewel bluntly.
"But, but... he's a bird!" Rafael protested.
"Not all birds fly." Declared Blu. "There's ostriches..."
"You're not an ostrich!" Jewel interrupted impatiently.
"Well, not technically..." Muttered Blu, annoyed.
"Wait, wait, wait." Rafael butted in. "My friends, I wanna help, but to walk the whole way? It, it, it can't be done!" He turned to see Eva struggling with their children. "But hey, we might as well give it a shot! Let's go, quickly." He steered Blu and Jewel away. "Don't look back, they sense fear!"
A short while later, Rafael brought Blu and Jewel to a small cliff, adjacent to a hang-gliding flight path, intent on teaching Blu to fly. As he looked over the cliff, Blu felt a distinct sense of disconfort.
"You sure about this?" He asked.
"Don't worry, Blu. It's in your DNA." Rafael smiled, pointing the hanggliders. "And if our featherless friends can do it, how hard can it be?"
Their attention was then drawn by a human on a two-man hang glider screaming "Wait, wait, wait! Mommyyyyy!"
"Fun, right?" Rafael smiled."
"Yeah, right." Blu said sarcastically. "Fun."
"Okay, I need you two to get closer together." Rafael gestured. As the two obeyed, he motioned again. "Closer, cloooser." As they obliged, Blu and Jewel ended up bumping into each other slightly. "Ooh, nice. Now, put your wings around each other."
"What?" Jewel asked.
"Come on, amiga." Rafael said. "It's not like he's gonna bite. Are you?"
"Don't worry." Smiled Blu, putting his wing around her. "I don't bite."
"It's not biting that concerns me." Jewel said drily, reluctantly putting her wing around him.
"Now, you flap your right wing, you flap your left wing, and together, you fly!" Instructed Rafael.
"This really doesn't seem aerodynamically possible." Protested Blu.
"Ay-yi-yi-yi... you think too much!" Declared Rafael. "Flying is not what you think up here." He tapped Blu's head. "It's what you feel in here." He pressed his wing against Blu's chest. "And when you feel the rythym of your heart, it's like samba!" Moving to the edge of the cliff, he leaned right over it. "You fly!" He soared up into the air, laughing joyfully. "See? It's easy!"
"Easy?" Asked Blu. "Easy for you to say, because from here, it looks really, really hard!"
"Hey, if you want to see Linda again, this is the only way." Asserted Jewel.
"Okay, you're right." Admitted Blu.
"Of course I am." Jewel agreed.
"This is for Linda." Blu said.
"Right." Prompted Jewel.
"Keep it simple." Blu said to himself.
"Easy-breezey." Jewel smiled.
"Thrust, lift, drag..." Blu recited the basics of flight.
"Oh, come on, let's go!" Losing patience, Jewel grabbed Blu and together they ran towards the cliff face.
"Inside leg, outside leg, inside leg, outside leg..." They chorused.
"Come on Blu, you can do it!" Jewel encouraged him.
"I can do it, I can do it, I can do it..." Blu repeated. At the last moment, they jumped. For a brief, moment, it seemed like Rafael 's plan had worked. However, they rapidly lost altitude. They tumbled screaming down the cliff face, rolling over a ridge and ended up landing on a hang glider.
"Am I dead?" Groaned Blu, raising his head.
"No." Gasped Jewel. "We're still alive!" HA-HA!
As the hang glider soared over Rio, Blu couldn't help but be amazed by the sights.
"This is incredible!" He smiled. This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!"
"See what you've been missing?" Jewel asked him.
"Yeah..." Said Blu, awestruck.
"Alright Blu, you're flying!" Called Rafael. "Sort of, not really. But do you feel it?"
"Yes!" Blu called back. "I do feel it."
Something Blu couldn't explain, some primal instinct, overtook him. He stood straight, and slowly began to open his wings.
"No, no, Blu, wait!." Jewel said, trying to stop him.
But she was too late. A gust of wind blew Blu and Jewel off the hang glider.
"Ay, carumba." Sighed Rafael, flying down after them.
As they dropped, screaming once more towards the beach below, they bounced off another hang glider, and Blu's beak tore through through the fabric of
another. Then they fell onto a hang glider user's face, causing him to crash into a collection of volleyballs. Sprawled on top of one, Blu and Jewel went bouncing across the beach, eventually crashing heads-first into a surfboard. As they collapsed onto the sand, Rafael walked up, tutting quietly.
"You did not feel it in here." Rafael said to Blu, pressing a wing to his own chest.
Jewel spat out a beakful of sand. "Ya think?" She asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Rafael then spotted a produce truck.
"Let's catch a ride to Luiz!" He declared, flying over. Landing in the back, he called "Hurry, you two. Vamos! Vamos!"
Blu and Jewel were forced to follow on foot, dodging a bicyclist and a roller skater.
"Hey, watch it!" Called Blu, barely avoiding being run over. "Last of the species here!"
"Come on, lovebirds!" Called Rafael, as the truck's motor started.
Jewel made it onto the truck first, with Blu just managing to scramble on just in time.
"Ah, you made it!" Smiled Rafael.
"I would love to go five minutes without almost getting killed." Blu said testily. "Is that too much to ask?"
"For a bird who can't fly?" Jewel smirked. "Oh, yeah."
"Cute and funny." Blu smirked back. "You're a keeper alright, gorgeous."
"Keep your compliments, pal." Jewel shot back. "I'm definitively not interested in them, or you, for that matter."
"Your beak says 'no'." Smiled Blu as he leaned forward. "But your eyes say 'yes'."
"Keep telling yourself that." Jewel pushed him back, but she was blushing slightly.
Rafael watched their little back-and-forth silently, a knowing grin on his face.
As the truck drove off, Blu was totally unaware that Linda and Tulio were in a Jeep the next lane over, being directed by Fernando to the smuggler's hideout.
To Be Continued...
(Rio and all associated characters are the property of 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios.)