It was evening by the time the patrol returned - the sun was dipping behind the horizon, and it was beginning to grow dark. A wind tugged at their feathers, and black clouds were rolling in, promising heavy rain. Tobias and Manuela bid him goodbye, before going their separate ways, headed for their families; Isabella was waiting in her tree, a sleeping Bruno tucked into her wings, while Carlos waved at Manuela, Augustus looking bored at his side.
Eduardo was standing on a rock, talking with a group of macaws, while Mimi was probably in her sleeping spot, for today was her 'weekly face mask day.' The majority of the tribe were here, around their nests as the rainclouds approached. Roberto stiffened as Jespa flew past him, amber gaze fixated firmly ahead. Exhausted from the long day of patrolling, he was about to head for his nest when his name was called.
"Roberto!" Zenaida's grating voice scratched at the air. He jumped, and whirled around, in surprise. Jespa and Sophia's mother leaned against her hollow entrance, wheezing slightly. Her cough had made her once pleasant voice rough, and stained her face with fatigue. Zenaida's head feathers were rather like her daughter's, perhaps shorter and more messy. Silver streaks ran through Zenaida's plumage, and her golden eyes were framed with thick, dark, almost sooty eyelashes that were just like Sophia's. Zenaida also had a talon missing from her right foot, apparently from an accident as a teenager. "I need some water. My throat feels like it's full of sand."
"Of course, Zenaida." Roberto said, politely, before taking one of the coconut shells kept near the water for drinking. Skimming the surface of the plunge pool, Roberto dipped the shell in until it was full, before retracting it from the water and turning, flying swiftly back to Zenaida. He offered it to the sickly female, who took it. She muttered a hardly audible 'thank you' before retreating into the nest, gulping down the water. Roberto sighed. At least he knew where Jespa got his rudeness from.
"Sorry about her." Said a sympathetic voice above his head. Roberto looked up, to see a familiar pair of midnight blue eyes. Sophia perched above him, looking embarrassed, probably from Zenaida's behaviour. "She's always been like that, ever since I was little." She allowed her grip on the branch to loosen, so that she swung forward and hung upside-down from the branch by her toes, a few inches from Roberto. Roberto cracked a smile, for the funny sight sparked amusement.
"Don't worry, I don't blame you. Maybe her sickness has put her in a bad mood." Roberto knew this wasn't truth; Zenaida had always been rude and short-tempered long before her cough had set in. But he didn't want to offend Sophia. "What does the world look like?" He teased, as Sophia swung a little from her perch. The childlike joy on her face always brought a smile to his beak.
"Upside down and my blood is going to my brain, but it's -" but then the joy in her expression was drained as her name sounded from behind him. Her voice cut off.
"Sophia!" Barked Zenaida. There she was, standing in the entrance again, the empty coconut shell in her talon. "Get down from there at once. You're almost nineteen years old, you're not a chick anymore." Sophia's eyes narrowed, before she made a great swing until she was standing.
"Happy?" Sophia asked, bitterly, from the above branch. Roberto glanced from Sophia to Zenaida, knowing that Zenaida was being extremely unfair - Sophia was an adult, and her mother couldn't tell her what to do anymore. And swinging from a branch wasn't immature - it was just fun. The mother and daughter had quite a strained relationship, although it wasn't clear why. It had begun after the death of Sophia's father, apparently - Sophia had distanced herself from Zenaida and Jespa following the incident, and the tension had never faded.
"Don't you use that tone with me, young lady." Zenaida snapped, tossing the coconut shell away, speaking as though Sophia were a small and stupid chick, rather than an adult. "You've always been so tense toward me."
"Don't do this here." Sophia's feathers bristled slightly.
"Is she bothering you, mother?" Said an icy voice. Sophia's head whipped up, as did Roberto's; Jespa stood there, on a high branch, his feline-like eyes slitted. How had he gotten there in the first place? He must've been as silent as a feather dropping to get there without Roberto or Sophia hearing his approach.
"No, I'm not." Sophia snapped. She spun round, and made a speedy getaway, her tail streaming out behind her. This was nothing new - most conversations between Sophia and Zenaida ended with Jespa's interruption.
"Sophia, wait!" Roberto spread his wings, but she was already gone. He dropped his wings, knowing Sophia wanted space; but then the feathers on his neck rose a little as Jespa spoke into his ear, uncomfortably close, in a hissing voice. He always spoke that way.
"That's the problem with her. Try to help her and she just pushes you away." But Jespa didn't sound sorrowful. He sounded amused, and not in a light-hearted way. There was also a tint of malice to his words. Roberto turned, eyes narrowed, before spreading his wings to fly, not wanting to be in Jespa's presence any longer.
"Maybe she'd be a lot kinder to you if you returned the hospitality." Roberto retorted. Jespa narrowed his eyes at him; not for the first time.
"Hospitality? She doesn't know the -"
"Don't mock her." Zenaida interrupted Jespa, sounding exhausted, like she'd said it countless times before. Jespa suddenly looked incredibly frustrated, and even outraged.
"Who's side are you on?" He asked, angrily. "How can you protect her when -"
"Enough -" Zenaida began, only to burst into a fit of coughing. Roberto looked over his shoulder, frowning at Jespa's statement, before flying across the ravine, skin crawling. There was something strange about Jespa and Zenaida, but he couldn't place a talon on it. He didn't like it one bit.
Then, unexpectedly, raindrops began to fall - swift, numerous and heavy. On the water lilies, Carla, Bia and Tiago were playing before darkness fell, but now darkness was upon the ravine, made darker by the sudden cloud cover that covered the entire sky, rather than just some of it.
"Looks like a lot of rain!" Carla exclaimed, as the black clouds loomed, and the splashes on the plunge pool surface increased. Carla then stopped in midair, her emerald green eyes screwed shut as water found it's way into her eyes. "Urgh! Stuff this, I'm going back to the tree!" She whirled round, making a dash for home, while her two siblings stayed by the lilies. Bia was chatting away to Tiago about rain; Roberto could hardly believe how much she knew, as she was so young. She was going to be a genius when she was older, no doubt about it.
"Did you know that the Amazon river contributes to twenty percent of global river run-off into oceans, and that the annual precipitation -" before Bia could finish her sentence, however, Jewel's voice rang out.
"Bia, Tiago! Come on, the rain's started - come here!" Jewel was waving from the new tree, Blu at her side, who was using a palm leaf to cover his and Jewel's heads from the rain. Carla, who had reached her parents, gratefully dived for cover under the palm leaf, before exchanging some words with her mother and father disappearing into the tree, shaking her fluffy feathers as she went.
"Oh, man!" Tiago sighed, looking disappointed. "Oh well - I'm going back now!"
"Right behind you." Bia agreed, before swiftly following her brother to shelter. They flew past their parents, straight into the tree, and Blu and Jewel soon followed. The rest of the tribe also began to retreat to their nests, for the rain was getting heavier and a great wind was picking up; in the corner of his eye, Mimi was scooting toward her flowered tree, a face mask still coating her face, while Eduardo was cancelling patrols due to the turn of weather. Roberto fled for the sanctuary of his home, relieved when he finally reached the cover of the hollow.
Roberto shook out his sodden feathers, wondering if there was a chance of flooding. It wouldn't have that much of an effect on them, and the river bursting it's banks wasn't out of the ordinary. Outside, the rain began to hammer down, and soon trails of water were leaking in from the entrance's floor. That was a problem he often had to face whenever there was heavy rain.
Roberto lifted a leaf from the floor, revealing a hole in the earth, filled with various nuts and fruit. He always kept some extra food there, in case he was unable to go foraging; choosing a Brazil nut, he recovered the stash and returned to the entrance, sitting just out of the rain to watch the weather while he ate. There was definitely something wonderful about heavy rain - it was a sound he had loved since childhood. The good part of my childhood.
Roberto looked at his left ankle, the one with the white ring, which he kept hidden by his leg feathers. He picked at it; over the years, it had grown notched and stained, but it didn't come close to breaking. It had been there for almost the whole nineteen years of his life; only the first few weeks of his life had been spent without it. Those first weeks of life had the best, spent with his parents and sister. Then their home had been torn down by machines like the ones he had faced a few days before. He remembered his time spent in Manaus vividly, as well as the two humans' faces. Roberto wasn't sure how long he had spent with the humans; it hadn't been long, but he knew the horrors of his childhood would always stick with him. His nightmares were frequently plagued with falling trees and humans.
But then he had escaped back to the rainforest, had been rescued by his new family. The tribe were his family now - and he knew his parents and sister were very proud of him. He was saddened that they had never been able to see how good tribelife was, but he always had good dreams about them. It was just a shame his life wasn't entirely happy - his life would be complete as soon as he had his own family.
Just as Roberto was pondering over what he wanted most, he saw a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye. A figure stood in the roots of a nearby tree, glancing left and right. What on earth...? Great green feathers that were several inches wide covered it's head, back, and wings - at first he thought it was the strangest creature he'd seen, but then he realized that the feathers were in fact wide leaves.
The leafy mask then rose; while he didn't see her face through the rain, he knew it was Sophia who lived in that tree. The mask then dropped, and, the leaves acting as cover from the weather, Sophia began to hug the treeline in her leafy pelt, to fly in as minimal rain as possible. Roberto threw the Brazil nut aside. "Sophia!" He called, but she didn't hear him. Within moments, Sophia had disappeared over the cliff edge, and out of sight.
Roberto blinked, dumbfounded. What reason could Sophia possibly have for leaving the ravine in the dark, and in such weather? She had to be mad, to go out - rainforest storms could be dangerous. He rose to his talons, torn on whether to stay or follow her. The wind then seemed to subside, and the torrential rain weakened. This was his chance to follow.
Roberto hesitated, wondering whether it was worth it, but then curiosity got the better of him. Flying through the rain, Roberto began to follow Sophia as fast as his wings would allow. He soon regretted leaving the hollow, for the heavy rain seemed to resume in power. It was too late to turn back now, though - by the time it got heavy again, he was already over the cliff top.