Roberto was awoken by a loud crash. His eyes snapped open, and he sat bolt upright from where he had been lying in his nest. His heart thudded as the groaning sound of splintered wood filled his ears - he could have sworn that he heard a scream before that terrible crashing noise. There was a brief moment of silence, then the voices of his tribemates erupted over the storm. Roberto leapt out of the nest, racing to the entrance. He stopped at the sight before him.
Despite the darkness of night and the still-pelting rain, he could see the corpse of the fallen tree easily. It's roots, once buried in earth, had been ripped from the ground. They twisted and clawed at the air, like old talons, traces of mud still clinging on. The longer roots had been snapped, and the tree rolled ever so slightly still. Leaves flew through the air, and vines were trapped underneath the trunk. It was already submerged in a cerulean ocean of macaws.
Blue forms raced from the trees - the sound of the falling tree had travelled far. Voices rose above the storm. "Who's is it?" Cried somebody.
"Someone get Eduardo!" Shouted another. Roberto flew into the rain, ignoring the water, to push through the crowd. Confused voices rang in his ears, as they tried to figure out who owned the tree - and, most importantly, where this bird was. In the corner of his eye, Bia, Carla and Tiago were poking their heads out of their tree, with Blu and Jewel trying to keep them there despite their curiosity - it was too dangerous for children.
"Who's tree is it?" Jewel cried, over her shoulder.
"Somebody tell Zenaida and Jespa - it's Sophia's!" Shouted Mimi, landing beside Jewel, Blu, and the kids. Roberto's heart lurched - then he was consumed by an unbelievable terror. He tried to shove through the crowd, but when this didn't work, he flew over them instead.
"Sophia!" He cried, frantically, trying to spot her amongst the ruins of the fallen tree, but failed to see her periwinkle-blue feathers in the dark. He landed on the tree trunk, skidding on the wet leaves that had settled on top - he squinted into the middle part, where the hollow entrance had been, but couldn't pick it out. I feel blind!
"Be careful!" Eduardo's voice rang out. "The tree is on a slope - if it rolls, it could crush Sophia!" But the question haunted everyone's minds - what if she already was crushed? Roberto looked over the back of the tree, and he saw it perched just on the edge of a hill that was sloping a few foot.
"Sophia!" Roberto shouted again - then a beam of light shot onto the tree trunk. He looked up in surprise, then he saw Blu on the trunk too, with the object he called a torch. He looked at Blu in gratitude, before following the light beam as it searched. Then he glimpsed something. "Move it back over that spot!" Roberto gasped. Blu moved the torch's light back, and then it found the hole that was the hollow entrance. An edge of a wing poked out. It was limp and motionless. "I see her wing - she's in the hollow!" He reported to the crowd. Roberto tried to reach for the wing, but hardly an inch poked out from the hollow. It would be impossible to pull her out.
"Move the debris aside!" Eduardo commanded, landing on the tree trunk between Roberto and Blu. Immediately, macaws swarmed forward to get the heaps of vines and branches away from the front of the trunk. "Blu, keep the light on Sophia!"
Roberto leapt down, shoving branches aside, desperate to reach the entrance and see if Sophia was alive. The wait was torturous, as they struggled to clear a path to the hollow. But then the branches wouldn't give way - most of them were too heavy here, or pinned down via the trunk. Only one would be able to fit and see into the hollow or access it. He threw himself flat to the ground, and inched forward, to near the entrance - it was hardly a three inch gap between the entrance edge and the floor. Her wing tips lay exposed, but further in the dark, he couldn't make her out. "Blu, light, please!"
There was the sound of talons landing on the earth behind him, then light poured into the black gap. Sophia's face was illuminated. Brown mud streaked her feathers, and the contents of her nest lay strewn about her. A cut was slashed into the skin of the side of her neck, and a thin bead of red trickled. Her eyes were closed, and her cheek was pressed into the mud, but she was breathing, by some miracle. "She's alive!" Roberto said, over his shoulder. Blu passed on the message to the crowd, and there were cheers of relief. But the joy was short-lived - by now, the crowd could see how small the gap was. Sophia was trapped in the hollow, and she couldn't be pulled free.
"We're getting her out of there!" Mimi shouted, from the back of the crowd. "Is she conscious?" Roberto looked into the gap, about to call her name, but Sophia was moaning softly, and frowning. Her eyes fluttered open, only to squint with the torch light glaring into her eyes.
"Roberto?" She groaned, seeing his blurry silhouette. He had never felt so much relief in his life.
"It's okay, Sophia - can you move?" He asked. Sophia closed her eyes, and shifted ever so slightly.
"I'm not stuck or pinned down, if that's what you're asking." Sophia shook her head, and lifted herself from the floor, but hit her head on something. "Ouch." She hissed.
"Try not to move, we're getting you out of there!" Blu said, over Roberto's shoulder. "Eduardo, Sophia's trapped in the hollow - what should we do?" Immediately, suggestions were shouted out. There was no way the tree could be pushed off Sophia - they were macaws, against a tree.
"What about we dig around the back to loosen it up? It could roll right off her without harming her!" Shouted somebody.
"Wouldn't that take a while?"
"That sounds dangerous!"
"Do you have any better ideas?"
"It's getting claustrophobic in here!" Sophia cried. Roberto was then aware of the pounding rain collecting in the dip Sophia was in - the tree was sinking deeper into the squleching mud, and the gap seemed to be getting smaller already. Sophia lay in a puddle of water and mud, the tree sinking more and more with every passing moment. Everyone else seemed to have noticed this, for frenzy broke out as macaws rushed to find a way to get Sophia out. Most dived behind the tree trunk, beginning to dig at the soil underneath to roll it away from Sophia, but it would take far too long and the mud was causing it to sink further.
Roberto, out of options, frantically began scrabbling at the gap, his talons soon growing brown from digging, the puddle that had formed under Sophia beginning to spill out and cause more material to rush in and replace the mud he had shifted. Sophia, hunched in her ever-limiting space, tried to dig at the ground too, occasionally pausing to try and push herself under the gap. Roberto began to slow down, for the task was beginning to exhaust him, although he tried to put in more effort.
Sophia then screeched as the tree suddenly sank another inch or two, pushing her back down. "Roberto!" She cried, in panic. Roberto gasped, and then, ignoring the ache spreading through his back and talons, he threw himself at the gap edge, battering it with his claws and beak while Sophia desperately tried to dig even more.
"Get her out!" Shouted someone above the storm. "It's sinking faster!" Roberto looked down, praying for the gap to be large enough. Sophia threw herself flat, thrusting her head under the gap and trying to wriggle free - the tree sank dangerously, scraping her back - if it sank onto her spine the results would be disastrous. She cried out again, and Roberto seized her wings, pulling with all his might.
Sophia scrabbled with her talons, desperately crawling - then she came shooting out from the gap. Roberto gasped, not expecting this - with the great force of his pull, he flew backwards, straight onto his back. Sophia crashed down, onto the mud, wings wrapped tightly around him. She lay there, huddled, breathing alarmingly fast, eyes screwed shut. She was shaking, in pure terror, her feathers brown from mud. Behind her, the gap had collapsed - mud and wood choked the former gap, absolutely sealing off the hollow.
Roberto shook her, but she was too shocked to respond. He scrambled to his feet, gathering Sophia up into his wings. She seemed barely conscious, trembling like a leaf, unaware of what was going on around her. There was a terrified silence, as the crowd watched Roberto moving out of the labyrinth of branches and debris, Sophia invisible to them - then he turned, and cheers erupted when they saw that she was breathing and relatively unscathed. "Get the healers." Eduardo said, urgently, to a macaw. "And for goodness sake, why hasn't anybody alerted her family yet? Roberto, take her to your nest - out of the rain. Everyone else, make way!"
Roberto headed for his tree, as Eduardo had instructed - the crowd parted to let him through, many congratulating him for helping her escape. He barely heard them - he could only hear his blood roaring in his ears. When he reached the tree, and was finally in the shelter, Roberto put Sophia into the soft moss of his nest, and crouched over her, terrified of the possibility of an injury he hadn't seen.
Sophia lay motionless for several moments, eyes closed, mud splattering half her feathers and the majority of her side. The slash in the side of her neck continued to produce crimson liquid, but it was slowing down. Then, to his relief, she moved, and looked up at him with dazed eyes. "Roberto?" She asked, sounding exhausted and disoriented. "What... what happened?" Roberto couldn't resist smoothing the ruffled feathers of her face - his wing didn't retract, but stayed there.
"Your tree fell." He explained, gently. Sophia looked outside, and then closed her eyes upon seeing the wreckage.
"The elderly macaw said it was safe to live in..." She shook her head. "You..." She looked back, wide-eyed, remembering. "You saved my life, didn't you? Thank you..." Her eyes shone with tears, and a grateful smile. She reached up to the wing on her cheek, covering it with her own. Then her smile disappeared, and so did his. An invisible force was drawing them closer - neither of them tried to resist it. Their eyes did not leave each other's, but just before their beaks touched, the moment was shattered.
"Sophia! Are you okay?" Both Roberto and Sophia pulled away from each other as Zenaida came running inside. He took a step back as the elderly female rushed to her daughter's side. "Oh, Jacinta told me what happened!" She frantically looked Sophia up and down. "Are you alright?" Sophia then looked stunned as Zenaida hugged her.
"I... I'm fine. In fact..." She looked at Roberto from over her mother's shoulder. "It was Roberto... he was the one who saved me, before I..." It was true. Had it not been for Roberto, Sophia would have been crushed or drowned in the mud. Zenaida looked as though she were about to hug him, too, but then a shadow cloaked Zenaida and Sophia.
"I see you got her out in one piece." Said Jespa, smoothly. But there was no relief or joy in his tone. His tone was utterly emotionless. He stood there, wings behind his back, with blank eyes. Roberto looked back at Sophia, where she held her bruised wing protecctively. She swallowed hard. Zenaida frowned, and looked between the two siblings; her eyes found Sophia's wing, the one she was covering, but then there was a great commotion.
"We're here! Sophia, how do you feel?" The tribe healers pushed into the nest, politely moving Zenaida aside to reach Sophia, who had drifted into a daze-like state, fatigue making her eyes flutter closed. Zenaida coughed a few times, before shoving past the healers, straight for Jespa. She seized his wing, dragging him outside. Roberto looked back at the healers and Sophia, before he followed the mother and son. Using the shadows to conceal himself from view, Roberto followed them.