Jewel woke up the next morning. She was in the den of the bird aviary. She slowly turned around, still adjusting her vision. Her eyesight then really focused, and she now noticed something. Blu was gone.

Blu had promised her that he would spend the day with her. Waking up alone gave her the feeling that this wasn't going to be the case. She rose to her feet and sighed. She stretched her wings out and walked towards the entrance of the den. A thought came. She poked her head through the hole in the tree and looked around.

"Oh, Blu," she called out.

She waited for a minute for Blu to respond. He didn't. She narrowed her eyes.

"If he's out, he better stay out."

Jewel went through the hall and started climbing down the nailed ladder. She touched the floor and looked around, just to double-check if Blu was coming out of some part of the fake jungle. She saw no sign of him. She huffed and started walking around the aviary.

This is boring, she thought. Blu promised me, but it seems…I can't rely on him. I need to talk to Xavier.

Jewel rethought her thought.

What am I thinking? Of course, I can rely on Blu. …It's just that it has been, uh, difficult.

Jewel continued to walk along the ground. Even though she wished she could fly, she had to admit that her legs had gotten stronger with all the walking. She blushed.

Well, this walking is giving me an amazing body, especially the lower end.

Jewel hopped over the fake, PVC-fabricated stream and continued her walk. She eventually reached the door that lead into the control room of the aviary. What was weird was that it was slightly opened.

"Strange," she breathed.

During the time she was in the aviary, before she got into a relationship with Blu, she had always dreamt on escaping. That was all her mind could think of. How she ended up in the aviary was because of Tulio's lab assistance. One day in the jungle, she had flown into their trap and woke up hours later in this fake jungle.

Jewel landed on a branch. It was a glorious day in the jungle. The sun brightened the jungle, and a cool breeze came from the north. It was breakfast time. Jewel, the wandering bird, had been looking for food in this area. She overheard that they had the most delicious mangos one could ever taste. Being a big fan of this fruit, she gave it a try. She had found a tree and was now reaching for a juicy mango in front of her when she heard something rustle in the ground. She peeked over from the branch she stood on and noticed three humans wandering in the jungle. Two were males, and one was a female. One of the males had glasses and brown hair. Within time, Jewel would know this man as Dr. Monteiro.

Humans? What are they doing here?

She would visit the city of Rio from time to time. It was a great way to get food. The reasons why was because of the humans. The people who were not native to Rio wasted food like it was air. They threw it in trash cans, threw it in alleys, or it accidentally dropped onto the ground and they had no desire to pick it up. A species so wasteful was a curse, but it was also a blessing. Food was easy to find. It didn't matter if it had just been through away for an hour. Food was food to a starving bird.

She hardly went to the city. She usually went there during her early preteen years. By the age of twelve, she stopped going so frequently. Her days were spent in the jungle, fending for herself. Times were difficult, but it was better than being around those prideful tourists.

It had been a while since she saw a human, and it was the first time she saw them in the jungle. These humans were brave. The prideful humans she saw in Rio easily got frightened by the sight of a cockroach. How could something so big be scared of something else it could squash? Rarely would a human venture into the jungle because of that fact alone.

These humans must be out here looking for… What are they looking for?

Jewel was curious. It was just weird to have humans in the jungle; her jungle. They belonged in the city. Jewel kept an eye on the humans as they continued to walk. Their heads moved from side to side frequently, expecting to find something. Soon, the humans were going to be out in view. Just out of curiosity, Jewel followed. She flew off the branch, making a fluttering sound. She didn't get far as something poked into her during her flight. Suddenly, she became sleepy and roughly glided towards the floor. Before closing her eyes, she noticed that she was caught by the man who wore glasses.

All of that happened a week before meeting Blu and surviving their crazy adventure together. During the first day, she lost count on how many times she flew into a window. She soon found herself living most of the day in the den, only getting out for food, and during the night, she tried to escape. For the first couple of days, multiple aids would come to check on her, but she attacked them. It wasn't that she hated these humans. She just didn't trust them and was just defending herself. Soon, only one aid would check on her. Tulio wouldn't even go into the aviary to check on her. To her, all the aids were the man with the glasses.

Jewel had walked through the door and was now walking through the control room of the aviary. It felt weird just walking down the hall. If this opportunity had come only a couple of weeks before, she would be zooming down the hall, trying to escape. Now, there was no purpose to escape. It wasn't the fact that her wing was broken. Blu was here, and she had slowly formed a bond with Tulio, now just realizing that he was doing her a favor. Because of Tulio, she wasn't alone anymore.

Jewel noticed that the doorway leading to the hallway was widely opened. She went through it and continued to walk down it. As she continued to walk, she couldn't stop thinking on how come it was so easy to escape from the aviary. Usually, Tulio had a policy on keeping all doors strictly closed. However, it seemed like today someone broke the rules. Most likely, that individual got fired.

Jewel soon stopped. Arrows were now painted on the floor. It was weird though. Not only arrows were pointed in a certain direction. They spelled out her name. The first letter 'J' was pointing straight ahead. It looked like a stick figure of an umbrella with straight lines verses a curving umbrella top. After a few more steps, she saw the letter 'E' with an arrow drawn into the middle line of the letter. Two more feet later, she saw the letter 'W' with an arrow sticking out of the top middle vertex. A few more feet, she saw another similar 'E' to the one before. Soon, she came up to the letter 'L' with an arrow sticking out from its leg. This arrow pointed to a crack-opened door.

Another slightly opened door.

Jewel easily squeezed through the crack. She smiled.

It's great I haven't gained any weight.

She entered the room and noticed that she was in the kitchen. The lights were on, but she saw no sign of Linda or Tulio. She looked up at the electric stove and saw the bird she was looking for.

"Blu."

Blu flinched, almost losing balance and dropping into the heated pan of pasta. He set the fork down he used to stir and looked down behind him. He heaved.

"Oh, Jewel. Geez, you almost gave me a heart attack."

Blu flew down and landed in front of Jewel. He nuzzled her head with his head.

"Good morning, Jewel."

They parted from their nuzzle. Jewel had a questioning look on her face.

"What are you doing?"

"Remember yesterday I said it was going to be a surprise. Well, surprise. I made spaghetti for us and set up the television in the other room to watch a movie."

"You know how to make spaghetti?"

Blu nodded.

"Linda taught me how when we lived in Moose Lake," he said and jokingly whispered the next sentence. "It takes no instincts to make a wicked spaghetti; just skill."

Jewel smiled.

"Well, pasta for breakfast sounds good."

"It's almost done. I'll serve it onto a plate. You go next door and pick the movie you want to watch. I put them on the couch."

"Alright."

She turned around and walked out of the kitchen. The room next door was the lounge. It wasn't your typical lounge. It was basically the size of the family room. Its sole purpose was to just hold the 32"-LCD television. It was mounted on a shelf that held a Nintendo Wii and a Microsoft Xbox 360. It was a room for the interns to relax in. Today, it was reserved for the two last Spix's Macaws.

Jewel entered the room and walked to the couch. She was thinking she was going to climb vertically, but it appeared that Blu made it easier for her to get on the couch. He had used children's wooden building blocks to build a large ramp up to the cushions of the couch. Jewel smiled; kind of grateful her boyfriend was a nerd. She went up on the wooden slope and placed her feet on the brown, clothed couch cushions. She then found three movie covers.

The three movies sold to Jewel by the title and the description of the back. She didn't know of the actors or the ratings of the movies. It wasn't like she could access the internet on a daily basis to find out what movies were hot and which were not. She picked up a movie cover and read the title.

"Real Steel," she read.

She then turned it around and read the back. It was a fighting robot movie, but that wasn't the main concept behind it. It was more about a struggling father trying to make a living with his smart-wit son he barely knew by training his robot how to fight. Jewel set the movie box down and picked up the one next to it.

"Marley & Me."

This one was about a young couple raising and keeping a Labrador Retriever. It becomes part of the family and impacts the family in more ways than one. This was based on a book. Jewel set the box cover down and picked up the final film box.

"The Other Guys."

Judging by the cover, she thought it was an action movie, but it turned out to be a comedy. It was about two detectives underappreciated, just trying to live day by day. Jewel set the movie box down and set looked at the movies again. It was between action-family, family, or comedy. All three movies sounded good. However, she wanted Blu to also enjoy, so "Marley & Me" was out. Because Blu was smart, she also figured that he was more into robots than the comedy of two detectives. She selected "Real Steel". By this time, Blu was walking up the sloped path with a plastic plate of spaghetti.

"Ta-da."

He set the plate in-between them.

"It's still kind of hot. So, have you selected a movie, my precious Jewel?"

Jewel giggled and grabbed the DVD cover.

"Real Steel," she said.

Blu nodded, surprised that she didn't pick "Marley & Me", but he wasn't complaining.

"Alright."

Blu took the movie and flew over to the Xbox. He turned it on and inserted the movie into it. He also turned on the television, adjusted the volume, and displayed the proper channel the Xbox was connected to. He flew back to Jewel with the Xbox controller. As Blu selected the movie on the Xbox main screen, Jewel heaved blissfully.

"This is a relief. I thought you snuck out again."

Blu faced Jewel.

"I promised today I would make it up to you."

Jewel walked up to Blu and hugged him as he finally commanded the Xbox to play the movie.

"Thanks a lot Blu. I mean it."

Blu smiled and looked down at Jewel.

"You're welcome."

The two birds then sat down together, eating spaghetti as the movie played.

In the jungle, another animal became victim of a bird of prey. A snake was being torn to shreds after a short struggle against a Crested Eagle. It became a meal within ten seconds. The female eagle munched down the snake. She swallowed a piece of meat and sighed.

"Mm. Good food, but I crave for something new… That city I saw might hold the key to my new cuisine."

She had noticed that birds were drawn to the city down below near the ocean. What could be there that made them attracted to it? Tomorrow, she would find out.