Chapter 6

Bad News; Good Friends

"What?" I gasped. I felt like I had been punched in the stomach from the news the prince of Kingdom Paradise brought to us.

"We were flying back to our temporary hollow after making a quick visit back home to get some things for mom, and all of the sudden a net fell out of the sky and caught us both." Tico choked, holding back his sobs. My mind was reeling, but I managed to hold it together for a little longer, as my nephew continued, "He managed to cut the part that was around me before the humans got there, but he couldn't get the dumb thing off himself before they grabbed him."

"Where did they go?" I asked on the verge of curling up into a ball and just giving up on life in general.

"The horrible humans threw him in a little cage and chucked him in the back of a big pickup truck, then drove away. We both tried to fight, but it was no use." That was all I could take; I started to breathe heavily and spots appeared in front of my eyes.

"Sonny?" I heard Nico ask gently and I sort of saw him step forward.

"Not Tadeo too…" I breathed, then my world went black.

"Sonora!" I shouted as she pitched forward and started falling out of the tree. I shot under the branch and managed to catch her wing before she plummeted to the ground. "Diego!" I shouted up to my son, "Help me get her inside!" Soon he joined me and grabbed her other wing. Together we carried her up to the back branch where we set her down momentarily. I then scooped her up into my wings and carried my dear Sonny into our hollow where I lay her on the couch. I barely noticed Diego and Tico follow me inside.

I placed a kiss on her forehead, and couldn't help but sigh. We had lost our daughter, and now the "beloved" Tadeo. Come now, Nico, My mind scolded, He's got a mate and a chick now too, and Sonny loves him like a brother, nothing more. I thought back to the night of the chick's birthday, and remembered what she had told me. With that thought I was able to swallow my jealousy and clear my still fuzzy mind enough to turn back to the boys.

"Is she alright?" Tico asked.

"She's in shock right now," I replied and swallowed the lump that formed in my throat, "Gwyn's missing too."

"What?!" Tico gasped, "Not minha prima pequena doce (my sweet little cousin)! What about Selena? Is she alright?"

"She's got a broken wing from trying to fight the humans that took Gwyn, but it's healing really well." Diego explained as I walked into the kitchen to get a rag and couple of empty buckets.

"Thanks to Albert's expertise, yes." I said and handed a bucket to Tico. "First of all, have you told your mother about Tadeo's capture?"

"Yes. She rushed home, to do what I don't know, but she said that she would get dad back, even if it killed her."

"Interesting..." I murmured, then there was a knock at the door. Diego moved to get it but I said, "How about you two got and get some water in those buckets for the girls, and be careful."

"Yes sir, Uncle Nico, sir!" Tico saluted and swooped out the door.

"We'll be back in a minute," Diego nodded, "See ya!" Then he too was gone. I nodded to myself, then turned to the door, which was still being relentlessly knocked upon. I walked over and opened the door to see... "Carlos?" The other canary stood there with a scowl on his face, and his wings crossed over his chest. "Ummm, Hi." I managed a small smile and greeting.

"Hello," Carlos replied curtly. "I need to speak with your son if that's alright."

I was surprised that the guy said 'if that's alright' instead of demanding it. I was about to nod when the thought hit me. I closed my beak, stepped out and closed the door behind me softly. Carlos started to object, but I held up my wing and interrupted calmly, "Now hold on, I want to talk to you before you possibly head his bite off." Carlos raised an eyebrow and I, realizing I had switched my words around, slapped my wing to my face and sighed, "Sorry…it's been a long week…"

I coughed, trying to rejuvenate my voice, but to no avail. I only spent a moment longer to gather my thoughts, but it was then that Carlos asked softly, "Is everything alright?"

I looked at him skeptically, because of our past…problems, but I couldn't hold eye contact for long. I took a deep breath and sighed heavily, looking at my feet. "No." I rubbed my tired eyes, then explained, "Two nights ago, my daughters and a friend of theirs were attacked by humans. They broke Selena's wing…" I paused, "and smuggled Gwyn. We…haven't been able to find her since."

Carlos took a minute to think, I supposed, and then asked, "So you have no idea where she is?" I shook my head. "Where have you looked?"

I crossed my wings tiredly, "Pretty much anywhere you can think of that is in the province of Rio." After a moment, I added, "I looked for two days straight and finally had to crash before I fell out of the sky…" I tapered off, my mind thinking about poor Sonny.

Carlos nodded, understanding where I was going, but I decided to change the subject, "So Diego missed his date with Lillie, right?"

Carlos nodded again, "Yes, I wanted to talk to him to ask why because Lillie was upset. But this is obviously a legitimate reason." He smiled softly, which was a strange sight to me. I nodded in understanding. "Can I still talk to him?" Carlos asked politely.

"Oh yeah!" I waved my wing, "I just wanted to explain to you what's going on because-"

"I might 'head his bite off'?" Carlos smirked.

I smiled, but it faded quickly, "No, I'm honestly waiting for him and Sel to break down. It's obviously tough now, but… within the next week, it's going to strike home that… she's not here."

Carlos nodded again, "I understand." After a moment's thought, he added, "We'll look around on the east side, but I can't guarantee we'll find anything."

I smiled gratefully, "Thanks." Then I turned and opened the door, leading Carlos inside. "Actually, I just sent him and Tico to get some water…" I shot a glance at Sonny, still unconscious on the couch.

"What happened?" Carlos breathed, clearly shocked at the fact that my mate had the capacity of sleep.

"Tadeo was smuggled too…" I said.

"You mean that frilly 'adventurer' that disappeared all those years ago?" Carlos guffawed. I felt a strange feeling of agreement, yet resentment towards the other canary as he said this.

"He's technically my brother-in-law, so watch it." I hissed under my breath.

"Excuse me?" Carlos asked, semi politely. I turned back to him, just as Tico, Diego, and a surprise Manny came through the back door, each with a bucket of water in their talons.

"Got the water, dad." Diego informed me as he moved all the buckets behind the counter. Then when he turned around, he almost jumped out of his feathers. His wings flew to his head, "OH MY GOSH! I FORGOT!" After a second of shock, he continued, "I am SO sorry!" He rushed forward to face Carlos.

To my great shock, Carlos smiled a little, "Now now, calm down! I'm not going to yell at you. Your dad already told me what happened and it's obviously a very good reason for forgetting."

Diego visibly relaxed and sighed heavily, "Oh so…I'm not dead meat then?"

Carlos shook his head, "Nope. You can still take Lillie out." He paused for a moment as my son seemed to glow from the good news, then continued, "I'll fly home and tell her everything that has happened. She'll probably want to come over…" At that thought, he looked at me.

I waved a wing, "Oh it's fine; she can come over whenever she wants."

"Alright," After a moment of awkward silence, Carlos said, "Well, I'd best be getting home. Good luck and we'll keep our eyes open."

I nodded with a smile, "Thanks."

Diego opened the door and said, "Bye!"

"Goodbye," Carlos nodded to me, then took off.

Diego closed the door, looked at me and sighed, "And once again, you save my feathers."

Nico smiled, "Anything for my boy." Then I looked over at the other boys. "Well, would you look at who it is?" I grinned and stepped over to Manny, "It's Superbird!"

"If I was Superbird, Gwyn would still be here, and Sel wouldn't be broken." Manny sighed.

"Don't beat yourself up about it, camarada!" Tico said, clapping him on the back. "You tried your best, and you saved your girl!"

"Yeah, but I lost her sister!" Manny slumped on a stool. I managed a fatherly smile and went over to him.

"Hey." I said softly, and he looked up at me, "I know you didn't come here to be all gloomy, you came here to see Sel. So wipe that frown off your face before she wakes up!"

"Dad?" Selena asked, as if on cue, walking in from her room. We all turned, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Manny's face break into a huge grin, and when Sel finished rubbing her sleepy hazel eyes, she gasped. "MANNY!" The boy ran over to her and scooped her up in his wings. I could tell he was squeezing her to his chest, as I had so many times with Sonny, but he had her broken wing to him, and she cried out in pain.

"Oh!" Manny gasped and immediately let go. "I'm so sorry Sel!"

"No no, it's ok." She groaned, "Umm, dad…" She looked over at me.

I turned to her, "Yeah sweetie?"

She winced, "Is there any more of that medicine from Dr. Albert?"

"Umm, I thought your mom said there was some left-"

"It's up there, dad." Diego pointed.

I looked up on a shelf right in front of my face. "Oh." Grabbing the packet of medicine, I shook my head tiredly. "I have GOT to go to bed."

"This is true," Diego smirked, and Selena giggled. I frowned at him as I sliced the webbing away from the piece of medicine.

"You're not supposed to agree, you're supposed to tell me I look fine, and that I'm the coolest dad ever!" I replied with a sideways grin.

Diego and Sel looked at each other with weird, amused expressions and then burst out laughing. I chuckled as well, then, with an exasperated whine, dropped my head on the table, "I'M SO TIRED!" My bottle cap fell upside down onto the table with a *clink*.

Diego was holding his stomach, "Well, even dads need their beauty sleep!"

Nico lifted his head and frowned, "Beauty sleep?"

Selena called out, still laughing, "Alright, stop! All this laughing is making the pain worse!" Manny was laughing from where he stood behind her, and at her comment wrapped his wings around my little girl and planted a soft kiss on her cheek.

"Oh yeah," I mumbled, handing Sel the cube of medicine. She held it dumbly, looking at it, then at her snickering brother, and then up at my confused expression.

"What?" I asked.

Sel smiled, trying not to laugh, "Umm…you know I can't just eat this right? I have to have it mixed in with food?"

My face fell as everyone burst out laughing. I put his face in my wings with a groan, "And this is why I am not a mother."

WE WERE FREE! Tadeo swooped and spiraled around screaming "Estamos livres!" At the absolute top of his lungs. I was laughing uncontrollably at the incredible feeling of the wind in my feathers again! It was cool, and cleared my mind enough for me to be able to think. Then I remembered the boy.

"Tadeo!" I called over the rush of wind, "What about the boy? Is he ok?" I called.

"I don't know, doce." Tadeo sang out, flaring his wings to slow down. We both looked back to see him pumping his wings as hard as he could to catch us.

"Whew," The boy panted a she caught us, "You mind if we land and I'll explain some things?"

"Of course, but may I ask one thing?" Tadeo said as we followed the boy to the top of a building, "What is your name?" At this the boy smiled.

"I'm Tyler." He replied as we landed, "And you are?" He held out a wing to help me climb off Tadeo's back, but I was going to jump down and didn't see him in time, and ended up tackling him to the ground. An immediate crimson blush flooded to my face.

"Ummm, I'm Gwyn." I giggled nervously and rolled off him, "And uh…sorry about that."

"Not a problem." Tyler replied with a smile, then turned to Tadeo, "And you sir?" He seemed to be scrutinizing my uncle, examining every detail about him as though he was the first Bird of Paradise he'd ever seen.

My uncle ruffled up to his full height and nearly twice his normal size and replied, "I am Tadeo Paradise, King of Kingdom Paradise, and uncle to this dear girl here." He motioned to me and I walked back over to my uncle and he wrapped his wings around me as I had started to shiver. It was so much colder here than home. I ruffled up my feathers in a chance to warm up a bit, but it didn't help much.

"So where are you birds from?" Tyler blurted. I looked at him curiously, and felt an overwhelming pang of homesickness. Tears welled in my eyes and I had to fight the lump in my throat. "I mean I know Kingdom Paradise is supposedly in the Amazon, which is in Brazil, but you can't be from there can you?"

"Actually we are!" I snapped, furious that I was crying in front of this boy. Why do I always get so emotional? I screamed on the inside. I wiped away the tears and tried my best to calm down. "We're from Rio…" At the sound of my home rolling off my tongue, it all hit me. "And now we're here…" That was all it took. I burst in to tears and buried my face in my uncle's chest.

"Enough, out of you for the day." My uncle growled defensively at Tyler.

"No!" He flinched as my uncle glared daggers at him, but squared his shoulders and continued, "I won't ask any more questions ok? I know where you can stay." I turned and looked at him questioningly, wiping away my infuriating tears and sniffling a little.

"What?" I barely managed to say.

"You can come to my place, then we'll figure out a plan in the morning." Tyler replied bravely.

"We couldn't intrude…" Tadeo softened his voice, suddenly feeling the chill I did. This was NOT Rio.

"Don't worry about it!" Tyler replied with a grin. "We have plenty of room and I'm sure the guys wont object. We'll get you some food and water, and something to keep the chill off." He spread his wings and turned towards the city. "Follow me."

"Do you want to ride?" Tadeo asked me gently. I almost said yes, but there was some stubborn part of me that made me shake my head and spread my wings.

"I'll try to fly." I told him with a soft smile. He gave a half laugh and shook his head.

"This way!" Tyler called and I leapt off the branch and started flapping. At first It was a little hard, but then instinct kicked in and I was able to follow Tyler easily through the air until we came to a little warehouse in a bay, which reminded me a smidge of Copacabana Beach back home. My eyes stung, but I forced myself to think of it happily, and the tears went away. We flew through a large rusted hole in the metal door of one of the warehouses and What I saw was very interesting.

Three other birds were seated around a small fire they had built in the center of four shabby tents. One was an ancient robin, with dirty feathers and a ragged scarf around his neck. Another was a northern lapwing, with his little crest sticking straight up in the cold. And the third was an eastern bluebird with well-groomed feathers, but a ragged vest and scarf on to keep warm. Upon our appearance the bluebird looked up and cheered.

"Bird, I thought you weren't gonna make it!" He cried and tackled Tyler to the ground in a bro hug.

"Kirby! I'm fine! But…I can't… BREATHE!" Tyler gasped as the bluebird let go and stood and stepped back. I stepped over and offered Tyler a wing. He took it with a nod and stood. "Thanks."

"Sure thing." I replied with a smile. Then I looked at the birds around the fire. The robin was looking me up and down like I wasn't real, and the lapwing just stared with his mouth open. "So where are we?" I shivered and wrapped my wings around myself. Taddy came up behind me and wrapped one of his large wings around me as well.

"This is Camp…I guess." Tyler shrugged and swept his wing around the room. "And these are my friends." The bluebird stepped up and took my wing in his, planting a kiss there.

"I'm Kirby." He wiggled his eyebrows at me and grinned and I blushed a bit. Then I laughed out loud when Tyler shoved him out of the way.

"She just got here! Jeez!" He hissed at his friend. Kirby just made a face and stepped back as the robin came forward.

"I am Eugene Robin. Welcome to our humble camp." He bowed lightly at the waist, and I smiled.

"I'm Gwyn Marie Canary, it's a pleasure to meet you." I returned his bow with a slight curtsy. Eugene beamed and stepped back to allow the lapwing to step forward. He was very jumpy and seemed to always be looking over his shoulder.

"I am Emile." He said with a thick French accent. "It is a pleasure, no?" He too took my wing and planted a kiss there, but it was far less embarrassing than what Kirby had done. "I am very lost. I was just flying over the bay, and suddenly, whoosh!" He made the noise and spun around flaring his wings and jumped back several feet, "I land here in America."

My eyes got wide and the whole room started to spin, "A-A-America? As in the United States?" I gasped.

"New York to be exact." Eugene added calmly. That was all I could take, I started seeing spots, and my knees felt weak. Then my world went black.