Blu and Jewel were perched on a rocky ledge, with a brazil nut between them. Blu hadn't liked them at first, but he had grown to like them after the incident with the loggers and Nigel. Jewel paused in the middle of eating a piece of the Brazil nut, looking at something on Blu's head. "Hey, you know there's a butterfly on your head?"
"Huh?" Blu asked, looking up, where the butterfly was now crawling onto the top of his beak. "Oh, good." He sighed. "I bet I look ridiculous." Blu shook his head slightly, and the butterfly flitted its wings, fluttering into the air between Blu and Jewel.
"Oh, it's so pretty…" Jewel reached up with a wing-tip, and the butterfly landed on it, its pink, yellow and black wings moving up and down slowly. "Bia loves butterflies, I wonder what kind this one is…"
"She can tell you herself now, because there she is… oh, wait." Blu squinted across the ravine. "With Azure, and… is that Johanna and Alejandro?"
"What?" Jewel looked up; it was true what her mate said, for Bia and Azure were flying a foot or so in front of the two leaders of the Blue-and-Gold macaw tribe. They seemed to be headed for Eduardo's hollow. Jewel looked at her mate, before setting off after the four, followed by Blu. Leaders of other tribes were rare sights in tribes they didn't belong - everyone was craning their necks to get a look at Johanna and Alejandro, whispering in speculation about the two's reasoning for being there.
"Blu, Ju-Ju!" called a voice. Roberto, followed by Sophia, was emerging from the water-lily pads, where they had been flying over the water surface. "What's going on?" Roberto asked, looking from them to the sight of the two leaders, Azure, and Bia.
"No clue!" Blu replied, and they followed Johanna, Alejandro, Bia, and Azure toward Eduardo's tree, which was the second-biggest in the tribe's, other than Roberto's. Eduardo, having noticed the presence of the two Blue-and-Golds, was standing on a branch, waiting for them to reach him.
"What an unexpected surprise." Eduardo said, as Johanna and Alejandro landed. His pale green eyes flickered to Bia and Azure. "Have these two been causing trouble? I doubt it, personally, but I can't think of any other reason for you being here."
"Grandpa!" Bia protested, rolling her hazel eyes. "Of course not. It's about the bird you encountered the other day."
"She's right." Alejandro explained. "The body of the Orange-Winged Amazon has been found… dead." Whisperings broke out at this, for the tribe had been warned about the diseased bird. Most of them looked relieved, and they had every right to be - the infection the bird had had was clearly fatal. At this, Azure nudged Bia, and she nodded, before the pair flew off toward a nearby tree, where Isaac, Bromeliad, Orchid, and Tiago were perched, looking over the scene and whispering. Carla and Bruno were at the club, so not in the ravine.
"Dead?" Eduardo repeated, looking a mixture of relieved and surprised. Alejandro leaned toward him, whispering so that none of the tribe could hear.
"I encountered him in the middle of a seizure-like state," he began. "He pleaded for me to help him, but I couldn't, obviously, because I had a mosquito bite the other day - the disease could've accessed my blood. He was frothing at the beak, coughing up blood. How an infected bird dies varies, however."
"Indeed." Johanna confirmed, with a sombre look on her face. "We disposed of the corpse - we burnt it." At this, there were several hisses and mutters from the Spix's tribe members, most of whom had gathered in the nearby trees to listen. Having experienced and some of their members nearly being killed in a forest fire - twice - they highly despised fire.
"You risked setting the forest on fire?" croaked an elderly macaw, named Glauco, the oldest substitute of the Pit of Doom team. He was never planning on retirement - he claimed to just have 'early signs of aging', but the entire tribe knew that he was thrice or so times the age of Eduardo.
"No, actually." Alejandro said, turning to the old bird. "We put it in vegetation-free ditch, in a deforested area, where any fire couldn't spread. We used flint, and the ditch kept the burning of the body contained. We watched from a distance, anyway, just in case, and none of the fire exceeded the ditch. The body is well and truly gone, and you can now relax, knowing that there isn't a deranged bird out there." As Alejandro said this, almost everyone seemed to sigh in relief.
"Good." Eduardo sighed. "Thank you for informing us. Do you think that the disease may have been spread elsewhere?"
"A very slim chance." Johanna answered, shaking her neatly-shaped head. "Just fewer than six cases have been confirmed in recent centuries - it's extremely rare, and difficult to spread. It's only able to be spread by infected blood or bacteria making contact with the blood of someone else." While the rest of the tribe murmured in relief, one of them wasn't.
Jewel, too far away to hear, was trying to hold back a fit of coughing. It wasn't just a tickle, however - it was one that made her jolt, her throat to feel raw. After several moments, Jewel began spluttering as she coughed, her blue eyes watering as she did. Blu, Roberto, and Sophia both looked at her.
"Alright?" asked Sophia. Jewel smiled weakly, holding back more coughs. After several moments, Blu, Roberto, and Sophia turned their attention back to Johanna and Alejandro. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, Jewel quickly disappeared into the branches. Where did that come from? She thought, incredulously, as the coughing continued. There seemed to be a metallic taste in the back of her throat, becoming more prominent as she coughed more. Get it together, Jewel, she thought, holding the coughing back. Her head and neck felt heavy on her shoulders, and her back had a dull ache. Meanwhile, Blu noticed Jewel's absence.
"Jewel?" he asked, looking around. Hearing Blu's calls, Jewel forced down the coughing, and came out of the branches, as casually as possible. "Where did you get to?" asked Blu, looking concerned. "You look…"
"…Not good." Roberto finished his sentence, looking her up and down. "You look - a bit - unsettled."
"I'm fine." Jewel insisted, looking down into her reflection, in the water below. It was true - her feathers were fluffed up a bit, and there were dark circles under her eyes from fatigue. She had been having sleepless nights, recently, due to a peculiar feeling over her body. Jewel couldn't figure out what it was, but she didn't want to worry anyone, so she had kept it to herself.
"Sure?" Sophia asked.
"I'm sure." Jewel said. "So, what were they saying? I heard he died, but after that…"
"Something about the sick bird, and how his disease could be spread. It was an improbable chance of it being spread - his bacteria or blood making contact with someone else's blood." Blu told her. Blu was looking her up and down, as if looking for something; he was looking for any open wounds, how the disease could make contact with someone's blood. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, getting a terrible feeling in his stomach.
"Oh, leave it out." Jewel snapped, before turning, and flying away. Feeling hurt, Blu stared after her.
"That's unlike her." He said, after a few moments.
"Don't worry, buddy." Roberto clapped Blu on the shoulder. "She had mood swings when we were kids, it's not unheard of." He turned to his mate for back-up. "Right, baby?"
"She did, yeah…" Sophia answered, but she was still staring after Jewel. "Say, Blu, go after her - I'm sure she didn't mean it. Go and… talk to her."
"Yeah… okay." Blu reluctantly turned away, and set off after his mate. As soon as Blu was gone, Sophia turned to Roberto.
"Did you hear Jewel, a minute ago?" she said, in a hushed voice.
"No, sweetheart - why?" Roberto gave Sophia a quizzical look; neither he nor Blu had heard Jewel in the branches, but Sophia had. Sophia's dark blue eyes seemed to have dropped to even darker shade, and her voice was low.
"She was coughing, in the branches. It was… it sounded worse than a normal fit of coughing." Sophia casted a glance toward Blu and Jewel's tree, before looking back at Roberto. "She sounds ill, Roberto. She sounds ill."
Meanwhile
Jewel leaned heavily against the wall, a wave of nausea washing over her. She wanted to be sick, but she couldn't. Everything felt dizzy. Once again, the feeling came up in her throat, and Jewel lurched forward as she coughed, the metallic taste rising once again. One more cough, Jewel thought, feeling that this was, at last, the final one. Her wing flew up to her beak as she let the last cough go. It shook her lungs, but, finally, she knew that the coughing fit was over - for now, anyway.
But as Jewel looked down, she noticed something red, sprayed over the blue feathers. Jewel had to blink several times, making a sense of it. I must be hallucinating. Jewel seized a leaf, rubbing it frantically over her wing, but there were still stains, smearing over her wing feathers.
"It's a one-off." Jewel said to herself, fiercely. It's a one-off, it happens all the time, and it's nothing serious. She was trying to convince herself that this was true - when someone had a bad cough, a tiny bit of blood could come up sometimes. But this was more than a drop of blood. That one cough had been purely blood. Jewel's heart was beating furiously in her chest, and she could feel herself beginning to panic as she remembered what had happened, almost a week ago. Jewel had stepped into a pool of his blood. And that foot had had something wrong with it.
Trembling slightly, Jewel looked down, and turned over one of her feet. But she couldn't bring herself to look, to see whether it was still there. With her eyes screwed shut, she traced the area under her foot, with a wingtip. It wasn't gone. The wound was still there, feeling hot. A tiny thorn-cut should've faded days ago, but it was still there. Jewel knew that it couldn't have looked good, but she didn't want to see it.
"Jewel!" called a voice, making her jump. Quickly, Jewel folded her wings, hiding the blood-smears, and she put down her foot. Forcing on a casual expression, Jewel ran out of her and Blu's room, running to answer Blu. As she ran, Jewel forced away the terrible feeling she had, and stifled another cough. Relax. Be calm. It's nothing. But Jewel couldn't convince herself. Something was wrong.