"I'm glad that you've all joined us here today." Roberto began, where he and Sophia were perched before Mimi, Eduardo, and Blu. The three looked rather puzzled, and were occasionally whispering to each other, trying to find out why they were here. Roberto and Sophia had been watching Jewel's movements for a couple of days, and now they knew that they had to act. "Sophia has… a matter that she has to discuss with you all, concerning Ju-Ju."
"Jewel?" asked Blu, looking up. "I was going to talk to you all about that, actually. Where is she, recently? She leaves at the crack of dawn, when I'm asleep - before any of the kids are up, either, and she just vanishes."
"I noticed that, too." Mimi agreed, where she had been smoothing the small, curling feathers on her head.
"I haven't seen her a lot, recently." Eduardo mentioned, his expression full of concern and worry. "I was going to ask you all some questions, as to where she is. My daughter used to spend so much time outside the ravine, when she was a girl, but she always came back several times during the day."
"The thing is, though, she comes back only at night." Blu then said. "But she doesn't come inside. She sleeps in the higher branches, where I can't hear or see her." Blu really was worried about Jewel - she had never acted so distant before. It was so unlike Jewel - she always gave the kids a hug in the morning, a kiss on the cheek for him, but for the last few days? She'd been nowhere in sight. Carla, Bia and Tiago didn't seem to notice it, as their minds were on other things, but Blu knew that they were starting to wonder where their mother was. Before Blu, Mimi and Eduardo could discuss any further, Roberto raised a wing, signalling them to be quiet so that Sophia could speak.
"We've got a theory to her behaviour, Blu." Sophia said, her voice low. "We've been watching her leaving, and coming back during the night. She always tends to leave when everyone's still asleep - before you're up, Eduardo, and you're always up first. And when she comes back, Blu, it's always after you go back inside your hollow."
"We've seen you waiting for her to come back, for quite a long time, and it seems the moment you give up, and go inside, she re-enters the ravine." Roberto added. "It's as if she's watching from a hidden spot, making sure that no one's still awake or up, before she finally heads back."
"You don't think it's something to do with me?" Blu asked. "You don't think she's… gone off me, do you?"
"No." Roberto and Sophia both said, at once.
"I severely doubt that, Blu." Mimi assured him. "She loves you a lot, you know. When she came back to us almost a year ago, we were talking for hours on end - what had happened in the past eighteen years or so, and how you two met. She told me how much she loves you." Mimi's words did appear to reassure the former pet - companion, Eduardo corrected himself. He now understood that Blu's upbringing wasn't his fault. I never should've judged him for how he was raised.
"Okay." Sophia cleared her throat. "Let's get to business. When Johanna and Alejandro were in the ravine to tell us about the sick bird being found dead, Jewel went missing for a minute or two. I heard her. She was coughing."
"Coughing?" Eduardo repeated.
"Yes." Roberto confirmed. "I didn't hear her, but Sophia did. It sounded bad, Eduardo, apparently. Whenever she leaves or comes back into the ravine at dawn or night, she's still coughing. It's been a few days now, since Johanna and Alejandro were here." Roberto looked down at Sophia, hesitant in breaking the news. "Based on her behaviour and her symptoms - we think that Jewel's caught the sick bird's disease." Roberto and Sophia looked up at their three friends, and they were shocked to see that the colour had drained from all their faces. All three were alarmingly still. Blu especially looked like a feathered statue, as still as a stone.
"How?" Mimi finally said at last. "How could she have…?"
"We don't know." Sophia murmured. "But she gave that Amazon a pretty savage attack, when he tried to attack me and Bromeliad. I attacked him too, but I feel fine, so I don't understand why…" Sophia's voice died as she ran out of words. Before any of them could speak, however, there was the sound of large wings, beating heavily through the air - not just one pair, but a few.
Roberto and Sophia heard the shaking of branches behind them as something landed. Eduardo, Mimi, and Blu were staring at something behind them; Blu's expression was mingled with fear and surprise, Mimi looked suspicious, and Eduardo looked furious. Wondering what could make Eduardo so angry in a matter of seconds, Roberto and Sophia turned around, before immediately rushing backwards, so that they were on the same branch as their three friends. Roberto had his wing outstretched protectively, across Sophia.
Blu had never seen macaws so large, but when he had lived in Minnesota with Linda, he had looked into his species, done a lot of research in the books of Linda's bookstore. He knew a lot about almost every species of macaw. Now, he could tell that three enormous Hyacinth macaws were perched on the branch before them. All three were a dark, navy blue, and almost twice the size of Eduardo, and they also had yellow skin around their eyes, and a little by their lower beaks. Their iron-grey beaks were enormous, clearly designed to bite through hard nut shells and tough fruits. He had read somewhere that they could even open coconuts. Blu didn't even want to look at their talons, but he had to. He shivered as he took in the long, hooked claws. Those talons could probably wrap around him with no problem at all.
The one in the middle was a female, and she was flanked by two, larger males. The males reminded Blu of bodyguards - well muscled, with sharp claws and rumpled feathers, not to mention a couple of scars. The female, meanwhile, was unmarked. Her feathers were neat, and she had dark, grey eyes that reminded Blu of river stones. She wasn't pretty, but then she wasn't ugly, either.
Initially, he thought that her feathers were complete, but then he noticed patchiness. It looked as though she had put dark blue fruit paint over the patches of skin, to hide them. He had also once thought that she bore no marks, but then he realized that her right foot looked a bit odd. It looked a bit oddly-shaped, the toes gnarled and twisted, some smaller than the others. Her left foot looked fine, however. Maybe she had been born that way, for there were no signs of trauma. She was standing mostly on her left side, her deformed foot lifted slightly off the branch she stood on. As for her age, Blu wasn't quite sure how old she was - but she looked older than Roberto, younger than Eduardo.
"Kerja." Hissed Eduardo, his feathers bristling. "What are you doing here, so far from your territory?" Blu took a step back, behind Mimi.
"Hello, Eduardo." Replied the female, in a honeyed voice. She sounds too nice, thought Blu, mistrust pricking at him. Her voice sounded kind, but under that, there was something he couldn't trust. Her voice sounded heavily 'put on', as though she was going through a lot of effort in order to sound nice.
"Don't use that fake voice." Mimi snapped, clearly undaunted by Kerja's enormous stature. "It's incredibly annoying, you know. You're… what, twenty-something, and you're so immature."
"No need to be rude." Kerja retorted, in a new, grating voice that Blu knew was her true voice. It was very unpleasant, and the tone of it made his skin prickle. "We haven't made a lot of contact much, over the years, have we?" Her dark eyes travelled over the five Spix's macaws, before they landed on Blu, narrowing with suspicion as she failed to recognise him. "Who's this?"
"My son-in-law." Eduardo replied, curtly.
"Oh?" the area above one of Kerja's eyes rose. "Has your little daughter returned, after all these years? I heard about her going missing." She then smiled sweetly. "What about your wife? What was her name, again? Tia?"
"Shut up!" Roberto almost shouted, making Blu jump. When Blu looked at Eduardo, a distant, anguished look came to his eyes, at the mention of his dead mate. Jewel had told Blu a little about Tia, but he didn't know a lot about her, as he knew that Jewel found it too painful. Roberto was shaking a bit, with rage. "Shut your beak. What are you doing in our territory? You know it's strictly forbidden for Hyacinths."
"Admiring the view." Kerja answered, and her two bodyguards snorted a bit with laughter. None of the Spix's macaws, however, were amused. Eduardo and Roberto were both shaking with rage, Sophia was looking around, as if considering getting help, and Mimi was simmering, trying not to show her anger. Even Blu, who was usually calm, looked agitated.
"What do you want?" Sophia demanded, putting her wing across Roberto, probably to stop him flinging himself at Kerja and the two Hyacinths. "Cut to the chase, and skip the insults and jokes. You obviously have a reason for being here, after so many years." Kerja folded her wings, suddenly looking very bored.
"We have a very small territory, you know. No wonder we strayed here by accident…"
"And piranhas might fly." Mimi snorted. "Every time you turn up, you're after something. Besides, your territory is more than a few kilometres' flight from here, you must have known that this isn't yours." Kerja ignored Mimi, eyes fixed on Eduardo. Eyes filled with a burning hatred. Eduardo matched her gaze, before he looked away.
"What happened fifteen-odd years ago was not my fault." Eduardo said, unexpectedly. Mimi, Roberto and Sophia all looked at one another, knowing what he meant. Blu, however, was baffled, wondering what on earth could've happened. He didn't know an awful lot about his father-in-law's back-story, even a year after meeting him. Even Jewel was in the dark, as to what had gone on in the time she was separated from her tribe. Kerja glowered at him, looking at both her bodyguards. Eduardo stood up straighter, and it was that moment that Blu noticed a glint of metal under Kerja's deformed talon. All five of them recoiled as they identified the unnatural object.
"A pocketknife?" Blu asked, staring. I thought tribes never used human things - at least mine, the Reds and the Blue-and-Golds don't…
"You see, Eduardo's son-in-law, there's a reason my tribe has managed to capture so much land." Kerja said, in a calm voice. "It's not our sheer size or numbers. The Glaucous macaw tribe only had their beaks and talons. But us?" Kerja flicked the pocketknife through the air, catching it in her deformed claws, grinning. "We are smart enough to find other weapons." Blu stiffened, staring at the pocketknife blade, which glistened in the Brazilian sun. It was silver, but a little rusted with age. The wooden handle was notched, its black paint almost entirely chipped away. There was a series of nicks along the side of the handle; made on purpose, based by the equal spacing between each nick, and the same size of each one. Blu wondered if they represented something, but based on the dark, brown-red stain on the wooden handle, he had an idea - an idea he really didn't like.
"In other words, too afraid to use the skills you were born with." Sophia muttered, under her breath. Kerja's eyes flicked up, settling on Sophia.
"You, my dear, might want to watch your beak when you talk to someone like me." She said, in a dangerously quiet voice. Before any of them could reply, there was the sound of flapping wings. They turned their heads, to see a light blue form flying through the trees, her green eyes wide with fear. Carla's fluffy feathers were on end, and Blu was alarmed to see his eldest daughter's state. I thought she looked panicked enough when she accidently broke Fernando's laptop… what's happened this time?
"Dad! Mimi! Grandpa!" Carla was looking petrified. In her frenzied state, Carla didn't notice the three Hyacinths, who were exchanging odd looks. Kerja pushed the pocketknife blade forwards until it slid into its slot, and she put it down on the branch, talon over it.
"Maybe it's time for us to leave." She said, looking at her burly companions. Without another word, Kerja turned, and flew away, closely flanked by the two male Hyacinths. Good riddance, Mimi thought, briefly forgetting Carla, before she refocused on her grand-niece.
"Carla?" Blu asked, incredulously. "What on earth is wrong with you?"
"You've got to come, quick!" Carla gasped, fighting to breathe. "It's, it's -" Carla began stammering, too panicked to speak properly, until Eduardo finally spoke in a loud voice, silencing her.
"What?" demanded Eduardo. Carla looked up at her grandfather, eyes wide with terror.
"It's mom!" she cried. All five stared at the teenager, all thinking about what Roberto and Sophia had said earlier. Without speaking, Blu rushed off into the rainforest without looking back, headed for the ravine.
In case you're wondering what kind of a name 'Kerja' is, it means 'hunter', in Javanese. (It's not a spelling mistake - it's not Japanese - Javanese is from Java). Fairly intimidating, right? Keep the views going!