Roberto and Sophia hid in some leaves, watching the scene with utter dismay. They had been flying into their neighbours' territory for only a couple of minutes when they had overheard an argument, between Felipe and none other than the Hyacinth macaw leader - Kerja. Felipe was standing there, both his wings spread out to hide the two chicks from sight. The older looking chick had vivid green eyes, rather like Felipe, and she sported a similar-looking feather ruffle on the back of her head. The younger-looking one had dark brown eyes, with a collection of short, tousled-looking feathers; she reminded Roberto of someone that he used to know, when he was just over a year old, around the time that Jewel had gone missing from the tribe. Adelaide. That's who she looks like.
"I'm telling you now, Kerja!" Felipe snarled. "If you lay a claw on either of my daughters again, I'll kill you."
"If you taught your children about boundaries or respect, we wouldn't be having this conversation." Retorted the Hyacinth macaw, a downy red feather trapped under one of the gnarled talons of her deformed foot. Roberto and Sophia had seen that foot a few times, but it was still rather creepy to look at. Just looking at it sent shivers down their spines. Kerja was glowering at the two chicks, her grey eyes slits. The older one was doing her best to stay out of sight, while the younger one's head was held high, her eyes full of fearlessness as she looked at the enormous Hyacinth.
"Normal macaws call it an accident." Felipe retorted, the dislike in his glare matching Kerja's. "Now, I'm warning you, if you so much look at either of them again - I will tear your eyes out, and then I will shove them down your throat."
"Oh dear. Threats. How frightening." Kerja's grating voice was heavy with sarcasm, and her eyes glittered with malice from where she stood. Behind her, four Hyacinths began laughing. "Teach your daughters to respect their neighbours. They disrespect us by coming where they're not wanted."
"It was a mistake." Said the younger-looking one, boldly, in a confident voice. "You shouldn't overreact to things! We're allowed in everyone else's territories, so you have no right to try and shut us out of yours!" Roberto and Sophia couldn't help but admire her spirit. Despite the spark of outrage on Kerja's face, she didn't look afraid at all. This chick must've only been a few weeks old, and Kerja was either in her late twenties or early thirties.
"Brave kid!" whispered Sophia.
"Listen to me, you little brat." Kerja snarled. "Keep your mouth shut, and don't act so precocious. That's the issue with kids these days, they think they're so grown-up, but at the end of the day, they're just spoilt hell-raisers. I'm glad I don't have any." Behind Kerja, one particularly small Hyacinth's eyes flashed with hurt. Roberto and Sophia looked at each other again - this one, as tiny as she was, bore a resemblance to Kerja. ''That could be her daughter... maybe she's just trying to look fierce.''
"I'm glad you don't have any. I'd feel sorry for your kids. Who'd want you for a mom?" asked the brown-eyed chick, ignoring Kerja's scathing comment.
"That's enough." Felipe said, looking down at her, warningly. "Adelaide, Leticia, don't ever go over there again, alright?"
"Yes, daddy." Muttered the two, glumly. Nodding, Felipe looked back, raising a wingtip to point at Kerja.
"Don't ever touch either of my daughters again." He snapped. "Just because they cross by accident, doesn't mean that you have to any right to attack them. Get out of here, and don't show up at my borders again. Come on, kids." At the last words, the two chicks clambered into his back. They looked too young to fly - maybe he'd brought them out because they were so desperate to see the outside world. Felipe then glared at the Hyacinths one final time, before turning and flying through the trees.
"Let's go." Whispered Sophia, and they proceeded to follow Felipe, Adelaide, and Leticia. However, before they did, Roberto told Sophia to wait. He pointed down at the five Hyacinths. Kerja had stretched out her wing, indicating that her four accomplices follow her; instead of turning back into their side, the five Hyacinths flew deeper into the Red's territory. The smallest one kept looking over her shoulder, with fearful eyes, and Sophia couldn't help but wonder - was this one different? She'd never seen that look on a Hyacinth before, because this one looked both reluctant and frightened.
"This isn't good." Hissed Roberto. "They lurk around our borders, trespass, and they're doing the same to the Red tribe? After a few years, they pop up out of the blue? Something's going on."
"Come on, Robbie. I know, it's infuriating, but Jewel's health is more important." Sophia pointed out, and Roberto nodded in agreement, but he still looked suspicious, watching the five Hyacinths vanishing into the Red's territory.
"Let's go find Felipe." He muttered, before leading the way, toward the Kapoks that accommodated the Red tribe. Roberto and Sophia hadn't actually been into the Red tribe's home before - they usually met Felipe and his mate, Azalea, at the border. By now, Roberto and Sophia were within a minute of entering the Kapoks. Red flashes in the trees indicated the presence of Scarlet and Green-Winged macaws, and they felt themselves being watched.
"Who's that?" hissed a voice, making them jump. They whirled round, and came face-to-face with two macaws, who had large rocks clutched within their talons. The male was a Green-Winged, and the female looked like a mixture of Green-winged and Scarlet, based on her wing colours. Ricardo and Lena, thought the two Spix's macaws. Ricardo was in the Red's Pit of Doom team, and Lena was his mate.
"Whoa, whoa!" they raised their wings, upon noticing the large rocks. "Easy! It's us." Ricardo and Lena looking them over, once, before dropping the rocks with relief.
"Roberto, Sophia." Lena said, sounding relieved. "Sorry about our… aggressive welcome. We thought you were… someone else. You did look a bit too small and too light a blue to be Hyacinths."
"Hyacinths?" Sophia asked, and Ricardo and Lena nodded grimly. "They're causing trouble for you, as well? I mean, we did just see Felipe arguing with Kerja, but… we thought that was a one-off."
"No." Ricardo replied. "They're lurking about the border constantly, and we have to keep checking our border markers, to ensure that they haven't been moved. But they'v constantly trespassing, every day, uncomfortably close to here." Roberto and Sophia exchanged worried looks. They're causing trouble here, too? "Anyway, what do you want?"
"We need to see Felipe, Azalea, Maite, and Miguel." Roberto said. "Please, it's important - as soon as possible. We're here on two matters." They had to tell Felipe and Azalea that the Hyacinths were still somewhere in the area, as well as Jewel's illness.
"Well, Maite and Miguel are out, replenishing their medical herbs." Lena informed them. "They'll be back soon; for the time being, we'll take you to see Felipe and Azalea. Have you seen Adele and Leti? Aren't they adorable?"
"I thought they were called Adelaide and Leticia." Sophia looked briefly confused, before she realized. "Oh! Adelaide - Adele, Leticia - Leti. That's cute. We did see them, briefly, and I remember Felipe and Azalea telling us that they had two eggs in the nest, a few weeks back." They faded into a comfortable silence, until Lena and Ricardo stopped in the largest Kapok tree. These trees were so large, that they had many separate hollows, perfect for multiple families to live in one tree. Inside, they could hear Azalea fretting over Leti and Adele.
"You could have been killed, girls! Why did you go over there?"
"It wasn't my fault, mommy! It's was Adele's idea!"
"Don't blame me, Leti! Blame the one with the weird-looking foot! We can go anywhere else, so why not there?"
"Adele's got quite some spirit." Lena commented. "She looks so much like the macaw she's named after… it's funny, Azalea and Adelaide were cousins, but Adele looks so much like Adelaide. You'd think that Adelaide had been her aunt, rather than her first-cousin-once-removed. Leti's a bit more bashful and shy, but she's the perfect mixture of her mom and dad. Her father's eyes and head feathers, her mother's looks… Anyway, do go inside. We'll go find Maite and Miguel, and bring them back, if it's urgent."
"Thank you." Sophia and Roberto nodded gratefully at Lena and Ricardo, before entering the hollow. "Hello?" The hollow was littered with downy red feathers and bits of moss, probably from Leti and Adele's antics. Sophia and Roberto's own four had turned their once-tidy nest into a tip, when they were little, even more so than Felipe and Azalea's two had done. Azalea looked up, from where she was scolding Leti and Adele, and a tired smile came to her face.
"Hey, you guys - everything alright?" Azalea went straight up to Sophia, and the two macaws shared a hug. The two scoremarkers had once despised each other, but the old rivalry had faded away.
"Roberto, Sophia? Is that you?" Felipe emerged from a room, still looking stressed from what happened earlier, with Kerja. He nodded at Sophia, before clapping Roberto's wing. "Great to see you. Allow me to introduce our two girls - Adelaide and Leticia, or Adele and Leti for short. Girls, this is Roberto and Sophia - Spix's macaws, and good friends of ours." Roberto and Sophia looked down, where the two chicks were standing beside Azalea.
Leti was a little taller than her younger sister, but like Lena had said, she looked like the perfect combination of Felipe and Azalea. Her eyes were literally a mixture - they looked like Felipe's green, at first, but then Roberto and Sophia noticed some hazel around the pupil, like Azalea's.
Adele was shorter; and, like they had acknowledged before, she shared an uncanny resemblance to Adelaide. It was widely believed in the Red tribe that Adelaide had suffered from some kind of mental disability: her mood snapped to another in a heartbeat, and when she got frightened - she got scared unusually easily - Adelaide would either run away in tears or her temper would explode. But this was clearly not the case with little Adele, and they were glad for it. Felipe, Azalea, Roberto, and Sophia rarely spoke about Adelaide. The two Spix's macaws hadn't interacted with her much, but Adelaide's death had been a tragedy.
"Nice to meet you!" Adele said, enthusiastically.
"Hello!" squeaked Leti, the white skin on her face flushing pink.
"She's shy." Azalea smiled, and the shade of Leti's skin went even pinker.
"Aw, mommy." Leti hid behind Azalea's wing, and both Roberto and Sophia chuckled.
"You're both little cuties." Sophia crooned, and the two Spix's spirits were briefly uplifted, seeing the two chicks.
"So, what do you want?" asked Felipe, putting his wing around Azalea, while Leti and Adele settled down between their parents.
"Firstly, we saw what happened earlier." Roberto said. Felipe looked rather embarrassed, but Roberto spoke before Felipe could. "After you left, Kerja and the Hyacinths didn't go back into their side…. They went into your territory, deliberately."
"They what?" Felipe's eyes sparked with rage. "How dare they! They're twisted, I'll see to that!" before anyone could stop him, Felipe had stormed outside. "I need a patrol of ten birds! There's five Hyacinths in our territory!" gasps sounded from the Kapoks, and, soon, about a dozen macaws were flying toward Felipe. "A dozen will do." Felipe said, sounding satisfied. "Go, and get them out. You'll outnumber them, so that should drive them away without any need for combat." the mixture of Green-Winged and Scarlets nodded, turned, and flew toward the Kapok exit. Within a few moments, Felipe re-entered the hollow, looking furious. Azalea frowned, while Adele and Leti blinked their eyes.
"Calm down, sweetie." Azalea said in a soothing tone.
"Sorry." Muttered Felipe. "I just hate it. I'm not setting up a Pit of Doom match, I'm just going to leave it. Besides, I hate to admit it, but they always crush us in those games - they're almost twice the size of the average Scarlet or Green-Winged." There was a long silence, before Sophia felt that it was appropriate to get onto their next order of business.
"That's not the main reason for us being here, though." She said. "There's something more serious."
"We think we're in the middle of a crisis." Said Roberto darkly. "Felipe, Azalea – do you remember the two macaws that came with us, when we met up a few weeks ago? Blu and Jewel; it's Jewel we need to talk to you about."
"There is a serious problem." Murmured Sophia. "She's sick. Really… sick. I don't think that Leti and Adele should hear this."
"Alright." Felipe sounded concerned, distracted from the news of Hyacinths in his territory. "Leti, Adele - why don't you go into your room? There are your multi-coloured pebbles in there, for you to play with."
"Okay!" Leti exclaimed, before scampering off, followed by her little sister. Assuming that the two chicks couldn't hear their conversation, Roberto and Sophia began telling Felipe and Azalea about the sick Orange-Winged Amazon, and the incident between him, Bromeliad, Sophia, and Jewel, where they suspected that Jewel had caught it. They told them about Jewel's strange behaviour and symptoms, how Jewel had collapsed and fallen into unconsciousness - they also told them about the black wound. By the end of it, the two macaws looked alarmed and disturbed.
"My goodness." Whispered Azalea, her feathers rising. "That's why you want to see Maite and Miguel."
"Yes." Roberto nodded quickly. "We need the cure to her disease, and our healers are useless."
"Felipe, Azalea." Said a voice, making them jump. Ricardo and Lena stood in the entrance, accompanied by Maite. "Miguel's just sorting out the herb store, but Maite's available."
"Thank you - you'd better come in, Maite." Azalea said, indicating them to sit down. "Roberto and Sophia have a sick friend…" Azalea nodded at them, indicating that they explain. Roberto and Sophia retold the story to Maite; but when they listed the symptoms, Maite's face filled with dread.
"The Morte Incomum?" Maite asked in a high-pitched voice. "Why, that… there's only been half a dozen cases in recent centuries…"
"Just tell us now." Roberto pleaded, staring at Maite. "What is the cure? Do you have it?" Maite didn't reply for several moments. But by the glazed look in the Green-Winged macaw's eyes, they all knew what she was going to say before she even said it.
"There is no cure." Maite admitted, her voice barely audible. It took a few moments for these words to register in Roberto and Sophia's brains, a few moments for them to really sink in. Finally, Sophia found words.
"…What?" Sophia had to grab her mate for support. "No… you must be mistakened. She's got a mate, three kids… do you even know what she went through, when we were all young?" Sophia shivered, and she had to fight the tears springing to her eyes. "She lost her family. Her tribe, her home… for nineteen years. When she came home last year, she told me how many times she's cheated death in her can't tell us now that there isn't a cure for this." Sophia looked at her mate to see his reaction. Roberto had sunk to the floor, his face buried into his wings, and he wasn't making a sound. Sophia knew what he was thinking. Jewel had been his best friend, when they were younger. He had danced in the 'Beautiful Creatures' that had celebrated Jewel's hatching, and he had taught Jewel how to fly. Losing Jewel? Unthinkable.
"Hey, daddy, mommy!" Leti, all bashfulness gone, ran into the hollow, followed by Adele. They had been eavesdropping, and they had an idea. The two began bouncing up and down, barely able to contain their excitement. "What was that story you told us, the other day? About that thing! Wouldn't that cure her?" Roberto and Sophia quickly looked up, as the words reached their ears.
"Leticia, don't be silly." Felipe scolded. "No one believes in such stories..."
"You don't." Maite pointed out. "I do, however - some myths aren't necessarily untrue." Maite looked away, a distant look entering her blue eyes.
"Myth?" Sophia asked, feeling a little bit of hope igniting. "I believe in some myths. Why… what is this, myth?"
"It's a story known by our tribe and the Blue-and-Golds." Azalea began to explain. "It's ancient. Some think it's not real, but… some of us believe it's true, myself included. Alright. I'll tell you the story."