Bruno felt a pang of reluctance as he watched the sleeping form of Tobias and Isabella, who had no idea that their son was about to vanish. "Bye, mom, dad." He whispered, staring at them for the last time for a few weeks. He'd miss them terribly, and he knew that they'd be furious with him, for leaving without their permission - but this was important. Now that he had nothing to do but wait, Bruno perched in their meeting spot, a ledge in the clay licks. He watched the two trees - Roberto and Sophia's, Blu and Jewel's, where his friends were looking at their parents for the last time. While there was no sign of Bia, Carla and Tiago, he could see four blue forms flitting about Roberto and Sophia's tree. In the quietness of the ravine, and from his close position, he could hear their voices clearly.
"I'm telling you, Isaac - they're not here."
"Come on, Orchid - where else could they be? Keep searching."
"She's right, bro - mom and dad aren't in. Bromeliad, any sign?"
"No, Azure. I don't understand it - where are they?" Bruno frowned, hearing the four siblings' conversations. Roberto and Sophia weren't there? It was night; they had to be asleep, in their home. Bruno tried to think of where else they could be. They couldn't be outside the ravine at this time of night. A new thought then occurred to him. Unless... Bruno looked toward the second largest tree in the ravine, before taking flight, silently making his way toward his patriarch's home. Sure enough, his suspicions were confirmed as he reached it, hearing Roberto and Sophia's voices. Bruno, concealed by vines, peeked through a gap.
Roberto and Sophia's backs were to him, facing someone in the shadows. It had to be Eduardo, because a shaft of moonlight casted over the top of his military-style head feathers. Through the dark, Bruno couldn't see his face. Sitting to the side was Mimi, her blue eyes blank of emotion. She looked drained, grey circles prominent beneath her eyes. Bruno had never seen Mimi look that way - it was, quite literally, beyond belief. Of course, who could blame her? She was about to lose her beloved niece for a second time, and this time, it was permanent.
"We understand your reluctance, Eduardo, and we're sorry. But he has to know sooner or later. We can tell Bia, Carla and Tiago tomorrow - Blu has the right to know first." Roberto said, quietly.
"I… I know, it's hard… but it's unfair of us to keep lying to him, that Jewel'll get better, when she won't." Sophia's voice kept breaking off, and she kept drawing her wing across her face, probably to wipe away tears. "Maite and Miguel visited us today - they've asked Johanna to come over and take care of her, in the time she has. Do you want us to tell him for you? Or do you want to?" There was a long, tense moment of silence - before Bruno heard the dragging of feet across the floor, and the form of Eduardo moved, probably to stand up. Bruno knew exactly what Roberto and Sophia had been telling Eduardo - it was cruel to keep lying to Blu. The truth had to come out. They're going to tell Blu - we have to go, now. If they found Carla, Bia and Tiago in the tree too, they'd probably tell them while they were there.
Bruno turned, and flew back in direction of the way he came. "Guys!" he called, as he reached Roberto and Sophia's tree, as swiftly as he could. When he reached the tree, Bruno found the four looking around the nest - poking their heads into every room, scanning each branch, for any sign of their parents. "We're out of time. Time to go."
"What?" Isaac began to protest. "We haven't seen mom and dad yet -"
"They're on their way to tell Blu." Bruno interrupted, silencing him. "We've got to leave, now."
"Oh, shoot." Azure looked dismayed - he had wanted to have one last look at his mother and father before their departure. He looked around, hesitating, before sighing. "Okay, let's go, quickly, before they tell Blu. We're out of here."
"Where you going?" said a new voice, making them all jump. A young girl was standing in the entrance, her long, wavy head feathers white in the light of the moon. The owners of the feathers were unmistakable - Elsa was the only one with head feathers longer than Roberto, Azure, and Isaac's. It was extraordinary - Manuela's were very short, more like a mere stub than anything else, and Carlos's feathers weren't exactly that long. Juan and Augustus were similar, but Elsa's feathers almost went half-way down her back. For goodness sake, you nosy kid! Bromeliad couldn't help thinking. Elsa couldn't keep to her own business; it would surely get her into trouble some day.
"Elsa!" Orchid hissed, her wing over her heart, for the sight of Elsa had frightened her. "Go home, for goodness sake." She demanded. Elsa's ice-blue eyes flashed, indignantly.
"Why?" she challenged.
"We haven't got time, Elsa." Bruno insisted, looking at the others. "Go back before I tell Carlos and Manuela."
"Oh, please. Why does everyone cut me out of things?" Elsa complained, crossing her wings. "Everything's so secretive! Honestly, I don't cause trouble wherever I go - I'm not a flying disaster. I know where you're going, I've been watching you, all day." The five became silent, as they stared at the chick. Elsa had been spying on them?
"You're lying…" Bromeliad tried to say.
"No, I'm not." Elsa protested; and they all knew that she was telling the truth. "You went on that boat, for a 'compass' and a 'map', whatever those are. You've been hiding in the club all day, talking about how you're going to - Peru? Was it?"
"Don't ever eavesdrop on us, Elsa." Isaac snapped. "Elsa, we don't have time for this. Jewel's life depends on it."
"Go home and don't tell anyone. I'm assuming you know what's up with Jewel, because you can't keep your beak out of anyone's business." Orchid looked at Elsa, with hard eyes. Manners, little sister, Azure thought. Orchid needed to watch what she said sometimes.
"Look, we've got to go." Bromeliad urged, looking outside. There were four forms standing outside Eduardo's nest - they were on their way to tell Blu. "Elsa, just go home, please. We'll bring you back a Peruvian souvenir, if it'll make you go away."
"Don't be stupid." Elsa snorted. "I'm not that childish. Fine, I'll go. But keep in mind that your parents have no idea where you're going. To their knowledge, you have no idea about Jewel - they'll think something's happened to you. I'll tell them for you, if you like." Muttering, Elsa turned, before she vanished.
"Finally, that's sorted." Azure shook his plumage. "Come on, let's grab Bia, Carla, and Tiago and get out of here." But as Bromeliad followed her siblings and Bruno, it dawned upon her that Elsa had a point. Roberto and Sophia didn't know that they knew about Jewel, or the Estrella. If they vanished, they could assume that something had happened - the Hyacinths made the idea of that worse. If Elsa really did tell Roberto and Sophia, would they believe her? Elsa was only a few months old - the same age Bia, Carla and Tiago had been, when they first came to the Amazon. She was young, immature - what were the chances they'd believe Elsa's story? An idea entered Bromeliad's head.
Meanwhile, Bia, Carla, and Tiago were sitting there, staring through the climbing plant. Jewel was lying there, immobile other than her laboured breathing. Blu was staring at her, with fearful eyes, whispering to himself. Praying that she recover. He was praying to Tia - he didn't know much about his deceased mother-in-law, but she had been a good macaw. Surely, she'd be watching over Jewel, keeping her safe. While Blu prayed, the trio heard a squawk from outside - the signal. They were leaving now? They all looked at each other, stricken.
Tiago stared through the leaves for one final time, for many moments, as he stared at Jewel. Then he screwed his eyes closed, and turned, flying outside. Carla was holding back tears, cherishing what could be her final glance of Jewel alive, before she pressed her wing to her beak, closed her eyes, and extended her wing, blowing a kiss at her parents. "Bye." She whispered, before turning, and leaving the hollow, leaving Bia alone. Bia's heart almost broke as she looked at Jewel. Her final moments of seeing her mom - alive. Would they make it home in time? And, if they did, with a cure? Bia looked at Blu. Maybe this was the final time she'd see him sane. Losing Jewel would destroy him.
"I love you both, to the moon and back." Bia whispered. "Hang on. We'll see you in a few weeks." Before leaving, Bia ran up to her room, grabbing their bag of supplies; she'd added her drawing pad, a few pencils - she'd drawn accurate sketches of her family and friends, with the detail, tone, shading and everything, all in pencils. They could all look through it on the journey; see their family members, their friends back home. Bia seized a charcoal pencil, and then she tore off a small piece of paper, from the unmarked pages of one of her books. Scribbling a word onto it, Bia left it in her sleeping niche, where it would surely be found. Bia then whirled round, and ran out of her room. Before leaving, she had one final look into the room. Ripping her gaze away from Blu and Jewel, Bia followed her brother and sister up to the ledge, their agreed meeting place. While Bia left the tree, four forms arrived at it, a few seconds after she left. They hesitated briefly, before going inside.
"Blu." Said Mimi, in a soft voice. Blu looked up, drowsy. Jewel, still unconscious, didn't respond to her aunt's voice.
"What is it?" he said, looking at them all. They all looked terrified of something; Eduardo and Mimi looked years older than they were, Sophia was trying not to weep, and Roberto was looking away, crest feathers cloaked over his eyes, hiding his face from view. Something was clearly wrong. "Guys." Blu said, standing up. "What's going on?" he asked, warily. Roberto walked up to his friend, putting a wing around him, and leading him outside, away from his sick mate.
"You might want to sit down."Roberto suggested, in a mournful voice that shocked Blu. "It's about Ju-Ju."
Meanwhile, Bia was the last one to arrive, the small bag in her talons. Her friends greeted her in a friendly manner, but they all looked nervous. It was the commencing of a long, hazardous journey - Bia couldn't blame the nerves dancing in their eyes. "Okay," she said. "I've plotted where we need to go - west." She pulled out the atlas pages and the compass from the bag, showing them all their current location. She'd gone onto the computers at the Spix's Wing, when the employees hadn't been there - she'd discovered the ravine's location, and drawn it onto their map. She placed her talon on the small 'X' she had drawn. "From here, we fly -"
"Wait," Bromeliad interrupted. She looked at them all, with nervous, ocean-blue eyes. "Can I just say something, before you all go?"
"Of course." Bia nodded, but then she was confused. "What do you mean, you? Don't you mean we?" Bia, along with everyone else, turned to look at Bromeliad. "You…" Bia frowned. "You're not coming?"
"No way!" Orchid protested, staring at her older sister. "You have to come, Li! I mean - why not?" Bromeliad put out a wing, touching her on the shoulder.
"Orchid, Elsa had a point." She pointed out.
"Elsa?" Tiago repeated, and the others, beside himself and his two sisters, nodded.
"She's been spying on us." Bruno admitted. "She knows everything." The trio stared at the other five, bewildered.
"Why, that sneaky, meddlesome chick." Carla muttered. Bruno rolled his eyes, clearly still annoyed with how Carla thought of Augustus and his relatives. Deal with it - you should learn to forgive. Elsa's annoying, true, but she's not a villain. Stop acting like that family is bad news. Just because Gus once made a mistake doesn't mean he's automatically cursed.
"She said that no-one will know where we've gone - to their knowledge, we don't know anything about the Estrella. They had no idea Bia eavesdropped on them." Bromeliad explained. "They'll think something's happened to us all. She offered to tell them, but… who would believe her? She's only a kid, after all."
"I see what you're getting at." Azure said, turning to Bromeliad. "Someone has to stay behind to tell them the truth, where we're going." Silence. "So… it's gonna be you?"
"Yeah." Bromeliad nodded. "I'm not scared, don't think that - I mean, I want to go, I want to help. But someone has to let them know."
"But you can't stay by yourself!" Orchid argued. "You'll be so lonely… I mean, there are Gus, Andrea and Kai, a few of our friends from Felipe and Johanna's tribes, but - it won't be the same without us. Maybe one of us should stay behind, as well." Initially, nobody volunteered. They all wanted to go on the trip - they all wanted to help Jewel. But then Isaac rose to his feet.
"It should be me." He said. Before anyone could protest, Isaac went on. "Come on - I'll miss Bromeliad. And your trip'll be faster, with two less macaws to slow you all down. Trust me - go to Peru without us." There was a long silence. The remaining six looked at one another.
"Are you positive you don't mind?" Bia asked, looking at Isaac and Bromeliad.
"Of course we don't." Isaac assured her. "We'll be fine here - we'll make sure that they'll be okay while you're gone." But as Isaac said these reassuring things, there was a piercing, anguished shriek - a shriek of agony. Not one of physical pain - but it was from the heart. A shriek even the sharpest jaguar tooth couldn't cause. Voices erupted from trees as tribe members were jolted awake from their slumber, and blue heads poked out of hollows. All eyes were on Blu and Jewel's tree, where Eduardo, Mimi, Roberto and Sophia had gone into minutes before. The shriek had been male. The eight were quiet, and Bia, Carla, and Tiago were especially silent. For a moment, no-one moved. Then Bromeliad and Isaac turned to them.
"You should go." Isaac said, slowly. The six macaws looked at one another, before each of them quickly hugged Isaac and Bromeliad, whom they were leaving behind. Azure and Orchid took several moments longer than the other three to leave their sibling embrace. They had never spent so much time apart from each other - now, the four would be temporarily split in half.
"You look after yourselves." Azure said, looking at his older brother and sister. "And… watch out for Hyacinths. I have a bad feeling that something's going to happen - I wouldn't trust Kerja at all." Everyone shifted, nervous at the mention of the Hyacinth's matriarch and sole leader. Most leaders had a mate, but Kerja didn't. It was rumoured she had a son, or a daughter, but it was never truly confirmed.
"We'll be careful." Isaac nodded. "Look after Orchid." Hearing this, Orchid glared at Isaac.
"Hey, I'm not a baby!" protested Orchid, crossly.
"We know." Bromeliad replied. "But you're still the youngest of all of us. You'll always be our little sister." Orchid grumbled in embarrassment, squirming as Bromeliad gave her a hug. Bia was last to say goodbye to the two. She hugged Isaac, first, then Bromeliad.
"Thank you." Bia said, looking at them both. "Look after Blu and Jewel, okay? Make sure that mom holds on."
"We will, my friend." Bromeliad promised. She pulled out of the embrace, and put her wings on Bia's shoulders. "Go. Bring back the cure, and save them both. We know you can do it." Bia, encouraged by Bromeliad's words, nodded, giving her a half-smile.
"Good luck, all of you - and be careful." Isaac advised, looking a little anxious. Bia, Azure, Orchid, Tiago, Carla and Bruno looked at them one final time, still reluctant to leave them - before they turned, and flew out of the ravine. Bromeliad and Isaac were left, alone, on the ledge, listening to Blu's tortured cries.