Isaac and Bromeliad sat together in Tobias and Isabella's hollow; it seemed so empty, without Bruno. Bruno's nest, which was outside the hollow in some branches, had not been slept in for some time. The pair missed their friend, as well as the others. Carla, Tiago, Bia, and of course their brother and sister. Now, with Azure, Orchid and both parents gone, they felt more on edge and lonely than ever.
Roberto and the patrol had been gone for hours - they had left at sunset, but now it was past midnight. Tobias and Isabella had tried to convince them to sleep, as it would make them feel better, but they couldn't sleep. It was impossible. They weren't the only ones in the ravine struggling to drift off - Felipe and Azalea kept flying to and from the lookout at the ravine entrance to ask for signs, and many of their parents' friends were visible in their hollows, moving around, restless. Eduardo too was still outside his tree, watching the entrance. If it was true what Mina had said, that Sophia was being kept for infomation, Eduardo had to know what she had told them. The lives of everybody in the ravine could depend on it.
All kinds of thoughts were running through Isaac and Bromeliad's heads. They both had the image of their father returning in a state, without Sophia, to tell them that she was dead. Or worse, neither of them returned. They imagined the patrol returning without them, dragging Mina, claiming that she had betrayed them. All kinds of terrible possibilities, all making their hearts beat frantically fast. "Bromeliad..." Isaac said, quietly, so not to awaken Tobias and Isabella. "What if... what if they don't make it back? What will... what will we say to Azure and Orchid?"
As if time had waited for Isaac to ask, and wanted to put his mind to rest, there was a squawk from the entrance. Isaac and Bromeliad immediately sprang to their feet, feathers on end. Tobias and Isabella, who had been asleep a few feet away, jolted awake upon hearing the signal. The lookout had spotted the returning patrol. Bromeliad and Isaac barged out of the hollow, fighting to get out first. As they emerged, they witnessed what could have been the loudest possible cheering in the history of the ravine. It was ear-splitting, as was the immense applause. Macaws from the trees were pouring out like floodwater, screening the patrol from view of the two.
By the time Bromeliad and Isaac had shoved through the sea of flying macaws, they caught a glimpse of their parents on the ground, disappearing into their tree, while the rest of the patrol members received a hero's welcome. High-wings, claps on the shoulders, and other congratulating actions were had, but none of the patrol looked entirely proud or happy. They all wore exhausted and sombre looks. Bromeliad and Isaac then realized that they couldn't see Mina; but that would have to wait. They had to see their parents.
Bromeliad landed on the ground, running up to her home, her heart in her throat, while Isaac was likewise, a few feet behind. Bromeliad reached the entrance first, leaning on the wall, trying to catch her breath. Felipe was talking to her father in a concerned, hushed voice, and she was relieved to see that Robert looked relatively unharmed, except for a cut on his shoulder. Meanwhile, Sophia and Azalea were in the middle of a hug. Bromeliad stared in bewilderment, wondering if this was all real.
"Mom!" Bromeliad exclaimed. Sophia jumped, before whirling round. Bromeliad found her eyes flooding with tears.
"Bromeliad!" Sophia cried, and Bromeliad ran to her, into her wings. Bromeliad was shocked by her mother's appearance - even her hug didn't feel the same. Her right wing was missing half it's feathers, and her wings were placed lightly - as of it was painful for Sophia to hold her too tightly. But Bromeliad still felt as loved and safe as any other hug she had shared with her mother. Then there was the scuffling of frantic talons behind them, and then Isaac launched himself forward, desperate to reunite with his mother. Sophia released Bromeliad, before running up to Isaac, hugging him.
"Mom, are you, are you -" Isaac was stammering, unable to form proper words through his sobs. "Okay?" Sophia didn't reply, but her embrace was relieved and filled with love. Bromeliad, seeing that her mother and brother were in their embrace, then wrapped her wings around her father, who returned it. Bromeliad didn't care that she got smeared in dark blue paint - all that mattered was that her parents were both here, safe and alive.
"Dad, are you both okay? What happened in there? What happened -" Bromeliad had a million questions, but Roberto didn't answer. He looked too exhausted to reply, and he looked as though he were about to fall asleep on the spot. His Hyacinth disguise had run, the yellow staining his face like yellow tears. The dark blue had faded, revealing the lighter feathers beneath. Roberto then let her go, before turning around and practically falling into the pool of water in their hollow. At first, everyone was alarmed, but then he began to move, rubbing the paint from his feathers, staining the water a dark blue-green as the colours mixed. He then stepped out, soaked, his crest feathers like a sodden mop. He looked relieved to get rid of it; he pushed the wet feathers from his eyes, slumping down to a sitting position.
"Are you alright, mate?" Asked Felipe, in concern. Roberto looked up with fatigue and weariness.
"I'm fine... Sophia isn't." Roberto shook his head, and then flew for the tree entrance. "I'm getting Johanna -"
"No, don't... don't waste your time." Sophia began to insist, before her legs shook, and suddenly, she sank to the floor. Roberto leapt to his feet, and was at her side like lightning. "No, don't -" Sophia began. "Just..." she closed her eyes, voice dying away. She wasn't alright. Whatever the Hyacinths had done, it had been terrible.
"You need help." Azalea said, firmly. "If Johanna is preoccupied with Jewel, we'll get our own healer."
"Miguel?" Felipe asked. "You can't. He's... not in the best place right now, after what happened to Maite -"
"What about the Spix's wing?" Isaac interrupted, going to Sophia's side. "I mean... it's safe, even if she'll be away from us."
"Before she goes anywhere, we have to know what happened." Said a voice. Eduardo, in the hollow entrance, was standing there with a sombre expression. Mimi then ran into the tree, heading straight for Sophia.
"Oh, my dear - I'm so sorry!" Mimi exclaimed, looking appalled at the state of Sophia. Sophia only sighed, before falling to a sitting position. The family sat down - Roberto cloaked a wing around her, while Isaac held his mother's wings, Bromeliad at his side. Felipe and Azalea sat themselves down a few feet away, close to Eduardo and Mimi. This was a serious matter.
"I'm sorry for what's happened. But you have to tell us everything that they did. Bromeliad can't remember much, but Mina saved her life..." Eduardo's voice faded. "Where is she?" Sophia, not knowing or remembering Mina, looked at Roberto in puzzlement. He hung his head.
"She's dead, Eduardo." He said, flatly. His reaction was horrified silence. "She was there when I found you, Sophia... She was the small Hyacinth. Kerja's daughter, the one who saved Blu. She was helping us the entire time - it's because of her that we got in there in the first place, and now she's gone." He looked at his two mortified kids, and the others. Bromeliad especially was stunned - the macaw who had saved her life. Mina had been the only kindly Hyacinth she - and perhaps the entire tribe - had ever known. The news that she was dead was unbelievable. "She sacrificed herself. We were forced to flee down an unstable tunnel, barely supported by flimsy poles. She broke one, so that our pursuers couldn't reach us. There's no way she survived that."
"I don't believe it." Azalea said, in disbelief. "The kindest of macaws... they're always the ones... the ones who suffer most."
"Since there is no body... we must plant a remembrance flower." Mimi said, quietly. When there was no body to bury, a flower was planted instead. This was a rare thing - it had been the same thing used when Jewel was presumed dead as a child, most often used when the soul was stolen by a human or predatory animal. There were a couple of moments of silence. Feeling that it was appropriate to continue, Sophia prepared herself to tell Eduardo.
"After I was captured, I was taken into their cave, down their tunnels. I awoke in the darkness. Kerja was there the first time, the only time. They asked me about the ravine. It's layout. It's tribe members. I refused for the first three days... no matter what they did." Sophia looked as though she were about the cry. "Every day... they... they..." she couldn't say the dreaded words. She broke down, hugging her knees, head buried in her wings.
"No way." Felipe's wing clasped over his beak. "They couldn't have..." No one else said a word, so Sophia went on, not wanting to see their horrified faces. She looked up from her wings, not looking at any of them. She let her wings drop, so they could see the full extent of the damage. In the dark of the cave, it had looked bad, but now, in the light, it looked terrible. Her left eye was black, and more bruises and blood were clear to see. More feathers had clearly been ripped out.
"This..." Sophia pointed to her black, swollen left eye. "...I got yesterday. These other bruises..." She looked down her front. "They were done over the whole time. I got more in different places each day. They even plucked half my right wing feathers. And you see these black ones? They burnt them."
"Burnt them?" Azalea repeated, in a strangled voice.
"They would come by every day. They never gave me food, or water. They were attacking me..." Sophia rose, walking toward the pool of water, staring at her bedraggled reflection. "...until I passed out. The only way to get them to stop was to tell them something they wanted to know. I had to say something, otherwise they would've killed me." Sophia then turned, pushing back her neck feathers - the skin underneath was black. "This was the worst thing. They strangled me every day, repeatedly. They would wait until I was about to pass out before stopping, but when I recovered, they would do it again." As she said this, they realized how strained her voice sounded. She found it painful to speak. Sophia then began crying again, and Roberto ran to her, giving her a hug.
"They will never hurt you again." Roberto promised, a few tears beginning to stream. Sophia pressed herself against him, wings wrapped tightly. "Never. Over my dead body." Eduardo hadn't uttered a sound, but by the look on his face, Sophia knew he was asking the silent question. They had to know what she had told them.
"I'm sorry, Eduardo." She said, shaking her head. Roberto let her go, reaching up to hold her face.
"What... What did you tell them?" He asked, quietly.
"Everything." Sophia choked. "I told them how many there as of us. Which tree is who's. And... and... they asked about your family, Eduardo, Mimi. They made me tell them where Bia, Carla and Tiago went. They asked me about Blu and..." Sophia's voice faded. "I'm so sorry."
"What did you say?" Mimi asked, the colour drained from her face. They knew what Sophia was about to say before she even said it.
"I told them about Jewel." Sophia admitted, her face full of guilt and shame. "I'm sorry... I had no choice." Eduardo had rarely been one to share sympathy - and now, any sympathy he had was thrown out of the hollow. He sprang to his feet, breathing heavily, not thinking as he spoke.
"Do you even know what you've done?!" Eduardo demanded, furiously. His eyes blazed with pale green flame, and menace. He had forgotten what Sophia had been through. "They could stop the kids getting back! And if they don't come back in time, Jewel could die - because of you!"
"Eduardo!" Mimi gasped, horrified. "Don't say that!" Eduardo ignored her, glaring at Sophia, who shrunk in fear. Her eyes would have been filled with anger before, but now it was pure terror. Eduardo now bore a striking resemblance to the Hyacinths who had tortured her. Roberto leapt between them, crest feathers on end, letting out an infuriated squawk. For the first time, he was glaring at Eduardo, enraged. The crowd outside were eerily silent.
"Don't you dare blame Sophia!" He snapped, enraged. Eduardo glared back, and for a moment, it looked as though they were about to attack one another. Isaac, however, intervened, standing between his leader and his father.
"Stop fighting! Eduardo, this isn't my mother's fault!" Isaac declared, boldly, ignoring the look of surprise on his leader's face. He extended a wing toward Sophia. "Look at her! Do you think she would've told them unless she was desperate? She loves Jewel as much as we all do, but her situation... look, just don't take it out on her." Isaac had stunned them all - he had rendered Eduardo speechless. Eduardo looked at Roberto, and then Sophia. For a few moments, he hesitated, before he finally spoke.
"Forgive me." He said, before whirling around, and flying from the hollow. Mimi, shooting apologetic looks at them, tore after him. Sophia slumped to the ground, feeling worse than how she had in the caves. What she had done was unforgivable - what if the Hyacinths really did try and stop the kids coming back, from saving Jewel?
"What have I done?" She murmured to herself.
Meanwhile
Kerja stared at the wall of soil, frozen. Four of her fellow Hyacinths lay around her, gagging and spitting out beakfuls of dust and earth, their feathers caked in brown mud and dirt. There had been five initially, but one, a young male, had not returned. He had been so close - in fact, Kerja could see a wingtip poking from the soil, a few feet away from her. And she knew that Mina was gone. She hadn't moved as the soil and rocks had came crashing down, her wings firmly around the remainder of the pole. Kerja's emotions were frozen. She didn't know what to feel.
On her left, Beryl staggered to her feet, her final coughing fading. She turned to stand by Kerja - instead of offering words of comfort for the loss of her daughter, Beryl began laughing, mockingly. "The traitor is dead!" She cackled, voice filled with triumph. Slowly, Kerja turned, stunned, but Beryl didn't see the sign. "She deserved it - that little, two-faced-" but Beryl didn't expect what happened next. Kerja snatched her father's knife from where it lay on the ground, before seizing Beryl. Then she plunged it into Beryl's stomach, until the handle stopped it piercing any further. Beryl didn't scream, but she went rigid, gasping, staring into Kerja's eyes. "K-Kerja..." she rasped, and the macaws behind Kerja were staring with a mixture of shock and horror. Beryl looked shell-shocked, but now, she couldn't speak. Instead, she slithered to the floor, shaking, as Kerja tore the knife free. Blood turned the stone crimson.
"Kerja!" A voice interrupted. A male Hyacinth staggered from the weapons room, vines hanging from his wings - he had been the guard in there, but he must've been subdued, based on the scratches and vines on his body. He looked frantic. "I tried to - there were too many! They got rid of all the weapons!" He froze when he saw Beryl lying on the ground, then he saw the blood on Kerja's knife. At the same time, the female who had been guarding Sophia stumbled from the far left tunnel, struggling to untie the orange rope binding her beak. Kerja didn't acknowledge Beryl, who was now in some kind of spasm.
"You... idiots!" She roared, her voice heard from the main cave, as it went silent, the tribe members in there listening. She leapt forward, brandishing her knife, making them cower in terror. "Get to the main cave, now! Training, double time!"
"But Kerja!" Protested the female, throwing the remaining orange rope away, looking alarmed. "We don't have enough weapons! We must wait for another ship to pass so we can replace the lost ones. Hardly anyone here has fought without them, how will we -"
"Do I look like I care?" Screeched Kerja, reaching up and slapping the young macaw. She gasped, holding her face, stumbling back. "We aren't delaying! Get out of my sight, and start training them all! Get the younger ones, older ones! If the older ones are too weak, that's tough!" Frantically, the remaining macaws scrambled to get out of the tunnels, not wanting to share the same fate as Beryl, who was still dying on the floor. Finally, Kerja was alone, while Beryl's writhing was weakening. She gave Beryl an eerie grin - it didn't look real. It was filled with genuine insanity.
"You're crazy..." Beryl spluttered, before she began coughing and choking on her own blood. Kerja didn't say a word in reply - she then turned, and stalked from the room, leaving her former friend to bleed to death.