Chapter 20- a horrific report

Back at the border to Rudi's clan's territory, a group of macaws and several non-macaw animals sat or hung in some branches, waiting for the return of Ruby, Samara, Antares and Jewel from their confrontation with Rudi and Tremaine regarding their kids' escalating and increasingly out-of-control behaviour, especially if it was going to cross certain lines such as what Katrina had almost done to Bia and Millie, Tillie and their gang to Trixie. Among them were Blu, Eduardo, Mimi, Roberto, Zephyr, Orion, Sirius, Bellatrix, Felipe, Ferdinand and Augustus. The group waited anxiously for the quartet.

"I hope Jewel and the other three are okay," said Blu worriedly, "Rudi can be VERY nasty according to Antares, especially to those of us that have had or still have human companions such as me, Aurora, Bellatrix, Sirius and Ahsoka even though we're not under their ownership anymore."

"I fear in particular for Quaoar who wants to visit here when he is old enough," said Sirius.

"Quaoar?" asked Augustus who hung upside down with some of his inner circle flying foxes including Archie from a higher branch nearby in confusion.

"He's the only son of Lear's macaws Luke and Hauyne back in Rio," explained Zephyr, "His father was a pet of a human from a place called Australia and his mother was a macaw rescued from smugglers. They used to live in Peru but they now live in Rio for better protection against poachers."

"I always thought you Spix and glaucous macaws are most targeted by those pesky poachers because you're FAR rarer than the Lear's macaw species," said Felipe with a slight frown.

"Lear's macaws are targeted quite a lot by poachers too," said Orion nearby Augustus, also hanging upside down. Then Augustus formed a smile.

"Well, Quaoar and his parents are always welcome to move in with our clan of Lear's macaws if they decide to live in the Amazon," said the one-eyed patriarch of the flying fox clan and overall mixed-species tribe leader.

"His father Luke cannot fly, Dad," said Orion, "He lost a wing due to an incredibly SAVAGE confrontation with that cockatoo during his rescue of Hauyne, and the cockatoo had done so much damage to his left wing that it had to be removed, resulting in him becoming permanently grounded."

"Cockatoo?" asked Roberto, his wing brushing some of his feathers when they slid over his face, "Was that the bird that confronted Blu there in those vines after he managed to haul those explosive into the air so that they could detonate above the trees during our fight against the loggers? When I saw that dishevelled white cockatoo, I felt a wave of familiarity come over me, but not in a good way."

"It WAS the cockatoo and his name was Nigel," said Blu, his voice boiling with corrosive acidity against his cockatoo nemesis, "He had pursued us into here to get revenge on us for costing him his ability to fly."

"When Dante and Salvadora led their clan of hyacinth macaws into battle against the loggers to help drive them off," said Eduardo, "They got a glimpse of a strange white crested parrot in a cage with that frog nuzzling against him."

"You've had an encounter with Nigel at some point before finding your way back into the Amazon?" asked Bellatrix. Roberto wrapped his wings around himself, shuddered and made a saddened face, prompting Bellatrix to exchange looks with Sirius, Blu, Zephyr and Ferdinand. Roberto's behaviour at the mentioning of Nigel plus his clam that seeing the cockatoo during his confrontation with Blu in those vines had brought back a bad familiarity wave within him did not sound good. Suddenly, one of Felipe's accompanying scarlet macaws shouted, "Here they come."

The waiting group looked up and saw two glaucous macaws; a Spix macaw and a scarlet macaw emerge from some trees in their direction.

"Ruby, Jewel, Samara, Antares," called Mimi.

"How did it g..." began Felipe but when he saw Ruby's talon clutching her left cheek where one of Rudi and Tremaine's chicks had struck her, horror tore through him. "Oh, no, Ruby, you've been clawed in the face!"

Ferdinand also saw that his scarlet mate had sustained the scratch and launched into flight to meet her. Murmurs then rolled through the group as the quartet arrived and perched with them. Felipe, Ferdinand and the scarlet and green-winged macaws with them took Ruby aside while Jewel, Samara and Antares turned to face the rest of the audience.

"How did it go?" asked Blu.

"Did you get it sorted at all?" added Zephyr. Sirius and Bellatrix looked on with a frown.

"They didn't seem bothered about the direness of the situations their children had put Bia and Trixie in," replied Jewel sourly and without hesitation.

"In fact they, especially Tremaine, were incredibly mocking of those incidences, especially of Trixie and hers," said Samara. Outrage tore through the audience and some of them drew in gasps of horror. Augustus winced violently and barely kept a grip on his perch to stop himself from spontaneously dropping. Orion, however, DID make the decision and he flew over to the three blue macaws.

"Seriously!?" snarled Blu as Orion landed near him, his face also laced with indignation.

"And after your having to deal with the loss of Trixie for two days because of the storm and me and Ahsoka and the rest of our search team risking our lives to save that poor little glaucous macaw from that jaguar and her cubs AND that venomous snake when we found her!?" blurted out Ferdinand in UTMOST disbelief and anger as he left Felipe and the other red macaws to treat Ruby's scratch. Ruby only looked on with a disgusted look at Rudi and Tremaine's lack of care.

"Not to mention her grandfather Alvin landing himself into Falkor's infirmary for a check-up due to his old age when that mother jaguar whacked him according to Ahsoka," put in Orion.

"Yes, absolutely!" put in Sirius, "What do those two boneheads think our youngest chick with an unfortunate size abnormality is!? Some kind of worthless grub to be fed to a predatory BIRD!?"

"And let's not mention Neptune and ALSO Bia, two of Eduardo's grandchildren and two of MY little 'uns and ALMOST what happened to them!" put in Mimi, astonishment clearly on her face at what she was hearing, alongside outrage.

"AND your relationship with my brother, Samara, nearly BREAKING because of what those horrible chicks of theirs had put your daughter through!?" added Bellatrix in agreement, her glare on a particular female glaucous macaw with the long head feathers.

"We've tried our best to reason with them but the only thing we kept meeting was their lack of bother and their mockery," replied Samara but then Sirius flapped over to her, an OUTRAGED look flaring on his face.

"You don't REALISE what DIRE, LIFE-THREATENING situation our poor youngest daughter had to put up with for TWO DAYS because of that storm AND because of our carelessness, Samara," he snarled and he perched near her and put his beak to her face, "She is now UNABLE to FLY for a GOOD WHILE BECAUSE OF US and ESPECIALLY BECAUSE OF THEM and you're TELLIN' ME THAT RUDI AND TREMAINE DON'T EVEN CARE!?"

"Honestly," put in Bellatrix, "Their antics are veering into the territory of LIFE ENDANGERMENT, a territory that EVEN Rafael and Eva's many, many chicks daren't enter... which I hope they won't anyway!" doubt pricked at her as she said this as she remembered some of the pranks of those rambunctious offspring of Rafael and Eva being injurious and at one point, lethal and she shuddered. She daren't imagine how far those 'pranksters' were going to take their antics and they were clearly blinded to it. However, Rafael and Eva's offspring knew that putting life in danger was VERY wrong and when they saw how lethal that prank had been, they showed genuine remorse but they lied about it, as always. Rudi and Tremaine's chicks, however, were a TOTALLY different species of snake, one with more venom. THOSE offspring were willing to put life on the line as proven by the incidences with Bia and Trixie.

Samara tried to reply but her beak stuck and her mind went blank, rendering her unable to form one. Then Jewel spoke, an OUTRAGED glare on her face.

"Indeed the antics of those BEASTLY BRATS of that pair of those NUMSKULL glaucous macaws are with their antics, Bellatrix," Eduardo's daughter snapped, "Such as that SAVAGE daughter of theirs, Katrina with HERS. But THAT is not all, they find the whole subject ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS as well. Katrina she found what she had almost done to Bia INCREDIBLY hilarious as well, despite Virgil's putting her through a PAINFUL lesson. I smacked her numerous times over the face and I know I shouldn't have done this but I gave her a broken wing after that when she went too far with it."

FLABBERGAST at what they had heard Jewel said she had done to Katrina EXPLODED through the group. Some of the flying foxes including Augustus actually almost fell off their perch with Augustus having to seize his footing for a second time to prevent himself from dropping into the air.

"You did WHAT, Jewel!?" Augustus blurted out.

"You're KIDDING US!" added Orion who sat next to Blu.

"I am NOT," snapped Jewel, her rage against Rudi and his family boiling dangerously within her once again, "That teen of theirs NEARLY killed our DAUGHTER and attacked one of our SECOND BROOD SONS and she EVEN HAD THE AUDACITY TO RELISH THE PLEASURE OF FEEDING HER ALIVE TO PIRAHNA an' HAVIN' US WATCH IT..."

"You have SERIOUSLY put YOURSELF and EVERYONE ELSE IN A DIFFICULT SITUATION with THAT PROBLEM GLAUCOUS FLOCK, DAUGHTER!" yelled Eduardo in fury.

"But Katrina attempted to kill our..." began Jewel but Eduardo barked at her to be quiet and to meet him at his tree back in the Spix macaw tribe's ravine. Then after calling for the group that it was time to leave now that Jewel, Ruby, Samara and Antares were back, the birds lofted into flight and the flying foxes dropped into the air from their overhang branch, Orion leaping from his. Blu was EXTREMELY LIVID at what he had heard from the quartet's report and his eyes practically blazed brown fire. He rarely got THIS angry but due to what one of Rudi's daughters had almost done to one of his own, as well as attack one of his second brood sons, and the fact that he wasn't least BIT bothered about it, he had good reason to be and for the first time in perhaps his whole life, wrath against a wild-born macaw boiled within him. For Blu, it was no more Mr Nice Macaw, not anymore. He had been too much of this most of the time for FAR too long but to hear what Rudi's daughter had attempted to do to Bia and had done to Neptune and the fact that Rudi wasn't bothered about it, even possibly accepting it, that was the final leaf. NOBODY, but NOBODY attacks and endangers the life of HIS chicks (or anyone else's children for that matter but ESPECIALLY his) for NO reason whatsoever and gets away with it and it was time to put the talon down. Rudi was now one of Blu's most CAUSTIC enemies alongside Nigel and the quirky companion of Linda made it PERFECTLY clear in the next sentence.

"Rudi has certainly had his berries then," growled he in a dangerously low voice, "From now on, he will NEVER have ANY form of mercy from me ANYMORE!"

"I really am beginning to dislike that glaucous macaw and his mate myself as well," Zephyr said nearby as he flew alongside Ruby, Ferdinand, Antares, Samara and an upset Bellatrix and Sirius, "If Rudi and Tremaine are gonna allow their kids and the kids of the other glaucous macaws of their clan to go round putting the lives of other kids on the end of the branch and be nonchalant about it when confronted, then they're CERTAINLY NOT welcome ANYWHERE near ANY of us anymore."

"There is something else you need to know about their offspring and their friends as well," said Antares, shame boiling within him.

"What's that?" asked Blu.

"Tremaine and Rudi's kids displayed UTTERLY violent tendencies and what came out of their beaks, you SERIOUSLY don't wanna know," added Samara.

"It was UTTERLY abominable to say the least, ESPECIALLY for macaws THAT age," moaned Ruby with nausea still present as one of the scarlet macaw medics held a ball of moss on her left cheek where Aleera, one of Rudi and Tremaine's violent chicks, had clawed her. She still felt sick from hearing what had been spewed from Rudi and Tremaine's chicks' beaks and she had hoped to NEVER go back there EVER again. Felipe, Eduardo and the others looked on in disbelief and Antares and Samara then shuddered violently.

"I daren't think how those glaucous chicks ended up with SUCH horrific personalities like that and I am SO glad that me, Samara and the rest of Rodrigo and Ceu's clan had decided to move in with Augustus' mixed-species tribe," said the former, still shaken from the vomit that had spewed from his OWN nephews and nieces' beaks at him, Samara, Jewel and Ruby, "Otherwise we'd have ended up being like them."

"And what's worse, Volo, the son of Wally and Cynthia, has allowed that level of behaviour to rub off on him," added Samara, "His parents are gonna..." she trailed off, dreading their reaction, but it won't be just heartbreak, that's for sure.

"Let's just return to our territory and discuss this," said Augustus with a stern one-eyed frown, before his gaze turned to his son, "And Orion, can you bring your mate and five children please? We wanna have a serious word with you but you're NOT in trouble before you react."

"We'll do that at the Meeting Tree," said Felipe, "Therefore Blu and the others will be present at the same time for this serious talk."

Blu made a look but Eduardo spoke.

"Don't worry, my son-in-law, you're not in trouble either," said he, to Blu's relief. Then Eduardo's fiery glare turned to his daughter whose face bore a pout, "But Jewel here will CERTAINLY need a VERY serious talk about her behaviour towards Rudi and Tremaine."

"We'll see to that at the Meeting Tree," said Augustus before he turned to Antares, Samara, Bellatrix, Sirius, Ferdinand, Ruby and Zephyr, "And you macaws, can you round up your kids and meet with us at said spot please?"

"I'm gonna come with my family too," said Roberto, "I worry for my mate Brisa and our chicks Finnick and Lavendulan regarding those intrusive renegade groups as well."

As he spoke, Felipe told some scarlet and green-winged macaws to also round up certain other macaws and other animals for the Meeting Tree meeting and they took in his instructions.

"And we'd better make it snappy as well," said Augustus, his one-eyed gaze on the stormcloud in the distance, "The second wave of the storm's on its way and will be here soon."

With that, the group of macaws and flying foxes disappeared into the trees.