Chapter 28- to Matthew, May and Brendan's house
Life continued to flow by in both the city of Rio and its surrounding forests. Its pace was slow for some but fast for others. In one part of Tijuca Forest, four certain birds, two with glistening gold and bright yellow feathers and the other pair, snow white and silvery plumage, continued through the clutter of bark pillars and underlying lumps of greenery. Soren and Katniss the golden fruithawks and Aragorn and Cassiopeia the Luna owls were flying like avian fugitives through Tijuca Forest. They had managed to escape Tulio's Aviary through the vent, the very same one that Jewel and later Zephyr, Orion, Brisa, Antares and Samara had attempted to exit but without success, and had fled into the forest. Soren had been the one to break the vent grate and remove it from its screws and had led the four out. Katniss, who despised Soren still and Soren mutually, had initially refused to go along until she relented and followed and Soren reluctantly allowed her at the two owls' insistence. The four continued to fly along until they perched in a low branch in a tree to talk.
"What do you want to do next, Soren?" asked Cassiopeia, her right eye, her only functional eye, gazing at the male gold and yellow herbivorous hawk while the other one had an X over it to show that it was permanently damaged and non-functional, a souvenir the owl had sustained during a logger incident. Soren gazed around the endless clutter maze of the forest while Aragorn and an extremely reluctant and sour Katniss sat looking on expectantly.
"I suppose we can flee into the jungle," said he, "It is where we belong after all."
"But what about Katniss?" asked Aragorn, a white and silver wing gesturing to the sour-faced female fruithawk, "She has ABSOLUTELY no experience in the wild as she is human raised."
"Unlike us three," said Cassiopeia. Soren glared bitterly and condescendingly at the domesticated fruithawk.
"That city freak can find her OWN way out in the jungle or maybe even find herself another human to be her owner," he growled, "After all; I have no use for lowly pets even if we happen to be the last pair of the species."
"I'd be glad to do just THAT, dirty jungle ball of feathers infested with fleas," snapped Katniss in mutual dislike, "I despise hanging out with you anyway."
The two Luna owls looked on with concern at this idea.
"But you might run into trouble," said Aragorn.
"And secondly, you might be caught and returned to that building in a wing flap if any of those humans find you," added Cassiopeia. A bitter huff escaped Katniss' yellow beak as she reacted to this thought in disgust. She did NOT want to go back to Tulio's Aviary, not after what those ornithologists had expected her and Soren to do, JUST like Blu and Jewel and Aurora's group several years before them. Aragorn and Cassiopeia also did not want to return there for the same reason and they had been UTTERLY disgusted at the thought of having chicks just to save their species. Then Cassiopeia gazed at the other three, continuing Aragorn's point. "In fact ALL FOUR of us would be caught and returned to that Aviary place if we EVER allow ANY human to spot us. We are the last Luna owls and golden fruithawks after all."
"The VERY last males and females of our species in fact," said Aragorn. Soren and Katniss said nothing. They did not care about this fact. They wanted to go their separate ways but for some reason, they were reluctant to do this. Then Katniss had an idea.
"I know, why don't we find a human's building that is isolated and take refuge in there?" she asked. Soren glared on sourly.
"That sounds like a good idea," said Aragorn, "But how are we gonna find food? We don't want to be in a place that is TOO far away from the forest and its food sources."
"What about the attic of a human's cottage or house nearer to the forest then?" asked Katniss, "As long as we remain hidden and NOT show ourselves to any of the humans living in it."
"In other words live with those two-legged menaces as secret guests!?" snapped Soren bitterly, clearly against the idea of living in an artificial place, even out of sight from any humans living in it. The owls exhcnaged gazes and looked back at the fruithawks.
"It's what we've got then," said Aragorn, "Let's find a house that has an attic and settle into it until we decide on what to do next."
"I'm in with that too," said Cassiopeia. Soren breathed an ANGRY sigh and got prepared to leave with the other three but before any of them could jump into the air to continue their escape and start their search for shelter in the aforementioned type of 'habitat', the snapping of a twig sounded, bringing the four to an abrupt standstill and they began to scan the surroundings, all four of them stiff and eyes widened with alertness. Cassiopeia gazed with her right eye in one direction while Aragorn looked upward. Soren and Katniss, their enmity forgotten for now, also began to examine the canopy. Then some flapping noises pulled the gazes of all four of them in the source's direction but when the owls and fruithawks looked that way, they saw nothing. Then tension began to build and the nerves of the four last-of-their-species individuals began to shudder.
"Oh, I do NOT like this one BIT," growled Aragorn sourly, "We had to deal with an eagle once and it stalked us before ambushing us but thankfully it wasn't the TRUE pinnacle of the pyramid of sky monsters, the harpy eagle..."
"I doubt there are eagles or other predatory birds that live this close to a human's city, anyway," said Cassiopeia as she scoured the environment with her single eye. Aragorn didn't reply to this and continued looking around, Soren and Katniss doing the same. The four continued examining the canopy and the clutter of bark pillars and greenery, eyes scanning for possible predators. Behind the four, a blur shot past among the branches and a feather drifted gently from there to near Katniss' yellow clawed feet. Katniss saw this and picked it up to examine it. This feather was black and based on its shape; it appeared to be a flight feather from a wing.
"Crows," hissed the female fruithawk sourly. She flinched with the other three when some leaves shuddered and she shot a wary gaze in that direction. Then she resumed gazing at the wing flight feather she had found. "Don't tell me we have a mob of them surrounding us."
"Crows, city freak?" grumbled Soren. Katniss shot him a mutually bitter glare.
"Yes, black birds that love to cause trouble in human's places, jungle snake-face," she hissed, "They sometimes mob other animals to get something from them."
Soren was about to snap when suddenly, more wing flaps alerted him and Katniss and pulled their attention in another direction. The Luna owls also shot wary gazes that way. To their increasing unease, they saw nothing though Aragorn thought he saw a shadowy blur flash by and disappear into the leafy and branchy canopy of one of the trees nearby. However, it jounced his nerves and he shuddered. Then Cassiopeia felt it was time to move on, NOW.
"Aragorn, fruithawks, let's get airborne," she whispered timidly, sensing something not right here, "I feel we may be being stalked by someone or something..."
The other three including Katniss and Soren who, for perhaps the first time were in agreement, then got prepared to launch into an escape flight. And they had good reason to be prepared to flee. Behind and above the quartet amongst some leaves and branches, several forms appeared. They were dressed in leafy costumes and were armed with something. Cassiopeia, Aragorn, Soren and Katniss then spread their wings when suddenly; they saw something emerge out of the dark canopy ahead of them. Immediately, the four froze. Hovering in front of them were winged forms. These forms' faces were covered by some sort of mask made from leaves. Two eyeholes perforated the leaves and below the mask was an apron of more leaves disguising the front. A cape of more leaves spread out behind the forms but then the owls and fruithawks who had excellent eyesight just like their meat-eating counterparts; saw that the winged forms had large beaks. Through the eyeholes, a pair of eyes on each of them glared menacingly at the quartet and Cassiopeia soon saw that some were armed with as leaf bag containing something, and something else in their talons below them. The group of these masked winged creatures, obviously birds due to their wings being feathered and not membranous like in bats, began to slowly hover towards the quartet in an intimidating manner. That snapped Soren's nerve like a twig.
"FLY FOR IT!" he cried to the other three and within a blink of an eye, four comets, two gold and yellow and two white and silver, sliced through the air. That air was also sliced by screams as the masked birds then gave case, screams of the thrill of the chase erupting from their big beaks as they exploded from their cover in the branches and from the canopy.
Cassiopeia, Soren, Katniss and Aragorn soon found themselves being chased by a gang of masked birds and based on their big beaks as Aragorn flashed a glance at them to examine them, they were one obvious species. Then as the quartet flew along, an orange and yellow comet flew at the quartet and missed Katniss' head by inches. That projectile, a piece of mango, then exploded in an orange-yellow firework-like fashion in a messy splat. More fruit of various types and both big and small, then erupted from the chasers and began to bombard the owls and the fruithawks in a barrage of colourful comets. Some of the masked birds flew abreast of the quartet or above and fired their ammo from their weapons, slingshots or catapults made from Y-shaped branches and an elastic material, at the quartet while the others fired more fruit at the quartet from, behind. Some of the fruit missed the targets and splattered messily on the tree trunks but a few were beginning to hit their mark. Aragorn got splattered in the back of the head with a papaya while Soren was pelted in the face with some grapes, those dark purple fruits messing his yellow head and neck plumage in the process.
"OO-ER, I've SPENT AN HOUR tryna MAKE MYSELF LOOK NICE!" the male fruithawk squawked bitterly, his eyes tight shut to prevent the grapes from hitting his eyes.
"Charming, you narcissistic jungle... WAH!" Katniss screeched as some green grapes flew her way from one of the masked bird marauders, that bird firing them from its slingshot. However, the bird that suffered the most was Cassiopeia. Being blind in one eye and thus with half of her sight removed, the female Luna owl struggled to spot the marauding birds attacking her on her left side, her blind side and it appears that the birds were deliberately taking advantage of Cassiopeia's disability in attacking her, and they did just that and pelted the poor owl with more fruit. Then the attacks from the caped and masked birds began to become physical. One bird lunged at Cassiopeia on her sighted side and deliberately tackled into her, sending Cassiopeia into a clumsy flight. A tree trunk lay in her path on her blind side and the Luna owl was careening straight towards it. Aragorn, alarmed, rushed in and seized Cassiopeia by the wings and pulled her out of her inevitable crash just in time. Then he accelerated with her in his talons to give her a bigger gap between her and the pursuers. Soren and Katniss looked on in UTMOST disgust.
"Did you just SEE what one of those STUPID toucans in those derpy ninja cape and mask outfits just do to Cass..." began the former but then he saw something coming for the fruithawks, "LOOK OUT!"
An arrow of three masked and caped birds, toucans based on their big beaks under a sheet of more leaves, charged in at the two golden fruithawks, screaming "CHAAAAARRRRGE!" as they rocketed towards them. Katniss immediately took action and wing-struck the one at the front in the face to disorientate the trio. The struck toucan, its leaf-mask flying from its face and careening away from it, stunned from Katniss' counterattack, then lost control of its flight and crashed into its two comrades. The three then crashed into a patch of ferns on the floor. The other toucans continued their pursuit of the trio, fruit continuously flying from their talons and slingshots.
"Okay, you four, so you wanna play ROUGH!?" snarled one of them in a mock-hostile manner. Soren widened his eyes in surprise. He knew that voice but he knew he had no time to identify the owner of that voice. He HAD to get himself and Katniss to safety from these marauders, so he and Katniss continued to fly on after Aragorn and Cassiopeia. Suddenly, another toucan flew in and struck Soren HARD in the left side and sent him into an uncontrollable tailspin and erratic flight. Katniss looked on in alarm.
"JUNGLE BOY!" she blurted out in genuine horror. Soren continued flying erratically as more toucans then came round and pelted him with more fruit. Ahead of the golden fruithawk and his attackers was a pale orange ovoid bauble hanging from a branch. This bauble was organic and around it buzzed some small insects. Soren careened straight into this bauble and it exploded as the fruithawk ploughed through it. Pieces of the bauble, together with sticky golden liquid and yellow and black beads with wings and emitting buzzes, diverged in a spectacular fireworks explosion, some of it landing slap on some of the toucans to their alarm. Soren, his golden and yellow plumage covered in the sticky stuff, honey, continued to careen to the forest floor where he landed with a brutal crash, rolled in a tumble and eventually came to rest in a fern patch. At the same time, Katniss flew after him but then an angry buzzing noise grew in volume, accompanied by the screams of frightened toucans. Those masked and caped birds immediately stopped their assault on the fruithawks and the owls and retreated in screams of terror, a massive swarm of black and yellow winged beads, bees, flying straight after them in a cloud. Katniss touched down besides the downed Soren with Aragorn and Cassiopeia, who had heard the splat-shattering of a hive, the buzzing of bees, the toucans' screams and the crash, also appeared. Soren, dazed, wearily sat up, having rolled onto his back.
"Are you alright, Soren?" asked Aragorn. Soren wearily gazed at the male Luna owl and raised his left wing while Katniss worked to swipe away any bees that had latched onto Soren when he crashed through that hive. For the first time, she was starting to care for him despite her dislike of him.
"I'm okay, OOOOWW!" an agonised screech exploded from the male fruithawk to the startle of the other three. Soren then grasped his left wing with his right and screwed his face.
"That ain't good," murmured Cassiopeia with dread.
"Can you still fly?" asked Aragorn.
"Fly?" snapped Katniss before she gazed at Soren and his messy plumage, "With half of his feathers smothered in honey, surely not."
"It's not just the honey, Katniss," Cassiopeia replied. Suddenly, crow-like cackles sounded, making her and Aragorn shoot a wary gaze into the forest. To their dismay, they saw some of the masked and caped toucans return their way.
"We gotta get outa here before those marauders attack us again," said Aragorn, "We'll take shelter in the first house or cottage we can find,"
He sent Cassiopeia and Katniss into flight and immediately picked up Soren by the wings. The male fruithawk cried in pain but Aragorn knew he couldn't delay. Then as soon as he got a sticky and agonised Soren in his talons, he rocketed off after the females, moments before some of the toucan gang members arrived and started up the chase again. Soren had no choice this time. He could potentially have an injured wing and he was going to stay in a human's place whether he liked it or not. Aragorn, with Soren in his talons, and Katniss and Cassiopeia continued their frenzied escape from the marauding toucans until eventually, they came to the first human house they laid their eyes on: Matthew, May and Brandon's house and to their gladness, they saw a hole in the side of the house. Immediately, they charged for the hole and disappeared one by one inside. The toucans then stopped their chase and retreated while inside the attic, Katniss, Cassiopeia, Soren and Aragorn settled among the packed boxes and containers holding some unused and old things owned by Aurora, Sirius and Bellatrix's former owners.
Meanwhile
Blu and company continued their flight to Rio, flying in their family groups. Blu, Jewel, Carla, Bia, Tiago, Neptune, Arrokoth and Chrysocolla flew in one group while in another were Aurora, Zephyr, Justin, Charlotte, Matilda, Virgil and Eustace and Brisa, Roberto, Finnick and Lavendulan. The glaucous macaws Sirius, Bellatrix, Antares and Samara and their chicks Tristan, Quincy, Sapphire, Levi, Aiden, Phoebe and Trixie were in a third group with Trixie riding Samara while a fourth group was formed by Ruby, Ferdinand, Opal and Sheldon. Lastly, the flying foxes, Orion, Ahsoka, Sandalwood, Acerola, Hermione, Ganymede and Gordie were in a fifth with Gordie riding Ahsoka's breast and Ganymede clutching to Acerola. The flock of macaws and flying foxes continued in the direction of Rio over a sea of green trees.
"The cityscape of our secondary home should be coming into view any second now," Ferdinand called to the others.
"I think I could see the top of the Christ The Redeemer statue and Sugarloaf Mountain," added Blu as he led his family of now-eight.
"Brilliant," Sirius called from the glaucous macaw group while the chicks and pups except the newcomers emitted cheerful cries. Seven of the children which were Blu and Jewel's second brood Neptune, Arrokoth and Chrysocolla, Orion and Ahsoka's youngest sons Ganymede and Gordie and Brisa and Roberto's two new chicks Finnick and Lavendulan have never seen Rio before, much less been there and they had been asking their parents and older siblings about the place a lot. The parents and older siblings had initially put off their questions and told them to wait until they were closer to the city. Now they were ready to give these answers the seven had been so thirsty for.
The group continued flying along until finally, the end of the tree sea appeared, passed under the flock and unveiled the magnificent city of Rio de Janeiro showed itself. Awed cries launched from Neptune, Arrokoth, Chrysocolla, Ganymede, Gordie, Finnick and Lavendulan's mouths and beaks as they gazed wide-eyed at the sight.
"Yes, you seven," said Ahsoka with a smile, "This is Rio."
"Welcome to Rio, our new kids," said Zephyr, his gaze mainly on his nephew and niece as they flew alongside his sister and brother-in-law. Finnick turned to his uncle.
"So that is where you were born, Uncle Zephyr?" asked he.
"Not born unlike your Auntie Aurora, Fin," said Roberto, "Taken there along with your mother."
"Yes, your Auntie Aurora, together with your uncles Blu, Ferdinand and Sirius and aunts Ahsoka and Bellatrix, were born in Rio," explained Brisa, "And then your 'cousins' except Neptune, Arrokoth, Chrysocolla, Ganymede and Gordie years later."
"It is also the place where we met except your mother and father," said Ruby nearby with a smile, Ferdinand, Opal and Sheldon flying alongside her.
"Oh," said Finnick in wonder.
"Where did you meet?" asked Lavendulan.
"It was in a place called Tulio's Aviary," replied Ferdinand, "We'll take you there at some point and show you exactly where we met."
"And also where we, and Carla, Bia, Tiago and your glaucous and Catalina 'cousins' and Sandalwood and his two sisters were born," said Justin.
"Some of us were born in Tulio's Aviary, such as Carla, Bia and Tiago and also Sandalwood, Acerola and Hermione, Justin," explained Charlotte, "While the rest of us were born out in the jungle."
"That's right, you two," said Aurora with Zephyr looking on in agreement. Eustace, Virgil and Matilda simply exchanged glances. Ahead of Aurora and Brisa's families, Neptune gazed back at them with surprise.
"Our big sissies Carla and Bia and big bro Tiago were born in that place?" said the little blue Spix macaw who resembled a spitting image of a young Blu with green eyes.
"Indeed we were, little brother," said Carla.
"Tulio and his team, whom you'll eventually meet, wanted to monitor our health," said Bia.
"We had been the last known family of Spix macaws at the time," added Tiago.
"And as for our chicks here," said Sirius from the glaucous macaw group, "They hatched out in the jungle and then we took them to Tulio's Aviary to monitor their health as we had also been the last known glaucous macaws at the time."
"Especially Trixie who had hatched unusually small," said Samara, "And myself too as I had been utterly tired from laying a clutch of five eggs."
Neptune, Arrokoth, Chrysocolla, Ganymede, Gordie, Finnick and Lavendulan had been taught by their parents the basics of how and where babies came from but only at an appropriate level of their age. One of these basics was that birds hatched from eggs and bats, being mammals, did not and were born live. The more 'advanced' facts will be told to them later when they were older and when Samara and Sirius had explained to the seven about Trixie and why she was smaller than an average glaucous macaw her age, they told them that they were meant to have five chicks like Zephyr and Aurora, instead of four. However, one had failed to hatch and had to be removed from the nest. Samara, and also Jewel, Brisa and Ahsoka and the other mothers of the group had told the seven that sometimes some eggs don't make it and that it is a sad fact of life. And when Trixie had hatched and was born unusually small, she had to be monitored closely, Tulio and his team worried that she may not survive for very long due to her dwarfism.
"Trixie here had been tiny when she hatched," Samara added, a nod to the smaller-than-normal teen chick on her back, "and that had been a worry, both for me and Sirius and for our human friends."
"But she defied the odds?" asked Arrokoth.
"She did indeed," said Blu nearby as he led his family, "which had been amazing. We thought that she may never make it like her older three siblings."
Tristan, Quincy and Sapphire nodded in agreement and gazed proudly at their little sister. The others including the newcomers did the same.
"She certainly was a little fighter, I can tell you," said Jewel.
"A fighter indeed," said Antares to which Trixie blushed a little. Then Bellatrix formed a scowl on her face.
"If only Volo had understood that," she grumbled bitterly about that insensitive glaucous macaw chick back in the Sanctuary de Amazon who had unfortunately joined Rudi's group, "But that's behind us now. Let's focus on preparing for our early stay in Rio."
The others agreed to this and resumed their entry into the city. As they flew along, Chrysocolla gazed at the flying foxes.
"Did the bats have to take their pups to this Tulio's Aviary-thingy place to be checked?" she asked. Carla and Bia shot their little sister a glare as she asked this apparently inappropriate question but Ahsoka didn't mind.
"I had my pups checked by our human friends while they were still in my tummy and I birthed them AT Tulio's Aviary, Chrysocolla, so that they can be monitored post-birth, " the ginger bat said, "As we have explained to you, us bats don't lay eggs like you birds. We bear our young live."
"We had been the VERY last Amazon flying foxes known at the time," put in Orion, "So our pups' examination was a bit different to you birds."
"I was the first pup to be born," said Sandalwood as he flew alongside Acerola who had Ganymede clutched to her breast, "Then came my sisters who were born one at a time."
"Apart from Ganymede and Gordie who were born together as twins," added Acerola, "We were born one at a time."
"Not as a clutch or litter like in you birds and most other mammals like city cats and dogs," added Ahsoka, "If a mother bat were to have more than one pup, it would be too weight for her to carry around in flight which is why I have to have someone else carry one of the twins while I carry the other."
"Wasn't Uncle Beto in Rio as well?" asked Neptune, his gaze on a certain handsome Spix macaw as he flew alongside his mate and two chicks.
"He was," said Blu, "But unlike Ahsoka, he was not in a very good home but we'll explain that later. Let's focus on finding a place where we'll set up our summer home until we return to the Sanctuary de Amazon."
Neptune opened his beak to ask why but Blu hardened his look, silently reinforcing his command and he did. Then the group flew on into Rio to find said place.
The flock flew lower over the city and as they lowered in altitude, the hustle and bustle of city life became more visible to them. To Blu and the others who were familiar with the city, it was just the usual activities but to Neptune, Arrokoth, Chrysocolla, Ganymede, Gordie, Finnick and Lavendulan, it was a lot to take in and curiosity kept taking hold of them. Sometimes they slowed in flight pace and had to be seized by their parents or elders and pulled along back to the others to prevent them from falling behind. Ganymede and Gordie, who were allowed to fly alongside their family and the macaws now that the group was in Rio did this most frequently and were reprimanded severely by their parents with the penalty that they will be returned to Ahsoka and Acerola's breasts if they didn't behave, and they eventually obeyed. After all, the LAST thing Blu and company wanted was ANY of the seven newcomers getting lost again. Arrokoth, Chrysocolla, Ganymede and Gordie's wandering off into that boat had caused the rest of the group UTMOST panic. They didn't want to face that again here. With the seven newcomers finally under control, the group continued. Aurora, Sirius and Bellatrix flew on a head for the group had decided that the attic of the house of the three's former owners, Matthew, May and Brendan, would be their summer home. As the group flew along, their presence caught the eyes of some humans familiar with them. Fernando, who was taking Sunspot for a walk in one of the streets, happened to look up but when he saw a small flock of blue macaws with one of them being blue and yellow, another red with colourful wings and a family of colourful-furred bats, he flinched in shock, initially believing he was seeing things. Then Fernando picked out some of the blue macaws and recognised Blu and Jewel and also Carla, Bia and Tiago. However, he saw three additional chicks he couldn't recognise with them. He also identified Ahsoka and her family but to his surprise, he saw that she had two additional pups with her. Fernando wondered what those new additions to Ahsoka and Blu's families were before moving on. Sunspot, however, was too zoned out in admiration of the distant scenery of the ocean and beach to notice Blu and company in the sky. Then he and Fernando moved on.