As I continue to write my current projects (namely "Faces of Joy" and the rewrite of "Don't Go") and busy myself with college, it's best that what was originally intended as a sequel to "Don't Go" is finally published. Up to its time in 2017 (well before I joined this community), it was my best and most ambitious Rio fanfiction, though only a fraction of the work was ever completed.
The version that I've published here is its third and final draft written that summer (at which time, I was 13 years old), while the (also incomplete) first and second drafts will be uploaded at some point to DeviantArt, as they are substantially different in both style and content. This was my closest attempt at replicating the style of Sorrelwing, who, though I never met, was one of my writing idols.
Also, if this chapter's introduction leaves you somewhat confused, this is probably owed to my references to stories that I never got around to writing (most notably "The Hunt for Nigel"), and thankfully never did for various reasons. The insane premise of this story is in fact the very reason I don't intend to finish it, but regardless, I will leave its enjoyment to my readers and to the wider Rio fanfiction community.
Let's fly!
Chapter 1 - What a Glorious Morning
Friday, January 13th, 2017
Deep in the dense and humid Brazilian Amazon jungle, almost exactly five miles away from the wonderful city of Manacapuru, there lie an absolutely massive gorge that covered about three kilometers in total in land area. The very back of the gorge and the area surrounding it was abundant with large trees and hollows, homes of many Spix's Macaws. The back of the gorge also featured a strikingly beautiful, flowing waterfall, that ran off from the lip of the high cliff in the center of the rear of the gorge.
Trees were not just thriving along the gorge; hundreds were also located in both the surrounding jungle beyond the east wall of the ring of the gorge, on top of the strong, stone lips of the canyon. Below the heaven-like waterfall, was a crystal-clear, cerulean stream that flowed throughout the canyon. Luckily, more foliage and stone traced around the water, making it easier to walk along the stream without falling into it.
The stream itself was very wide and large, making it a perfect waterhole for the Spix's Macaw tribe. In the summertime, during the months of December, January, and February, it was sometimes used by both the adults and the chicks as a swimming pool. Water from the stream was also used to clean wounds by the tribal healers and medics, who fortunately now, had plenty of stock human medical supplies in storage, in exchange for bananas from their neighbors, the Scarlet Macaw tribe, located to the west.
Now, it was about eight AM, Brazilian time, and not very far prior, the vast majority of the tribe circled around the gorge to poke their heads upwards at the sky, to watch the glorious gleaming orange and glossy-pink sky at dawn. Dawn had now passed, and the sky had now transformed into a lightful shade of electric-blue, as it usually was in the month of January. In Brazil, January was right in the middle of the summer.
The summertime in Brazil offered many grand events to everyone, and great cuisine to its vast amount of tourists from all across the globe. Even though the crime had risen as poverty in the major cities had grown, it would not halt the grand Samba festivals in all the streets of Brazil, no matter the atmosphere and conditions, even in the dangerous slums and favela communities littered throughout the land. Out of all these events, the most anticipated as always, was Carnaval. The world's largest party had just started to rise again, and just about every citizen and tourist were ecstatic for the largest celebrations that often occurred in February.
However, some tourists who visited Brazil were more interested in the Amazon rainforest, more than anything else the country had to offer. The Spix's Macaw's gorge now had many human visitors arrive at its entrance, exploring the jungle around it, and gaze in awe at the world's last wild Spix's Macaw community that dwelled within the Spix's territory's large array of trees. But, it had not always been that way. No human of any kind had ever come to this gorge for hundreds of years until February 2014 when ornithologist and avian conservationist, Dr. Tulio Monteiro and his American wife, Linda Gunderson had discovered it as the last remaining settlement of the Spix's Macaw species.
Now, ever since the discovery of the tribe's territory, not only did many humans enter the macaw's territory, but they also toured the "battlefield," a bare area of land once covered by trees. This was where a battle had ensued between the armies of the Spix's and Scarlet Macaw tribes and an entire company of illegal loggers, who were led by a black market businessman named Eleuterio Geraldo, (nicknamed "Big Boss") who was eaten by an anaconda during the fight. Ever since the battle, both tribes had been placed under protection by the government of the state of Amazonas, and both had also been given wildlife refuge status.
The Spix's Macaw tribe itself was still headed by the stern, reckless and fierce Eduardo, the son of César III, the last leader of the tribe. Eduardo had always despised the very word "human" until after the battle, due to the destruction of the original Spix's Macaw tribe territory. This had not only separated him from his daughter, Jewel, for sixteen years, but it had also resulted in the deaths of 1,500 Spix's Macaw tribe members, including his mate, Anita, who had died in Eduardo's wings as a result of taking a piece of wooden shrapnel to the chest.
Now, Eduardo finally accepted the presence of humans, but he never trusted them, and probably never would. Despite his personal and overall attitude towards them, Eduardo surprisingly didn't mind the fact that human visitors often came to the sacred settlement, as long as they meant no harm to the well-being of the last of the Spix's Macaws.
For the past three years, ever since moving into the Amazon rainforest, arguably the world's most famous Spix's Macaw, Tyler Blu Gunderson and his beloved mate, Jewel Torres had been through a very wild ride of adventures recently. A fun and exciting vacation to San Diego; being abducted by marmosets in Rio de Janeiro to be taken to a stolen technology ship from North Korea; and a dangerous witch-hunt for Nigel from Amazonas all the way to São Paulo, after he had injured Jewel while she was on a flight in the banana grove.
Jewel had recovered several months ago, and she felt far better now, and was far more alert of who was watching her while alone. She was now relieved she was out of a full-body cast, and had thought of the healing method as barbaric, but, she had accepted it.
As for the evil Nigel, he had been brought before Eduardo and Blu in the "bird court" (which was actually just Market Forro in Rio) and he had been convicted of kidnapping, physical torture, psychological torture, grievous bodily harm, brutal assault, theft, poisoning, and three counts of attempted murder. He was sentenced to life in the Scarlet Macaw tribe's maximum security dungeon. Eduardo had originally thought about having Nigel hanged, but he decided not to in the end. But, Nigel was being kept locked away in the Scarlet macaw's dungeon, and he was the most surveilled captive in the entire prison.
Now, life was mostly normal again, except for the terrible onslaught of mosquitoes carrying yellow fever and Zika. In fact, the outbreak had gotten so bad that one of the tribe's members named Tempestade had recently died right after the 2016 Rio Olympics had ended, and it was a pity since he was the only healer in the entire tribe that specialized in gynecology. It was also sad to Eduardo since he had had a personal friendship with Tempestade, as he was the one who took care of his mate, Anita, while she was bearing the egg that would encase Jewel in it. In his honor, Eduardo not only held a funeral for Tempestade, but he also made a decree for all mosquitoes to be killed on sight, immediately.
The Spix's Macaws themselves were flying in happiness all across the gorge, without a care in the world. Some were flying just to have fun, some were collecting breakfast for their families, and some (especially the young) were learning and practicing special air maneuvers.
But out of the absolute mass of Spix's Macaws, Blu himself just happened to be a member of the crowd. He was flying around in the sky with no difficulty, almost floating. Even to Blu, it was extremely surprising how much he had learned in the art of flight, since he had only discovered how to fly just a little less than six years before, on the third day of his relationship with Jewel. Because of his overly-anxious and timid attitude that involved almost literally anything that was barely even close to being a borderline threat to himself, Jewel, his children, or his comrades, he was especially shocked as he had learned to live with flying. It had been something that early on, had made his heart jump like a frog at the very thought. But, he couldn't have learned so much without his beloved mate, who had been his teacher, and had taught him very well indeed.
Blu had just woken up from sleep just ten minutes before, and thankfully, Tiago had not pranked him this time with either a spider, or any other type of frightening arachnid or insect, but that was because he was staying at Eduardo's hollow as punishment for a horrible prank he had pulled the day before. Blu's mission now, as requested by Jewel, was to go out and fetch some breakfast from a tree located in the territory. He had originally not been that keen on the idea of carrying a large wing-full of berries while flying, but Jewel had insisted that he finally put some use to his old, worn-out fanny pack, which had just been sitting in the corner of the hollow, only occasionally being used for the past three years. The fanny pack itself, which was once a nice jet-black color, and looked relatively new, now looked much more like an artifact from the trenches of World War I. Wrinkles were present on its cover, the zipper was rusted, and it had degraded in quality, not to mention that the strap was slightly torn.
Now in the air, Blu hovered with his fanny pack strapped to his stomach, scanning each tree in the area with his eyes, searching for anything that would be considered a good breakfast. Originally, he had looked on the top of the gorge, but all he had spotted up there was clay. While Bia liked devouring clay to help her digestion, Blu still found the practice of straight-up swallowing clay disgusting, and even somewhat uncivilized. After forcefully shoving through the large crowd of his fellow tribe members in the air, to get a glimpse of every tree, his eyes trained directly on one broad tree, dug into the ground with its thick roots. It was located on a very thin ledge on the east side of the gorge that led into the surrounding jungle; the tree carried something on its twigs that Blu had been looking for all morning - wild berries. He tried to observe it more closely, but everyone seemed to be in his way, and were blocking his view of the tree.
His wings flapped down onto the air beneath his feet, and he started hovering upwards above the crowd, rather than breaking through it, a much more practical and intelligent idea. After his body poked out from beneath the sea of the cerulean birds, he could now fly around freely, and the tree in his sight was now directly ahead. His body turned forwards, and he could feel the feathers on his wings bristle in the soft and cool wind, as he calmly glided down, before landing upon the ledge. Even though gliding this high up wasn't a particularly a safe move, it felt more relaxing, and it was much more efficient for toning down the humid air that made his wings drip with sweat.
After he had landed, Blu's wings tucked into the sides of his body again, before his hazel eyes fixed onto the blue wild berries. What really had Blu's attention was that the berries were so perfectly and orderly aligned along the twigs, sticking out apart, on the branches of the tree. He stepped over, under the branches, and he ascended up, landing on one with a twig attached, before his beak locked around the twig, before it violently ripped itself from the branch. Blu then placed the twig on the branch, examining the berries, very carefully with his hazel eyes.
"Okay, no bruises, no rotted ones…" Blu muttered to himself as his gaze bounced off each berry with satisfaction. "Great! Jewel will love these berries for sure! Now, I just gotta bring these to her." Then, he raised the twig, and opened his fanny pack with his talons, before using his talons to carefully prick all the berries, and dropping every single one, one at a time into his fanny pack. After the twig was now berry-less, he took another twig and did the same, before his fanny pack was completely full of wild berries, to the point where Blu looked very bloated, as if he had just eaten three-days worth of tribal feasts. He closed the zipper and turned to fly home, taking off from the branch, and going to the west side of the gorge, in the direction of his and Jewel's hollow.
After about a minute of flight, he reached his hollow, landing in the spacious entrance, to see Jewel, who was cleaning dust off the walls with a tropical leaf.
"Good morning, Jewel!" Blu exclaimed, cheerfully, with a bright and warm smile on his beak.
At seeing how fat Blu appeared from an angle, due to the fanny pack filled with berries, she grinned in amusement, before her beak curved upwards, into a smile of both gratitude and love. "Blu, let me guess, the breakfast is in the fanny pack?" she laughed, joyfully. "Thank you, sweetie."
"Hey, it was no problem… do you by chance want me to harvest any more?" Blu spoke, staring at Jewel and trying to sound upbeat, even though he had been practically traumatized yesterday by one of Tiago's pranks. The day before, Blu and Jewel had followed a devious mango trail on the ground, that had led both of them into a mud puddle that had been infested with snakes. After the incident, Blu had hidden away in his hollow for the rest of the day, while Jewel had been absolutely furious at Tiago. Not even Bia, nor Carla found the prank funny, which was really saying something, since they had often laughed at when Tiago scared the life out of their parents, countless times.
"Não, but thank you so much anyway," Jewel replied, sweetly.
"Where are the kids?" Blu suddenly inquired.
"Oh, Bia is up in her bedroom reading Dutch, Carla's listening to dubstep on her iPod, and Tiago is still at Eduardo's hollow, his comeuppance for that malicious prank he pulled on us yesterday. Boy, I tell you, Tiago is a happy and kind spirit, but he can be the most devious little troublemaker sometimes."
"Jewel, what were you as a kid?" Blu asked, almost turning red at his question.
"Well, I wasn't really like any of our kids when I was first a member of the tribe long ago. I had quite a bit of a charismatic charm and some artistic talent. I absolutely loved Samba, dancing to the endless festivals, almost like Carla does now. I played outside, at the waterfall, watching all the magnificent butterflies flutter in the air above my head, as my mother watched me from a branch; Roberto and I would sing under the palm trees and watch the sunset together, we used to zipline on the vines with leaves, but Roberto's another story. My mother, Anita, often took me to the Amazon River, to get a breath of the beautiful and fresh air, and my father did the same, only he taught me how to fight, hide, crack open Brazil nuts, escape human traps, and strangle unsuspecting enemies.
"But, I will confess, I sometimes got myself into trouble too, like Tiago. The most infamous example was when I scared Daddy with a spider on his birthday, when he was presenting my grandfather's memorial," Jewel then began snickering to herself, deviously. "He was giving a boring and generic speech about remembrance and grand honor on his high pedestal, but he didn't know that I was sitting on a branch, right above him. I hanged a spider from its web, and when the drums played, I lowered it behind his back, when the drum roll halted. Then, he turned around, and he saw a large spider hissing at him, inches from his face, and it had appeared out of nowhere. Aunt Mimi ran away in panic, going bananas; my mother screamed her head off, and Roberto, noticing me on the branch, from the audience, was laughing hysterically. Daddy himself was so startled that I could've sworn his feathers almost tore itself from his skin on the spot. Oh, the good old memories. I'll never forget that."
Blu was just standing there, his wings covered over his beak, before he burst out laughing, so hard in fact that he dropped to the ground, banging his wing-fist on the floor. He struggled to even stay up, as his spine rattled inside him like a pepper shaker from his amusement. After thirty or so seconds of laughing, he managed to pull himself together and lift back off the floor, and sigh with joy. "Jewel, I'll be quite honest - that was the funniest thing I've ever heard or seen, since Chloe got tar in her feathers on Thanksgiving when I was in Minnesota! How were you punished?"
"Oh, I got some combat and camouflage training sessions from Daddy - in the mud," Jewel answered, embarrassed as Blu continued laughing. "Now that I think about it, I kinda regret doing that, not really because I had to go through the same brutal training courses you did when you first arrived here, but because it was pretty disrespectful to my grandfather, who even today, is still revered by the remaining tribe members that were alive during his time. Dad told me stories about him all the time."
"I wish I could've seen your deceased family members, so badly," Blu sighed in disappointment.
"Well, the only one of them that was even alive during our time was my mother. My grandparents died four years before I even hatched, and three years before even you existed."
"So what were we talking about?" Blu asked out of thin air, abruptly, completely oblivious to the fanny pack strapped to his stomach, making Jewel giggle.
"Breakfast, remember?" she reminded, with a tone of sweetness in her voice.
"Oh, right!" Blu stuttered. He unzipped the fanny pack, and also unclipped it from his chest, turning it upside down, and letting all the berries pour out like flour, onto the ground. He then tossed the fanny pack aside to about a foot away from the entrance. "They look good, right?"
"Well yes, the berries are fresh, there's nothing rotten, or dented. Alright, let's call the kids down, and you'll go pick up Tiago from Daddy's tree, compreendo?"
"Sim," Blu replied, the Portuguese word for yes.
Jewel's head turned upwards, in the direction of the shining sunlight glaring in the inside of the hollow. She stared at the bark doors, near the top of the ceiling, that belonged to Carla and Bia.
"Carla! Bia! Breakfast!" Jewel called warmingly.
"We're coming!" both of their voices sounded in unison. Both of the bark doors swung open, as Carla, wielding an iPod with earbuds firmly fixated into her ears from the left one, and Bia came from the right one, running down the stone steps of the hollow, ecstatic and muttering, as she carried a Dutch language study textbook. After all, if she happened to end up in Brazil's northern neighbor, Suriname in her lifetime, it would certainly be useful. Blu then reached over to Jewel, embracing her in a tight hug of joy.
"Alright kids, I'll be back in a half hour or so with your brother!" Blu said as he waved goodbye to his children and Jewel.
"See you soon, brainiac," Jewel giggled. She hadn't called Blu by that name in years. Blu almost laughed himself at that familiar title from when he and Jewel were at their peak when it came to their popularity amongst the city birds of Rio. Even though Blu loved his Amazonian home, he still truly missed those days, and Jewel calling him an old name was refreshing after so long.
Blu, grinning at his mate, turned around, facing the sunshine, lurching forward, and his wings spreading out. He lifted himself off the ledge of the hollow, flying out of sight.
Blu was still happily flying in the air, and looked up in awe as the clouds had become colossally large, and one was rounded on the edges, and "wings" were attached to the sides of the cloud. It reminded him of the many science-fiction films he watched with Linda on the couch at home. He had even had Jewel watch Star Wars with him on the aviary's DVD player while she was still recovering from her wing injury received on the smuggler's plane.
As he looked straight ahead to keep his eye on the trees in front of him, he passed over the heads of many Spix's Macaws, who were still searching for fruit and nuts to bring to their families for breakfast. Then, as he turned left, he caught a glimpse of an absolutely massive tree that was stout upon a cliff edge, overlooking the river, and the waterfall. It bore a rather rounded, but still rectangular-shaped leafy top, open windows were wing-carved into the sides, and the hollow entrance was decorated with wet moss that was soaked in water, and pink trumpet tree flowers, something that often signified honor and wealth in the tribe. Blu recognized it immediately - it was Roberto's hollow, but he had never seen in this ornate before. Obviously, Roberto was arranging something special of some sort. Blu was now curious at what was going on. He halted his thoughts on Tiago for the moment, landing at the entrance of Roberto's tree-mansion, before he peaked in and saw Roberto, who was at the base of his private water slide and indoor birdbath, digging at the wood beneath it with his strong talons.
"Hey, Roberto!" Blu calmly greeted, walking into the hollow. Roberto's crest feathers launched up into the air in alarm, before turning around to see that it was only Blu at the entrance.
"Oh, hello, Blu, why are you here?" he sighed, his crest feathers settling back down, calmly onto his head.
"Oh, I was just flying over to Eduardo's to pick up Tiago for breakfast, but I just happened to come across your hollow on the way, and I thought that it would be nice to just drop by and ask how you were doing."
"Well, that's kind of you, but all I really need is a large stick. These stupid dead beetles are stuck in the corner of the base of my waterslide. I have to clean up the place soon, as Eduardo's memorial for Anita will be presented outside, in the jungle, and immediately after that, they'll be a party over here at my place. I don't want any of my guests freaking out over dead insects lying around, especially Mimi, who flies away like a wuss every time she sees a fly buzzing around a room."
"I think there's some really big sticks near the stream that the tribe publicly uses for fishing purposes every once in awhile. No one is using them right now, so I recommend you use one of them as an option to clean out the waterslide. Alright, bye, I'm leaving!"
"Nice greeting to you, Blu!" Roberto said. Blu then turned around, and took off, straight in the direction of Eduardo's hollow, eastwards.
Blu continued his errand, and the crowds of other Spix's Macaws had been largely reduced, as most had by now found some food to bring to their homes. However, many macaws remained outside harvesting, still. While on his way, Blu was constantly being interrupted without warning by his fellow tribe members and neighbors. One of his neighbors, Alberta had invited him to Anita's memorial party in March, and Blu kindly accepted the offer, but in reality, he didn't care too much for that matter at the moment.
One of Jewel's friends, Eneida needed help breaking open an entire lot of coconuts, which was intended as an attraction at the celebration of Anita's memorial. It sure was strange that virtually everyone was either involved in and or talking about the memorial, yet Jewel, Anita's own daughter spoke no word at all about it. Maybe the memory of Anita's death is too grieving for Jewel to talk about Blu thought to himself, while humming a Samba hymn.
After what seemed like ages, Blu finally spotted the patriarch's tree, which was the absolute largest in the tribe, but now, even from a far distance, Blu could see elegant and ancient-looking markings on the sides of the tree, which were painted in red berry juice. The leaves of the tree were now sprinkled with yellow, orange, pink, and white flowers.
Obviously, by now, Blu knew this beautiful decoration was in honor of Anita. He was now quite curious on why Anita was so beloved in the entire Amazon rainforest. But, that question in his mind had to be answered at a later date. I know, I'll ask Eduardo during the celebration Blu daydreamed. Then, he raised his wings further upwards, to get more air under them, before he launched at full speed. It would be good to see Tiago again, even if had been only less than a day.