Chapter 1: Another birdly match
It was a beautiful sunny day in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, two weeks after Eduardo had given an enormous celebration for the 1st anniversary of Jewel's return and the defeat of the loggers that was led by Blu.
It was around 13:00 local time in the sanctuary where the Spix Macaw and Scarlet Macaw tribes live. For many years these two were fierce rivals of each other and had many "wars" within the Pit of Doom. These wars are actually soccer games with Brazil nuts. Over a little more than a year ago, they had their last actual rival match, where Blu accidentally scored and own goal and thus giving all of the Brazil nuts to the scarlet macaws.
However, when the scarlet macaws saw their home was being threatened, Felipe, the scarlet leader, decided that his tribe should team up with the Spix macaws in order to drive the loggers out of their homes once and for all. This ensured that the rivalry between the two tribes ended, and they became trusted allies that shared the entire Brazil nut grove.
Still, the two tribes shared a friendly rivalry and in order to channel that rivalry, they held sportily competitions within the Pit of Doom. Sometimes this was with scarlet and spix macaw children (last one was won by the spix macaws) and sometimes this was between the adults. Within the children of both tribes, it was usual that males and females played together (like Skye for instance), but with the adults it was always males and females separated.
Today, 11 adult males of both sides made their introduction in the pit of doom. On one side, there was the scarlet macaw side, which was led by their captain, Felipe. On the other side there was the spix macaw tribe, led by their captain, Roberto. And within their ranks, was the spix macaw that saved the natural sanctuary over a year ago. The spix macaw that Eduardo entrusted to even become the next chieftain of the tribe: Blu.
Blu was very nervous and thought to himself: Come on, Blu, don't screw it up like you did last year.
He then looked to his right and saw the faces of 5 of his family members. 4 of them were cheering to him. These were his children Bia, Carla and Tiago and his aunt-in-law, Mimi. Next to Bia was his mate, Jewel, who was simply smiling at him. Knowing that he would mess up anything.
he then looked a bit down and on the row nearest to the pit stood and older bird, looking proudly at his players. This was Eduardo, Jewel's father and Blu's father-in-law. Blu knew that, although the scarlets and spix didn't fight anymore over the Brazil nuts, he couldn't bare it to humiliate his tribe a second time with an own goal.
he looked back forward, seeing that the game was about to begin.
"Tails." Felipe called.
"Heads." Roberto declared.
The referee threw the yellow-and-orange bird into the air. The bird landed on her back, facing upwards.
"Why did I ever consider taking this as my job?" the bird groaned annoyed.
The referee kicked the Brazil nut to Roberto and the game began.
the tapir narrator declared: "Welcome, everyone! It is another beautiful day at the Pit of Doom! It is the male spix against the male scarlet macaws!"
The porcupine narrator continued: "These are one of the best males that both tribes have to offer, vying to see who has the upper hand in this friendly match!"
"Tito passes to Mario." the Tapir announced, "Mario passes to Felip-, OH! but Blu catches the ball in between!"
"Go, dad!" Bia, Carla and Tiago cheered at the same time.
Blu flew with the ball towards the goal of the scarlets but sone became surrounded by multiple red macaws, including Felipe.
"Blu! Here!" yelled Roberto from his left.
Blu then kicked the ball upwards and to his left towards Roberto
"Blu kick the ball to Roberto, Roberto shoots…" the Tapir said
And the ball went into the net.
"GOAL!" the tapir and porcupine yelled.
"GOAL!" yelled the entire side of the spix macaws.
"Great assist, Blu." Jewel said to herself.
"Haha, yeah! Thanks for the assist, Blu!" said Roberto happily as he and Blu bumped their chests against each other.
"Don't celebrate too soon, Roberto. The game has only begun, and much can still change." Blu remarked.
Some of the scarlet macaws didn't take that goal to well and made a comeback.
"Felipe passes to Mario, Mario passes to Carlos, Carlos to Felipe back aaannddd, Felipe scores!" the tapir announced.
The scarlet macaw tribe cheered.
"It has become a tie!" the porcupine announced.
"Hah! See if you can hold up, now, Roberto!" Felipe boasted while pointing at him.
The game went on at a frenzied pace, with much back and forths from both sides. And after about 30 minutes of playing, the score was 4-4. The last goal was the winning one.
"This is it, everyone!" the porcupine announced, "the next goal decides who the winner will be!"
Felipe tried to score at one point, but the ball was caught by the keeper, who kicked it to another spix macaw.
"Nicolas passes to Samuel, Samuel passes to Roberto and-, oh! the sacrelts are going into full offense!"
Before Roberto knew it, he was surrounded by 7 scarlet macaws, each of them trying to take the ball and in the chaos, Roberto accidentally dropped the ball.
Felipe and 4 other ones went after it, and Felipe even almost caught the ball.
"I'll take that." said Blu's voice out of nowhere.
Blu went upwards, he was breathing heavily, remembering how this scene was similar to last year, but this time he looked to where most scarlet macaws were stationed and then saw the goal of the scarlet macaws clearly.
"Do, it, Blu!" Mimi cheered.
"Go, dad!", Bia, Carla and Tiago yelled
"Come on, Blu…" Jewel said softly.
And with a yell, Blu kicked the ball as hard as he could.
The ball flew towards the net. The scarlet macaw keeper almost caught it, but just flew by the tips of his feather and into the net.
"And that is five goals for the spix macaws!" the tapir yelled.
"Looks like Blu, whom we first knew as the 'water boy', truly made an improvement from last year." the porcupine said amusingly.
The spix macaw tribe cheered out loud.
"Yes! That's my son-in-law at his greatest!" Eduardo exclaimed happily and proudful.
"Yeah! Woohoo! That's our dad!" Tiago boasted with his wings in the air.
Roberto and Blu clapped their wings.
"Alright, Blu! Thanks to your goal, we won!"
"Ah, well, uh, it was a pleasure. I just wanted that the tribe could win." he said awkwardly and shyly.
Blu flew in the direction of his wife, but before he could do so, Felipe called out.
"Hey, Blu. That was a great goal you made there."
"Well, thanks, Felipe. You and your team didn't play bad either." Blu said shyly.
"Well, we can't win them all, can we? But of course, we, can win next time." Felipe smirked.
"Ah, funny. Anyways, I have to go to my family. See you next time, Felipe." Blu said as he flew in the direction of Jewel.
As he landed, he was greeted by his cheering kids, who hugged him directly.
"You did awesome, daddy!" Carla exclaimed.
"Indeed, you did!" said Bia
"Totally!" yelled Tiago.
"I too must say this was an interesting game to watch, but you truly made it into a blue victory!" Mimi said enthusiastically as she bumped Blu with her wing.
"Thanks, guys." said Blu in a cheerful tone.
It was then Jewel who approached her husband.
"You truly played well, Blu, I never doubted in you." she said cheerful.
"Aw, thank you, honey, even after what happened last year?" Blu asked his wife.
"Oh, please, Blu." Jewel said rolling her eyes amusingly, "That was long ago and long forgotten."
"Well, the narrator didn't seem to have forgotten." Blu said playfully.
Then, Eduardo flew towards the two.
"Hey, hey, there's my son-in-law! Nice goal you made there." Eduardo boasted
"Ah, thank you, sir." Blu once again said very shyly.
Meanwhile, the kids had gone to their lovers. They were all together in a little group.
"That was an awesome match! And it has all been won by you father!" Renaldo said while looking at Carla.
"Yeah! And don't forget that Uncle Beto made some sweet moves as well!" said Tiago.
Then Miguel spoke shyly. "Yeah, even though my tribe lost, I must admit we came close and that your father truly has some amazing skills."
"Well, your tribe also played well, Miguel" Bia said assuring to her boyfriend, making him smile and blush a bit.
"Maybe, your tribe will win the next one, Mig" Skye said while patting on his shoulder.
"Oh, perhaps we'll win ALL the next games, both adults and children." said an all too familiar voice that made the smile of the six macaws drop.
"Butt off, Antonio" Carla said sternly, "this was a friendly match, remember."
"There is no such thing as a 'friendly match', tubby."
Everyone frowned, especially Renaldo, who didn't like the idea of his girlfriend being insulted. Then Bia stepped in.
"First of all, don't call my sister 'tubby', and second, didn't you forget that Felipe chose another scarlet macaw kid as the new captain for the kid team?" Bia asked with a smirk.
"That's because my teammates didn't follow my instructions, big mouth!"
"Stop it, Antonio! Or else I'll-" Miguel spoke up, but still shyly.
"Or else what, birdbrain? Tell my mother? Ha! Like I'm scared." Antonio boasted.
The 6 looked very annoyed, but then their faced turned into a smirk somehow.
"What are you six smirking at?" Antonio demanded
"That there is someone behind you." said a stern voice.
Antonio's face suddenly went from stern one to the one of a frightened chicken and he gulped.
He turned around and saw his mother.
"H-hi, mom" he said frightfully.
"You are once again grounded for a week, young man. Will you ever learn to harness your social skill? Now come on! Home, now." Antonio's mother said while she and the rest of the scarlet flock left.
Antonio turned around to Bia, Carla, Tiago, Skye, Renaldo and Miguel.
"This is not over, mark my words." said Antonio as he flew away.
"What a sore loser", Skye spat.
"Save it, Skye. He's not worth it at all." Tiago said.
"Ti is right, we should enjoy this moment tonight!" said Renaldo.
"Fine by me! Do you wish to study some insects tomorrow, Miguel?" Bia asked het red-winged boyfriend.
"That's alright, Bia" Miguel replied.
Before Miguel left, he and Bia shared a kiss on the beak.
In the evening, Blu, his family and the rest of the spix macaw tribe enjoyed their victory. They mostly celebrated in the knowledge that the relationships between the two tribes was becoming stronger and stronger by the day.
As they were celebrating, however, some well-known faces showed themselves.
"Hey, lovebirds! I see you're celebrating something!" said an all too familiar voice.
"Rafi?!" Blu said surprised and then he and his family saw 3 other familiar faces.
"Eva!" Jewel exclaimed happily.
"Uncle Nico! Uncle Pedro!" Carla cheered happily as she flew to them and hugged her cool musical 'uncles' mid-air.
"Hey, how ya doin', kid?" Pedro asked.
"Oh, this party? We're celebrating our victory at the Pit of Doom. And dad was the one who made the winning goal!"
"Well, I truly believed you would be able to do that, my boy!" Rafael said while patting on Blu's shoulder.
"Hah, thanks, Rafi. So, what brings you all the way here in the Amazon?"
"This year, we decided that the four of us will celebrate Carnival here in the jungle." said Eva.
"That's amazing, Eva, but what about your kids?" Jewel asked.
"Oh, they are being cared by Luiz and Kipo, no worries." Rafael said smoothly.
"What about the birds in Rio? Aren't they gonna mis you guys?" Tiago asked.
"Oh, Kipo has decided to take charge of things this year in Rio." Pedro said.
"Yeah, and after our last successful hit here in the Amazon last year, we wanted to come up with a new Carnival theme." said Nico
"Great! Then I'm not gonna waste any time in seeking for auditions!" Carla exclaimed, "What's the name of this year's theme?"
"We call it: 'The Echoes of the Amazon'." Nico said while looking at the sky with awe.
"Cool! 'The Echoes of the Amazon', ooh, I like it! Carla said enthusiastically.
"I like that name too, guys", said Renaldo, who joined the conversation.
"Yo, bird, Renaldo, was it? Ya treatin' our musical girl good enough?" Pedro asked.
"Yeah, because if you don't, you don't wanna know what's gonna happen to you. Nico said while frowning.
"Guys, please" Carla said rolling her eyes.
"Don't worry, guys. I would never hurt her in any way." said Renaldo whilst looking romantically to his girlfriend. "Her father already made sure of that."
"So, is that guy named Antonio still bullying you?" Nico asked curiously.
"Oh, yeah." Carla said with a boring face, "But not like it matters to me, Renaldo my sibling and their love interests. In fact, he even got busted by his mom today at the Pit of Doom."
"Yeah, serves him right." Tiago said.
"Alright, enough chatting. Now can we join the party of not?" Rafael asked impatiently.
"Sure, you can!" Mimi said happily, "We'll even get some tree rooms that you can temporarily use to stay at."
"Thank you very much, miss Mimi." Eva said.
And with that the two toucans, the yellow canary and the red-crested cardinal joined the party with the spix macaws. They partied until they were exhausted and all went to sleep.
And so, unbeknownst yet to everyone, a new adventure began. This was the start of Rio 3.
To be continued…