Chapter 5: Jasmine and Thomas' arrival
(This began when Blu was still sleeping and having a strange dream.)
The rays of the morning twilight arose from the eastern parts of the Amazon rainforest.
All the birds were getting ready to start a new day.
Somewhere on a branch, in a hollow that was long abandoned, lay two spix macaws, sleeping. They were both muscular in build, but the male seemed to frown and pant a lot in his sleep. Suddenly, he let out a short yelp of fear, his pupil dilated, and he was panting heavily.
The female seemed to have been woken up by the male's sound.
"Nightmare again, Thomas?" the female asked.
"The second one this night, Jas. The first one didn't wake you up." Thomas replied with a heavy sigh.
"The past again?" Jasmine asked.
"Yeah." Thomas sighed heavily, "And I just want this to end, sis. I haven't had a nightmareless night and a full night sleep in eight months. So, something good needs to happen quickly. 'Cause I'm not holding this up any longer."
Jasmine sighed. They have been traveling like this through Brazil for nearly 6 years, ever since a tragedy lost them the clan, which they called home and their parents as well.
"Come on, Thom, morning is here, we need to find some food. Hopefully we'll find some good fruits and maybe even some Brazil nuts." Jasmine said.
"Right." Thomas groaned as he stood up, ready to leave the hollow with his sister.
Thomas and Jasmine flew towards the west over the Amazon River. They eventually decided that they have flown enough and that it was time to take a break where they could also search for food.
But as fate would have it, they didn't find any food at all. Jasmine sighed as her stomach rumbled with hunger.
"We're not so lucky today, are we, big bro?" Jasmine asked Thomas.
"Nope, we're not." Thomas replied.
"Let's go a bit deeper, maybe we'll find something then."
The two spix macaws flew further to the west and at some point, they were bothered a bit by a group of monkeys, but the spix sibling made some threatening noises to scare them off.
As they sat once again on a branch, Thomas then saw it: there was another branch with 2 Brazil nuts and the other branch had some açaí berries on it.
"Finally." Jasmine sighed, "Food."
Jasmine and Thomas took the Brazil nuts of with ease and started chewing the crest of the nut with their beaks.
"It has been weeks since we ate one of these." Thomas said.
"Yes, and I'm gonna savor every taste of it-" Jasmine said, before she heard a rustling in the trees.
The two spix macaws froze at that point, they believed that danger was once again near. Therefore, they dropped the Brazil nuts and readied themselves for a possible fight.
"Remember, Thomas, don't let-" Jasmine wanted to say something, but Thomas quickly responded.
"Yes, yes, I won't let him control me if we have to fight. I will stay in control here."
For about half a minute everything was silent and the two stood ready to battle, if necessary, but then their eyes fell on a feather that was falling beside them. It was a red feather.
They looked upwards and saw three red macaws sitting on a tree branch, looking at them. The one in the middle was Felipe and he was the one who spoke up.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Felipe said, looking at Thomas and Jasmine.
Thomas and Jasmine stopped their battle stance but still didn't give an anxious look in order not to show fear.
"Heh, even though our feud has ended, Old Eddie and I made it clear that we wouldn't take food from each other's sides, right guys?" Felipe asked his Tribe members.
"Yeah.", "So true.", "Totally.", those were the words of the scarlet and green-winged macaws that had Jasmine and Thomas now surrounded.
"You two are on our side, still, remember?" Felipe asked Thomas and Jasmine.
"Side?" Jasmine asked, "What side? We're just 2 lone macaws wandering the wild, trying to survive."
"Yeah, and we might even be the last of our species." Thomas added.
To what Thomas said, Felipe looked at the 2 besides him, before they all started laughing.
Thomas and Jasmine looked at each other as the red macaws kept laughing and were preparing to put them once again into a battle stance.
"Ah, that's a good one 'the last of our species', while there is whole flock of your kind next to us." Felipe said.
"Well, we're not looking for a fight, we're just here to eat and we'll be on our-", but Jasmine suddenly stopped in her sentence.
"There is a whole flock of spix macaws nearby?" she asked.
"You mean the ones next to us at the clay cliffs and the waterfalls, the ones where we had a feud with for years but are now great allies thanks to 1 spix macaw saving this entire part of the rainforest from loggers? Yes, that's the nearest tribe of spix macaws." Felipe answered.
"You said your feud ended, right?", Thomas asked.
"Yeah, you heard that right." Felipe responded.
"Who's your leader?" Thomas declared.
Felipe's smile turned into a smug one, before saying: "You're looking at him."
"Oh, great." Thomas said, "Well, sorry for 'stealing' your food, but can you take us to the leader of the spix macaw tribe?"
Felipe didn't say anything, he looked with a frown at Thomas. He looks so similar to Blu, how is that possible? Felipe thought this to himself, and Thomas and Jasmine seemed to notice this.
"Uhm, are you alright, sir?" Jasmine asked.
Felipe snapped out of his trance. "Oh, sorry, it's just that your boyfriend here reminded me of someone in the spix macaw tribe that looks similar."
When hearing 'boyfriend', Thomas his face dropped, and he said in a serious tone: "I'm her brother, strange scarlet macaw leader we never met."
"Oh, where are my manners?" Felipe said, "My name is Felipe."
On hearing that, both Jasmine and Thomas raised their heads a little.
"We… have also known someone called Felipe." Jasmine said.
"But we do not have good memories about that Felipe." Thomas added.
Felipe made a small grunt.
"So, Felipe, can you get us to the chieftain of that spix macaw tribe or not?" Jasmine asked.
"Alright, then." Felipe said, 'Mario, Cesar, you're coming with me, and we'll guide these 2 to Old Eddie."
"Eddie? Is that the name of the spix macaw tribe leader?" Thomas asked a bit dumbfounded.
"Well, his real name is Eduardo, but I've always called him Eddie." Felipe responded, "Now, you two, follow me."
And so, Felipe took off with Mario, Cesar, Thomas and Jasmine on their ways to Eduardo's hollow.
When they were about halfway to Eduardo's hollow, Felipe asked: "By the way, I told my name, but what are yours?"
"My name's Jasmine." Jasmine replied.
"Thomas." Thomas said.
"Jasmine and Thomas." Felipe replied, "Those aren't real Brazilian names, are they?"
"True, but we don't come from a foreign land, Felipe, our parents just called us that." Jasmine said.
The 5 macaws flew further until they reached Eduardo's hollow.
"Hey, yo, Old Eddie, I've got something for ya." Felipe said, but there was no answer.
"Eddie?" Felipe said, poking his head into the hollow of Eduardo. No one was home. In fact, this side of the forest seemed to be empty.
"Where is everyone?" Cesar asked.
Suddenly, Mario heard something from afar.
"There seems to be a lot of commotion at the waterfalls." Mario said.
"Come on, let's go then." Felipe urged
As they flew further, they saw that there was indeed much commotion at the waterfalls and clay banks.
Jasmine and Thomes were awestruck by the beauty of this place, but more so by the fact that they saw hundreds of spix macaws, their spicies.
Some spix macaws looked a bit dumbfounded that 3 scarlet macaws were here, but when they saw that Felipe was among them, they knew he was searching for Eduardo and that it was important.
"I see him, Felipe, there!" Mario said as he pointed to his left.
"Hey, yo, Eddie!"
"Felipe." Eduardo said surprised.
"I have been searching for you, but I couldn't find you." Felipe told Eduardo as he landed with 2 scarlet macaws and even 2 unknown spix macaws beside him.
"That's because today my long-lost wife, Sapphire, has returned to the tribe." Eduardo said whilst showing Sapphire to Felipe.
Felipe was a bit dumbstruck. "But… didn't you tell me a few months ago that she perished in a forest fire cause by loggers?"
"That's what I thought, but just like with my daughter, I was once again wrong." Eduardo declared.
Felipe looked at Sapphire and greeted her, telling his name. Sapphire told him that she heard the name before by Blu, who thought that Felipe was near him, even though he wasn't on their territory stealing food. Felipe laughed at this, reminding Blu about the accidental 'war' he caused last year.
"In the past, when I was separated from the spix macaw tribe, I have also known someone who was called Felipe, but don't have good memories about that guy." Sapphire said.
"Heh, these two here (pointing at the unknown spix macaws) said the same thing when we found them on our side of the grove." Felipe said.
The spix macaws finally realized that there were standing 2 other spix macaws next to Felipe, a male and a female, both very muscular. Many spix macaws that were standing on the other tree branches also noticed them at this point. Eduardo had never seen them before and addressed them.
"Who are the two of you?" Eduardo asked extremely serious.
The female spoke. "Greetings, my name is Jasmine, and this is my older brother Thomas. Mr. Felipe told us that next to them a spix macaw tribe resided."
"Correct, where did you both come from?" Eduardo asked.
"Let's just say that we have endured a lot of misery and pain and travelled a long way through most of Brazil, trying our best to survive."
"Mhh, I see." said Eduardo, "Well, since you are both spix macaws, you can stay at the tribe and-" but before he could finish his sentence, he noticed something. Thomas his facial structure was looking VERY similar to Blu's, only difference was that Thomas' eyes were green (same as Carla's) and that he had no little feathers on the back of his head.
"Uh, sir? Are you alright?" Thomas asked a bit confused.
"Blu, can you come here for a moment?" Eduardo asked.
Blu walked towards Eduardo and said: "What is it, sir?"
But before Eduardo could say anything, both Thomas and Jasmine said at the same time: "BLU?!"
Blu, the rest of the spix macaws and the three red macaws were dumbstruck, did these two birds know him?
To be continued…