Chapter 20: Reunion of colors

Four days to go and then the Carnaval Show could begin at last. The excitement in the air was all time high and performers did their absolute best in the training of their singing and dancing.

Eduardo was flying through the jungle alone, patrolling the areas. Sapphire had decided that she would be spending some time with her daughter, her son-in-law and her grandchildren. By noon, he was starting to get hungry and eventually landed at a Brazil nut tree in the southern part of the tribe's borders.

Eduardo took a nut from the tree and started biting the crest from the nut.

"Nothing tastes better than a delicious Brazil nut." Eduardo said to himself.

As he stood on the point of eating the smaller nut inside, he spotted something coming from the southeast. It was dim at first, but after about 5 minutes of staring, he saw that it was a swarm of birds.

"What in…" Eduardo said to himself, but still remained on his tree.

As the flock got closer, he saw that the birds were in fact red. They looked like scarlet and green-winged macaws.

Eduardo was dumbfounded. Felipe's tribe is to the north, not the south.

As he was about to leave, however, he couldn't help but notice that this tribe looked smaller than the one of Felipe, he estimated that there were only 160 to 170 members in the sky.

They were really close now and Eduardo started to get nervous, but as he was about to fly back to the tribe and report it. The flock stopped around 100 meters in front of him.

Eduardo looked surprised but had still some nervosity in his body. Then, as all the other macaws stood still, 2 macaws came flying towards his direction. As they got closer, he saw that they were a scarlet macaw and a blue-and-yellow macaw.

Before he knew it, the two were standing/flying right in front of him. The scarlet macaw was a female, and the blue-and-yellow macaw seemed like a male. The female had some sort of red-feathered 'ponytail' on the back of her head. They stared at each other for about half a minute, until Eduardo broke silence.

"Uh, good day, sir and ma'am…" Eduardo said nervous but still sternly.

"Good day, sir." the female spoke.

"I wonder what the scarlet macaws are doing on this side of the grove, so far from their turf." Eduardo said.

"Turf?" the blue-and-yellow macaw said. "What are you talking about? We're just a small tribe that wanders around South America, looking for a better place to live."

"You're not from the tribe that lives north of us?" Eduardo asked confused.

"What tribe are you talking about, sir? Is there another scarlet macaw tribe in here?" the female asked.

"Yes, one we previously had a rivalry with, but after defeating the loggers that were present, we became strong allies." Eduardo replied.

"Can you lead us there and let me talk to their leader, because I'm the one of this tribe." the female said.

"Uh, of course, we'll follow the river, and we'll get to their side of the grove." Eduardo replied.

"Thank, you, sir!" the female replied. "Let me talk to my tribe first and then we'll follow you."

She did as she said, and the tribe quickly followed Eduardo with the male and female beside him.

"Say, can I ask you something, sir?" blue-and-yellow macaw asked.

"Yes?" Eduardo replied.

"Are you a spix macaw? Because your blue feathers truly make you look like one." the male said.

"Yes, I'm the chieftain of the tribe that lives in the southern parts of the grove, near the waterfalls and the clay banks." Eduardo replied.

"There are spix macaws here in the jungle?" the female scarlet asked.

"Yes, and we are certain that we won't be bothered again by loggers or poachers." Eduardo said.

As Eduardo said that, the male and female gave each other, unbeknownst to Eduardo, a look of sorrow, as if they had seen something Eduardo hadn't seen.

After about 15 minutes of flying across the river, they were at the borders of the scarlet macaw tribe from Felipe. And to Eduardo's luck, Felipe and some other red macaws were perched on a clearing on the ground.

"Felipe!" Eduardo said.

Felipe looked to his left and saw Eduardo.

"Hey, yo, Eddie, how-" Felipe said, but quickly stopped in his phrase as he saw an entire flock of red macaws that were flying behind him. The other scarlet macaws were confused as well.

"What in… what in heavens name is this all about, Eddie?" Felipe asked Eduardo.

"Felipe, I found this young lady and young man with their flock flying into the air." Eduardo said as he presented the female scarlet and the male blue-and-yellow macaw. "They said that they have been searching for a home in South America, but it seems that they've got no luck. Perhaps you can help them, because they're your kind?"

Felipe didn't say anything, he just kept staring at the scarlet female. Her ponytail, her brown eyes, her smooth and shiny red feathers. This was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

"Felipe? Felipe!" Eduardo yelled.

This made Felipe come out of his stance and said: "Oh, sorry, Eddie, I was just-, uh, never mind."

Felipe (looking at the female): "Anyways, with what can I help you ma'am?"

"Well, we need food." the female said.

"And also shelter." said the blue-and-yellow macaw.

"Are you the two chieftains of that flock over there?" Felipe asked as he pointed to the flock.

"Well, we're not a couple of course, he's my brother, well half-brother to be exact, and he follows us. I'm the chieftainess."

"How many tribe members do you have?" Felipe asked.

"166 red macaws, which includes myself, my brother and a Military macaw. A total of 168 birds." the female replied.

Felipe thought for a moment and then said: "to the northern outskirsts there are still a lot of trees that are inhabited, and they do have hollows. We use it as a reserve in case something happens. Maybe we can squeeze you there."

"Oh, thank you, Mr. Felipe!" the female said.

"You're welcome, ma'am." Felipe said.

"Heh, Felipe." the blue-and-yellow macaw said. "I hope he's not like the Felipe we knew."

The female's eyes narrowed a bit, and she said: "We're not gonna talk about them, Arturo, they are long gone."

"I know, Mia, I know." Arturo said in a tone that he tried to make as amusing as possibe, now revealing the female's name.

Mia and Arturo? Where have I heard those names before? Eduardo thought to himself.

"Mia." Felipe said to himself, clearly ignoring the fact that Arturo had just said something bad about his name. "What a beautiful name."

Mia blushed a bit and said: "Thank you, Mr. Felipe."

Eduardo then spoke up and said: "My name is Eduardo."

"Thank, you for leading us, here Eduardo." Arturo said.

Then suddenly, another figure came next to Eduardo.

"Hey, there sweetie." Sapphire said.

"Hah, my Sapphire, a true gem of the jungle, how was it with Jewel, Blu and the grandchi-" Eduardo said, but before he could say anything more. Mia and Arturo spoke in unison.

Arturo and Mia (startled): "SAPPHIRE?!"

Sapphire looked at the two birds and after 5 seconds of thinking, her eyes widened with shock and confusion.

Sapphire gasped and said: "I-, I don't believe it…"

"H-, how-, how is this…" Mia said.

Sapphire: "We were battling our foes that one day and suddenly the earth shook, trees were falling and…"

Arturo: "The mountains themselves seemed to crumble and all those rocks were falling and…"

Mia: "in the chaos so many birds were crushed by it. We to were trapped by large stones in those caves…"

Sapphire (saddened): "I looked so long for all of you, but never found you."

Arturo (tearing up): "We're here."

Arturo and Mia ran at Sapphire, hugged her and Mia said tearfully: "Sapphire!"

Eduardo then realized it. These were the two birds she helped raising when she was with 4 other tribes in Peru.

"I thought we'd never see you again, Sapph." Mia said tearfully.

"It's alright, Mia and Arturo, I got you." Sapphire said to which Arturo chuckled.

After some hugging, they looked back at each other and Sapphire said: "Look at you two. It's boy and girl I helped raising. And you seem also unharmed."

Mia and Arturo smiled, but then Sapphire noticed the small red macaw tribe and said: "I see that the tribe has shrunk."

"The earthquakes did a real toll on our numbers, and we've been surviving for the past 7 years in different places in South America, never having a permanent home." Mia said.

"What about the blue-and-yellow tribe?" Sapphire asked, looking at Arturo.

Arturo tried to put the best smile on as he could, but he shrugged, raised his wings and said with a sigh: "I'm the only one left. All the few survivors have perished on our way through South America."

Sapphire was shocked and said: "Oh, I'm very sorry to hear that. And what about Nicole and the caninde tribe and Orlando and his gray parrots?"

Mia shook her head and said: "None of them are alive. We found their bodies after 3 days of searching amongst the rubble."

Sapphire then looked down sadly.

"What happened to them is awful." Eduardo said. "And Sapphire has also lived her life all alone in the jungle for many years. But almost 2 weeks ago, she was reunited with me, her daughter and even her son-in-law and grandchildren."

"You are Sapphire's mate?" Arturo said.

"That's right." Eduardo said.

"And you say that she is reunited with her daughter, that she called Jewel?" Mia said shocked.

"Indeed, Mia and Arturo." Sapphire said.

Mia then squealed and hugged Sapphire tightly and said: "I wanna meet her, her husband and your grandchildren."

Sapphire smiled at this and said: "I will do when you are all settled in your nests."

"No need for that. She comes already with her husband and grandchildren." Eduardo said as he saw Jewel, Blu and the kids coming from the south.

Jewel, Blu and the kids landed on the ground.

"Hey, daddy, there you are. I've been looking for you. Question, what's with all those red macaws over there?" Jewel asked as she spotted all the red macaws.

"You can better ask you mother and her friends here (points at Mia and Arturo) about that." Eduardo said.

"Jewel." Sapphire said. "These are Mia and Arturo. Two half-siblings who lost their mother just after they were born and when I arrived at their tribes, I helped the tribe's leader to raise them, alongside their 2 other half-siblings, and served as an ambassador between the 4 tribes when they became the respective leader of each tribe."

"Oh." Jewel said with amazement "Nice to meet you two."

"Nice to meet you too, Jewel, when we were chicks, Sapphire told me and my other siblings the stories of when she had you, but also how she lost you." Mia said.

"Yeah, and because we never knew our biological mothers well, she kinda served as a 'replacement mother', even though she had no relationship with our dad at all." Arturo said smoothly.

"Oh, that's why we see an entire red macaw tribe over there." Blu said.

"Exactly, Mr.?" Arturo asked.

"Jewel's mate, Blu. My name's Blu."

"Phahaha! Good one, you spix macaws are all blue!" Arturo said, bursting out with laughter.

"Oh, no that's my actual name, B-L-U." Blu added shyly.

"Arturo, manners, please. Respect someone's name." Mia said sternly at her brother.

"I see that there is a red macaw tribe, but where are the other tribes then?" Jewel asked.

This made the faces of Sapphire, Arturo and Mia drop and Mia said: "They all perished, with Arturo being the last member of his original tribe."

"Oh." Jewel said. "How did they perish?"

"By an earthquake, but we don't wish to talk about the details. It's too horrible to think of." Mia said, to which Sapphire nodded in agreement.

"Oh, sorry I asked." Jewel said.

"Anyways, I'm gonna tell the tribe that we found you, Sapph!" Arturo said as he flew towards Mia's tribe.

"GUYS! YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT, BUT WE FOUND SAPPHIRE!" Arturo said loud and clear, so that everyone could hear it. There was murmur across the entire tribe and before everyone knew it, they were all descending to the open clearing, eager to greet Sapphire again.

As they all landed, Sapphire only saw happy faces and they all gave her compliments like: "We thought you perished, Sapphire" and "Welcome back, Sapphire!"

Sapphire was overjoyed with happiness, for she knew many members of the tribe.

"How is THAT even possible?" said a voice with a very Slavic accent from behind her.

Everyone looked behind and saw a military macaw descending towards sapphire, who was in his twenties. The military macaw was smiling.

"For many years I thought that I'd never see your beautiful mug again, and here you are, with feathers and all." the macaw said smoothly.

Sapphire approached the military macaw, smiling, and then she hugged him very tightly.

"Come here!" the military macaw said.

"Ah, it's so good to see you again, Megeslav." Sapphire said overjoyed.

"It's great to see you too, Sapph." Megeslav said.

"And I'm not alone here. Megeslav, meet my husband Eduardo, my daughter Jewel, her husband Blu and their kids Carla, Bia and Tiago." Sapphire said as she presented her family.

"I-, I thought that your family had perished." Megeslav looked astounded.

"It appears all of us were wrong." Blu said, stepping forwards "I also found her almost two weeks ago and brought her to Eduardo."

"You voice sounds pretty American." Megeslav said.

Blu: "Oh, well, I was raised by a human for 15 years in the state of Minnesota."

Megeslav's face went up and said: "Huh, now I'm not the only one here who has once been raised by a human."

"Yeah, Sapphire told me you lived in Vladivostok for 12 years, right?" Blu asked.

"Indeed, until I went back on a trip to Peru with my companion and there, I found the love of my life." Megeslav said with happiness in his voice.

"Well, I found my love here too, right Jewel?" Blu said as he looked at his wife.

Jewel chuckled. "Of course you do, honey."

"Well, it's nice to see that our dad isn't the only one who has been raised by a human." Carla said as she and her siblings stepped forward.

"Nice to meet you, sir." Bia said to Megeslav as they approached him.

"Nice to meet you too, young lady, it's-" Megeslav was suddenly cut off when he looked at Bia and Carla. He blinked and instead of 2 young blue birds, he saw 2 young military macaws with their shape. The one that resembled Carla had yellow eyes, like Megeslav and the one that resembled Bia had dark green eyes.

Megeslav just stared at Bia and Carla, without saying a word.

"Megeslav?" a voice said, but to no avail.

"Megeslav?!" the same voice said, but still no reply.

"Megeslav!" the voice of Mia sounded.

This time, Megeslav was aware his name had been said and said: "Huh, yeah, sorry, I was just… never mind what just happened."

Everyone quickly shrugged it off and Felipe then spoke.

Felipe: "Alright, then, I'll present you all to my tribe and will show you the hollows you can stay at."

And with that, Felipe led Mia's scarlet macaw tribe to his. Everyone in his tribe was excited that a new scarlet macaw tribe was present. Although they were a bit confused why a military macaw like Megeslav and a blue-and-yellow macaw like Arturo were present in the tribe, Mia told everyone that Megeslav is a good friend and that Arturo is her half-brother, who is also the last member of his original tribe.

After the meeting with the other scarlet members, Felipe led the other red macaw tribe to their new home. Like Felipe said, these were trees that had been empty for a long time and some were even filled with insects. Mia's tribe, however, didn't care, since they now had shelter from the rain and thunderstorms.

After Mia's scarlets had made themselves their homes, she once again thanked Felipe so much for the support, to which Felipe even blushed. After that, Mia, Arturo and Megeslav wasted no time in looking for Sapphire and after they had found her, Sapphire showed every part of the spix macaw's side to her long-lost great friends, and to Arturo and Mia to some degree, long-lost 'children'. They did this until it was almost even dark.

Meanwhile, Blu and his family were getting ready for bed. Jewel however was happy that her mother had found her long-lost friends, whom she raised as if they were her children. Blu jokingly said that Mia and Arturo could serve as her 'adoptive siblings', to which Jewel rolled her eyes. Both of them also told Thomas and Jasmine about what they had seen this noon.

Although Bia, Carla and Tiago were also excited that they saw new faces, the two sisters were still thinking about something, particularly Bia. Jewel even noticed this before she went to bed.

"Bia? Carla? What's wrong, dears?" Jewel asked.

"Well, mom, although the day was great and all, I can't stop thinking about when Megeslav just kept staring at us." Bia said.

"Me too, it was truly weird." Carla declared.

"Ha! Many he was in such shock of your faces that he couldn't speak." Tiago said jokingly.

"Oh, you're so dead, little brother!" Carla said and both Carla and Bia launched themselves at Tiago and began to tickle him immensely. Tiago screamed and laughed all together.

The adults chuckled, until Blu broke the commotion.

"Alright, that's enough you three." Blu said, parting the girls from Tiago with his wings.

"Maybe." Blu said. "You might have reminded him of some persons he knew." Blu added to Bia's original question.

"That might be something." Bia said.

"Alright, everyone, time for bed." Jasmine eventually said.

And with that, the spix macaw family went back to sleep, readying themselves for the new day that will come and Carnival that is standing right around the corner.

To be continued…