Chapter 26: Escape from the aviary
About 2000 miles southeast of the Sanctuary in the Amazon rainforest lies the city of Rio de Janeiro, which had been the home for Blu and his family for 4 years, before moving to the tribe.
It was just another day at the Centro de Conservaçāo Ambiental. Everyone was at work there, taking care of sick and injured birds, small and tall alike. Tulio was working overtime this day at night, drinking almost 5 cups of coffee each hour.
However, inside the imitation forest room, the one where Jewel had lived for years, lived 2 other animals that had been there for nearly a year already. The one was a bird that was known all too well by Blu and Jewel: the sulphur-crested cockatoo named Nigel, their nemesis. The other one was a purple tree frog named Gabi, who was deeply in love with Nigel and took every opportunity to show it after Bia had told her last year that she wasn't poisonous. Nigel, however, hated it that Gabi would show her affections towards him, seeing it as not natural.
Nigel did work on something that went unseen to the eyes of the staff of the Centro de Conservaçāo Ambiental, even to Tulio. The ventilation shaft that Jewel had been trying to break when she first met Blu, was still not repaired and Nigel used some stones to crack it open. Unlike Blu, however, Gabi was a deep sleeper and didn't hear the clanging of the stone against the metal plates of the ventilation duct.
After a long time, however, Nigel was finally done and the opening was now large enough for him to go through and escape.
Finally. Nigel thought to himself. Finally I can go through this ventilation system and escape this cursed aviary.
Just as he was about to set foot in the ventilation shaft, he heard an all too familiar voice calling for him.
"Ooh, Nigel!" Gabi said happily, despite not having seen him.
Nigel let out a small groan and went back to the center of the room, since he didn't want Gabi to see that he had made an escape route.
"What is it, you slimy frog? Nigel replied.
Gabi smiled, chuckled and said: "Oh, I love it when you say such honied words. It makes you all the more evil."
Nigel rolled his eyes in complete disgust.
"I wanted to see if my pudding was already awake." Gabi said.
Suddenly, something hit Nigel. It was the perfect plan to escape, as well as a plan to get rid of Gabi once and for all. Nigel decided to play it cool, however, and became friendly to Gabi.
"How about we play a little hide-and-seek, Gabi?" Nigel said playfully. "You go into the corner and count to 400 and I'll go to the best hiding spot imaginable in this room.
Gabi, who was naïve due to her love for Nigel, smiled and said: "Ooh, I love hide-and-seeks!"
Gabi did as she was told and went to the farthest corner of the room and started to count.
Nigel decided it was the best opportunity to escape. He climbed up a branch and with the perfect jump, he entered the hole of the ventilation shaft and entered the ventilation duct.
Gabi was still counting as Nigel searched his way out out of the duct. Eventually, he found the exit and saw that that ventilation shaft was rusty and dilapidated. Nigel decided to use all of his strength and bumped himself many times against the shaft.
At first it didn't move, but after 7 times of bumping into it, it began to loosen its grip on the walls.
Nigel noticed this and it gave him more determination to continue, despite the pain he felt in his body from all those bumps.
After 20 bumps it seemed clear that 1 more bump would finally break the shaft. Nigel was exhausted, but he had to get out of this aviary and that Cursed frog.
Just as he was about to gather all of his strength to deliver the final blow, an echo was heard by him.
"Oh, Nigel, I know you're in there!" the playful voice of Gabi echoed through the ventilation duct.
Nigel gasped in horror and launched himself at the ventilation shaft.
This did the trick, as Nigel was now falling out of the building and luckily for him, he fell onto some soft leaves.
Nigel groaned a bit, but quickly got a hold of himself and ran as fast as he could to the gates.
Although he couldn't fly, he was able to sneak through the bars of the gate, since those were meant to stop humans (more specifically thieves and smugglers) and not birds.
Nigel ran for what seemed like 3 hours through the city non-stop as if his life depended on it, similar how Jewel and Blu ran from him when they were chained to each other 5 years ago.
Eventually, he had to catch his breath and after about 15 minutes of heavy breathing, he joyfully exclaimed: "Finally! I'm out of that cursed aviary and away from that cursed frog!"
Nigel laughed uncontrollably at a place where no-one could hear or see him and after laughing some while, Nigel began to talk to himself.
"And now it's time to get my revenge once more on that cursed bluebird, Blu. Oh, I will make him suffer the way I suffered." Nigel said to himself.
Nigel however realized that he had to get all the way to the Amazon, which was impossible on foot. However, he eventually reached the airport and heard some humans next to a helicopter talking to each other that they had to fly with that helicopter to Manaus, the largest Brazilian city in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.
This is my lucky day! Nigel thought to himself as he sneaked past the humans and jumped into the back seats of the transport helicopter. There were some boxes int it and Nigel decided to hide into one that, luckily for him, was empty.
After about 20 minutes of waiting, the helicopter started to fly and the humans on the front of the aircraft had no knowledge that a third passenger was in it.
"Oh, Blu." Nigel said evilly. "Enjoy every moment you can now, for you're going to be in for a little surprise…"
To be continued…