Rio 2 Page 3

  He snapped.

  Grabbing the stick from the vendor, he turned tables on the man, whacking him with the stick instead. “Nice birdie,” the vendor tried soothingly, but it was no use. Nigel was like a madman, swatting the vendor over and over with the stick. He swung the man into a table, flipping it over. Bottles filled with colorful liquids and jars of powders and herbs shattered, sending up colorful puffs of dust.

  Gabi’s jar flew into the air. “Thank you!” she cried as it fell, shattering into a million glass shards on the ground. “I’m free!”

  Gabi hopped out. She was free! “Ribbit! Ribbit!” she croaked with joy. But Gabi’s freedom set the crowd into a panic. She wasn’t just any frog—she was a lethal dart frog. Her poison could kill small animals . . . and humans.

  The marketplace was in a panic. Tourists were running in all directions.

  From his table Charlie stretched his tongue and was able to reach a broken jar of fire ants. He slurped them up and instantly his face turned red with pain. But with the pain came a huge burst of energy. Snap! He broke his chain.

  Nigel hopped onto Charlie’s back like a knight readying himself for battle. “The croaking cockatoo doth bellow for revenge!” he said dramatically. “That’s Shakespeare, by the way,” he told Gabi, who gazed at him in adoration.

  “Without your performance, it’s nothing,” she said.

  Nigel thought about this as Gabi hopped onto Charlie’s hat. “Fair point. Onward, my trusty steed!” he commanded. And as they galloped off, a fortune fluttered to the ground amidst the broken bottles and trampled fruit.

  A good time to finish up old tasks.

  Chapter 5

  “It’s been so long,” Jewel said, taking a deep, relaxed breath. She, Blu, and the rest of the gang were lounging on the rooftop of an old wooden riverboat. They cruised lazily through the beautiful, murky waters of the Amazon as the sun began to set. “I was afraid I wouldn’t remember any of this. But the smell of the orchids and the earth, the sound of the water . . . it’s all coming back to me.”

  The sounds of the jungle surrounded them and a light breeze ruffled Jewel’s feathers. It felt so amazing to be here. “This air!” she went on. “It’s so fresh and full.” She looked back toward the receding dock the boat had departed from. “Good-bye, stinky city air!”

  “Yeah, bye,” Blu said, watching the dock get smaller and smaller.

  Jewel gave him a pat. “Hey, thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it.”

  Blu gazed at her. “I would do anything for you. You know that, right?”

  “Of course I do.” With a happy sigh, Jewel laid her head on Blu’s shoulder and closed her eyes.

  Blu smiled to himself. It was a perfect romantic moment.

  “Ooohhh eeeee eeee!” Blu and Jewel turned to see Tiago, making monkey sounds. And pretty soon, the monkeys in the jungle began calling back. And then Nico and Pedro got inspired.

  Nico started tapping out a rhythm and Pedro began beat-boxing and singing. Soon the whole family joined in making sounds that the jungle called back to. On the deck below, human passengers were relaxing in hammocks. Shipping crates were stacked in piles. And one of these crates contained two stowaways: Nigel and Gabi.

  They waited until nightfall to break out. Nigel was first, stealthily creeping his way out of the crate like a ninja. Behind him Gabi hopped along excitedly. She jumped into a fruit basket.

  “I love being on Team Nigel,” she whispered. The fruit basket Gabi was in began to stir, and Gabi realized that Charlie was in the basket. A few pieces of fruit tumbled onto the ground. A passenger stirred in his hammock.

  Nigel hummed a soft, soothing tune to lull the man back to sleep, and then turned on Gabi. “Shhhh!”

  Gabi turned to Charlie. “Shhhh!” As Charlie sank back down into the fruit, Gabi and Nigel made their way up to the roof.

  Bouncing and flipping over snoring humans, Gabi scaled her way to the roof through an air duct. Nigel slowly stalked up the stairs.

  It didn’t take long for Nigel to spot his prey. There was Blu, the source of his misery, lying fast asleep next to his wife and their three pesky kids.

  “I can’t think of anything more romantic than poisoning passengers on a moonlight cruise,” Gabi said quietly. She was dangling from the rim of the air duct. She scraped a tiny blob of poison off her skin.

  “Stop!” Nigel hissed. “That one is mine.” He leaned over Blu. “Twinkle, twinkle little Blu. How I wondered, where were you? Up above the world so high . . . are you ready . . . to die?”

  Blu stirred in his sleep. “Ugh, you need a Tic Tac,” he mumbled.

  Nigel’s feathers tingled with anger. “Even in sleep you mock me.” He reared back, ready to strike.

  “Ahhhhhh!” A woman on the deck below let out an earth-shattering scream. Charlie had licked an ant off her foot and she’d woken up.

  Nigel froze. His razor-sharp claws were a mere inch from Blu’s feathery blue neck. But a moment’s hesitation was a moment too long. A foghorn let out a deafening blast, and the sound was so loud it shook Gabi and Nigel off the roof. Nigel landed on a panicked Charlie below. A crew member whacked them with an oar, sending them overboard. Charlie’s tongue grabbed a life preserver in the nick of time.

  “Wait for me!” Gabi cried, hopping to the railing. “Don’t leave me!” She dove in after them.

  Up on the roof, Tiago let out a scream in his sleep, startling Jewel awake.

  “Tiago! Stop fooling around,” she shushed.

  “I didn’t do anything!” he protested.

  “Tiago Gunderson, listen to your mother,” Blu mumbled, half asleep.

  Tiago turned on his side and closed his eyes. “Awww, man.”

  None of them knew how close they’d just come to disaster.

  The next morning the sun was shining brightly over the Amazon. But while Blu and his family had had a mostly good night’s sleep and were refreshed for the day ahead, Nigel, Gabi, and Charlie had spent the night clinging to the life preserver that dragged behind the boat.

  The sound of Blu’s voice caught Nigel’s ear. There they were, flying into the distance, a blue blur against a blue sky. “They’re getting away!” Nigel shrieked, slapping Charlie. “Wake up, you insect-eating idiot. Follow them!”

  Charlie twisted his tongue into a corkscrew and used it in the water to propel them upriver.

  “Better,” Nigel snapped, shaking some water off his wings. “Now go ten times faster!”

  Farther down the river, a base camp for a massive logging operation was being set up. A motorboat had pulled up to it, and a man dressed in a white suit, a white fedora, and expensive leather shoes alit onshore. He was the big boss of the camp and he did not look happy.

  He walked into a tent where a group of loggers and a monkey were playing cards at a table. They were so engrossed in their game that they didn’t notice him. But when he stabbed a knife in the table, they did.

  “Having fun?” the boss asked as the monkey dropped his cards and scampered off. “Here’s something fun.” He threw a newspaper at the foreman. On the front page was a photo of Linda and Tulio under the headline Rare Birds May Be Found?

  “If those tree huggers find their birds, they’ll bring in the authorities,” the boss said angrily. He ripped up the paper and stomped on it, furious. “And that will make me very, very unhappy!”

  The loggers all looked at one another. No one dared breathe. No one wanted the boss to be unhappy.

  The boss smoothed down the lapels of his suit and adjusted his hat. “I want those trees cut. Clear this area. You don’t want to see me unhappy, do you?”

  And with that, he walked past a map of the forest and out of the tent.

  Linda and Tulio had the same map pulled up on their tablet. And right now they were in the middle of studying it. It had been divided into quadrants. “Okay, we covered areas A and B. So I think we should continue with—” Linda thought out loud, tapping the map with her finger.

/>   Tulio couldn’t hear her. He had on headphones and was busy holding up a microphone to record bird sounds.

  “Gwak! Gwak! Gwak!” he squawked into the forest, hoping to get a response back.

  “Tulio, are you listening to me?” Linda asked, exasperated.

  “You have reached your destination,” intoned the GPS.

  Blu looked at the others. “You see? It worked like a charm,” he said proudly. “Here we are!”

  “Uh . . . where?” Carla deadpanned. They were standing in the middle of an empty clearing.

  Blu began pressing buttons. “Oh, these things have a margin of error.”

  Jewel eyed the GPS. “I told you not to trust that woman.”

  Meanwhile Bia and Tiago wandered off into the brush after a caterpillar.

  “Oooh! That’s a Heliconius larva,” Bia said. “It feeds on rotting fruit.”

  “Yeah, me too!” Tiago said as they disappeared from view.

  “Hey kids! Kids! Stay close!” Blu called out.

  “I’ll get them,” Jewel said, flying off.

  “Okay, you guys stay put,” Blu told his friends. “Um, I’ll look around.”

  “No worries, we’ll be here,” Rafael said, indicating Nico and Pedro. “We’re not going anywhere.”

  But Nico and Pedro looked worried. “My feathers is poppin’ up on the back of my neck,” Pedro said.

  “I don’t like this,” Nico said.

  “Nuh-uh,” Pedro said with a shiver. “Let’s back it up. Beep. Beep. Beep.” He mimicked the sound of a truck in reverse.

  Blu flew off to a nearby tree. Pushing through some leaves, he gazed around. All he could see was thick jungle. “Come on, lady,” he told the GPS. “Help me out here.”

  “Lost signal,” the GPS beeped.

  Blu groaned. “Great.” He flew back to the clearing, but to his surprise, everyone was gone. “Okay . . . guys? Guys?” He fought back the instant panic that crept into his heart. “Ha, ha. Good one, guys. Very funny. Good, good. Very witty. Jewel? Where are you? Kids? Jewel?”

  Suddenly, sharp talons burst out of the trees and grabbed him, carrying him off.

  “Ahhhh!” Blu cried.

  But no one was there to hear him.

  Chapter 6

  “Squawk! Squawk!” The unmistakable sound of a rare blue Spix’s Macaw rang out through the jungle.

  “It’s a macaw!” Tulio exclaimed. He and Linda took off after the sound. The bird kept squawking.

  “Blu?” Linda shouted. She and Tulio pushed through thick jungle foliage and broke into a clearing. They were running so fast they almost didn’t see the sheer cliff drop in front of them.

  “I swear that sounded like Blu,” she said, gasping for breath. She looked around but there were no macaws in sight. The trail had gone cold.

  “That’s impossible, Linda,” Tulio panted. “He’s back home in Rio, safe and sound.”

  Blu continued to be dragged through the canopy of trees.

  “I’m an American citizen, you savage!” he yelled, his feathers electrified with anger. “I demand to see my ambassador! I know my rights! I know my rights!”

  Suddenly his captor dropped him, and Blu landed on top of a tree. He was surrounded by an intimidating pack of birds covered in camouflage.

  Fumbling in his fanny pack, Blu whipped out his Adventure Knife and pushed a button. A spork popped out. Blu waved it wildly in front of him. “Back, you barbarian!”

  The bird hesitated, staring at the spork with confusion.

  “Yeah, that’s right! It’s a spoon and a fork!” Blu yelled. The bird flew away. “Be afraid!” Blu shouted. “Be very afraid!”

  Someone tapped Blu on the shoulder and he whirled around, spork at the ready. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa, buddy. Put the spork down,” a voice said.

  To Blu’s shock and relief, it was Rafael, and with him were Jewel and the kids.

  “Let me go!” Nico’s voice came from the sky. “Put me down! Hey, careful, that’s my guitar talon.” Whish! Nico and Pedro were dropped next to the others.

  To everyone’s surprise, one of the birds flew through a waterfall, revealing a bright blue feather. A little blue head popped out from behind some leaves. One by one, more blue heads started to peek out from branches, nests, and tree holes.

  “I can’t believe we found them!” Jewel said, awestruck.

  “Well, technically, they found us,” Bia said as more macaws popped out. The macaws were very curious about the newcomers. “Okay, we’re going to need some name tags,” Blu said. A few of them circled Blu, touching his feathers and making him feel uncomfortable. One bird grabbed his mints from the fanny pack. “Whoa. Ah, hello. Okay, no . . . those are Tic Tacs. Not that you need one. But they’re good. You eat them.”

  To his horror, the macaw threw the entire package of mints into its mouth and swallowed it whole.

  “Oh, whoa, no, no, no, no, no!” Blu cried. “Not the whole box! Get that out of your mouth!” He grabbed the macaw and performed the Heimlich on him until he coughed the box up, right into the outstretched talons of Eduardo, the chief of the tribe.

  “What is this doing here?” Eduardo bellowed, looking at the Tic Tacs and at Blu. “What is going on?”

  The crowd quieted down. A macaw spoke up. “We found them flying too close to humans.”

  “Humans?” Eduardo yelled. “And who are you?”

  “Uh . . .” Desperate to say the right thing, Blu backed up, searching for the words. Instead, he fell on his butt.

  “‘Uh’ is not an appropriate answer.” Eduardo got in Blu’s face. “I asked you a question. Where did you come from?”

  Jewel got in between them. “Hey!” she said, jabbing her wing tip at Eduardo. “Back off!” She gave him a push that caught him off guard.

  “Hey! Excuse me, young lady,” Eduardo said.

  Jewel stared into his eyes and gasped. Her expression softened. Could it be?

  “I can’t believe it,” she said.

  “How . . . how . . . how is this . . . ?” Eduardo started.

  “I don’t know,” Jewel said, at a loss.

  “I’ve looked everywhere for you!” Eduardo burst out.

  Jewel rushed out the words. “When the humans came—”

  “I had you under my wing and then you were—”

  “Gone!” Jewel finished. “I’m here!” Jewel cried, rushing into his arms. “Daddy!”

  Blu gaped at the sight of his wife and Eduardo embracing. “Daddy?”

  “I missed you,” Jewel cried.

  “It’s okay,” Eduardo soothed. “It’s okay now. Daddy has you.”

  Suddenly the birds were all aflutter. Everyone was hugging and laughing through tears of joy.

  Eduardo pulled back to stare at Jewel. “Look at you. . . . It’s my little girl, all grown up. You’re so beautiful . . . just like your mother.”

  At the word “mother,” Jewel looked hopefully into her father’s eyes. The look he gave her back told her all she needed to know. Her mother was gone. Her head drooped in sadness as Eduardo hugged her close, stroking the back of her head.

  “I am so sorry. I am so sorry I lost you. I can’t imagine you alone this whole time,” Eduardo told his daughter, holding her at wing’s length.

  Jewel took a big, gulping breath. “It’s okay, Dad,” she said. “I wasn’t alone. Blu found me.”

  From the side, Blu shuffled nervously forward. His talons played uneasily with his fanny pack. He wanted to make a good impression. “Sure is nice to meet you, sir.” He offered his father-in-law his wing.

  But Eduardo wouldn’t take it. “Tuck that wing away, Stu. “

  Blu did as he was asked, afraid he had offended the chief.

  “Now come here,” Eduardo insisted, and Blu inched forward. “Closer.”

  “Oh, really . . .” This felt close enough to Blu.

  “Closer,” Eduardo urged. “You brought my Jewel back to me, I thank you.” The two male birds were eye to eye. “I’m going
to hug you now.”

  “Oh, uh, okay . . . should I just . . . ?” Blu awkwardly tried to hug Jewel’s father when suddenly Eduardo embraced him.

  “Now come here, Stu!”

  Blu could hardly breathe as he tried to hug the older bird back. “Okay, there we are . . . my pleasure.”

  “Nico, you crying?” Pedro asked.

  The little bird hiccupped. “It’s a heavy moment and I’m very vulnerable right now.”

  “Come here, let me get you a hug,” Pedro said, crying along with him.

  Jewel wiped away a tear of joy as Bia flew to her. “Mom, are you okay?”

  “Yeah, baby,” Jewel said.

  Eduardo’s eyes widened. “‘Mom’? I’m a grandpa? I’m a grandpa.” He dropped Blu from the hug.

  “Ow!” Blu yelped.

  “Look at me!” Eduardo called out. “I’m a grandpa!”

  “Daddy, this is Carla, Bia, and Tiago.”

  “Nice to meet you, sir,” Bia said politely.

  Eduardo chuckled. “There’s no ‘sir’ around here, young lady. You will call me Pop-Pop.” And he wrapped all three kids up in a hug.

  “Pop-Pop! Oooh, I like that. It’s got a nice ring to it!” Carla said.

  Eduardo danced around with the kids, singing and laughing. “Kids, go easy on old Pop-Pop,” Blu cautioned from the sidelines.

  Eduardo stopped suddenly and turned to Blu. “You can call me sir.” Then he went back to hugging the children. “My daughter has returned!”

  The entire village of macaws came out to celebrate Jewel’s return. Hundreds of them flew carefree in the lush, secluded cove they called home, surrounded by tall trees and beautiful waterfalls. The place was alive with happy energy.

  Eduardo sat with Blu at the base of a tree as Jewel and the kids celebrated nearby.

  A feisty old macaw made her way over to them. “Make way! Make way! Where is she? Where is my little niece?” the elderly macaw asked.

  “Aunt Mimi!” Jewel exclaimed, hugging the sweet, eccentric macaw. “I missed you so much!”