Chapter 1

A painfully loud screeching noise pierced through Jewel's eardrums and sent her awake with a violent twitch, accompanied by a loud gasp. Her now wide open eyes darted around desperately trying to focus on something. After blinking a couple of times, clearing the blur from her eyes, she could establish that her vision was completely blocked by what appeared to be a wall of leaves and twigs. Looking to her side, she could see that she was laying face down in a nest inside a tree hollow.

While her initial confusion was slowly dissipating, the screeching noise was persistently violating her auditory reception. Directing some of her newly found focus to the noise, she soon recognized it as the screeching of a monkey. A puzzled look spread across her face as she noticed something odd about the noise. Having lived her entire life in the jungle she had heard a monkey or two screeching in her days, but none of them ever sounded quite like this. In her mind she could only describe the sound she was hearing as scratchy, thin and lifeless, as if the monkey's vocal cords had been torn out and ground against a sharp rock.

The noise eventually stopped, letting Jewel's senses go back to deciphering the mystery of her current whereabouts. Playing a guessing game seemed to her like a waste of time. Being a bird of action, she rose onto her talons with a strained expression on her face and groggily wobbled over to the knothole, almost toppling over a couple of times as she did so. After steadying herself against the frame of the knothole, she immediately spread her wings and launched herself out of the hollow. To her dismay, only her right wing did as it was told. Her other wing did nothing but send her brain a sharp signal of pain, which was nothing compared to the pain she anticipated as she rapidly fell towards the ground. Her eyes widened and a loud shriek escaped her beak as she flapped her only responding wing in a desperate attempt to stay airborne. There wasn't enough time for her to realize the futility of her actions until she crashed against the ground with a loud thud.

A moment of absolute silence followed. Laying face down flat on the ground, Jewel slowly and shakily lifted her head and let out a strained groan. Her entire body ached badly. She could swear even her tail feathers were hurting. The pain in her left wing, however, overshadowed every other sensation her body was giving her. Concluding that she must have landed on her wing, Jewel turned her head to perform a damage inspection. To her surprise she found that it was tightly wrapped in white cloth.

"What the...?"

She drew her head back and frowned at the sight of the foreign material hugging her wing before fiercely attacking it with her beak trying to tear it off. As soon as she bit into it and started pulling she had to stifle a scream as the pain in her wing intensified even further. Immediately she let go, looked at the ground and sighed in resignation.

"Oh, great."

Weakly but decisively, Jewel rose onto her talons and sucked air through her clenched beak as she did so, as if the extra oxygen was needed to alleviate the rising pain in her body. Quickly assessing that none of her legs seemed to be broken, she slowly started putting one talon in front of the other.

Having been too busy hurting herself lately, Jewel hadn't taken much notice of her surroundings. Looking around, she could see not only one sun, but several miniature suns shining from different directions. She was surrounded by green foliage which in her mind couldn't even fool a stupid pet. She soon spotted the all too familiar air vent she had once tried to break open with a rock. The memories bubbling up in her mind seemed to tell the tale of a past life long forgotten, though they originated only from yesterday. She remembered the human who had brought her back here. This human had tried his best to handle Jewel with utmost care despite her frequent disagreements with him regarding his methods. She also remembered the reason she had so reluctantly let herself be handled by a human—and the very reason she was still alive.

"Blu?"

Her voice was weak and hoarse like she was using her vocal cords for the first time in her life. She cleared her throat and tried again.

"BLU, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

As Jewel slowly walked towards the bird sized metal door she had once unwillingly been shoved through, she looked around trying to spot any sign of blue feathers not belonging to her own plumage. When no sign of life was in sight, she started to feel uneasy.

How long had she been out? Had Blu left for Tiny Soda without even saying good bye? Would he ever come back? Were the humans going to keep her a prisoner here forever?

Without realizing it, her thoughts had sent her chest heaving rapidly and a look of despair had crept across her face. Abandoned or not, she had no intention of staying in this cage forever. Jewel frowned, took a deep breath and fluffed her feathers. She backed up a few steps, lowered her head and fixed her now squinted eyes on the metal door.

With a drawn out shriek, Jewel charged at the door like a raging bull, temporarily forgetting about her mangled and aching body. When reaching the small stream close to the door she pushed off with her talons with all the force she could muster, sending her flying over the stream towards the door. She closed her eyes tight and drew her beak close to her chest, anticipating the impact. Right at that moment she heard a scream.

"WHOA!"

The feather-to-metal impact Jewel had been expecting did not occur. It was much softer in nature, more like a feather-to-feather impact. Jewel groaned and blinked her eyes open, only possessing enough strength to open them halfway. The impact may have been softer than expected, but her body was in no condition to take abuse of any degree at this point. What Jewel could see when she opened her eyes was the lower half of a black beak surrounded by feathers of a rather familiar dark blue shade.

"Blu?"

The beak half Jewel was staring at parted slightly from it's upper counterpart to let a sound escape between the two halves.

"Ow..."

Blu lay there with his neck against the back wall of the small space behind the metal door. His legs and wings were spread out on the floor. Jewel found herself laying on her stomach on top of him with her head resting on his chest, angled so that she was looking right up at his chin.

Blu brought a wing to the back of his head and rubbed it while he looked down to see what had hit him, and he instantly recognized the turquoise eyes staring back at him. They were as beautiful as the last time he had seen them.

"Uhhh... Jewel? Are you oka—Ouffff!"

Blu was cut off by Jewel pushing her good wing down on his stomach as she pushed herself off of him.

"Sorry Blu, I didn't mean to crash into you." Jewel shakily rose to her talons and offered him her wing to help him up.

Blu bashfully averted his eyes and stretched his wings towards hers to accept her help. "It's okay Jewel, it's my fault for—Wait, what? What did you mean to crash into?!" Blu quickly shook off his former apologetic expression and shot her a confused frown.

While Jewel grabbed his wing and started pulling him up, she rolled her eyes. "No, I was just—AH!" Right then her body failed her and she fell right back onto Blu who quickly broke her fall with his wings.

"Jewel, you shouldn't even be out of your nest. You should be resting!" Blu's voice cracked slightly from the sudden rise in volume and his face was showing obvious concern for the female.

Jewel looked away and bit down hard on her lower beak half trying to suppress a painful expression. "Blu, I'm fine! Just let me..." Jewel began struggling to stand up again when Blu's eyes suddenly froze.

"Jewel, who did that to you?"

"What?" Jewel stopped and looked up to Blu's face and saw that he was looking at something to her left side. She followed his gaze until her own eyes landed upon her brutalized wing loosely wrapped in torn bandages.

"It was Nigel. Don't you remember?"

Blu helped Jewel stand up as he stood up himself. "No, I mean, the bandages. Who tore them up like that?" Blu walked over to the door and looked around inside the breeding chamber with an uneasy look on his face. He gulped when he felt a shiver down his spine. "Is someone else in here with you?"

Realizing she had done something she probably shouldn't have, Jewel remained silent while trying to come up with an answer.

Blu looked back at her. "Jewel?"

Jewel sighed and looked at the ground. "No... No Blu, I did it. I can't fly with this stupid thing on!"

"Fly? FLY?! Jewel, your wing is broken! That means you are not supposed to fly!"

Jewel was still looking at the ground, gloomily, not saying a word.

At that moment, Blu realized something. Being a playful bird by nature, he had pulled a lot of crazy stunts over the years in Linda's care, only to be taken to the veterinarian for treatment every time he got himself hurt. He remembered being very scared the first time, but thankfully Linda had been there to make him feel safe. Eventually it had become the most natural thing in the world. When sick or injured you go to the doctor and he will fix you. It was simple, and nothing to be afraid of.

Looking at Jewel now, Blu realized she had been fending for herself in the jungle her whole life. This was her first encounter with modern medicine, and unlike him, she had no one there to tell her it was going to be okay.

"Look, Tulio will fix you up and before you know it you'll be back flying in the jungle again!" said Blu with as much cheerfulness as he could muster.

Jewel appeared to think for a moment before speaking. "What about you?"

"What? What about me?" said Blu, obviously confused by the sudden change of subject.

"You know, I go back to being free in the jungle and you go find Linda. Well, you found Linda. So..." Jewel averted her eyes from Blu as her speech trailed off.

Blu gulped. He knew that Jewel was asking a question he did not want to answer. Blu knew that for a bird like Jewel, sitting still for weeks on end would be hell on earth. As his heart was growing heavy with guilt, he wished he could tell her that he would be there for her throughout her recovery. He wished he could at least redeem himself for being the cause of her current predicament. As he realized that Jewel was still waiting intently for his answer he had to say something, anything.

Blu looked down at the ground sadly and sighed. "Jewel, I... I'm sorry."

"What?" Jewel raised an eyebrow. "Sorry for what?"

Blu was about to speak when the door at the end of the room suddenly opened. Both birds looked over to see Tulio march in, followed by Linda who was sneaking in like she was trying not to wake a sleeping baby.

"Blu?" Linda called out while looking around.

"Blu! Come here, boy!" Tulio filled in.

Turning back to look at Blu, Jewel donned a worried expression. "Blu, what's going on?"

Blu looked back at Jewel with his mouth wide open trying to find the right words, but none came to him. When he saw Jewel back away swiftly with a fearful look on her face, he realized that Tulio and Linda must be standing right behind him.

"There is my big brave boy!" exclaimed Linda with a smile on her face as she sat down on her knees beside Blu who looked up and greeted her with a weak smile. Turning back to where Jewel had been standing, all he could see were her wide eyes peeking out from behind a tuft of fake foliage.

Blu looked up to Linda again with a pleading expression on his face. Having known her best friend for the past 15 years, Linda knew what this expression meant. "Oh right, of course. We'll be by the door waiting for you when you're ready," she said before getting up and giving Tulio a light nudge. When Linda and Tulio had disappeared out of sight, all that could be heard was the unconvincing jungle noises coming from the speakers around the room. After what seemed like an eternity, Blu decided to break the silence.

"Jewel, you can come out now," he said. Jewel remained where she was, not uttering so much as a chirp. All she did was stare at Blu like she was trying to turn him into stone by shear willpower.

"Jewel..."

"No," she said sternly.

With an apologetic look written on his face, Blu took a few steps towards Jewel's hiding place. "Listen, I just want to say—"

"No! Just go!" Blu stopped abruptly as he was cut off by Jewel's cracking voice. She looked away and her chest started heaving rapidly.

Blu was about to say something else when he heard Linda calling him from the door. "Blu, we have to get going soon!" He looked to the door and quickly jerked his head back when he heard Jewel's venomous voice speak to him from behind the leafs.

"You heard your master."

Though he felt like his heart had just been ripped out through his throat and trampled on, Blu did not retort. In his mind he was responsible for sending Jewel straight into the clutches of Nigel and the poachers. Had he simply chosen to stay in Minnesota where he belonged, none of this would have happened. Jewel would have been safe and sound, and perhaps even free. How could he defend himself against any insult when he felt like he deserved all the insults in the world?

Blu could feel the lower half of his beak starting to quiver. In a swift motion he turned around and lifted off the ground.

Jewel, still looking away, could hear the sound of his wings flapping. Following that, she heard Linda say something at the door, and then there was the sound of the door closing. Jewel stayed still for a moment, waiting for another sound, but all she heard was the sound of her broken heart thumping wildly in her chest. She did not even flinch when the monkey started screeching from the speakers again.

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