Rio: Journ3y to Hawaii

Chapter 1: A Special Project

{Setting: Amazon}

With a small smile of confidence, Blu carefully made the final adjustments to his special project. "Okay, just got to twist a bit here... fix it up a little..."

"Hey, Dad, what you doing?"

Blu jumped up a little bit, turning to see his son, Tiago, who was somewhat of a mischievous but adventurous bird.

"Oh, it's something for your mom. To give as a gift. It's our anniversary in a few days."

Tiago frowned in confusion. "But I thought you guys just had your anniversary. Remember, Mom almost thought you'd forgotten it?"

"No, that was our WEDDING anniversary," replied Blu, even though he remembered how terrifying it would have been if he'd actually forgotten that day. "THIS will be for the day that I fell in love with her."

"You mean when she attacked you like a crazy person?" asked Blu's only son, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

The blue macaw let out a sigh and shook his head. "No, not THAT day, it's when I jumped out of an airplane to go after her. I said that I would never let her go, and then we-"

"Hey, Tiago, what's the holdup?"

The little bird looked out of the nest hole to see some of his new friends waiting for him, so he turned back to Blu, saying, "Oh, can you tell me the rest later, Dad? I got to show my friends how a firecracker works."

Nodding his head, Blu watched the little macaw child fly away, and smiled before he went back to adjusting his gift.

"All right, so... hmmm... maybe if I go THIS way... wait, did he say...?"

Ka-boom!

"I'm okay!"

Blu shook his head, chuckling, and went back to his gift when he heard his daughter, Bia, fly in from the trees. "Phew... I'm tired..."

"You okay, sweetheart?" Blu asked, watching his daughter drink from the nearby water pool. Luckily, it was a pool that NOBODY used as a bath and meant for drinking only.

"Oh, yeah, I'm okay, Dad, I was just out learning some survival techniques from Grandpa."

She was referring to Eduardo, Jewel's long-lost father (before they had found him in the Amazon a few months ago), who was slowly getting on good terms with since he still wasn't entirely pleased that he was half domesticated.

"And how did that go?"

Bia gulped, and while using her own toothbrush her father had given her last Christmas, she shrugged her shoulders, then gave a "so-so" answer with her feathers.

When she finished rinsing, she added, "It took me two times to use my beak as a weapon against those vines. How'd you do when he took you?"

"Uh..." Blu still hadn't told Jewel and his other children how his first training day with Eduardo had been, but luckily, the subject had been changed once Bia noticed her father's gift.