The Road to Sao Paulo

The sun slowly rose over the horizon to bring light upon the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro and the rainforest located right next to it. The sound of a bird whistling resonated through the wild world which slowly came to life. Feathered creatures came out of their nests and started singing the song of their joy.

All the birds of a feather
Do what they love most of all
We are the best at rhythm and laughter
That's why we love carnival

Birds of all sizes and colors danced in the air with each other in a wonderful choreography. Scarlet macaws formed circles in midair before dispatching and flying all around.

All so free we can sing to
Sun and beaches, they call
Dance to the music, passion and love
Show us the best you can do

Toucans danced in lines over branches and smaller birds shook flowers on trees to make their petals fall down below. Kids came out of their nests to join their parents and friends in the fun.

Everyone here is on fire
Get up and join in the fun
Dance with a stranger, romance and danger
Magic could happen for real in Rio

More toucans swung on vines close to their fellow avians, whom danced in couples to express their love.

All by itself (itself), you can't see it coming
You can't find it anywhere else
It's real in Rio, know something else (something else)
You can feel it happen, you can feel it all by yourself

As the song ended and all the birds cheered, a certain couple of birds started waking up inside their own nest. A couple of spix macaws - the last of their species.

The male has dark blue feathers with black talons and beak. White facial expressions decorated his hazel brown eyes. This macaw's name is Tyler "Blu" Gunderson - or just Blu, the final male spix macaw on Earth. Born in Rio, he grew up in Moose Lake, Minnesota, USA with his human companion, whom he sees as a mother, Linda Gunderson. During his fifteen years with her, Blu spent most of his life in the comfort of a human home where he could read books and do stuff that normally interested only humans. As such, he never learned how to fly which made him the mockery of all birds in Moose Lake. Because of this, Blu became isolated from the outside world. But it never bothered him. However, things changed in recent times when a doctor from Rio convinced him and Linda to travel to Brazil and save his species. This little travel transformed into an unexpected journey that changed Blu forever... and for the best.

The female has light blue feathers, and black talons and beak, just like Blu, and a pair of wonderful turquoise eyes. This bird's name is Jewel and her presence radiates nothing less than beauty and independence. Raised in the rainforest, she loves nothing more than the wild and freedom, and hates nothing less than humans and the chaos they brought upon her world. Being the last female of her kind, she hated the idea of mating with Blu since he got raised by a human and was just a nerd in general. However, after a journey during which they got captured by smugglers and chained to each other, Jewel started seeing Blu under a new light which led to her kissing him after he willingly gave up his life to save her, learning how to fly in the process. After this, Jewel found herself waiting for two weeks at Dr. Tulio's aviary which wasn't easy, but with Blu at her side, she made it through. The two now lived together in the rainforest and Jewel would not trade her mate for anything else in the world.

Jewel yawned and stretched her body as she woke up first. She then looked down at her mate who still slept in their nest, snoring a bit, and she giggled. Blu still wasn't used to Brazil's day and night hours, meaning he slept longer than the other birds in the jungle. Jewel did not mind though; it allowed her to see his cute sleeping form every morning upon waking up. But she still decided to wake him up because she did not want to spend the day alone.

"Wake up, sleepy bird," Jewel softly said as she nudged at her mate with her wing.

"Just five more minutes, Linda," Blu groaned and turned to the side to avoid Jewel.

"Oh, you wanna play like that? Very well." Jewel smirked and then gave a good peck into Blu's side, causing him to jump and hold his side in pain.

"Ouch! Hey! What was that for?"

"To get your feathered butt out of the nest," Jewel replied, smiling in amusement and placing a wing on her hip. "It's morning, city bird."

Blu looked out of his nest to see that the sun indeed stood in the blue sky. He let out a loud yawn and turned back toward his mate. "Sorry, Jewel. I think I still need some time to get used to your day and night time."

"It's okay, city bird, I forgive you." Jewel then took his wing and dragged him out of the nest. "Come on, let's get something to eat, I'm hungry."

Jewel opened her wings and gracefully took off into the rainforest's air. Blu did the same - though with less grace since flying was still new to him - and followed her. She led them to a mango tree where they picked one fruit each and started munching. Jewel ate with joy since mangoes were her favorite fruits in the world. It was different for Blu because the former companion was used to eat cereals and toasts for breakfast every morning. However, he did not complain because these mangoes were very sweet and juicy. And besides, if they made Jewel happy, then he would be happy too.

"Aww, so tasty," Jewel sighed as she finished eating her mango.

"I agree; they are delicious," Blu said before taking the final bite of his own fruit. "So, what do you wanna do today, Jewel?"

The female spix macaw rubbed her chin for a moment before smiling as an idea came to her mind. "I know. How about we go pay a little visit to Rafael and Eva?"

At this suggestion, Blu's eyes widened in terror. "What?! Are you serious?!"

"What's wrong, Blu?"

"Have you forgotten what happened, the last time we went there? Their chicks jumped on us and we went through possibly the worst time of our lives! It took a full week before my feathers grew back to normal!"

Jewel giggled at her mate's insecurity. "Come on, Blu. It's in the past; I'm sure they must have changed since then."

"You know it was only two weeks ago, right?"

"Come on, Blu. Don't you want to see Rafael and Eva again?"

Blu sighed, knowing Jewel would not change her mind, regardless of how hard he tried to convince her. "Very well. Let's go."

The two macaws flew away from the mango tree and all the way to their family friends' tree. Upon landing, they looked around for any sight of them. "Rafael? Eva? Are you here?" Jewel called in the direction of the tree, but received no response from her toucan friends.

"There don't seem to be anyone around here, Jewel," Blu said. "Let's go; we'll come later to see-WHAT THE CHEESE AND SPRINKLES?!" the macaw exclaimed as he felt something wrap itself around his body, pinning his wings against his sides, around his ankles, and found himself falling face-first on the ground. Jewel suffered the same fate as she fell beside him, struggling against her bonds. Looking down, Blu saw that vines were binding them.

"This means...?!" Blu mumbled.

"Oh no," Jewel groaned.

"ATTACK!"

The two helpless birds found themselves under attack from a fleet of baby toucans who punches, kicked, and pecked their bodies along with ripping their feathers off. Try as they might, they could not break the vines holding them down and standing up with so many little devils on top of them was impossible. They were at the little kids' mercy.

"What's going on down here?!" a loud, firm voice called.

"It's mom! Let's get out of here!" one of the baby toucans exclaimed and flew away with his siblings.

Rising their heads, Blu and Jewel saw Rafael and Eva landing down with looks of concern on their faces. The two toucans quickly used their beaks to snap the vines from their macaw friends and help them stand up.

"Are you guys okay?" Rafael asked.

"A bit shaken up, but alive," Blu replied with dusting his blue feathers off.

"Sorry for that; we take our eyes off them for one second, and they wreak havoc," Eva said in an annoyed tone.

"I don't know how they managed to jump on us before we could notice them," Jewel said. "And I learned how to sense predators coming before."

The two toucans chuckled a bit before Rafael changed the subject. "So, how you lovebirds been doing?"

"Great. My wing has fully recovered which means I can now fly everywhere with my little city bird," Jewel said with giving a kiss to her mate.

"Aww, that's so romantic," Rafael said with a charmed smile. He then wrapped a wing around Blu's shoulder. "I'm really glad you finally found the courage in your heart to fly, my boy."

"But you're fifteen years late," Eva deadpanned.

"Eva! Don't ruin his moment!" Jewel said in a scolding tone.

"I'm just kidding, Jewel," the female toucan chuckled and nudged her spix macaw friend.

"Well, Jewel and I will be going now. We just came to see how you were doing," Blu said.

"Alright, have a nice day, lovebirds," Rafael said.

"Thanks. Bye," Jewel said and took off alongside her mate. "So, what do you want to do now?" she asked while flying.

"I'd like to go pay a visit to Linda and Tulio. If you don't mind, of course."

Jewel giggled. "Blu, you know that I'm no longer afraid around them. Of course we can go see them."

Blu smiled at this. "Thanks, Jewel. Let's go!"

Author's note: I watched Rio for the first time in 2011 when it came out in theaters. It became my second most favorite animated movie of the year just after Kung Fu Panda 2. But even then, I did not expect it to be better than Pixar's movie of that year, Cars 2. And today, almost 9 years later, Rio is currently my fourth most favorite animated movie, after Kung Fu Panda, The Lion King, and Zootopia. But I always had ideas for a fanfiction on it. I hope you will like this story and may the gods watch over you all.