CHAPTER 1

It was a regular day for Nico. He hung out at the beach with his friends, got into a high note contest with Pedro (Nico won) and stuffed himself at every meal. All in all, it was a great day. At first that is. By 10 minutes after lunch he got the sinking feeling he was being watched, but whenever he looked around he saw nothing.

"Nico, man, you okay?" Pedro asked after Nico turned his head full circle for the fifth time in 10 minutes.

"Huh? Oh...y-yeah. I just got a weird feelin' that's all. I'm cool." He looked at his friend and gave what he hoped was reassuring smile. It obviously didn't work well, because Pedro still looked uncertain.

"What weird feelin'? Those apple bits you ate earlier weren't bad were they?" He looked kinda scared, probably because he ate some of the apple too.

"No, no. I just feel like I'm...being...watched I guess. But whenever I check around nothin's there. It's kinda startin to freak me out." Nico glanced about nervously and gave a weak smile. His friend looked around casually, thought he might of seen something, wasn't sure so he let it go and turned back to his worried friend.

"Well, I can't see anything outta the ordinary. But why don't we skip going to the club tonight and just head straight back to the hollow? Blu and Jewel need someone to watch the kids, and I don't think leavin' 'em with Eva is a good idea..." Nico liked the sound of the idea, but didn't want to keep his friend from having fun.

"You sure you're okay with not goin' to the club, Pedro? I mean you really wanted to sing that new song tonight, right?" Nico hated making his friend miss out on having fun, it always made him feel guilty.

"Yeah. 'Sides, I didn't really feel that the song was quite done yet...It's missing something...I can feel it." Nico watched his friend carefully, when he judged that his friend was telling the truth, he was pretty good at after years of knowing Pedro, he shrugged off almost all his guilt. The whole feeling would never go away.

"A'ight then. I'll go and tell Blu that we'll watch his kids for him. Then we can get them from Jewel when we get back. Sound like a plan?" Pedro nodded so Nico flew back down to the table they had just left.

"Hey, Nico! Why'd you come back? I thought you and Pedro wanted to get a nice nap in so you could get to the club early and fresh." Blu had a confused look on his face while asking the question. Raffie just looked at Nico with a puzzled/thinking look on his face.

"Yeah, well. I haven't been feeling...right today, so Pedro said it'd be cool to just stay at the hollow. So we thought we could watch the Mini Macaws for you and Jewel so you could go instead. That sound good to you?" Blu nodded eagerly and made a 'whoopee' sound well jumping in the air. "I'll take that as a yes. We'll send Jewel to meet you guys at the club when we get back, kay?" They both nodded, so Nico flew off.

Back at the hollow Nico was watching Pedro play with the kids from a branch outside.

"I'm gonna get you! AAARRRGH" He stomped around the kids with his wings up in the air like claws. The three kids, Jane, TJ and Stephan (AN: Not pronounced Steven) ran around in the hollow as best they could.

"Aaaaahhh! Run away from Uncle Pedro!" TJ yelled. He was the middle sized kid. He was more outgoing than his sister, but less out going than his brother. Both brothers like to use Nico and Pedro's way of picking up girls, though. Jane likes to laugh at them when they get turned down for being too young.

Nico liked Jane. She was sweet and quiet. The opposite of her brothers who were loud and brutal with their surprise attacks. Both were better than that feather eater of Raffie's. Unfortunately, Jane liked Nico in a different way than Nico liked her. About a week and a half ago Blu and Jewel told Nico that she had a crush on him. And she had had a crush on him since he sang 'Fly Love' for her to get her to sleep. Which was more than a month ago.

It wasn't all bad. He liked how flustered she got when he fake flirted with her and the blush she got on her face when he sang for her. It wouldn't have been bad if he wasn't worried about hurting her. If he were to get interested in some girl someday it would probably hurt her really bad. She already got grief from her brothers about her crush.

"Uncle Nico? Are you okay?" Speak of the she-devil. He turned his gaze from the tree line and towards the little bird who was still shorter than him by a few centimeters.

"Yeah. I'm just fine. Thanks for worrying though, bonita niña." He wrapped a wing around her shoulders and hugged her to his side. She had asked him what bonita niña meant and she practically squealed when he told her. Right now he could feel her blushing against his side.

"Ooooh! Look, Janey's blushing! Hahaha!" Stephan laughed. TJ joined in and Pedro had a smirk on his face. Nico let go of Jane by spinning her away from his side, the way you'd spin someone in a dance. She stopped after a couple spins and smiled up at him.

"Why don't you go play with your brothers for a bit, huh?" He asked her. She nodded and tackled her still laughing, but now surprised, brothers back into the hollow. He laughed well watching. Pedro stepped around them and looked at his friend.

"So, what were you thinking about?" Pedro asked. Nico looked at him and thought for a moment. He wasn't really sure anymore. At first he was thinking about that feeling he got earlier, then about the day, then he trailed off.

"Just random things, to be honest with ya. Mostly about what I was recently told about a certain blue macaw." Pedro laughed for a minute before gaining control of himself again. Nico smiled at his friend and elbowed him in the gut when he started making 'bow chika wow wow' sounds and the like.

"C'mon man. You know I don't," He paused and looked to make sure she wasn't looking or listening and lowered his voice to be sure before continuing, "like her like that."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. But it is kinda funny when she starts stumbling over words while talking to you. Or how when you give her your 'sweet' smile she'll practically stop breathing." He looked at the kids again. He really did find it funny and kinda cute how Jane had a crush on Nico and he knew it was hard on his friend who often had pretty Hot Wings coming up to him when he didn't want to hurt the little chick.

"Hey, she's sweet. But yeah it is kinda funny I guess. More cute than anything though. I really like it when-" He stopped short when he saw two ominous shadows on a tree branch a little ways away. The shadows looked almost familiar. He stared at them and they seemed to stare back and something about that scared him.

Pedro turned when his friend stopped talking so suddenly, and when he saw Nico frozen wide eyed he followed his gaze to a couple of odd, almost bird like shadows. When the shadows seemed to catch sight of Pedro they disappeared. And quickly, at that.

"Hey..uh...man? What was that?" Now Pedro was starting to understand Nico's odd behavior and why his friend felt like he was being followed. It's cause he was being followed!

"D-don't know. B-but we should probably keep the Mini Macaws inside for the rest of the night." When he saw Pedro nod from the corner of his eye, Nico flew back inside the hollow. Pedro followed close behind.