A blue bird flew down to the fake narrow creek to get some water. He bobbed his head down and took a drink of the refreshing water. He lifted his head up and smiled. He then flew to the camera he usually flew to in this large bird cage.

This cage, or breeding cage, was part of the bird sanctuary that an ornithologist by the name of Dr. Tulio Monteiro owned. It was located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, an Americanized city. He only arrived about a week and a half ago. The main reason he came was that he was forced. His species depended on him and this female bird that terrorized humans.

He thought she was a monster, but she was quite the opposite. Well, ignoring the fact that she pounced at him with anger when he moved in for a kiss after a couple of minutes of barely meeting her. But she turned out to be okay. More than okay. Within the two days, they went from enemies to something more. It was a crazy journey they had together, but without that journey, they would've never admitted how much they couldn't imagine life without the other.

He even received a kiss for her, the other blue bird named Jewel. As for his name, it was Blu. Well, Tyler Blu Gunderson. He didn't like being called Tyler. Usually, he was called Tyler only when he was in trouble or disobeying. His owner, Linda Gunderson, had named him so. For her, he was her pet. Originally, he was a baby Spix's Macaw living in the jungle, but he was captured by poachers and taken to the United States. There, he was educated and became a very smart bird. However, he lost touch of the real world and didn't know how to survive without the aid of Linda filling his bird bowl with food.

But he came back to reality after making some new friends in Rio and being in his true home. Everything would seem right, but now, something posed as a bigger problem. He had conquered his fear of heights; he had conquered his fear of being in the outside world; he had conquered his fear of flying. All of those fears, Jewel had been a witness to. They were chained together anyways. It was kind of hard to miss anyone when you were chained to that person or, in this case, bird. He conquered those fears in two days, something he couldn't do in Moose Lake, his home in the United States, for fifteen years.

However, he faced a new challenge; a new journey. A new fear. As him and Jewel were freeing the caged birds in the flying plane, Nigel the white cockatoo, attacked Blu. Jewel tried her best to save her, but he threw the female Spix's Macaw back against the wall of the plane. A cage came down and landed on her left wing, breaking. Blu managed to escape Nigel's grasp with luck and jumped out of the falling plane to save Jewel, forgetting the fact he couldn't fly. Through Jewel's kiss, he found the confident to fly and saved her. It was quite amazing. It was true that in times of needs call for drastic measures.

Blu flew over to one of the walls in the fake habitant. He set the small pencil he was carrying in his feet and walked over to a decent sized leaf. He tore it off from the stem and carried it to the pencil. He set it down and picked up the pencil. He wrote a few words down and dropped the pencil. He picked up the leaf with his beak and looked up. The camera was above him. He flew up, something he got used to rather quickly, and landed on top of the surveillance camera. He put the leaf with the written words in front of the lens and hoped Tulio or his aides saw this.

"Blu? Blu!"

Blu was startled by this sweet voice. He lost his balance and fell to the floor face-first. Luckily, some leaves served as friction-falling agents and protected him from breaking his beak. He smacked the lightly dirt floor with his face. He landed next to the female Spix's Macaw, Jewel.

"O," he grunted. "My beak."

"Have you already forgotten how to fly?" teased Jewel.

He slowly pushed himself off the ground and faced the lightly blue feathered Jewel. His feathers were a radiant dark blue color. He rubbed his head.

"I guess I was just too caught off guard."

The leaf he was pressing on the camera lens sailed down gently on his head. Jewel giggled at Blu; he could sometimes a goofball, but in a good way. She grabbed the leaf off his head and noticed it had words. Jewel had been taught to read somewhat by Blu as they stayed in the bird sanctuary, but this note appeared to hard for her to read. Mostly due to the fact it was smudged when pushed against the camera lens. She looked at the leaf and frowned a bit.

"I can't read this."

Blu was relieved, but he felt so bad when Jewel just looked at him with her sky blue, watery eyes.

"What's wrong, Jewel?"

"Blu, I feel that you're keeping something from me."

"Trust me, Jewel. I am not."

"But then why so secretive? I mean you wrote something and didn't show me."

Blu slightly frowned into a serious and caring tone. He had taught Jewel to read a little English to pass the time in hopes it would help he forget why they were there in the first place; it made her forget about her broken wing for a time. He walked beside her and wrapped his right wing around her. Facing the leaf, he pointed to the words written on it.

"I'm sorry, Jewel. I should've told you. I just wrote what we needed for tomorrow morning. I put mangos and nuts."

Jewel looked at the words again and saw something else listed.

"What is that word?"

She pointed to the word. Blu flinched a little.

"Why…um… That's hooks."

Jewel read the phrase of words she saw.

"Hooks…about the…bun…gle? That doesn't seem right. Why would you need hooks anyways?"

She faced Blu and studied his face. She had been living for a little over a week with him and figured when he lied and when he told the truth. She knew how to combat this. She formed puppy eyes and looked at him.

"Blu," she breathed sweetly. "Did I read it right?"

She placed a wingtip of her right wingtip on Blu and circled it around his chest. Blu gulped. He quickly caught on. When Jewel did her puppy eyes, it basically meant she knew Blu was stretching the truth. No matter how many times he knew of this, he could never win, but today would be different. He would win. Then came Jewel's grin, which was the icing on the cake. He buttered up, lost in her sweet trance.

"Well, no. It says 'books about the jungle'."

Jewel dropped her wing from Blu's chest and narrowed her eyes. Blu gulped after he realized what he said. Blu dropped the leaf he held with his left wing and moved his right wing away from Jewel.

"Oh, cheese and sprinkles."

"Ha-ah. I knew it."

As she saw Blu's nervous expression, she relaxed from her angry tone to her somewhat worried tone.

"Blu, why do you need books about the jungle? I thought you conquered that fear."

Blu tapped his wingtips nervously together.

"Um… Not quite."

"But Blu, why read books about the jungle?"

"Well...um..."

"Blu tell me. I mean, it's just the jungle. It's not a big deal."

"But it is."

"But Blu, it's-"

"Because I'm scared," he interrupted in a louder voice than her voice.

Jewel's eyes widened. Blu relaxed his face a little and sighed. He looked down at the ground, saddened.

"Because I'm scared," he said in a more settled voice.

He turned around from Jewel, still looking sadly at the ground. Jewel's face softened. She reached out to Blu with her right wing and placed it on his left shoulder. Blu glanced back at her with his amber eyes.

"Blu. C'mon. There's nothing to be scared of. It's just the jungle."

"That's easy for you to say. You've been living there for all your life. It's your home, Jewel. Me? I'm new to Rio. Heck, I'm still trying to figure out why they don't have true traffic cops. How can I, a household pet, survive in the jungle?"

Blu looked away from Jewel to focus on his thoughts. Jewel understood where he was coming from. An American-raised bird that had just come to a city located on the other end of the pole for forced mating was pushing it. Now, asking the same bird to leave the luxurious city life and live in the jungle was just asking for too much. Jewel looked down at her left wing. They only had a few days before she would heal. After that, they would be released into the jungle, where they were to live happily ever after.

"Blu…would you do it for me?"

Blu turned around and looked at her with eyes of curiosity. He slightly smiled.

"Like when I jumped out of the plane for you."

Jewel smiled.

"There you go. And don't worry, Blu. We can get through this."

Jewel reached for his wing and grabbed it.

"Together?"

"Together... Hey, I got an idea. Why don't you just flew around Rio tomorrow to get the feel for it?"

"Feel for what?"

"Silly. To just be more relaxed about your surroundings."

Blu thought about it.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea."

"Oh, c'mon Blu."

She displayed her puppy eyes at Blu. He sighed.

"You know, those won't work always."

"I know, but it's working right now."

Blu smirked slightly. He still couldn't win.

"Alright. I'll do it. I'll tell Linda about it tomorrow."

Jewel beamed and leapt at Blu for a hug.

"Thank you, Blu. And don't worry. I know you can overcome this."

Blu smiled.

"Thank you, Jewel. Uh, we should probably go to sleep. It's getting late."

Jewel nodded. The two walked back to their artificial tree den to catch some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a challenging day for Blu, but Jewel was right. He had nothing to worry about.