Author's note: A bit delayed, but alas, my second fic is back! Not all chapters are done getting revised yet, however, so patience would be very appreciated in the meantime.

Alas, enjoy!

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Lessons

Chapter 1: Tylerino

"Th-three days?!" Blu felt his whole body shiver, despite the summer heat already permeating the air in the Amazon.

"What? You didn't know?" Jewel looked at him incredulously. "I thought you and my dad went through this already!"

"Your dad said nothing of three days! Had I known beforehand that I'll be gone for so long I'd have never agreed to do this!"

"Oh, come on, Blu! What happened to that 'Mister Jungle' spirit? Is three days really a long time for you?"

"Oh, it's not so much the time as it is, you know, the place I'm spending it at!" He continued to protest.

Jewel sighed frustratingly. "Blu, come on now. The side-grove? It's one of the safest places in the jungle!"

"That's not how your dad described it to me the other day."

She rolled her eyes. "Ok. I admit my dad likes to exaggerate with things like that, but Blu, I too went through the survival course when I was a lot younger and I came out alright!"

"Yes, honey, but that was you. And this is, well, me."

"All the more reason to go for it!"

She could see her husband didn't take the commentary keenly.

"Trust me, Blu. It'll do you good." She held his shoulder reassuringly. "I know it may seem

pointless right now, but it will all feel worth it by the end of it. I promise!"

Blu finally gave in. He knew it was useless to keep objecting, especially after he had indeed agreed to go through it. More as per request of his wife than a genuine interest in learning survival in the jungle, but Blu was a bird of his word. "If you say so, dear. I'll do it." He gave a weak smile.

They shared a kiss. The issue was settled.

"You could be right. If anything, me and your dad could try and bond a little better, now that things are less rocky now." Blu exclaimed, trying to think out loud for a good side to his excursion. "Speaking of him, when is he coming?"

"Uh...my dad?" Jewel stared at him confusedly.

"Yeah, you know, so we can head out to the side-grove already. Don't worry! I promise I won't do anything to stall. I'll be following him suit right the moment he appears!"

"Uh, Blu...my dad isn't who's taking you to the side-grove."

"Wait, what?" Now it was him who looked baffled. "Not him? But I thought, I mean, it was him whom I talked to about all this! I thought he'd be the one tutoring me!"

"Well, normally, he would. But this time he thought it'd be best to let someone else take charge." "And this someone else would be...?"

"Hey, Ju-Ju!" An elegant voice called as a figure stepped through the entrance of their hollow. Jewel

looked happy at the sight of their visitor.

Turned around to face the intruding macaw, knowing too well just who that was.

"Oh, Roberto!" Jewel greeted. "We were just talking about you."

"Were we?!" Whatever sense of confidence Blu had about this was slowly slipping.

"Oh, really? Well, that's funny, I was just done talking to your dad about you two!" Roberto made his way inside Blu and Jewel's home. No longer sharing Roberto's own oversized hollow, Blu and his family had made themselves comfortable in a modestly-sized space within another tree. It took a while for their kids to get used to the new place and stop missing uncle Beto's luxurious living quarters, into which they were more than welcomed into. Blu, however, couldn't be any happier to not having to be greeted by him every morning.

"Oh, hello, Roberto." Blu brought himself to give greet him.

Roberto's attention turned to him. "Hey hey, Tylerino! Just the bird I was looking for!"

"...did you just call me, Tylerino?!"

"Yeah, Tyler is your real name, isn't it? Jewel told me about it the other day. I think it's pretty neat!"

Blu glanced at Jewel, who seemed slightly embarrassed.

"Sorry, but he wouldn't stop nagging me about it!"

He had tried his best, but he simply couldn't get used to the Favio-with-feathers' presence. Not even after coming into good terms with the tribe, especially Eduardo, there simply was something about Roberto that bugged Blu to no end. His pompous show-off attitude and the way he constantly spoiled his children, making him look like a bad father in contrast, was irritating to say the least.

Before Blu could make a reply, he saw Roberto stepping in next to him. "Oh, I'm sure you don't mind, right, buddy?"

"Well, to be honest, I'd preffer Blu, thank you very much."
And I'm not your buddy, he thought.

The worst part, however, was how, despite saving his tail feathers from that bulldozer and leading the macaws into driving off the loggers time ago, Roberto continued to his passively-aggressively treating him like a clueless rookie, a weakling and a straight up loser, without ever dropping that smug telenovela-pretty-boy grin of his and pretending to be genuinely nice to him. But Blu could see beyond that guano that he was merely trying to make himself great looking by making him look lame in turn.

"Alright, if you prefer it that way." Roberto let out a small chuckle. "So, are you ready for our three days at the side-grove?"

"Sorry, our three days?"

This time Roberto let a bigger laugh. "Well, duh. You don't really expect to learn survival all on your own without your teacher, do you?"

It was at that moment when Blu put two and two together.

The realization shattered any hopes he had for the days ahead of him.

"Y-you?! You're gonna be tutoring me?!"

"Yeah, about that, Blu." Jewel stepped in. "As you know, Roberto is my father's right-wing and the next to take his place as the tribe chief. So...he only thought it'd make sense to let him start taking over some of his duties, such as giving young macaws the survival course."

"That's right. So we're both pretty much first-timers at this, Blu!" Roberto affirmed. "So, are you ready then?"

"Uh..."

"I am ready!" A younger voice shouted from above.

Making a sudden entrance, Tiago landed between his parents, striking a tough pose and displaying a

hastily put on war-like face paint. "I'm going too, uncle Beto!"

"Nuh-uh, no you're not, Tiago." Jewel gently pulled her young offspring back away.

"Aw, mom! Why?" His begging eyes went to Roberto. "Uncle Beto, pleeeeeease?"

"Sorry, T-bird! Only when you've grown up a little. These excursions are for adolescent birds only."

"But dad isn't an adolescent! Why is he going?"

"Actually, that is a good point!" Blu spoke up. "I'm not an adolescent, so why am I going?"

"Blu!" Jewel scolded.

"Don't sweat it, Blu. Eduardo and I agreed we'd make an exception with you."

"Sweat it? But I wasn't even-"

"So!" Roberto interrupted. "Are you ready then?"

"Er...I-"

"Yes, you are!" Jewel encouraged as he pushed him forward.
At this point, he knew he would have no choice.

"Alright, then let's go!" And with that, Roberto dragged Blu with him out the hollow, forcing him into open his wings and fly. Right after, Roberto took off and took the lead in front of him. "Seeya, Ju-Ju! Later, T-bird!"

"Um, bye honey! Bye Tiago! Tell Carla and Bia I'll see them in three days!"

"Goodbye! Have a good time!" Jewel and her son waved to the two male macaws as they flew away into the distance.

"Mom", Tiago turned to her mother once the two adult males were gone, "do me and my sisters really need to stay with aunt Mimi?" He whined.

"Sorry, dear, but it's already been decided." She petted the chick's scruffy back. "But don't worry, ok? I'll be back home as soon as your dad is."

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Left behind were the vivid colors of the macaws' sanctuary. Blu reluctantly followed Roberto deeper into the jungle. He had been too focused on not losing the bird in front of him from sight to study his surroundings.

He was way past the point where the idea of making a turn and silently sneaking back into the village without getting completely lost would have had any success.

"Here we are!" Roberto announced. He slowed down and soon he landed on a tall branch.

Blu followed and perched himself at the same spot.

"Welcome to the side-grove!"

Taking a look at his surroundings, there was a number of things that caught Blu's attention.

Or rather, the lack of them is what took his attention. For the starters, everything felt quite...silent. It wasn't dead silent, but there was a distinctive lack of noise produced by animals. No sound of any other birds in particular. Either they were hiding very well, or there weren't any to begin with... It wasn't as if the place looked inhabitable either, however. The grove was full of dense green lush everywhere, with trees as tall as they were anywhere else in the jungle...but there really wasn't a lot of color in the area. Not a single flower or fruit he could see from anywhere nearby.

"So...what's this place?"

"It's strange, isn't it? The side-grove is one of the most peaceful parts of the jungle. Hardly any animal knows of it and even those who do, like us, don't really come here often, let alone live in it."

"And why is that?"

"It's simple: there's hardly any food in here. The plants here all taste bland and have little nutrients for you, unless you're an insect. No fruits for birds like us either. So that drives away a good number of prey animals out of here. No prey, no reason for land predators to lose their time here. Really, you'd only want to live here if you were a caterpillar."

"And this helps me learn about survival how...?"

Roberto sighed, knowing he had to be patient with the never-ending source of complaints that Blu was known for be amongst the tribe. "Precisely because of that: there's very little resources for us that surviving one day alone becomes a challenge, let alone three of them!"

He shortened the distance between them. As he walked closer to him, he enlarged his posture, forcing Blu into a slow retreat as his own body lowered.

"You won't be learning how to escape human traps, or how to avoid getting eaten by crocodiles. No Blu. For the next three days, you'll learn to survive against the most powerful adversary in the Amazon: mother nature herself!"

Blu realized the position Roberto had forced him into: standing low against the other macaw's taller,

dominating stand.

He knew he was doing it on purpose.

"Yeah, whatever." Blu lifted up his posture, trying not to show any hint of intimidation. "So what's our first lesson, mestro? Learning how to find the way back to the village?"

Roberto chuckled with amusement. "Oh, you wish, Blu. That'll actually be our very last lesson." "What?!"

"Come on, you didn't think you were the first trainee who planned to flee back to the village, did you? That's why we don't tell the little ones how to return until they course is over."

Blu looked frantically at everything around him, hoping that there'd be the slightest hint that could help him trace his way back home. Yet no matter where he looked at, everything looked so unfamiliar, unrecognizable. Everything started to appear like an eerie maze. Were those two branches part of the same tree or were from different ones? Are those leaves in the ground growing taller by the second? Was Roberto sure that there wasn't another reason why nobody chose to come here? The paranoia slowly invaded him...

"Hey, relax." He felt Roberto's wing pulling him close.

Uncomfortably close.

"Just stay close to me and everything is going to be fine."

He felt Roberto's blue eyes piercing his own stare.

What was he trying to prove with all this? Trying to act oh so superior and strong, wanting to make

Blu feel like some wimp who couldn't survive without someone like him? Someone strong, fearless,

graceful, athletic and incredibly, almost impossibly, handsome and attractive.

Man, everything about him. That voice, that body, that elegant tuff of feathers on his head...

...how he envied them.

"Well," Roberto stepped back, "I hope you're ready as you can be Blu, because lesson one of survival begins...now!"

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