Gain and Loss chapter 5

Chapter 5

I laid there on my eggs the next day. All five of them snug underneath me. felt good in my nest. When I was in my nest nothing could wrong, or so it felt. While my husband was out foraging for food, I sat there with my family. I wondered how long it would take til my brothers decided to start having a family of their own. A bit after the sun hit it's peak, I would be heading out soon. The whole macaw incident had left me quite flustered, especially toward the males. I had never seen anything like that, but us toucans were never pressured into going into their territory. Our side was mainly peacefull, but we knew that their side was very dark and not too colorful. While we had things such as the yellow jaguars, and brightly lit anacondas, we could make things out. On their side however, there were dark things that could not be easily seen, such as tapirs, and Black Caimans. it was a dark area therefore many dark animals found good hiding spots.

I looked and saw that Runako was returning with his food. Now was the moment for me to venture out to observe the humans. I got up, to let Runako sit on them. He crouched down upon my five children. Before he sat on them all the way, I took a look at my chidren. I looked at them, and Runako looked at them with me. I was so excited to have them hatch. They were so beautiful. I laid my wings on them, and could swear I felt them kicking. Runako laid his wing on them as well. When these toucans were going to hatch, we would have the happiest life together. He gently nudged me out of the nest, and I nodded, agreeing that I should head out since the scarlet macaw would probably wonder where I was at.

I flew towards the river. Since it was wet season most of the land was a bit flooded. I looked down to see a few river dolphins foraging for fish. They wer so marvelous. An animal unlike anything I had ever seen. I kept going, until I saw Ginean, the princess of the scarlet macaws, up ahead. She looked ovet toward me with a half glare. She was probably wondering what had caused me to be late. "Come on." She huffed. "Let's get this over with." I snickered, and nodded. "So how exactly am I suposed to be able to tell them apart?" She asked. "I mean, to me the humans all look the same. How will we be able to tell which ones are new, and which ones are the villagers?"

I looked at her knowing she had no idea what was in store for her. "Oh, trust me. When you see a two skinned human, you will be able to tell them apart." I told her. She shrugged, and when we had been flying across the river, the small huts of the village came into view. I was so excited and flew as I could over to the village. What a marvelous adventure it would be to see these humans again. They were fascinating enough the first time, and it would be even more fun to see them again. I landed on a tree, and smiled staring off into their direction.

Suddenly in a far off distance I heard. "Hey Kikiana. Please wait for me." I looked as Ginean was slowly flying in my direction. Wow! For a group of stubborn, and pridefull birds, their type sure were slow. I waited impatiently for her to catch up. "Please, don't go so fast. I'm twenty seven years old." She scowled. I smiled at her, and rolled my eyes at her spoiled attitude. "Oh don't look at me like that. When you're twenty seven you'll know what it's like."

I got up on the tip of the branch to get a closer look at the village, to see if the two skinned humans were there. "Well, by the time I'm twenty seven I'll be dead. Oh look! There's one of them." I pointed to a two skinned human. I can only guess it was a female. She was beautiful. I lookled at Ginean, and she looked at her as if she were petrified. "Aren't they fantastic?" I smiled.

She looked scared. "Sure they're great. Well, we saw them, now let's get out of here!" She started flapping, but before she could escape, I clutched her left wing.

I rolled my eyes. "Tell, me you aren't getting cold feathers on me,now are you?" I whined. I pulled her closer to the tribe, and she looked at me as if I insulted her. We made it over to the tribe, and I hid amung the trees. I looked into Caddo's hut, and he was with his woman. Sure enough the white two skinned people were there. There was a two skinned human in the hut. A boy human. He had no second skin on today. He had shed his clothes, probably so Caddo would accept him. To get a closer look, we jumped through a hole in the hut to see what was going on. We perched on the high wooden beams.

The white human, who now had no second skin, except near his belly button, was sitting in a circle, with a few of the men from the village. Caddo was cutting a piece of bamboo, and constructing a pipe. I knew that smoking was a number one social activity, so I figured they would do that to be accepted. The new visitor took a deep breath, and coughed loudly. Caddo couldn't help but laugh, and I could tell that this human most likely never did anything like this.

After that, we left to see other places. There was another white human, outside of the hut. He held a strange thing I had never seen before. It was very peculiar. The villagers were astounded as well. I saw them group around it. It was best explained to be a bunch of leaves. These leaves were white, and incredibley thin. One side of the leaves were seeming to be stuck together, and did fall apart. The most astounding was there were images on the white leaves. Each leaf had something different on it. It was something that had quite intrigued the villagers as well as intrigued me. The translator said "This is something called a book." He said clearly. These "books" as they were called, were hopefully plentiful were these people came from. I liked them alot.

One of them most amazing things was the last thing Ginean and I saw. We saw on the outskirts, a group of the female villagers. They were grouped around one of the two skinned humans. This was a very special one though. This was a female two skinned human. She was showing the women something very wonderous. I could only describe it as something from heaven. She watched as the women slowly departed. This was now my chance to see one of these humans up close.

"Come on, Ginean. I want to see one of these humans up close." I smiled.

She shook her head. "No thank you. I would much rather stay up here, in the trees, where it's safe."

I shrugged, and flew down to this marvelous being. "Suit yourself." I landed on the ground, and she momentarily gasped at my sudden arrival. As scared as I was, I stood my ground in order to see this amazing creature. I planted my feet, hoping she would not hurt me. She was so beautiful, that I could hardly stand it. She looked down at me, a bit amazed, and smiled. I was a great deal nervous, and didn't know what to do. This human took off a second skin that covered her hand, which I later learned was something called a "glove".

With great caution she moved her hand slowly near my beak. I took a frightened step back. Suddenly the strange language came pouring out of the humans mouth. She looked frightened, and a bit stressed from my sudden movements. The translator said earlier that it was a language called "english". As she came slower, I figured it was safe, and watched as she carefully pulled her hand closer to my face. Would this white color of her skin hurt when touched? Would it feel different from the villagers hand? Would it be hot, or cold? I flinched, when i felt it touch my beak. It didn't feel any different. Her hand went from my beak to my cheek. I smiled knowing that it was safe, and I let her get closer to me. I nuzzled my beak up agaist her, knowing she wouldn't hurt me. When I looked behind me, I saw Ginean's face, and she was astounded. Up close this human was so much more different than the villagers. The human then smiled, and stroked my feathers.

This human showed me what she was showing to the others. She laid it down. I fumbled back a bit to let it sit on the ground. It was what I could only describe as a large rock. It was a bit bigger than I was. She flipped over a certain part of the rock, and in a instant there I was. It showed a reflection of me. The translator walked up, and said. "Wow it seems the toucan has taken a shime to the video camera." It was like something from another world. I looked amazing at my reflection. It was as if I was talking to myself. I got my neck closer, and sniffed it, to make sure it wasn't another toucan. To my surprise it smelled nothing like a toucan. I hopped over to it, to see for myself. Whenever I moved, it moved along right with me. I tried pecking it a few times to be certain. When I hopped around it, there was no toucan on the other side, so this "video camera" must have had some way to make it seem like I was there. Was there no end to the new humans wonders?

That evening when Ginean and I were headed out to forage, before headed home, we discussed the humans. We went a direction opposite our home, so that we didn't over hunt for fruits, and nuts in our spot. She was not pleased with with my courage. I supposed that she was too worried for my safety. That was a feature that a wouldn't expect from her kind towards one of my species. Still, I appreciated it. "You were crazy to do that, princess Kikiana. That thing could have hurt you, or hurt me." She sputtered.

"Well it didn't did it? Besides I think they are so very interesting. Just the kind of new zing this jungle needs." I scoffed. I looked over the jungle grounds I had so well remembered. Though they were far from my home, I could easily remember my way through them. it was a great way to get to the rarest fruit of the amazon. The western part was a great spot for it. I was sure that my husband could wait a while till I returned for my shift. While we ventured to the closer depths of the rainforest, we saw the spot covered with different fruits, nuts, and berries. We ventured below the canopies, and emergent layer of the trees, and ventured to the forest floor. A few red grapes were growing, and we managed to eat our fair share.

We stayed on the forest floor, so that we didn't have to suffer the stress of flying on a full stomach. Suddenly about five jaguars lunged out at us. I was terrified, and wrapped my wings around Ginean, as she did the same. We waited fo the kuill, but it never came. Opened our eyes to see the jaguars running past us. We looked at each other a bit puzzled. I was confused. After all jaguars were the toucans number one enemy. "They didn't even look at us." I stated to Ginean.

"Well, I'm just glad I survived." She snarled.

"But that was so strange." I whimpered. "They looked a bit frightened. I say we investigate." I said curious. I started in the direction that the jaguars came from.

She looked at me not believing me. "Let's don't and say we did. Please, do you just love trying to get yourself killed? If the jaguars were running away, don't you think we should run too?"

I was trying to plead my case. "Well, if it caused the jaguars to run, then perhaps it's something new to the forest that the new humans brought with the, Think about it. It's not everyday you see a jaguar frightened." I ran in the direction the jaguars cam from. "I won't make you go, but i have to see what's going on."

I heard her whimpering sounding further and further away. Then I heard her squaking loudly. "Kikiana wait up!" She followed me, and the further we went, we eventually saw a group of parrots going in the other direction, and after that, a pair of marmosets leapt from a tree they were in. I knew something was going awry. Why were all these animals running away? That's when we saw a tiny stampede of animals runing straight towards us. Poison dart frogs of all colors, anteaters, turtles, a few anacondas, capybaras, and spider monkeys made up this stampede. I had never sen such a differen variety of animals running at the same time, unless it was from each other. there was something seriously going on here. I needed to stop somebody.

I snatched one of the anacondas tails. "What's going on? Is something wrong? Why is everyone scared?"

He turned towards me. "Back there. There is something the new humans have. It is a giant shiny animal that is eating the forest." That was when I let go. That was not something I was expecting. Something that two skinned humans had was causing this? Not only that but it was eating the forest? That's when I had to see this for myself. If the humans were causing trouble then I couldn't be able to trust them so easily anymore. I flew as fast as i could in the direction they ran from. When I finally stopped there wasn't a sound. Not a chirp, or a growl. That was the oddest. I pushed a plant to the side, I saw the most horrifying thing I had ever seen.

What Ginean and I saw was something not normal. There was an open space of pure nothing. There were no trees, or even any plants. Everything was gone. The only traces that there were once trees were broken hunks of wood. It was a clear dirt ground, and pieces of charred wood. A few spots of the dirt floor were smoking with heat. There were no trees that were visible for miles. On the sides of the open space, you could see where it traveled by the trees lining the space ever so perfectly. It was like they had some way of making it a clean cut. On the horizon many miles away, you could see a line cutting through the forest. That must have been the trail it left.

Moving was hard when you were paralyzed with fear. Ginean was scared as well. I flew back home with all the energy I could muster up. She had headed back to her kingdom as well. I knew that if the humans could do this much damage by being in the rainforest for only a few days, who knew how long it took before they took out the rest of the trees? I saw my kingdom not too far off. I zoomed through the leaves and shouted the first thing that came to mind. "I WAS WRONG! THE TWO SKINNED HUMANS ARE NOT FRIENDLY!" Every toucan turned their heads towards me, and whoever didn't looked confused, looked either worried, or angry.