“He’s not my boyfriend!”
“What’s wrong with you, boy?” Joe scolded. “Haven’t you heard of old Chinese proverb: ‘Bird in hand worth two in bush’?”
Joe gave a raucous laugh. The kaka colony caught her laughter in their wings and played a game of netball with it. Thrown like a ball, its sound ricocheted among them as they twisted, looped, chuckled and tumbled in the air.
He’s not her boyfriend! She’s not his girlfriend! Ha-ha-ha!
Led by Joe, Skylark and Arnie walked back towards the beach.
“This might sound like a dumb question,” Skylark asked Joe, “but after we leave you, do you know where we’re suppose to go?”
The sun skipped through the thinning canopy. “Why, you have to go to see Deedee,” Joe said, as if Skylark should know. “She’s the one who knows about the Time Portal. I only know about the beak.”
Through a gap in the trees Skylark saw a blaze of yellow sand. Further out, was the blinding blue of the sea. “And where does this Deedee live?”
“She’s down in Nelson. When you get there, ask for her at the Maori Language Centre right in the middle of the city. She teaches young Maori children the reo.”
Arnie groaned. “Another ferry crossing. Oh no,”
“And I suppose she’ll have the magic potion or spell or, hey, maybe she can dial up the Time Portal and ask the pizza boy to deliver it,” Skylark said. Joe led the way out of the forest, scrambling among the rocks down to the sand. Skylark was busy looking at her feet, trying not to trip. Arnie was behind.
“Skylark, do you always mock everything? I know you’re resistant to being told what to do and I can see that in you patience is not a virtue. But you’re just going to have to learn to hold your temper. Don’t be so reactive, and don’t bad-mouth everything just because you can’t understand it. The Apocrypha doesn’t tell how these things are done. Sometimes we have to work it out, try to solve the enigmas, find the answers to the puzzle.”
“My mother’s in a coma. I’m in a hurry.”
Joe wasn’t listening. Already she had reached the sand. “Nothing of importance ever comes quickly or easily. You’re not going to help your mother at all if you don’t do everything in the proper order. Hoki’s given you the claw, Birdy’s given you the feather, you’ve got the beak from me. With these you can go to the next level. But only Deedee can tell you how to get there.”
Just then Skylark felt something thump her hard on the back.
“Ouch,” Skylark laughed, assuming Arnie had tripped and put a hand out to steady himself. Then it happened again, hard, this time on her head. She put her arms in front of her, to protect her face, and the world became a crazy kaleidoscope of sky, sand and sea as she fell. But there was something else there too, something solid black in the centre of things, something which kept fragmenting, with pieces falling away —
Kaa. Kaa.
“No,” Skylark screamed. She remembered the first day at Tuapa when a big black bird had hit her. This time there were fifty seashags in a feathered mass of evil, their wings flaying the sky. Another seashag dived.
There she is, the chick! Attack! Kill her!
Arnie saw Kawanatanga falling on Skylark’s body. There had been no time to react. The attack had happened so quickly. He called out: “Joe —”
Joe turned to look. She saw Skylark on the ground, rolling, trying to rid herself of Kawanatanga. She looked up: “Jeez, where the hell did they come from?” She remembered her Army patrol drills. She had scouted too far ahead. In a crouch, she ran back to Arnie who managed to pull Kawanatanga away. But more and more seashags were diving and Joe caught a flash of Kawanatanga as he called out his commands.
Get the chick! She must be stopped! Kill her!
Joe reached for her Bowie knife. “Arnie, here —”
She sent the knife spinning through the air. Arnie caught it and, next moment, was slashing, slashing, slashing out at the seashags. The knife made contact. A seashag squealed and fell to the ground, wing severed from body. Another slash, and blood spouted as Arnie severed the head from another seashag.
“Get them off me! Get me away!” Skylark screamed
Joe hurled herself in, ripping through the birds, trying to disperse them.
“Get out of here, you seabirds,” she roared. But she knew that they were all powerless here on the sand. They were in the seabirds’ domain.
Vicious beaks were slashing at Skylark’s eyes, throat and ears. One lucky strike and they could get into her brain. Joe reached her and threw herself on top, protecting Skylark from the attack.
“When I give the word,” Joe yelled to Arnie, “pull Skylark out from under me. Make for the forest. That’s the only place she’ll be safe.”
“What about you?”
“That’s an order, Corporal. Do it now.”
Joe rolled, Arnie pulled and, with a cry of pain, Skylark was up on her knees and in Arnie’s arms. All around her the seabirds were flapping, and Kawanatanga was crying out in deafening anger. Arnie was beating a way through them. Skylark couldn’t see. When she went to clear her eyes her hands were red with blood oozing from her hairline. “Hurry Arnie,” she moaned. The forest seemed so far away.
They crossed from the sand into the rocks. Still the seashags pursued them. Arnie fell. We’re finished, Skylark thought. Arnie picked her up again, carrying her in his arms. Stumbling, almost tripping, he pushed himself up the rocks and fell with Skylark into the shade of the forest.
Kill the hen who guards this island. Kawanatanga’s fury knew no bounds as he directed his squad to rip Joe apart.
“You must go back,” Skylark said to Arnie. “You can’t leave Joe out there.”
Arnie bounded into the sunlight, yelling battle cries that he had last used in the Army. He reached Joe, and hoisted her in a fireman’s lift. As he clambered from the sand to the rocks, he saw Skylark coming to help him. She had a long branch in her hands and she swung it at the seashags like a baseball bat. “Take that you feathered freaks,” Skylark yelled. With her help Arnie and Joe reached the sanctuary of the forest.
“Thanks, Skylark,” Joe said. Blood was streaming from her wounds.
But what was this? The seashags had not stopped their attack.
Disobey the law! Cross over into the territory of the forest birds! Kill the chick! Kill her protectors too!
“We’re done for,” Arnie said as he turned to make a last-ditch stand.
However, behind him the forest ever so softly began to rustle. A wind seemed to be blowing through it. The wind became a veritable storm. It buffeted with battle cries, loud, strong and harsh. From out of the canopy came hundreds of brightly coloured birds. They had grey crowns and, as they glided down to join in the battle, their underwings flashed red.
“It’s the cavalry,” Skylark said.
The kaka colony, led by Flash Harry, came flying to the rescue.
Kra. Kra. Ka! Return to your domain, seashags. Tarry here at your own peril, for you are in the forest of the kaka, warriors of Tane.
Beaks ready, the kaka colony drove a wedge through the marauding seashags. Reluctant to give way, Kawanatanga ordered his birds to stand their ground. But the kaka were relentless in their attack. They entered into mid-air combat, tearing, slashing, showing no quarter.
“Skylark! Joe!” Arnie pulled the two women to safety as Kawanatanga and the seashags turned to combat their new foe.
With the kaka colony taking a rearguard action, Skylark, Arnie and Joe made their way back to the house. Luckily, Skylark’s injuries were superficial. She worked on Joe, whose wounds were more serious, then both worked on Arnie. He had two long rips in his shoulder, and Skylark blanched when she saw the makeshift way in which Joe sewed the flaps of skin together. “It isn’t pretty,” Joe said, surveying her handiwork. “But it does the job.”