“You and your stories, Skylark,” Karuwai scoffed. “They are cautionary tales of the kind mother hens tell their chicks.”
Kotuku saw the sad look on Skylark’s face. She caught the intimations of mortality contained in her words. She turned to Huia and scolded her. “You ask such difficult questions, Huia. Like all things, the fortunes even of manu whenua wax and wane. We may rejoice today but what about tomorrow? All depends on the will of the Lord Tane.”
The mood was interrupted by Chieftain Ruru who, giving the alarm, pointed to the trees. Darkness was cutting a line across their tops. “The sun is going out,” he said.
“It is a solar eclipse,” Huia gasped.
“The Lord Tane himself comes to punish us,” Titi cried.
“No,” Skylark answered. “The seabirds are coming.” She turned to Ruru. “Quick, get your warriors to take up their positions.”
Before she could draw another breath, Skylark saw the forest shivering. It exploded as manu whenua in retreat came flying through the trees and across the lagoon.
“The seabird army is not far behind us,” they cried. Some were limping. Others were ferrying back the wounded and the dead. The air was whirring and chittering as the retreating landbird army landed and reinforced the defensive positions all around the lagoon.
Oh my God, Skylark thought. It’s all up to me now.
She went through her checklist again: Angle of trajectory, check. Shotgun’s loaded, check. Barrel closed, check. Owl warriors in place, ready to pull the trigger, check. Then she remembered:
“Chieftain Ruru,” she yelled, her eyes wide with fright, “we have to cock the shotgun, otherwise it won’t fire —”
“How do you do that? Oh me oh my, what a cock-up.”
Skylark knew the fault was hers, not Ruru’s. “No offence, Chieftain Ruru,” she said, “but it would be really nice to have birds around you who understood what you wanted.”
Quickly she flew up to the shotgun. “I need another rope up here,” she said. Immediately three stocky owl warriors lifted a rope to her. She took it in her beak, but nervousness was getting to her and she couldn’t lever it over the two cocking levers. “Sometimes it is so inconvenient not to have fingers and thumbs,” she wailed.
With a roar like a hurricane, the battle between the opposing armies smashed through the trees. The wind of a thousand beating wings began to stir the surface of the lake, lashing it into fury.
“Done,” Skylark said as she finally slipped the rope into place. “Now pull!”
At her command, the owl warriors heaved at the rope. “Hii haa! Hii haa!”
Skylark took a quick look across the lagoon. Was that the war council in retreat? Yes: Chieftains Kuku, Kaka, Kea and Piwakawaka. Oh, where was Arnie?
Then she saw him.
“Arnie!” she screamed.
He was fighting a rearguard action. His opponent was Kawanatanga — and Kawanatanga was winning.
“Quickly now,” Skylark urged the owl warriors. Her heart was pumping with fright.
“Hii haa! Hii! Haa!”
It seemed to take years before the cocking lever double-clicked into place.
“Now back to your positions!” Skylark yelled.
The owl warriors scrambled over each other to return to the ropes that would pull the trigger.
Meanwhile, Kawanatanga was closing on Arnie. “I was told in that other world we come from, that in this world I would meet my nemesis,” he laughed. “I never thought you would be such a weakling. Prepare to die —”
Kawanatanga slashed with his claws. At the last moment, Arnie spun out of the way, folded his wings and dropped to the lagoon. As he did so he yelled at Chieftain Kahu, Chieftain Kawau and Chieftain Tui. “Disengage with the enemy.” He wanted to leave Skylark with a clear shot at Kawanatanga, the black bastard.
“Now, Skylark. Now.”
Skylark heard Arnie’s sharp cry curling towards her. The owl warriors were waiting, ropes in beaks, arms pumped.
“On my order, fire from the first barrel … fire!”
With an almighty heave, the owls pulled at the ropes. The trigger moved. But nothing happened. Oh no. What was wrong?
“Skylark, fire!” Arnie called again.
“It’s the safety catch,” Skylark realised. “It’s still on.”
The seabird army began cruising across the lagoon like conquerors. They reached the halfway mark, coming closer. Dreams of victory flared in Karuhiruhi and Kawanatanga’s eyes. The Great Division was about to be overturned.
“Skylark, quickly, before it’s too late —”
Skylark’s mouth was dry. She needed a drink of water. She could hardly speak. “Te Arikinui Kotuku, there’s a tiny switch up there —”
Kotuku cocked her head, saw the switch on the shotgun. She put her strong bill against it. “You mean this little thing?”
Skylark nodded. Heard the tiny click as the safety catch was unlatched.
“Fire!” Skylark said.
The shotgun roared. The owls were thrown to the ground by the recoil. Arnie ducked. A shell whizzed over his head and exploded. Pellets scattered through the air.
“E hika ma,” Ruru said, picking himself up and dusting himself off. “He aha tera? What the hell was that?”
His shock was nothing to the pandemonium in the first ranks of the seabird army.
“Get back to the ropes!” Skylark yelled. The recoil had kicked the shotgun off its cradle of rocks. Already Ruru was on the case. He knew his owl warriors were bruised, but he ordered them to get under the barrel and to lever it back up.
“Don’t worry about us, Chieftainess Skylark,” Ruru said.
“Second barrel … fire!”
Another shell left the shotgun. The owl warriors were again kicked to the ground. No time to waste.
“Reload! Reload!” Skylark screamed.
This time, the shell exploded right in front of Karuhiruhi. Caught in a hail of pellets, the only thing that saved him was a quick-thinking corporal who flew to his protection. With horror, Karuhiruhi saw the corporal’s body disintegrate. He felt a wet lash across his face and realised it was a spurt of blood from the dying corporal.
Karuhiruhi completely lost it. “The Lord Tane has returned to the side of the landbirds!” he yelled. “Retreat! Retreat!”
In fear for his life, he turned and wheeled away from the lagoon. The bewildered seabird army watched. Then, one by one, they banked and followed him. After all, was he not their leader?
“Come back, come back, you fools!” Kawanatanga raged. “We must press on with the attack —”
But from all corners of the Great Forest of Tane, the manu whenua, led by Arnie, came flying.
“Kik-kik-kik-kik! Don’t even think about it.” Arnie said.
It all happened so quickly. One moment the sky had been filled with seabirds. The next they were turning, wheeling away, following Karuhiruhi out of Manu Valley. Only Kawanatanga and his squad of seashags remained.
Kawanatanga was insane with rage. He hissed and spat at Arnie. “Next time, boy,” he said, “it will be just between you — and me.” With contemptuous ease, he flicked a wing and was away, soaring on the wind, back to the sea and the offshore islands.
On his return to his island fortress, Karuhiruhi dismissed his troops and sought the sanctuary of the royal nursery where he would find the solace of Areta and his baby son. The mood on the flight back had been sombre. Karoro, Taranui and Parara had joined him from the corners of the sky, and when they reached their destination fights broke out between those lieutenants who were loyal to him and those who questioned the order to break off the fighting. “For the second time we have flown the field of battle,” Karoro shrilled. “Yet we were winning —” Turmoil was in the air, as great as that which Cleopatra, the Egyptian Queen, had faced when, leaving the sea battle of Actium to her consort, she gave victory to the navy of Octavian.