Battle of the Birds

by Lee Murray

  ‘We simply can’t allow Te Hōkioi to carry on mistreating our citizens. Many of our flightless brothers are quiet and peaceful. Next it’ll be the takahē, the kakāpō and the island teal,’ Mergus says. ‘Who knows how far they’ll go?’

  Fantasia peeps, ‘But what are we going to do? We can’t let that unruly band take over!’

  Hey! Annie remembers that headline in Madison’s Capital Times: Unruly Band Take over Mall. It was an article about a band of skateboarders that had been hanging out at West Towne Mall. Whizzing around the complex on their boards they were causing havoc: frightening shoppers, damaging the planters and seating areas, monopolising the children’s play area, and generally whooping and hollering. Finally, fed up with the complaints, the city had erected a skateboard facility a distance from the mall. The article described it as a win-win solution: the skateboarders had a place to do their thing, and folk could go to the mall without being terrorised.

  ‘What if we try separating them?’ Annie suggests.

  ‘You mean like sending the naughty ones to their rooms?’

  ‘Maybe he’ll be satisfied if he’s allowed to lead on one island,’ she says. ‘We could let Te Hōkioi and his friends rule the North Island while Moa and the flightless govern the South?’

  ‘Would that work?’ Fantasia queries.

  ‘At least it would halve the chances of baby girls being carried off!’ Kahurangi blurts.

  ‘He’ll go back on his word,’ Toa warns. ‘Te Hōkioi is not an honourable warrior.’

  Ahuru rubs his chin thoughtfully. ‘Annie’s idea has promise. It could work,’ he says.

  Moa shakes his head sadly. ‘I fear it will only buy us a little time.’

  When the noise dies down, the Council reconvenes. Moa outlines Annie’s suggestion that Te Hōkioi take up leadership of the North Island.

  ‘So, the Council is proposing that I, Te Hōkioi, will be the King of the North?’

  ‘Yes. ‘

  ‘And no one will challenge my authority in the Council?’

  ‘No, but you will have no influence in the South.’

  Te Hōkioi nods his assent. ‘I accept. And for my first law, I choose to banish the flightless and those that support them from my lands here in the North.’ Once again, there’s an outcry. All around the Council birds squawk loudly in disbelief.

  ‘Banish the flightless entirely from the North? But they can’t fly! They can’t possibly leave. How can you expect them to make the journey to the South?’ Mergus says.

  ‘I don’t know, and I don’t care. If they aren’t capable of flying, they don’t deserve to be called birds. I suppose the people could help them.’

  ‘What? Take them all across the channel by waka?’ Kahurangi shouts.

  ‘If you must.’

  ‘Don’t care, so there, don’t care, so there!’ screeches the falcon.

  ‘It’s a colossal task. One that would take many many moons,’ Ahuru says gravely.

  ‘You have one moon,’ Te Hōkioi announces. The falcon screeches in laughter.

  Barely audible above the laughter of the predators, the fantail, her breast feathers fluffed to make her appear as large as possible, lances boldly, ‘It just can’t be done. There isn’t enough time.’ Fantasia’s right. Annie knows all this is her fault. Imagine comparing Te Hōkioi and his brutes to a bunch of skateboarders! What was she thinking? Now Te Hōkioi has a sniff of power, he’ll not relent. The raptor’s black eyes glisten. He fixes the little fantail in his sight. ‘Are you questioning my right to rule in the North?’

  ‘N-no, of course n-ot,’ Fantasia stutters, flitting her fan anxiously.

  ‘Good.’

  ‘There is one thing, though,’ Moa says. ‘There is the small matter of the girl your brother abducted.’

  ‘Oh that. I have her safe. Her mother was negligent. The girl was in danger from the waves. My brother rescued her.’

  ‘That’s a lie!’ Kahurangi shouts. ‘She was stolen, snatched. You should give her back to her family.’

  Te Hōkioi cocks his head and gives a slow smile. ‘No, I think I will keep her as surety that the flightless will abide by our treaty. When the terms are fulfilled, perhaps I may return her.’

  Moa bellows in protest.

  ‘She is so very small,’ Te Hōkioi croons. ‘It would be dreadful if something were to happen to her. You have one moon. Any that remain will be killed.’

  Hatching Plans

  Te Hōkioi and his followers are making ready to leave the Council when he spies Ken. He considers Annie’s friend for an instant before striding over purposefully. Annie happens to be standing near Ken. Slipping closer to Ken’s large torso, shielded from Te Hōkioi’s watchful eyes and sharp talons, Annie listens in on their conversation.

  ‘Ken, isn’t it?’ Te Hōkioi says. His tone is almost jovial. ‘What are you doing with these losers? You can fly, can’t you? You could join me, you know. Te Hōkioi does not forget those who support him. You’d be well rewarded.’ Annie is astounded. Te Hōkioi is trying to turn Ken to his side!

  ‘It’s a kind offer, but I’m really quite happy here with my friends.’

  ‘But you’re a predator, a fighter like me!’

  ‘I’m also American. In the movies, you’ll find we’re usually the good guys.’

  Te Hōkioi clenches and unclenches his talons, grinding them in the dust. His head remains still, his eyes fixed on Ken. There is no longer any pretence of civility.

  ‘Te Hōkioi will not ask again. If you are not with me, then you are against me.’

  ‘Mmm. I sort of figured on that, but my answer is still no.’

  Te Hōkioi lets out a screech of frustration. With a swift jerk of his head, he summons his followers away.

  The assembly disbands. All that remain are Annie and her friends. They cluster together on the now-quiet ridge to decide what to do. There isn’t much time. A single month. They agree that since he is the fastest, Ken will fly to the far north to the forest of towering kauri. He’ll inform the birds there of what’s been decided.

  Fantasia offers to accompany him, as there is widespread mistrust of predators. Meanwhile, Moa and Ahuru will hasten to Taupō to enlist the help of the tribes already gathered there. Arrangements must be made to transport the flightless across the water to the island in the south. Ahuru doubts there’ll be enough waka. New ones will need to be carved. There is no time to spare.

  ‘I’ve a bit of a network amongst the swamp birds: geese, ducks and the like,’ Mergus says. ‘I could get word out to the marsh birds. Let them know what’s going on. Wading birds aren’t always the best flyers. Take the pūkeko. They’re only good for a few metres before they’re completely pooped. We’ll need to make space on the waka for them too.’

  Moa nods his head towards the goose. ‘Thank you, Mergus. That’s very thoughtful.’

  ‘Oh, think nothing of it,’ Mergus blusters. His feathers puff up, and under the rich brown quills his skin runs crimson. Annie suppresses an urge to giggle. She’s never seen a goose blush before.

  ‘What about us?’ Moana interrupts. ‘We want to help too.’ Surprisingly, Ahuru agrees. With time so short, they can’t spare anyone.

  ‘Toa will travel with the children and go east through Te Urewera forest to the coast to alert the birds there. Afterwards, they’ll join us in Taupō. As soon as we’re all reunited, we’ll make our way south to the channel between the two islands, Te Moana o Raukawa.’

  Annie worries about parting with Ken, her only link with her parents in Wisconsin. If anything were to happen to him, how would she get home? She shakes her head, annoyed. Ken is setting off on an important task, one that could save hundreds of lives, and here she is worrying about herself. Ken isn’t just a convenient bus service passing every fifteen minutes and dropping you off a block from home. He’s her friend. Sensing her concern, Ken distracts her, as usual, with an offhand remark: ‘Don’t fret, Annie. Back at the library in Wisconsin, I’d hear the students go off
to their lectures quoting Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famous line: ‘I’ll be back.’ In the movies Arnie always came back. And I’ll be back, too.’

  Annie gives her friend a hug. ‘Take care, Ken,’ she whispers.

  They depart, each small group moving off in a different direction, and on an important mission. Behind them, the mountain, deserted, is stained pink by the setting sun.

  Out of the Blue

  Travelling swiftly, Toa brings the children to the place where only yesterday they had eaten boiled eggs. Kahurangi is keen to keep going despite the late hour, but Toa disagrees.

  ‘We’ll travel faster in the daylight. It’s too easy to twist an ankle or tumble into a mud pool in the dark. Besides, we need to eat and rest, if we’re to make good time tomorrow.’

  Annie and Moana sink to the ground, not even bothering to shuck off their gear, while Toa and Kahurangi disappear into the bush in search of an evening meal. There is no need to make a fire since the mud pools make excellent cooking pots, so the girls settle down for a good gossip. Although separated by a millennium, gas bagging with Moana is just like chatting with Lauren.

  ‘So what’s up with Toa, Moana?’ Annie asks when she’s sure the warrior is out of earshot. ‘Why is he so grumpy with everyone?’

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe it’s stress.’

  ‘Stress?’

  ‘Sure. There’s great honour in being a warrior, but let’s face it, putting your life on the line day after day for other people has got to be nerve-racking. Sooner or later, that kind of pressure will get to you.’

  ‘Well, that’s true. And now, in a way, he’s babysitting us. It’s a lot of responsibility.’

  ‘When he volunteered to join us, I thought it was for respect and fame; for the mana.’

  ‘So you think he was trying to impress someone? His family maybe? His wife?’

  ‘As far as I know, there’s just his mother. But if you ask me, I think he’s got a thing for Miriama. He’s always hanging around her, trying to get her attention. Didn’t you see her in the village? She’s like Cinderella: really, really pretty.’

  Annie recalls the striking woman who turned her back on Toa the day she arrived in Moana’s village. ‘Is she a weaver?’

  ‘Yes, that’s her, but she isn’t interested in Toa. She says all he thinks of is fighting.’

  Annie is about to respond when a dark outline materialises overhead. She looks up and her stomach nose-dives, the way it does when Dad drives too fast over a hump in the road.

  It’s Te Hōkioi.

  Like a bunny, Annie is paralysed with fear.

  Te Hōkioi’s gleeful cackle booms in her ears. ‘Another hostage. How handy. Don’t mind if I do.’ With that, the monstrous creature swoops down and clasps Moana in his gnarly talons. His prey ensnared, he hovers a moment. The girls look at each other, confused.

  Suddenly, realisation hits Annie like an out-of-control truck. Te Hōkioi is kidnapping Moana! Annie hears a gasp as the air squeezes from her friend’s lungs. Annie scrambles to her feet. She grabs frantically at Moana’s fingers, but they’re wrenched away as the monster climbs into the air, lifting the girl in knife-like claws. Moana’s face pales and her eyes widen, imploring Annie to help her. But Te Hōkioi steals away, his dark silhouette visible against the brilliant red of the dying sun, his prey held tightly to his belly.

  Beetles and Bugs

  Annie doesn’t stop to think. She doesn’t wait for Kahurangi and Toa. Te Hōkioi has taken Moana! She sprints after him, desperate not to lose sight of the raptor and his precious human cargo. Crashing through the brush, she scrapes her knee and splinters a finger. Annie ignores the pain. She can’t stop. She can’t lose Moana. Who knows what Te Hōkioi might do to her? She pushes on, deeper and deeper into the forest. For a time, Annie imagines herself keeping pace with the black speck bobbing on the horizon, but as the terrain becomes steeper and more tortuous, she realises her mind is playing tricks on her. Ultimately, the light dims and she’s forced to give up the chase. Te Hōkioi has gone, and taken Moana with him.

  Right now, Annie could kick herself. All she’s managed to achieve is to get herself separated from her friends and lost in the middle of nowhere. All around her is as black as a witch’s cloak. No longer running, fingers of cold seep through her clothes. An owl hoots menacingly. Annie’s stomach answers with a growl of its own. Glumly, she hunkers down in the mossy undergrowth and hugs her knees to her chest.

  The night is full of noises: the shrieking of cicada and the sandpaper stridulating of wētā. There are bird voices too. Probably predators, like the hawk and laughing owl. Annie tries hard to tune them out. That is, until she overhears a lively conversation between friends. Two male kiwis going about their nocturnal business, are arguing amiably about a race they’d run as children. Each kiwi considers himself the winner. As they amble past Annie’s hiding place, the first kiwi says, ‘I was ahead by a proboscis!’

  ‘Beetles and bugs!’ the other counters.

  ‘Er, hello.’

  ‘Ruffle my feathers, you gave us quite a start!’ the first bird exclaims. ‘Who are you, then? Come on, out of there, show yourself.’

  Annie wriggles out of the hollow on her hands and knees. Her legs have cramped up in the cold so she sits on her bottom, stretching her legs out as she introduces herself. She can barely see who she’s speaking to.

  ‘I’m Annie.’

  ‘Annie? I know you. You’re the girl who talks! So the rumours are true. Look, Wiremu, the rumours are true.’

  ‘Beetles and bugs,’ Wiremu retorts.

  Annie understands how he feels. Last week if anyone had told her she would be able to talk to birds, she might’ve said something similar. ‘Wiremu, I’m afraid your friend…?’

  ‘Bartholemew, but please, call me Barty.’

  ‘…Barty here is right. The rumours are true. Te Hōkioi has taken over the North. He is determined to banish every flightless bird from this island.’

  ‘Banish us? Beetles!’ Wiremu says.

  ‘Ooh, you can be so stubborn, sometimes! At least, listen to what Annie has to say.’

  ‘There isn’t much time. You must get your families to the channel at the southern tip of the island. The people have a flotilla ready to cross the water to the South. Moa is with them.’

  ‘Moa! Well, that changes things. If Moa thinks we need to evacuate, then it’s with good reason. We’ve always said he’s a sharp one, that Moa. Isn’t that right, Wiremu?’

  ‘I’m still not going.’

  ‘But Wiremu, it’s not safe here.’

  ‘Please, Wiremu,’ Annie pleads, ‘Te Hōkioi has given us just one month. Afterwards, he says he’ll slaughter any flightless bird still in his territory.’

  Wiremu snorts. ‘Ha! He’ll have to find me first. I can understand if you want to go, Barty, after all, you have the chicks to think of, but I’m staying put. Pardon my language miss, but no fluffed up, pompous, rambunctious raptor is going to force me out of my home, and that’s the end of it.’ With that, Wiremu turns on his heel and storms off in a rustle of bracken.

  ‘But Wiremu…’ Barty darts off in the wake of his friend, leaving Annie alone in the bush once more.

  The moon rises, shining comforting silver light on Annie. Minutes later there’s a snap of twigs and Barty is back again.

  ‘Look, thanks for trying Annie. I’ll do my best to persuade Wiremu and anyone else I meet to come south. I better get after him now, but it occurred to me that it was a bit odd, you sitting here in the middle of the forest by yourself.’

  Annie tells Barty about the disaster she’s made of trying to follow Te Hōkioi’s trail.

  ‘Oh well, if that’s all, I can help you there,’ the kiwi says. ‘Wiremu and I came this way to forage because there was a sighting of Te Hōkioi heading east towards the sea.’ With his overlong bill, Barty points east. ‘Coming west was just a precaution on our part. We heard Te Hōkioi wasn’t looking to hunt. Apparently, he was already carrying
a morsel big enough for a feast.’

  Pursuit

  By morning, Kahurangi and Toa have caught her up. Annie wakes when she hears Toa shouting for Kahurangi to hurry. They’ve searched all night, struggling to find traces of Annie’s passage in the moonlight. Fortunately, Annie hadn’t been concerned about covering her tracks. Crashing headlong through the forest, she’d left a good trail of newly broken twigs and trampled leaf litter for them to follow.

  Nevertheless, Toa is angry. He’s been up all night searching and worrying. Extra lines show on his tattooed face. Marching straight up to Annie, he rants, ‘You silly girls! Thinking the two of you could push on through the night.’

  Annie is annoyed. Te Hōkioi has Moana! What did he expect her to do? Wave Moana off cooing, ‘Enjoy your flight?’ Annie doubts very much Te Hokioi’s jetting her off for a tropical island holiday. ‘Hang on; did you say the two of us?’

  ‘Yes, where is Moana?’ says Kahurangi, who’s arrived some paces behind Toa. Of course, they don’t know! Annie quickly explains about Moana’s kidnap by Te Hōkioi.

  ‘I’m sorry for running off, but I couldn’t just stand there and let him take her. Please, we have to find her, Toa.’

  Toa isn’t angry with Annie any more, but his frustration is obvious. He pokes the blunt end of his spear repeatedly into the earth. Each stab makes a muted thump.

  ‘It was difficult enough to track you in the dark, Annie. I can’t track a trail in the air.’

  ‘For all we know, they could be anywhere by now,’ Kahurangi says. That’s when Annie remembers Barty’s tip.

  ‘But I know where Te Hōkioi’s going. East! He’s going east, towards the coast.’ She tells Kahurangi and Toa about her meeting with the two kiwis. Toa is unsure whether to trust Barty’s information. They could be running straight into a trap. Annie can hardly blame him, but they can’t stay here and do nothing.

  ‘It’s all the information we have, Toa,’ Annie pleads.

  ‘We have to trust it,’ says Kahurangi. ‘No one else knows Te Hōkioi has Moana.’