by lee king
Chapter 14
The sun was already down and the last bit of light was fading when Cindy got to the old church at Willow Springs. She could see a huge black crow gorging on seeds that he had shaken to the ground from a tiny bird feeder that was made only for little songbirds.
“Victor!” Cindy called out from a safe distance.
Victor jumped and arched his wings, quick to fend off an attacker.
“Are you Victor the tracker?”
“Friend or foe?” Victor cawed.
“Friend! I know where Savanna is. We’ve been out searching for her son. He’s a white fledgling about my age.”
“She’s holed up and healing at Junction Pass, at the grain elevator by the railroad tracks,” Victor said. “The old geezer just gave me the lowdown, then went back to his roost.”
That’s probably the same old geezer that I chided for being negative, earlier this morning, Cindy thought.
“I was prepared to be out for days,” Victor said.“But now I can be at White Rock before my outfit gets there.”
“I heard you have proof. May I see it?” Cindy asked.
Victor dug the feather from a craw fold under his beak. Cindy hopped over to it and smelled it. Sure enough, it matched Savanna’s scent. She paused to think. “Are you going to rest before you take off again?”
“I never rest when I am on a personal mission for the Mighty Dark Raven!”
“I understand your loyalty. Will you to guide us to White Robin? But first allow me and my scouts to get some rest.”
“My mission is to get the proof to his momma and nothing more!”
“Can you at least give us directions?” Cindy beseeched.
“Point your wing to where the sun went down. Now look to that tall tower with the blinking light on it. That’s Round Mountain. Go straight at it, and shoot your azimuths on a large tree or a bluff or a tower and so on.
“You mean set trail markers in case we have to escape danger and regroup somewhere safe?”
Victor ignored her. It got his goat to show patience to pouter pigeons, especially to have to explain military terms to them. In fact the whole mission had rubbed him wrong from the get go. With the exception of Dark Raven and Tar Raven; by nature ordinary crows do not cotton to squabs, unless they intend to eat them. Victor would have to grin and bear it. He knew Dark Raven was testing him, to see if he was ready to relieve him and take command, so that the Mighty Raven could go home and retire.
“Go until you see the big shiny birds with people inside them, landing and taking off.” He scowled. “If you leave at first light you’ll be there by the time the sun is straight above you. You’ll be crossing the big woods. Many outlaws abound in that region—especially the chicken hawks and the much swifter falcon hawks. You might avoid them better if you fly higher than that tower. They always attack from above. Do not stop until you pass the double black road that leads into the setting sun. There, the land is wide open. With your powerful eyes, you should begin to see the shiny birds.” That was all Victor was willing to offer.
“Thank you, Victor. Please tell Savanna we are leaving at first light. Tell her to wait there for our return.” Cindy turned to face the scouts. “Let’s camp for the night, scouts. We have a very bold journey ahead of us.”
Chapter 15
Lola was late getting back from Rock Creek. She had a big juicy worm for White Robin. She called him to supper. He was worn out and starving from his rigorous training. He landed in the apple tree next to Lola and opened his mouth wide. Lola pushed the worm inside. White Robin made a sour expression, then gulped the worm on down.
“Yuk! I don’t think I’ll ever take to liking robin food.”
“You can roost in my nest, White Robin. I’ll roost here beside you.” Lola sounded very tired.
Granny Gray Squirrel had been scrubbing her winter home with green pine needles most of the day, in an effort to get the starling smell out. It was in a hollow limb in the large maple tree at the rear corner of the big house. It lay in the opposite direction, but nearly the same distance from Lola’s nest, as the Holly tree. Granny loaned it out to the starlings during the spring nesting season. Their chicks were already grown and they had all moved out a few days earlier.
Granny was on her way back from saying goodnight to Clara the injured momma squirrel, and her lone baby in the holly tree. She climbed up the apple tree to check on Lola and White Robin,
“Are you guys settled in?”
“Yes, we are, Granny. Thank you for asking.”
“You have made powerful progress in your flying skills, White Robin. I am very pleased.”
“Levi said in a couple days I’d be flying better than any—” A sad feeling washed over White Robin. “Is Levi going to be all right?”
“I don’t know, little bird,” Granny said. “Perhaps the Great Spirit needed him in His kingdom for more important matters.” Granny said.
“It sure is awfully quiet around here with Levi gone,” Lola said.
“Everyone is missing him…is why” Granny wiped her eyes.
“I’m going out to look for my momma tomorrow!” White Robin declared.
“You are not ready to venture out alone, little bird! You need to build up your fortitude by learning from a seasoned adult like Lola first,” said Granny. “There are too many dangers for a lone fledgling to be roaming aimlessly around out there!”
“She’s right,” Lola said. “I’ll take you out looking for her. We will go as far as the wide black road, where the searchers turned back this morning, and follow it until we reach the other wide black road that follows the setting sun.”
“Thank you, Lola. Thanks for everything you’ve done for me; and you too, Granny Gray, for saving my life.” He wrapped his wings around Granny’s neck and hugged her. “Good night, Granny Gray Squirrel.”
“Good night, White Robin.” She studied Lola suspiciously, “Did you get that Rock Robin fellow straightened out?”
“Good night, Granny!”
Granny laughed. “Good night, Lola.”
Chapter 16
It was after midnight, during the ghost hours, when Victor arrived at Junction Pass. Victor knew the area well; it was a common resting place for birds traveling south.
He could not roust the pigeons awake at that hour. As superstitious as pigeons are, they would surely see him as a netherworld ghost and flee in terror. Savanna would have to wait until morning to receive Victor’s news of her baby. He flew to the top of a tall pine tree across the railroad tracks from the grain elevator, and was asleep the instant his feet touched the tree.
******
“Up and at ’em, scouts! Drink lots of water and eat until you can’t eat anymore, then stuff your craws full. We are about to test the courage and endurance of every pigeon here.”
“It’s not even daylight yet, Cindy,” they all grumbled. They were sore and aching from the hard driving Cindy had put them through to catch up with Victor.
“That’s one strike,” Cindy bellowed. “I failed to mention that three strikes and you are off my team. Is that clear, scouts?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Now get squared away and meet me at the bird fountain.”
“Victor the tracker said we should leave at first light.”
“That’s two strikes against you, Scout!”
“But, I was just saying—”
“You must be the son of that negative old geezer. You are off our team!”
“He’s his grandson. I came up from Texas with that ornery old codger! I’ll take the boy’s place,” came a gravelly voice from the shadows of a cedar tree. “I’ve flown across them big woods many times. I was a messenger pigeon back in the day. My learning will come in handy.”
“Come forward and show yourself,” Cindy demanded.
An aging pigeon limped out into the moonlight and stood there halfcocked on the lawn with a crooked leg.
Cindy gasped. “You’re crippled!”
; “Has no bearing on my flying abilities, ma’am. I am still as good a tumbler as any, and better than most. Just stings my pride at large gatherings, is all. I know your plight. I have one more romp in me, and then I reckon I’ll call it quits. Or maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll get to go out in a blaze of glory, like all us Texans hanker to do.”
“How—”
“Falcon hawks. Three of em ganged up on me midway across the big woods.”
“What’s your—”
“Fast Eddie, back in the day. Now it’s Falcon Eddie, mostly from getting laughed down by the bullies at large gatherings.”
“You sound like you have plenty of salt left in you.”
“More than all of you put together and then some. I listened in to you talking to that tracker crow last night. I’ve been to where them shiny birds land!”
“Do you know what an azimuth is?”
“It’s a straight-line trail marker used to map your direction in case a unit is split up and has to regroup somewhere at a safe point.”
“You are a blessing, Falcon Eddie. We desperately needed a veteran point guide. That’s Swifty, and that’s his brother Dodger. They’re from my flock at Junction Pass. And that’s Pebo, from the geezer’s flock here at—”
“I know Pebo and his bunch. Names mean little or nothing to me, ma’am. I’ll give you all I got left in me. Partly cause ya’ll are just babes in the woods going across there, especially with them greenhorns and all, and partly cause I admire your pluck. And mostly cause I’ve got a score to settle. How much tumbler skills do you have?”
Dodger chimed in. “Her Aunt May trained her. May is the fastest tumbler in the region, and our flock is already saying Cindy is bound to go way past her.”
That was pigeon music to Cindy’s ears. “Welcome to our team, Falcon Eddie. Fall in at the bird fountain, after you’ve eaten.”
“I’m squared away and ready to go now, ma’am.” He leaned toward Cindy and whispered, “I’ll get you across there, but I can’t promise them pouters nothing.”
Chapter 17
“I can’t move my wings, Lola!” White Robin squealed.
“You worked them too hard yesterday, little bird. Here.” She stuffed a fat night crawler into his mouth.
It was breaking daylight, and every muscle in White Robin’s body was sore to the bone.
“Now get up and limber your muscles loose,” Lola said. “Get out of that nest and limber up! Chop, chop! The pain only hits you once. Then it fades away quickly.” She eased her wings in under his and started flapping them.
“Ow, ow, ow, that hurts!” White Robin cried out.
“Keep flapping! We have a hard day ahead. Your flock is depending on us to find them and bring them home.”
With that, White Robin jumped up, stood on the edge of Lola’s nest, and leaped off. He flew around the apple orchard twice, then landed by Lola. “Will you teach me to fly like you did when you were chasing that Rock Robin guy?”
“Of course,” Lola said. “But it will require your total concentration. The slightest mistake can get you hurt real bad, or even get you killed. We’ll start out slowly and then gradually go faster and faster. Fly close behind me. Close enough to touch my rump feathers. Concentrate only on me and nothing else. Pretend you are my shadow. Let’s go!”
They took off, heading east toward the wide black roads.
Granny Gray Squirrel crouched at the opening to her winter home in the maple tree, shelling buried pecans, and listening. She was disappointed to see two young squirrels eating the purple blossoms on her maple tree; although, the blossoms are sweet like candy, they are low in protein and cannot sustain the ever growing muscles of a tree squirrel. They had not been taught soon enough to store up food for the winter, but then maybe they’d been born late and missed the harvest. She changed her mood and chuckled.
“It seems easier to learn to fly when you are mad, little bird. That’s how Lola got so good.”
Chapter 18
“Your kind is not welcome here, so you’d best keep moving on,” said the elder pigeon from the doorway at the grain elevator.
“I have news for a white pigeon named Savanna.”
“Give me the news and I will pass it on to her. She is not well at the moment.”
“I must deliver the news and the proof I carry, in person, by order of the Mighty Dark Raven!”
“Your kind is known for lying and trickery.”
“If you call me a liar, I’ll have a thousand crows come here and take this place away from you worthless squabs, and then we’ll eat each and every one of your grain-fed fat carcasses alive!”
Victor started crow-hopping in a circle and spitting at the center of it, and the elder pigeon started trembling. For he knew that was a corvine war dance.
“Give me a moment.”
A short while later the elder pigeon returned with Savanna by his side; still woozy from her ordeal. “This is Savanna. You may deliver your news to her.”
Victor nodded respectfully. “Ma’am, your white squab is alive and well. Lola Robin is tending him. Granny Gray Squirrel found him and named him White Robin. A cinnamon pigeon from this flock named Cindy and her scouts are on their way there. I gave them directions. She wants you to stay here and wait for her return.” Victor produced the feather and offered it to Savanna.
Savanna sniffed it, and then snatched it from Victor. “Thank you, Great Spirit. Thank you for saving my baby.” To Victor it appeared that Savanna was laughing and crying at the same time. It probably had something to do with that gob of pigeon poop matted up on her noggin. No doubt for medicinal reasons, he thought.
Savanna did a happy pigeon dance. She whirled around and around, then lit out for the door to the grain elevator, flapping her wings and running like a wild turkey trotting, all the while singing a pigeon song that went somewhat like, This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
“Forgive me for being short with you, stranger,” said the elder. “I took you for a drifter, but now I see that you are a fine soldier, and will make a great leader when your time comes. What is your name?”
“Victor, the tracker! Second-in-command to the Mighty Dark Raven!”
“Well, Victor, if you are ever back this way again, alone, feel free to stop in for food and rest.”
Chapter 19
“The best formation for a small contingent like ours is to fly side by side with Cindy in the middle. It’s called a V formation,” said Falcon Eddie. “I’ll cover the rear, since that’s usually where they attack first. Cindy will cover the front; you scouts will cover the sides, and below and above. Keep very quiet. We don’t want to draw any unwanted attention.”
“Move out, scouts,” Cindy bellowed.
They ascended as high as the blinking light on the radio tower, then headed straight for it. The sky at the rim of the eastern horizon was baby blue.
“We’ll be deep into enemy territory at daylight, scouts,” said Cindy. “You all heard Victor. We won’t be stopping till the sun is straight overhead, so I’ll set the pace at half speed.”
“If we get caught up in a chase we’ll need all our strength and then some to get away,” Falcon Eddie added. “Lucky for us they’re like house cats; they get winded and give out pretty quick.”
Chapter 20
It seemed as if they were dancing like two butterflies on a light breeze, White Robin thought. Him and Lola were a about a mile out from their kingdom, flying low over an open hayfield with no obstacles around.
“Go faster, Lola.”
“You have to learn the rhythm first, and then I’ll go faster.”
They went on dancing for another mile, then Lola shot straight up. White Robin kept right with her. She jagged this way then that way, straight up, straight down, and then she did a half- dozen rollovers in a row. She came out of the rollovers flying upside down, and then she flew sideways for a while. White Robin stayed with her as though he were tethered to her.
“You learn fas
t, little bird. Now comes the obstacles. This skill may save your life someday. Remember, concentrate. One tiny mistake can get you hurt or killed!”
“I’m ready!”
Lola veered toward a ranch house with many outbuildings, implements, and trees around it. The people of the house were having breakfast outside on their deck. Lola fancied an audience. It reminded her of when she’d first learned to fly and how she’d entertain her momma and everyone else with her newfound tricks. She could only go about half speed because of the dangers posed to White Robin.
She did a rollover and zoomed under the railing of the deck, right past the people. A little boy squealed, “Look at that white pigeon chasing that robin!”
The people stopped eating and turned to watch the show Lola was putting on. Lola did a somersault and zoomed past the people again to make sure she had their full attention. She sailed under the high belly of a pickup truck, crisscrossed around the poles in a pole barn, flew backwards around a few trees, descended close enough to the ground for her feet to touch it, and barreled head on at a riding lawn mower. The people were standing up now.
It looked like Lola was going to crash into it. She was mere inches from the lawnmower when she shot straight up.
“Thump!”
“Oh no!” wailed the people.
“Poor little pigeon,” cried the boy.
White Robin had glanced off the steering wheel of the lawn mower. Lola had let herself get so caught up in entertaining the people that, only for a split second, she had forgotten about White Robin. She did a hairpin turnaround and was already there when White Robin hit the ground. He hit the soft grass like a duck landing on water.
Lola rushed to him. “Are you all right? Please tell me you’re all right, please, White Robin!”
White Robin hopped to his feet, stood high on his toes, spread his wings out wide, and yelled, “That was fun! Let’s do it again!”
