CHAPTER 16
FLIGHT TO SONG WOOD
In dim light Blue watched the feeding humans with great interest. They were not at all what he had expected. These creatures seemed so ... weak and helpless! Though the Old One legends hadn’t precisely defined their size, he expected them to be much bigger, stronger and somehow more grand and threatening. Instead, they seemed to exhibit an incredibly strange collection of weaknesses and contradictions. Perhaps they truly were not the Old Ones after all!
Their song was abysmally crude. Even the music that used strange and wondrous tools lacked the depth of bird song, though it was very interesting. But it was only plain sounds, with no inner content, no deeper meaning. Human vocal capability seemed worse even than that of crows or raptors. Song was the core of heart and mind for bird society. How could allegedly superior beings possibly be so inept when it came to song?
Their appearance was equally shocking. Blue had expected that they would resemble to some degree birds or some crawler that he was familiar with, but these creatures were completely strange, unlike anything he could have ever imagined. They had no feathers and only a little hair, a fact that he confirmed with Brownie, who explained that their actual skin was soft and seemed to be virtually naked, except for a few small patches of hair. To make up for their lack of feathers they usually covered their skin with strange, thin materials that were not alive, hiding their true skin almost entirely, leaving only head and front paws exposed.
Blue couldn’t imagine living a meaningful life without feathers. Besides allowing flight, feathers kept their bearer warm or cool, protected from beaks, claws, and most crawlers, and provided color patterns necessary to establish identity and attract mates. Practicality aside, these creatures were downright ugly, due largely to their bare skin. Especially the male.
They were strange and unattractive in other ways. Their fleshy, beakless mouths were mere slits, located below small, soft protuberances through which they apparently breathed. Their jaws were weak; the woman had to use a rock and log to further crack open the nut that they now shared. Inside their mouths Blue had glimpsed thick, short, flat tongues and small, dull looking bony structures. Some types of crawlers had teeth, so he knew what these were, just as he had recognized hair. Blue was thankful that the humans kept most of their misshapen bodies covered.
Brownie explained that humans, like crawlers, swallowed no stones, so apparently chewing of food using teeth was necessary prior to swallowing. This strange eating process was obviously inconvenient; eating took a very long time for the humans. Brownie also mentioned that they preferred to burn most of their food with fire before eating it, a very strange habit indeed. Fire had been one of Song Flame’s research interests, so Blue knew more about it than did most other birds, including what all birds knew: fire was hot, dangerous, and destructive; a thing to be avoided.
The humans’ upper appendages featured digits that were capable of performing delicate manipulations; this was the only clear human body advantage that Blue noted relative to birds. The small upper legs probably weren’t very strong though, especially those of the female. Their lower legs looked stronger, but strangely weren’t capable of grasping anything, unless talons were hidden beneath the objects they wore over the ends of their feet. They had no tails at all, a situation that required them to stand almost vertical; not a streamlined posture at all for pushing through the air. These creatures were designed for ground dwelling, he reasoned, and perhaps limited climbing in trees.
They seemed to be bright enough, but not overwhelmingly so. In thought as well as speech, they seemed abysmally slow. All in all, it was puzzling that they were somehow capable of clearing great areas of forest, building great nests, and accomplishing other wonders.
Most remarkable were the non-living devices that they used, such as the airplane that carried them and the box that sang and showed things that weren’t really there. Had humans actually made these things, or had they gotten them from someone else? From the real Old Ones, perhaps?
Altogether, they were very small and frail, and not the imposing menace suggested by songs of the bloody war with the Old Ones, at least not physically. Especially the female, who was barely half the size of the male. Though larger, the male was only half the weight of an average jay, and lacked beak and claw. However, even the great raptors feared human fire-sticks, another of their amazing tools. Cleverness and tools used by their hands must be the keys to their success, Blue reasoned.
Such considerations, though interesting, weren’t Blue’s key concerns. Could humans be trusted, or was their plain talk twisted like the song of the blackbird? Despite what the humans had said or looked like, they still could be the Old Ones, Blue reasoned. They could be lying. Or they might even be Old Ones and not know it. However, if they were not the Old Ones, how could the fact that the human home world was inhabited by miniature duplicates of the birds of this world be explained? After singing with these strange creatures, there seemed to be more questions than ever.
Understanding other types of birds was hard enough; understanding humans would be much more difficult, Blue reasoned. However, the humans at least had song, strange and primitive as it was, and that was in their favor. Blue wished to hear more of the human music made using tools. Though it lacked words it was otherwise quite sophisticated. He was also intrigued that the female was a searcher for knowledge, perhaps much as Song Flame had been. Such areas of common ground, in accumulation, would perhaps allow greater understanding to be shared over time.
Encountering these humans had been extremely fortunate. Blue had convinced the falcons that he and the female human should be flown to the Great Council immediately, and had gotten even the humans to cooperate. Assuming that pictures shown by Kate’s box were sufficient as evidence, he now didn’t have to travel further to the south to examine the forests. If the Council could make decisions sooner, the falcons could carry solid news to the raptors, while the songbirds prepared for the battles to come.
The creeper rested at Blue’s feet, already asleep. More than any other factor, the tiny bird had been instrumental in allowing dialogue to occur with these humans. Without prior knowledge of human speech, Blue doubted that he would have been able to communicate with these strange creatures. In addition, the small bird had twice intervened with the male human, preventing use of the strange death stick that he carried.
What fearful quests the little bird must have endured with Song Flame, even before joining up with Blue! Blue saw a biting crawler climb onto the sleeping creeper, and he skillfully plucked it off and ate it without waking the little bird.
The humans ate their fill of berries and nuts, and then took turns walking into the forest and relieving themselves. The male was still weak and unsteady on his feet but managed. Each returned carrying a collection of small leaves which they then used to fashion primitive nests. Huddled close to each other for warmth or emotional need, the two strange creatures finally slept.
Overhead and very near, Bob and Nod roosted. Raptors and humans could not be trusted, the pair of jays had decided. They took turns sleeping, watching over Blue, Brownie, and themselves. Not far above them slept the raptors, swift and savage death on the wing. These birds slept more soundly, confident in their supreme powers.
Blue at last closed his weary eyes, but had trouble sleeping. To the already dire threats presented by the Black Flock and the Old Ones another had been added, an even more serious one. Scourge threatened the entire World, Blue knew. Many old songs warned of its dangers, songs telling of monster worms more dangerous and destructive than even the Old Ones. At last, deep into the night, sleep came to him.