“What happened?!” Liza asked as she nudged in beside Ki.
“It looks like he ate those berries,” Ack observed.
“He did. I saw him do so,” it was Protector added into the conversation.
“Yeah, those berries don’t make you feel particularly good and if you eat a little too much –“
“And this happens,” Ki finished Ask’s explanation.
“He said he was really hungry and as soon as we got into this clearing, he ran over here and started into these berries,” High explained to the group.
Their attention turned to a row of bushes behind Mattias. Rows and rows of purple berries stringing on red vines, hanging from and in between branches.
“Will he be all right?” Jake asked.
“Eventually,” Ack stated matter-of-factly.
“How do you know this?” Liza asked pointedly.
“You got to be kidding me, Liza,” Drifter answered. “He is the Wist.”
“What do we do now?” Jake asked as he looked up from Mattias and around the team.
“Someone stays with him and we continue to check out the pond,” Ki said.
“I’ll stay,” the Eagle spoke again.
“Okay,” Ki remarked with a little hesitation. “Jake, you and high continue to check out the woods, although I do like this clearing. Liza and I will go back to our side of the pond. Ack and Drifter go back to your side. We will meet back here. Is that okay with everyone?” Ki instructed.
The others agreed and Ki turned from them to walk back the way he had come from with Liza hurrying to catch up to him. High reluctantly rose to her feet and walked away from the dozing goose splayed out on the ground and joined Jake to continue walking the edges of the clearing. Drifter looked at Ack and shrugged. Ack answered with a head nod and they walked out together.
“Ack,” Drifter began the conversation as they walked side by side. “How did you know about the berries?”
“Well, you are right about being part of the Wist. I did learn about berries from being part of that team. I’ve learned a lot actually.”
“Like what?” Drifter continued as they trudged forward toward the water that can now been seen through the thinning of the bushes around them.
“What is good to eat, where to fly and probably most important, when to fly,” Ack answered.
“When to fly?” Drifter asked.
“Yes,” Ack looked at the goose beside him to actually look at him for the first time. Drifter always seemed to be a loner, an independent bird, who was out there on his own, but he began wonder about him. Ack continued, “The Flock has always gone to warmer waters in order to have and raise the new goslings after they hatch. They need to grow their feathers in before they can fly back home.”
“Really?” Drifter seriously asked.” I never realized that was the reason for doing that. I would just go when we are told it is time to go.”
Ack looked at Drifter again and, as they reentered the water, he decided that this goose is not an independent goose after all, he is a follower.
“Ack,” Drifter continued their conversation. “If you become the Leader, won’t you miss being part of the Wist?”
Ack paddling beside Drifter answered the question not only to Drifter but to himself, “I had not thought about that.”
High walked beside Jake as she searched the bushes for sources of food. Jake was just waddling beside her with his head held as high as he could get it in order to better see all around them.
“What are you doing?” High asked the dark brown goose with ash white splayed on his wings.
“I am looking out for danger.”
“Danger! Do you think we are in danger?”
“Not really,” Jake admitted as he lowered his head and looked at the goose beside him with the gleaming white tail. “I am not good at finding food.”
“I would have thought you would be good at that,” High answered, turning to face him. “What do you like to eat then?”
“Bugs.”
“Eww,” High shook her head as she said it. “Yuck.”
“Well, what do you eat?” Jake looked straight into her eyes.
“I like grass,” High answered.
“Grass! How easy to find. What’s the challenge?” Jake teased.
“Oh, and you don’t eat grass,” she teased back.
“Of course, I do! Grass is all over the home waters. It is so easy to eat, too.”
The two geese laughed with each other that slowly returning to an awkward silence.
“I do like a treat now and then,” High finally broke the silence.
“What do you like for a treat?” Jake asked stepping closer to High.
“Berries,” High whispered to him.
Jake looked into her eyes so deeply he noticed the tiny dots of black in the deep brown. High did not step back as she looked back him. Instead, she stepped closer to him and whispered back, “Those berries.” She laughed and waddled past him to a small, silver gray, thorny, thick shrub filled with small, bright red berries hanging on red vines.
Jake turned and followed her. He looked at the odd-looking bush with the tempting red berries. “What do they taste like?”
“A little bitter but I love them,” High stepped to the bush and bent to pluck one from it into her mouth.
“Wait!” Jake shouted causing High to look back at him.
“What?” she turned to directly see him.
“How do you know they are safe?”
“They are safe, Jake. I know these berries,” High said as she turned, plucked one, and bit down enjoying its bitter juice.
Ki and Liza are swimming side by side on their assigned side of the pond, in and out of tall stalks of grass and reeds. Every now and then they pulled and snapped a piece of grass to sample. Ki flipped forward, headfirst into the water at the base of a mass of the green shoots of grass. He reappeared with a small fish in his mouth and gulped it down.
“So there is fish down there, grass all around, and some bugs buzzing around. I think there is enough for a flock to eat at this place,” Liza summarized watching Ki finish swallowing the fish.
“Yeah, I agree. Let’s head back and see what the rest think,” Ki nodded and turned to return to the woods. Liza moved beside him and they were quiet for a few strides, listening to the water trickling from the spring.
“What do you think, Ki?”
“About?”
“About this! About these geese! One of them, one of us, will be the next Leader! Look at us. Drifter is, is, is…a loner. Jake is a follower. Sorry, I know he is your friend. High is flighty. Ack is a know-it-all and Mattias is impulsive. You are too nice, and -” Liza ranted on. “And I, and I…am confused!”
Ki listened and kept swimming toward the woods up ahead of them. Drifter and Ack were just now exiting the water to start back to the clearing. Ack held a few stalks of grass in his beak. Ki knows Liza is expecting an answer from him. He agreed that this group of candidates is varied but there must reasons they were chosen for this opportunity. Deke had his reasons for choosing these particular geese, but Ki chose not to guess or think about it. He simply wanted to do his best.
“Liza, you think too much,” Ki said as he paused in the water to face her. “I think that this challenge, this opportunity to take on this responsibility, is about sharing what we know about life with each other, and about The Flock. Here is what I have learned: We all said yes when we were asked to see what all of this is about, and we said yes to accept and take it on. Only you know why you were chosen and only you know why. Stop over thinking and just be you.”
Liza stared at Ki as she listened to what he was saying, and she watched him turn from her and swim toward the beach before the woods. She followed him as he stepped out of the water onto the rugged ground on the edge as the waves of water lapped up on his feet. He turned to look at her and waited. She started paddling and swam toward him.
As the last two geese entered the clearing, Mattias was sitting on the ground with his black colored head tucked tight against his dark brown chest. High stood nearby, a few bright red berries and stalks of grass at her feet in front of Mattias.
“Ah,” Ki observed. “You brought him something to eat.”
“Are those berries okay to eat?” Drifter asked skeptically.
“Yes,” Jake answered as he looked toward High who gently nodded toward him.
Liza directed a question toward Mattias. “How do you feel?”
“Not too well. I do not think I can fly yet. I don’t have the strength,” he spoke without moving.
A sparrow jumped on the ground between Mattias and the group. The sparrow displayed a crown of brown feathers that spread from the top of his head back to blend with the feathers that spread down his back to his wings. He jumped and twitched his deep black eyes from one goose to the next as he began to speak, “Protector and I had already spoke about this and I have already sent word back to The Flock.”
“Simeone is correct,” the eagle’s voice boomed above them. “Mattias cannot go on in the Journey of the Three. A group of his sparrows will stay with him until a representative from The Flock arrives here.”
“Why not you?” Drifter asked him.
“Why not me what?” he stared down at them still clutching the branch he had first landed on. “Oh, stay and watch over Mattias? Thought of that and we, the sparrow and I, decided that I should continue watching over the rest of you.”
The geese squirmed a bit at being reminded that they were actually on a quest.
Just then a bright red cardinal settled on a branch opposite the eagle and the sparrow jumping on the ground. No one saw him as he remained silent watching them. At the same time, High spoke up, “I will stay with him.”
A clamoring of sound exploded from the geese as they barraged High with questions and general squawking. It was Simeone whose voice rose above them, “Be quiet! Please let her speak!” They settled and the only goose pacing was Drifter as the others simply stood and waited on High.
“I am not Leader material. I do not have the will power or knowledge to make decisions for an entire group of birds. I am staying with Mattias and will return to The Flock with him.”
At that exact moment, the cardinal decided to speak, “Excuse me. I hate to break the mood,” he began. The startled geese turned, and the eagle spread his giant expanse of his wings toward the bright red bird calmly sitting on the opposing branch. “I am Lou and Deke asked me to tell you about your next test of the Journey of Three.”
Five geese stepped toward him as one and he continued to speak, “The second task is to find a place large enough for The Flock to sleep and be safe before it gets dark tonight.”
“What’s wrong with this place,” Ack questioned him.
“Nothing/ Maybe it is the right place,” Lou responded. “I do not know or care. I was simply asked to give you the message. Find a place for the entire flock to sleep and be safe.” He jumped first to one side to spy them from one eye and then the opposite to gaze at them from the other and spread his wings and left them.
The geese huddled closer to Mattias on the ground with High at his side. The eagle folded his wings back to his sides and the sparrow continued to flitter back and forth on the ground before them.
“I guess we have to be going on to find another place,” Ack spoke to the group.
“Are you sure you will be all right here, High? Mattias?” Jake asked the two geese on the floor before the tree from which the eagle rested on.
Mattias nodded and looked up at High who looked from him to the remaining five geese and said, ”Good luck. We will see each other again soon.”
The five geese re-huddled and it was Ki who spoke next. “Everyone had enough to eat before we go?”
No one spoke and they looked at each other fully knowing it was time to go because they had little time before it was dark.
Liza looked up at Protector and noticed that Simeone was whispering to him. She decided to ask him a question of her own. “Do you know which way we should go?”
“We were just talking about that,” Protector started to answer her. “I, we, think the best direction is to go in the path we began.”
The geese nodded and looked at each other.
“Ack, why don’t you lead us as we get going,” Ki suggested.
Ack nodded, spread his wings, flapped, rose into the air and four geese, a white headed eagle and a tiny speckled brown sparrow followed him.
To be continued…
My First Stories 