The geese caught up with the eagle and the sparrow then they divided to form a V with
Protector at its lead. Drifter flew on the right of the eagle and asked, “Why aren’t we going any higher, Protector?”
The eagle turned his head toward him for just a second and gazed at Drifter then nodded to his right. Drifter turned his head to follow his gaze. A small pond appeared within a small batch of trees.
“We are going to stop down there,” Protector said as he angled his left wing higher than his right and he started downward.
The five geese duplicated the eagle’s movement leaving their wings outstretched to slowly glide downward. The sparrow fluttered above them for a moment but followed them toward the trees by the small pond. The larger bird swooped to a tree nearest the water and settled onto one of its larger branches. The sparrow followed him and grabbed a smaller branch that grew off of the one the eagle had clutched. The geese landed on the water and immediately gathered beneath the large brown bird with the white feathers of his head.
“What’s the deal, Protector?” Jake was the first to ask him.
“I was told to bring you here and wait so we are waiting,” the eagle explained.
“What are we waiting for?” Liza was more direct than Jake as she looked up at him. “Simeone, do you know anything about this, this delay?”
“No, I am as surprised as you,” the sparrow jumped nervously on the branch he had chosen.
“We shouldn’t have to wait too long,” Protector told them. “This pond has plenty of fish your size so why not you take advantage of this short break.”
Drifter uttered a small laugh and immediately swam toward the edge of the pond. There was little grass growing along the edges so there would be no obvious hiding places for the promised snack. Ack followed him.
“How do you know?” Liza asked as she looked into the water around her.
“I saw them when we were up above this place. There is even decent size fish for me but I don’t want to scare away your size so I will wait,” Protector told her.
A splash to her left drew her attention and she saw Mattias gulp down a small silver fish. He noticed her glancing at him, and he shrugged. Liza looked beneath herself again and several small fish slowly began to appear. She stabbed her head beneath the water and easily snatched one in her bill. She quickly pulled her head up, arched backward, and the fish eased down her throat. She looked up at Protector who simply nodded at her.
Liza took the opportunity to look around herself. Drifter and Ack were on the water’s edge dipping down and retrieving fish, gulping them down as fast as they could. Mattias drifted nearby in the same area, staring down through the water beneath him. She spied Jake drifting nearby with his head resting on his chest watching the rest of them. She slowly swam toward him.
“You should eat, Jake,” she remarked as she drew next to him.
“Probably,” Jake agreed sarcastically. “We should be looking for Deke. What on earth could we be waiting for?”
“We will know soon,” she tried to reassure him as she watched him as he stared at Protector. She followed his gaze and noticed that the sparrow was missing from the branch. She was wondering where he went when he returned to the branch with a seed in its mouth. The eagle immediately left at that time and flew to the far side of the small pond, suddenly dove down, talons forward, opened wide, and dipped into the water. He flapped his wings downward and rose with a fish, a little larger than the ones they had been eating, but not huge, clutched in its grip. He flew to the beach farthest from them, dipping its huge head to begin to eat. Liza looked at Jake and simply said to him, “Eat.”
Jake looked into the water below him and suddenly dipped his head. He pulled up a fish in his bill. Liza smiled and did the same.
After they had filled their stomachs, the geese drifted together in the center of the pond and the eagle and the sparrow had resettled on their chosen branch. They waited as the Bright Light rose slowly in the sky and gentle breezes sent ripples beneath the geese. Slowly, one by one, all of the birds, but one, fell asleep. Protector remained alert, turning his head left and right, silently waiting for the next thing. His eyes began to track a bird that had appeared from the direction they had come. The distant bird flapped its wings at a leisurely pace, gliding on the rising warm water. Its color began to unveil itself as it drew closer and the bird appeared to be white. The eagle spread his wings and flapped, slowly rising above the pond, righting itself as it flew toward the bird. The geese on the water awakened as the eagle left the branch and watched him approach a white bird in the distance. They followed the eagle, saw him circle around the bird and began to fly beside it.
“Who is that?” Drifter broke the silence.
“Not sure,” Jake answered him as the water birds turned toward the two birds in the sky.
“I think I know who it is,” Ack announced. “I should be surprised but I am not.”
As they got closer, the bird in flight beside the eagle became clear. It was a brilliant white goose flapping stroke by stroke with the larger brown bird beside it. They separated as the eagle continued to the branch it had made as its perch and the goose lowered itself toward the pond.
“Why, it’s Daniel,” Liza said incredulously and joined the others to greet him.
Daniel landed smoothly on the water and glided toward them. The five geese gathered about him, quietly waiting for an explanation but he continued toward the tree where the eagle and the sparrow waited. They followed as he turned to face them.
“I guess you are wondering why I am here,” Daniel began. “Simply put – I am joining you.”
“What?!” Mattias reacted loudly and spun himself in a tight circle.
Drifter laughed as Liza and Ack approached him. Jake stayed silent and watched the scene before him. It was Ack who spoke first, “Daniel, I don’t know if that is a good idea.”
“I agree,” Liza joined in. “Don’t you think we can bring him back.”
“Oh, I know you will be able to do it. I want to be there when you do.” Daniel chuckled.
“But why?” Mattias asked as he joined them.
Daniel grew silent for a moment and Simeone took the opportunity to speak.
“Deke and Daniel are best friends.”
Daniel looked up at the sparrow then back to the geese and spoke again. “Yes, that is true. I cannot explain it very well. You know our history?”
All of the birds on the water and on the branch nodded. They knew that Daniel and Deke were combatants to become the leader of The Flock. Deke had won, the smaller of the two birds, and forever changed how The Flock was led.
“Well,” Daniel continued. “After the battle, he met with me and we discussed my future. In the past, the loser of the fight would either be killed or was forced to leave. Deke refused to do that. Instead, he asked me to help him change The Flock. He had this idea for a council of geese, but he was not sure how to make it happen. We worked together and decided on the format of selecting a group of geese to help and advise The Leader on the major aspects of what The Flock needed – flight, food, and safety. We argued and agreed then selected the team. I thought that would be it and he would go and be the Leader leaving me on my own. But he asked me to lead this group we came to call The Wist. Because of that we became inseparable until he told me that his eyesight was failing him. I was surprised that when we returned home, he was gone.”
“Try waking up one morning and he was gone,” Liza muttered.
The gathering of assorted birds grew quiet. The light green leaves of the trees surrounding them moved with a light gust of wind. The sparrow jumped and turned nervously on the branch.
“What took you so long to get here?” Protector asked him.
“It was not quite so easy to sneak away. It was not so easy to convince Ki either. Petra finally convinced him that everything will be okay. It must seem to Ki that everyone is bailing on him,” Daniel explained.
“Exactly,” Jake agreed. “I should go back.”
“Nope,” Protector said. “I heard him say that you are to be him.”
“How could you know that? We talked about that in private,” Jake stared up at the huge bird in the tree.
“Don’t you know?” the sparrow answered him. “Eagles have very good hearing.”
Protector turned his head toward Simeone and grunted. “We should be going.”
He spread his wings, rose into the air, and started across the pond. The sparrow followed him as the geese turned and glided in the same direction, slowly rising from the water. Ack was the first and he took the lead. Drifter settled on his left and Liza on his right side. Daniel followed Liza, Jake behind Drifter, and Mattias, again, flew between them making a diamond in the sky.
To be continued…
My First Stories 