Battle of the Birds Read online

  ‘I have a premonition, a heavy, pressing dread. It’s a shoal of whitebait, slippery and not yet fully mature. It tears at me continuously, the way a dog might gnaw a bone, but I can learn nothing specific.’

  ‘Could it be the danger we already know of, Ruānuku, of the conflict between the birds?’ Moana asks.

  ‘Yes, perhaps you are right,’ Ruānuku says, thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps it is nothing more than that. Go now, children. Take care.’

  Plain Sailing

  They’re about to step into the waka back at the lake edge, when Annie has a thought.

  ‘Oh no! Annie has that look on her face…’ Kahurangi teases.

  ‘What look?’ Moana says.

  ‘The one she had when she came up with the idea to build the balloon.’

  ‘But I didn’t…’ Annie stops. No sense in bringing that up now, because she has had an idea. Another giant kite idea, in fact.

  ‘What if we could use the force of the wind to tow us across the lake?’

  ‘I knew it!’ Kahurangi gloats. ‘Annie’s got a plan.’

  ‘We could use the fabric and ropes from the balloon to make a kite-sail. We’ll attach the sail to either end of a sturdy horizontal pole. Then, Kahurangi can hold on to each end of the same pole. We’ll use him as our mast!’

  ‘How appropriate!’ Moana giggles.

  ‘Hey!’ Kahurangi protests, but Annie can see he’s intrigued; his eyebrows are about to pop off his head! Annie draws a few lines with a stick in the sand, but the tiny pebbles keep slipping in and filling up the grooves. Huffing, she moves up the beach and draws her design in the dust.

  ‘Hmm. Maybe we should fasten the sail to the waka, too. Just in case.’

  ‘Yeah, this is great!’ Kahurangi examines Annie’s sketch. It seems he’s already got over being labelled the ship’s mast!

  ‘So instead of the basket, we’ll travel in the waka?’ Moana asks.

  ‘Exactly. And if we take a paddle we can use it as a rudder.’

  ‘Or we can paddle, if there’s not enough wind,’ Kahurangi adds.

  ‘Well, that goes without saying. But if we make this kite-sail, I want to make one thing clear,’ Moana warns. ‘No jumping out, Kahurangi!’

  They set to work fashioning a crescent-shaped kite-sail out of the remaining aute cloth. Some of the elders come down to the lake to have a look. They sit in a semi-circle, their toes buried in the warm sand, chatting amiably while they watch.

  ‘What’re they doing?’ asks the old man with few teeth.

  ‘Making an enormous kite. Didn’t you see the drawing, over there, in the dust?’

  ‘Looks like a bird’s wing, or maybe a pipi shell.’

  ‘Or an eyebrow.’

  ‘An eyebrow! Oh for goodness sake!’

  ‘What’re they going to do with it?’

  ‘Fly it.’

  ‘Fly it! The things young people come up with these days. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, and this is my fifty-fifth year…’

  Building the kite-sail takes less time than a school technology lesson. They lay the finished kite in the sand. Moana holds the sail down while Annie checks that the long lines of flax rope connecting it to the control bar are free from tangles. The edges of the sheet flap and crack impatiently.

  ‘Come on, Kahurangi, it’s lifting!’ Moana calls urgently. Kahurangi straps himself into the harness, testing the knots. He takes hold of the bar, grasping it at each end in a powerlifter’s grip. Next, he steps into the waka and sits with his knees wedged tightly into the sides.

  ‘Quick!’

  Annie tumbles in behind him. Moana releases the kite at the last possible moment. She sprints across the beach as the ropes pull tight and pushes off. The waka slides into the lake, its hull crunching briefly on the sand when Moana’s weight is added. Then, the waka jolts. Annie gets a queasy feeling in her stomach, as if the barrier has just gone down signalling the start of the Space Mountain thrill ride. She’s vaguely aware that the elders are on their feet cheering and waving. Then in a flash, the sail catches the full force of the wind. Annie feels herself thrust backwards into Moana, as the waka accelerates away, skimming across the water.

  Grappling with the kite’s control bar, Kahurangi sings the first words of Toa’s balloon chant, but Annie puts her hand gently on his arm, stopping him. ‘It’s fine, Kahurangi. I’ve got this one.’ She knows exactly what she’s going to sing, too. It’s a song she’s heard Dad sing in his best opera voice when he’s in the shower. Annie’s a bit fuzzy on the words in the middle, but that won’t matter. She’ll make some up. She fills her lungs and sings:

  Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,

  Onward, the sailors cry.

  Carried by winds, which blow when I sing,

  Over the sea to Skye.

  ‘Woooohoooo!’ Kahurangi’s ecstatic yell drowns out Annie’s singing. It doesn’t matter. They don’t need it. The kite has a magic all its own, and they tear across the lake at breakneck speed.

  Reunions

  Lookouts spied the kite well before the trio reached the beach at Tokaanu. The news spread quickly and before long a crowd had gathered to welcome them. A few fantails and a grey warbler had flown out to meet the trio. The warbler had hovered in the air alongside the kite, shaking his little head and chirruping in disbelief. Maybe they had been crazy, but the idea had paid off. The trip across the lake had taken only hours, instead of days. High up above the waka, the wind was so fierce the warbler and the fantails had to race to return ahead of the kite.

  Carried away by the gusts, the kite had overshot the beach and flown straight into a stand of trees, entangling itself high in the branches, where it dangled forlornly. What a mess! It could be an early prototype of Charlie Brown’s kite; Annie wouldn’t be at all surprised. The good part was that the waka slid quietly up onto the beach, coming to rest in front of a bemused Ahuru. It was perfect, like a scene from a corny spy movie.

  As soon as they landed, a throng of excited and cheering men and boys swarmed all over the waka, clapping Kahurangi on the back. They asked all manner of questions about the giant kite: how they’d come up with the idea of using the kite to pull the waka, how they’d constructed the sail, how Kahurangi had manoeuvred it, and how it felt to travel so swiftly. Why is it that boys have a passion for anything that goes fast and scares the life out of you? It must be genetic!

  Moana clambered out of the waka and ran to the open arms of Kuia. The old woman held her granddaughter for a long moment. Wait until she hears about Moana being kidnapped by Te Hōkioi. She won’t want to let Moana out of her sight. Feeling tired and left out, Annie edges away from the commotion of the crowd. She wishes Mum were here.

  ‘Hey, kid.’

  Ken! Annie twirls about and buries her face in the feathers of Ken’s chest. Here, a thousand years away from Mum and Dad, Ken is her family. She inhales the scent of him: a mixture of bracken and caramel. She’s missed him. But Ken takes a step away. He looks at her sternly.

  ‘What on earth were you thinking, Annie? Kite-sailing oh-so casually across the lake using…that…that oversized grocery bag!’ His voice is the same as Dad’s that time Annie poured water in the hole of her guitar.

  ‘Well, you did say flight is a simple scientific process…’

  ‘I meant for me!’

  ‘You’re not going to believe this, Ken. We made a hot air balloon, too. We made it out of the same aute cloth and we flew it over the ocean to a volcanic island. It was fantastic!’

  ‘What! You kids flew to a volcanic island? Over the ocean? Annie, if I had known that in my absence you’d be careering around the country piloting flimsy contraptions, taking all sorts of risks…’

  Annie grins. She steps back into his caramel embrace. She knows that despite his bluster, Ken is proud of her. It isn’t in his nature to be mushy. Proud and majestic eagles do have an image to protect, after all.

  Kuia breaks away from Moana. She marches over to Kahurangi
and the waka and chases away the boys. Some of the warriors linger, hoping to hear more about their escapades, but Kuia gives them a withering look. Not for the first time, Annie thinks even Te Hōkioi would quiver when faced with Kuia. Nobody wants to mess with her. The boys slope away. Brave Ahuru remains, but then Kuia is his mother. She probably has a soft spot for him. Annie can see Ahuru looks tired, but well. He’s definitely pleased to see them. Briefly, she wonders about Ruānuku’s concern for Ahuru, but Kuia’s voice shakes her from her thoughts.

  ‘Now then, Kahurangi, let’s have a look at this gash,’ she says, pushing Kahurangi down on the sand. She proceeds to unwrap Moana’s leaf bandage.

  ‘It doesn’t hurt much. Moana made me drink her mānuka tea.’ Annie can tell he’s trying not to wince as Kuia examines the wound. After a few minutes, she announces that the wound is healing well, making Moana grin. Nevertheless, Kuia isn’t taking any chances. She bundles the protesting Kahurangi away, to re-dress the gash herself.

  An hour or two later, Annie has eaten and enjoyed a good wash in the waters of thermal pool. There are heaps of mineral pools in this region, and they range in temperature from barely warm to downright scalding. Annie’s pool was as perfect as Baby Bear’s porridge, and Annie feels much better, almost human. If only she could wash away this feeling of apprehension. Perhaps it’s the heat getting to her. It’s oppressively hot today.

  ‘There’s a thunderstorm coming,’ says Ken, joining Annie as she crosses the campsite.

  ‘Really? How can you tell? I don’t see any clouds.’

  ‘For one, I sense the air pressure has dropped, and there’s been a shift in geomagnetism.’

  ‘I’m sorry I asked,’ Annie laughs.

  The two of them go looking for Moana and Kahurangi. Moana is watching Kuia set a broken bone in the wing of a dainty yellowhead. They wait patiently until the delicate procedure is complete and Kuia permits Moana to go. Kahurangi, meanwhile, is standing on a boulder near the lake. He is holding court amongst a group of boys, telling of his dramatic exploits in the balloon. He waves his arms around energetically. No guessing who the hero of this particular version is.

  ‘The story just gets more and more amazing, doesn’t it?’ Moana snorts.

  Leaning down so his beak is close to Annie’s ear, Ken whispers, ‘I do hope you kids haven’t stuffed up the future of flight. I have the weirdest feeling that the first recorded hot air balloon flight was actually made by a pair of Frenchmen in the eighteenth century. And that’s not about to happen for another seven hundred years.’

  ‘Shhh, Ken.’

  ‘Come on Kahurangi, we’ll be late.’

  Kahurangi drags himself away from his wide-eyed supporters to join Ken and the girls. They make their way to meet with the chieftains, and members of the Council of Birds.

  Tales of Toa

  The meeting is to take place in an open space beside a bubbling hot pool. When they arrive they find Moa, Fantasia and Rowi are already there, but Ahuru and Chief Deputy Principal have yet to turn up.

  Like Kahurangi’s young entourage, Moa is extremely interested in their experiences. While they’re waiting he asks Annie a thousand questions about the balloon and about flying.

  ‘Perhaps you should ask Fantasia or Ken,’ Annie says, embarrassed. ‘They’re birds. They know heaps more about flying than I do.’

  But Fantasia insists, ‘I think what Moa wants to know is how it feels to fly if you’ve never flown before. Ken and I have forgotten how it feels the first time. It’s been too long since our mothers pushed us out of our nests. I can’t remember a time when I couldn’t fly, but you can.’

  ‘Yeah, my mom couldn’t wait to kick me out. I should’ve kept my room clean…’

  Annie thinks back to when she was four and Dad took the training wheels off her bike. She remembers how wobbly she was on just two wheels; how scary it felt. Nowadays, riding is second nature to her. After school, she cycles all over the Newbery Heights neighbourhood, down to the playground and over to Lauren’s place. It’s like brushing her teeth; she doesn’t even have to think about it anymore.

  ‘Please, Annie,’ Moa urges.

  Annie reflects on her flying experiences: the flight to Aotearoa on Ken’s back, and their flight over the tōtara trees in the balloon. ‘It’s the strangest thing,’ she explains to Moa. ‘One minute you are bobbing along through the sky, enjoying the changes in the landscape way below, awash with this incredible sensation of freedom and peace, and next minute, you’re clinging for your life, paralysed with terror, and the ground is rushing up towards you. It’s the most wonderful adventure.’

  ‘Hmm. Since you put it that way, I’m not so sure I like the idea after all,’ Moa laughs.

  But the laughter is cut short, as Ahuru and Chief Deputy Principal appear accompanied by a small group of warriors. The men give the boiling pool a wide berth. The two chiefs apologise for their lateness; Annie notices lines of worry etched on their faces. She’s been so caught up recounting her adventures she’s forgotten the reason they’re here.

  As Chief Deputy Principal speaks, Annie translates his words: ‘We’ve been supervising the removal of that new-fangled invention from the trees. It’s taken a while to get it down. It was so ensnared we were forced to cut off some branches. Now, our weavers are tackling the task of untangling the resultant birds’ nest.’ Too late, Chief Deputy Principal remembers who he is talking to. ‘Oh, no offence, you understand. When I said birds’ nest, what I meant was…that…that…’

  ‘…that it resembles a superior piece of avian engineering?’ Moa says teasingly, giving Annie a wink. This time, Annie doesn’t bother to translate.

  The meeting begins with an update. Firstly, there’s the case of the missing Mergus. No-one seems to be able to pinpoint his whereabouts, but some of the birds arriving daily in camp have heard of him through the swamp bird network.

  ‘A group of kākāpō parrots turned up last night convinced they spoke to him four days ago,’ Rowi notes. ‘We think he’s still working hard, spreading news of the treaty, trying to reach as many of our flightless friends as possible. We didn’t factor in the chicks that would need to be moved. It’s made the whole migration as slow as an old tuatara!’

  ‘Mergus could be anywhere. We can’t afford to wait any longer. Moving the chicks safely is causing unexpected delays,’ says Chief Deputy Principal.

  ‘And since we’re talking about keeping chicks safe, where is Toa? He was to travel with the three of you and keep you safe. Kuia will have some questions for him,’ Ahuru teases.

  ‘I’ve a few questions of my own!’

  Moana nudges Annie. Not far away, Miriama is busy unravelling a scribble of rope. Seeing her gives Annie an idea. ‘Actually,’ she says, raising her voice a little, ‘if it weren’t for Toa, we wouldn’t have got back at all. He’s the true hero of the story.’

  ‘Really?’ Ahuru raises his eyebrows. From the corner of her eye, Annie notices Miriama sit up a little straighter. She’s listening.

  ‘Uhuh. First, Toa tracked us through the night, using his skill to pinpoint me in Te Urewera forest. Imagine that. It’d be like finding a pearl in a shell pit! Then, he led us east to the ocean, where he helped us design and build the balloon we used to rescue Moana from the volcanic island. The basket that carried us safely over the ocean was entirely his work.’

  ‘And don’t forget Toa’s powerful karakia,’ Moana prompts, a twinkle in her eye.

  ‘Oh yes, Toa composed a rousing balloon song. Inspiring stuff. Without his magic, the balloon would never have got off the ground…’ Annie trails off. She doesn’t want to overdo it. Miriama might become suspicious.

  ‘Do you mean to tell me he’s dead then?’ Ahuru asks.

  Miriama looks up, alarmed. Whoops! Annie backtracks quickly. ‘Oh no! He’s not dead. In fact, he’s on his way here, with Kakama.’

  ‘Kakama!’ Chief Deputy Principal splutters. Annie feels a flush of shame. In the excitement of their rejoining
the tribes, they’d forgotten to mention Kakama. Mum and Dad would be worried sick about Annie, even though she’s quite capable of looking after herself, but Kakama is just a toddler. Her family must be devastated.

  ‘We discovered Kakama on the island with Moana,’ Annie says quickly. ‘After we got back to the mainland we realised it was too dangerous for us all to travel in the balloon. Toa volunteered to bring her home.’

  ‘Kakama didn’t like flying anyway. She screamed the entire trip,’ Kahurangi recalls. ‘I’m surprised you didn’t hear her!’

  ‘Toa wanted to be sure the baby was safe,’ Moana says gently. ‘They’re just a few days behind us.’

  Chief Deputy Principal sends a runner to tell Kakama’s mother the news. Annie takes advantage of the pause to steal a look at Miriama. Is that softening she sees in the weaver’s eyes?

  Surprises

  Kahurangi begins speaking and Annie takes up her translator’s role again.

  ‘Anyway, you should all know that something’s up. Ruānuku sent a warning of something ominous, although he couldn’t be more specific. It’s bound to be Te Hōkioi, as his followers are on the move. We’ve seen them: great swarms of predators heading south, which is weird because Te Hōkioi has taken over governance of the north.’ Annie trembles as she interprets Kahurangi’s words. He’s right: something is up. The apprehension she felt earlier has taken root, making her nervy. Perhaps it’s Ruānuku’s warning, or the prophecy itself. Something dark is coming. Annie can sense it.

  ‘That ghastly gang of kea that disabled our balloon, they were travelling south, too,’ Moana says.

  Annie agrees. ‘It was Toka, the kea from the Council. He’s a nasty piece of work.’

  ‘Beetles! You could’ve been killed, all of you!’ Fantasia cries, flitting about in agitation.