Crown Park (4 page)

The honking came from an animal
behind the moa, a giant goose as tall as the moa’s legs. While the
moa was marching to the beat, the goose was waddling, taking two
steps for each of the moa’s.

Both were heading directly for
Chainsaw, who had crouched down to hide in the grass. When they
were almost upon him, the moa gave an extra long call, followed
quickly by two shorter notes: dooooof, doof, doof. Then it halted
so quickly the goose had to veer to the side or it would have
crashed into the moa’s legs.

Chainsaw flattened himself to
the ground. Yet neither the moa nor the goose had seen him. They
stood there as if waiting for something else to happen.

Jack turned to Fluoro. “Is this
real?”

“Who knows?” replied the man
shaking his head. “Strange things can happen when you empty your
mind of all its clutter.”

Before Jack could comment,
another bird flew into the clearing, filling the air with a series
of high-pitched whistles. When it saw the others had stopped, the
whistling changed to a loud croak, and it glided down to land on
the goose’s back.

“Kaka,” whispered Fluoro.

The kaka peered around the
clearing, then let out a call that sounded to Jack like “Pat!”

“Yes?” While the answer came
from the direction of the moa, it was far squeakier than the big
bird’s call.

A tiny head popped out of the
feathers on the moa’s back. “Are we there yet?”

At first Jack thought he was
mishearing the squeaky call. Then Fluoro gasped and he figured
maybe not.

The head was not the prettiest
Jack had seen. A prominent nose poked out below two squinty eyes.
It looked like some sort of mouse — a mouse with exceptionally big
ears.

“No, no, we’re not there yet,”
replied the moa. “I just needed a rest.”

“So did I,” said the goose. “I
can’t handle these expeditions as I once did. Maybe I’m the one
that should be getting the ride.” He looked up at the animal on the
moa. “What do you think, Pat?”

Pat didn’t answer. His nose was
in the air sniffing. “What’s that smell?”

“Can’t smell a thing,” said the
goose.

“Me neither,” added the moa.

The kaka sniffed twice. “There
is something. But I’ve no idea what it is.”

“I’m going to investigate,” said
Pat, who now crawled out of the moa’s feathers until his entire
body was visible. Two black, leathery wings unfolded as he took to
the air.

Jack gasped. It was a bat, the
first he had ever seen.

“Pekapeka,” whispered Fluoro.
“The lesser short-tailed bat.”

Jack barely heard. All his
attention was on Pat, now high over the clearing, flying in circles
that narrowed as he lost height. He was homing in on Chainsaw.

The cat’s eyes followed the bat
until it was directly above him. Then he jumped up and swatted the
bat, hitting a wing with his paw. Pat crashed to the ground.

Chainsaw rocked back on his
haunches, ready to pounce. Pat tried to scramble away, but a wing
got caught on some weed stalks and wouldn’t fold in.

Just as Chainsaw was about to
spring forward, a huge foot thumped down between the two animals.
If the timing had been only slightly different, Chainsaw would have
been squashed as surely as if a truck had run over him. As it was,
his nose was cut by a massive claw.

Chainsaw decided to get out of
there before the other foot landed. He bounded to the nearest tree
and was crouched on a branch before the other animals had a chance
to react.

“What was that?” asked the
kaka.

“Never seen one before,” replied
the moa.

“Looked like one of your sort,
Pat,” said the goose.

“What do you mean, my sort?”

“You know. A furry thing.”

Pat stared at the goose. “There
aren’t any other furry things.”

“There must be,” replied the
goose, looking towards the tree where Chainsaw was sheltering.
“It’s covered in fur, not feathers. So it has to be one of your
sort.”

“It was trying to kill me,”
squeaked Pat. “I don’t think another mammal would do that.”

“Well, he’s certainly not a
bird,” said the goose.

“Was that the thing that
smelled?” asked the moa.

Pat sniffed the air. “Yes!” Then
he sniffed again. “But it’s not the only thing.”

The moa turned to the kaka.
“Emily, could you check it out, please.”

“Which direction?” asked
Emily.

Pat turned his head slowly,
breathing in deeply. He stopped when he was pointed directly at
Jack and Fluoro. “There!”

Emily took to the air, flying
straight towards the humans. Jack ducked down, but Fluoro remained
standing.

The kaka spotted him, and began
squawking noisily, flying backwards and forwards before landing on
an overhanging branch.

“What is it?” asked the moa.

Emily peered down at the two
humans. “Things. Living things,” she replied. “I don’t know that I
can describe them any better.”

The moa moved closer. “Come
out!” it boomed. “Come out, you things.”

Jack looked up to Fluoro for
guidance. The man gave him a reassuring smile. “Come on. We’d
better do as it says. I don’t think it means to harm us.”

Jack parted the bushes to study
the bird that was now standing at full height. “Are you sure?”

“No! But it’s probably best not
to anger it any further.” Fluoro took a step forward.

A moment later, Jack did the
same.
What does it matter?
he thought.
None of this is
real, is it?

Jack felt as if he was back in the
principal’s office again, except this time the principal was a
giant moa, and the teacher was a huge goose. Pat and Emily were
acting like a couple of kids sneaking a peek through the
window.

“What are you?” boomed the
moa.

“Humans,” replied Fluoro.

“Never heard of them,” said the
moa. “What about you, Godfrey? You heard of humans?”

“No!” said the goose, shaking
his head.

The moa returned to peering down
at them. “Where are you from?”

Fluoro took a while to answer.
“A long time away.”

That seemed to make the moa
happier. “Ah! That’s why we haven’t heard about you before. How far
away? How many moons?”

“About twenty-six thousand,”
said Fluoro.

The moa blinked a couple of
times. “Yes, that is a long way.”

“What do you eat?” asked
Godfrey.

Jack and Fluoro looked at each
other. How could you explain human food to these animals?

They were saved by the moa. “The
important thing is, do you eat birds?”

Fluoro shook his head. “No!”

The moa turned to Jack. “And
you?”

Jack shook his head vigorously.
“Never!” he answered. This wasn’t the time to mention the fried
chicken he’d had last night.

“What about that thing in the
tree?” asked Godfrey.

“That thing is a cat,” replied
Fluoro. “His name is Chainsaw, and his preferred food consists of
rats and mice, which are another type of furry thing you won’t yet
have met.”

That seemed to satisfy the
birds, but not Pat the bat, who began jumping up and down on the
moa’s back.

“Yes Pat,” said the moa. “That
thought did occur to me too.” Then to the humans, “Does he eat
bats?”

“I can truthfully say that he
has never eaten a bat in his life,” replied Fluoro.

“Good, good,” said the moa,
although Pat didn’t seem so convinced. “Then I think we should
introduce ourselves. What are your names?”

Fluoro first introduced Jack and
then himself.

“Good. Nice to meet you,” said
the moa. “I’m Lucy or Luce, and I’m in charge of the group. My
deputy alongside me is Godfrey. His job is to add wisdom and
insight. Then there’s Emily, often called Em.” The kaka bobbed up
and down a few times. “She’s our Eye in the Sky.”

“Actually,
Eyes
in the
Sky,” corrected Emily. “I do have two of them.” She turned her head
from side to side to make sure that everyone could see that she had
two eyes.

Jack gave a little giggle. He
was already beginning to like this Emily.

“Yes, you do, dear,” said Lucy,
patiently. “Just like all of us.” A pause. “And last,” she
continued, “but by no means least is Pat. Pat the bat.”

“Except you don’t,” added
Emily.

“You don’t what?” asked
Jack.

“Pat the bat,” she replied. “He
doesn’t like to be touched.” She went through the bobbing routine
again, pleased with her little joke.

Jack groaned.

Lucy let out a little snort.
“Thank you, Emily.” Then to the humans, “Pat performs a very
necessary function. As none of us birds have much sense of smell,
he is our nose.”

“Our Nose Without Clothes,” said
Emily.

The fur on Pat’s back spiked up
into an angry ridge. “I do so have clothes.”

“Not proper ones,” said Emily.
“Not like us. Anyway, you don’t have anything on your wings, do
you? They’re just bare skin, and such a drab colour.” Then she
surprised everyone by leaving Godfrey’s back and flying up to
balance on Fluoro’s shoulder. “See! Even humans have clothes.” She
used a claw to lift up the front of the orange vest. “And they’re
such a wonderful orange colour. This would go well on me.” She
opened a wing to reveal the bright red feathers beneath. “Yes, this
would go very well indeed.”

Lucy sniffed. “Orange is all
right, but I much prefer purple. Purple and blue are my favourite
colours.”

Godfrey let out a loud honk.
“Ladies, ladies, can we get back to the matter at hand?”

The females reluctantly
agreed.

“Good,” said Godfrey, turning to
the humans. “Now, I take it you’ve come to see The Source. Am I
correct?”

“The Source?” asked Fluoro.

“Yes!” Godfrey nodded his head
in the direction of a cloud of steam that was rising over the trees
in the background. “That. We call it The Source.”

Fluoro nodded. “Yes, we were
hoping to see a bit of action.”

“Oh, I don’t think you’ll be
disappointed about that,” said Godfrey. “It seems to be hotting up
nicely.”

“Aren’t you worried about it?”
asked Jack.

“No! Why should we be?”

Fluoro gave Jack a nudge before
bending down to whisper in his ear: “I think it’s best if we don’t
mention the eruption. Not yet, anyway.” Then he turned back to the
birds. “Are you also here because of The Source?”

“In a way,” replied Godfrey.
“We’re on an expedition.”

“We’re called the Luce Crew,
interrupted Lucy. “And we go on expeditions.”

“We’re looking for moho,” said
Godfrey.

“What’s that?” asked Jack.

“They,” corrected Lucy. “They
are one of the most beautiful birds that ever existed.”

Emily rolled her head around.
“If you haven’t guessed already, they’re purple. Purple and blue.
That’s why Luce thinks they’re so beautiful.”

“They also have red beaks,” said
Lucy. “And, Emily, you do like red.”

“They’re like takahe,” Fluoro
explained to Jack. “They’re the North Island takahe.”

Godfrey nodded. “Yes, I have
heard of these takahe and you’re right, they are said to be
similar.”

“Why are you looking for them?”
asked Jack. “Are they rare?”

“Becoming that way,” replied
Godfrey. “Sad to say.”

“And if we don’t help them,”
added Lucy, ‘then we won’t have any purple and blue birds
left.”

“What about pukeko?” asked Jack.
“They’re everywhere.”

The birds looked at each other.
“Pukeko?” said Godfrey. “Never heard of them. If they exist where
you come from, then they haven’t made it —.”

He was interrupted by a loud
belching sound from the direction of the lake.

“Whoa,” said Pat. “That was a
good one. Let’s go look.”

“Yes, let’s,” said Lucy. She
turned to the humans. “You can come as well, if you like. You can
be temporary members of the Luce Crew.” She released her deep
booming doof sound. Godfrey added a honk, and soon they were
marching off once again to the doof-honk beat.

The humans followed as if it was
the most natural thing in the world. Before they’d reached the edge
of the clearing Chainsaw had joined them. His tail waved high in
the air, like a pennant flying at the end of a column of
warriors.

The scene at the lake was incredible.
There were birds everywhere on the shore and in the water: several
types of moa and a range of ducks and geese, many too bulky to
fly.

A short distance offshore,
dozens of big birds fought over thousands of fish floating on the
surface. They were the biggest water birds Jack had ever seen and
it took him a moment to work out what they were.

“Look!” he shouted.
“Pelicans.”

“Yes,” said Fluoro, ‘they were
probably quite common in New Zealand once.”

“Big clumsy things,” moaned
Godfrey.

“And so lacking in style,” added
Emily. “Look at that beak! What sort of bird would ever go around
looking like that?”

“And they stink!” said Pat.
“They always pong of fish.”

“How did all those fish die?”
asked Jack.

“The Source,” replied Godfrey.
His eyes lifted to a spot further out in the lake where the water
was bubbling. “You can see it out there. Every now and then The
Source provides all this food and you get a great gathering of
birds from all over.”

“Volcanic gases,” said Fluoro.
“The fish are being poisoned.”

“If you say so,” said Godfrey.
“It’s still The Source that provides it.”

Fluoro sidled over to Jack.
“This is the first stage,” he said quietly.

“Of the eruption?” whispered
Jack.

Fluoro nodded.

“Should we warn them to get
away?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Should
we
go?” said
Jack. “I don’t want Chainsaw getting hurt.” He looked around for
the cat who a short time before had been close by. “Where is he?”
he cried.