Kolarrr’ka sat at Rini’s bedside as the bitten and bruised lad carefully turned himself so he could see the avian education specialist.
“Bok,” the bird said with sympathy. “If I had been squeezed by wild snakes like you were, I think my gizzard would have popped out my toes, and that would have been the end of me!”
Rini chuckled, then regretted it as his lungs felt like they were grating against his ribs. “Ouch. I think my gizzard was about half-way to my toes when those sapient reptiles came to the rescue.”
Kolarrr’ka nodded. “T’sss’lisss is in Kibi’s bed, she’s about as sore as you, and won’t be slithering anywhere for a few days. I’m here to tell you that you also are not going anywhere. To assist me on my mission, you’d have to climb trees and perch in them for hours at a time.”
Rini moaned at the thought.
“Bok. I’m going to take Ashley on one excursion, but work alone most of the time. Get well, my friend.”
“Actually, nothing’s broken, it just feels like everything is.”
“Bok.”
Kolarrr’ka began by listening.
Luckily, he resembled a species of large bird that was known, by all other birds on Ko-tera Three, to be very easy-tempered, vegetarian, and non-territorial. He planned to use that fact to his advantage.
NEBADOR Book Nine: A Cry for Help 346
He made himself comfortable in about a hundred different trees on four continents. Sometimes his arrival scared away flocks of little nervous birds, but they would soon return and resume their chatter after realizing what kind of bird he appeared to be.
In other trees, large birds who could defend themselves stood their ground, but soon relaxed as Kolarrr’ka found an unused branch and settled in for an hour or two of listening.
For short transits, he flew, and each time he descended, he first scouted the area, taking in the sounds of the local avians and their profiles in flight, then selecting a tree with a different sort of bird than he had listened to previously.
For the trans-oceanic flights, even though he could make some of them if he had to, he called on the Manessa Kwi to save time, and to avoid a day or two of recovery upon arrival at the far shore.
Some of the birds, especially the smaller species, were clueless about the danger that currently walked upon the land.
Others, including many medium-size birds, were not concerned, as they had figured out how to live off the trash and pick over the vast fields of crops that the monkey mammals harvested with machines.
It was the larger birds, from Kolarrr’ka’s size up to nearly-fanator size, who knew what was going on, and whose eggs were becoming more and more fragile because of the chemicals the monkey mammals sprayed all over their fields. These were the birds that Kolarrr’ka knew he had to listen to the most, and try to determine if they might be ready, able, and willing to leave.
At two remote locations where hundreds of flightless birds waddled from place to place, one on a rocky coast and the other on an icy shore, Ashley slowly walked about, with Kolarrr’ka at her side, no faster than the native birds could waddle. She watched, he listened, and when no other birds were near, they discussed what they were learning.
The large birds in such remote places did not have strong feelings about the monkey mammals of the planet, but sensed that something was wrong with the world, and chatted about which way they should go to find better conditions.
NEBADOR Book Nine: A Cry for Help 347
What remained unclear to Kolarrr’ka and Ashley was whether they would be willing to get in a ship, even if completely crewed by avians, to take their chances somewhere totally unknown to them.
Kolarrr’ka was of the opinion that they might, once the changes to their environment were much more obvious, such as the water heating, the ice melting, and the fish dying.
Ashley wasn’t so sure.
When Kolarrr’ka was beginning to think that his survey mission was almost complete, he received a scare that nearly made him call for immediate pick-up.
He had returned to working alone, and had entered the jungle-covered tropics. After a few hours of scouting, he knew where to find the large, intelligent birds who had the best chance of being near sapience.
But he quickly realized that something was different here. The avians gathering in trees around him to talk were not local birds, but rather had flown in from two, possibly three different continents.
And they were angry.
He perched off to the side and remained as inconspicuous as possible.
When most birds were listening to someone speak, he listened too. When the speaker caused an emotional reaction in the crowd, he fluttered his wings or squawked just enough to fit in with the mood of the gathering.
They were angry that smoking monkey-mammal machines had taken to the skies. They all knew someone who had been sliced to bits by one of those machines, or choked to death by the hot smoke that was nearly invisible.
They were bitter that the wires strung from pole to pole, that used to only tingle when landed upon, were now much more dangerous, and most birds who made that mistake did not survive.
The longer the meeting went on, the angrier the birds became, and Kolarrr’ka was hard pressed to continue to fit in. Sometimes they worked themselves into a frenzy, and began tearing out feathers from their own bodies, or each others’.
That’s when Kolarrr’ka slipped away, found a quiet tree, activated his mission collar, and described to Ashley what he was seeing.
NEBADOR Book Nine: A Cry for Help 348
The mission leader asked many questions, and Kolarrr’ka tried to answer, but eventually she asked the one question he almost wished she wouldn’t ask.
“If conditions continue to get worse, and they are offered relocation to a planet where no one is polluting or using dangerous machines, would they go?”
He had to think about it for another day as he continued to observe gatherings of angry birds, usually from the safety of a nearby tree with thick leaves.
Finally, with a deep sigh, he activated his mission collar and carefully worded his answer.
“No. They are not smart enough to direct their anger in the right direction, and so are engaging in many self-destructive behaviors. The flightless birds we observed are more even-tempered, and might be an exception . . .”