by Esther David
‘Are you going to chat away till the end of summer, Tux?’ A lady puffin walked towards them haughtily. ‘We have to go find a spot for our burrow.’
‘Right away, love. That’s what I was telling this young one here, wasn’t I, Hudhud?’ He gave him an apologetic shrug as he waddled away after the lady.
‘Hunts away from the crowds …’ Hudhud absently looked at the puffins prancing on the rock, white with droppings, and his eyes widened. Without a moment’s delay, he was flying towards Nameless. And there she was, chasing crabs on the concealed, silent patch of land dotted with four-petalled white flowers, away from the hubbub.
‘Look who’s lounging on my patch of sun and sand. With a crab lunch, that too.’ Hudhud landed in the scurvy grass.
Ababeel smiled at him. ‘Look who’s fallen out of the sky.’
‘Do you know how to pack your beak with two dozen sand eels?’ He went towards the shore. ‘My puffin friend can stuff in much more, but I’ve only touched twenty-four.’
‘No way! You can’t do that!’ Ababeel squeaked as she followed him.
Till the sun cast its sidelong glance on the sea, Hudhud continued to show off the eel-catching tricks he’d learnt from Mr Tuxedo. First surprised, then curious and later eager to learn, Ababeel tried to follow his moves of hovering, diving and lining the eels in her beak. She was an excellent student. It had taken Hudhud months to learn this. They sat winded and stuffed as the sun went down.
‘I wish I were flying back to the south.’ Ababeel looked longingly at the sky. ‘Ah, to embark on adventures, spend winters with emperor penguins …’
‘Isn’t it a long battle to reach the South Pole? So many dangers on the way.’ Hudhud tried to keep the terror out of his voice.
‘Oh yes, there are those. Fighting the sea pirates Arctic skuas, avoiding terrible weather—at times with no place to land but the vast ocean beneath you … So yes, there are dangers. But I love our month-long pit stop in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. The krill there are heavenly … aren’t they?’
‘Uh-huh,’ Hudhud grunted.
‘I can see that you’re partial to fish.’ She smiled and continued. ‘And I love the changing moods of the sky mirrored on the ocean surface, I like the sea rolling under my wings … the breeze rocking me gently as I sleep in the air, gliding …’ Her eyes sparkled with wanderlust.
Hudhud almost shuddered at the thought of gliding in the air as he slept. That was foolishly dangerous.
Ababeel took a deep breath and spread her wings. He took a step back and his rear went into a small thorny bush. ‘Ow!’
‘What did you say?’ She turned.
Hudhud gritted his beak to hide the pain in his heinie. ‘I-I like islands and beaches.’
‘Oh, I like them too,’ Ababeel chirped. ‘Especially discovering all the new ones! You know, first I thought it was crazy to fly hopscotch and take a detour of thousands of kilometres.’
‘Detour of thousands of kilometres …’ Hudhud muttered dumbly but Ababeel didn’t notice.
‘After all, why fly the S-shaped route? We have to fly from pole to pole, so we can just take a straight route. But then it was none other than your gramma who told me why.’
‘My gramma?’
‘Oh yes,’ she twittered. ‘She’s straight-faced as stone, but she is one of the oldest in our flock. She has seen more adventures than any one of us. She told me there is a method to our madness.’ Ababeel imitated Gramma by pulling a serious face and moving a wing to her head as if adjusting her black cap. ‘Kid, we are not idiots. We do not want to fly headlong into the wind. We follow its spiralling patterns. See, it is wise for us air travellers to make friends with the wind. Saves us trouble.’ Ababeel slipped into her easy smile again. ‘Did you know that?’
Hudhud shook his head honestly. He hadn’t known about it. All this sounded much more trouble to him than the pain in his butt. ‘You like islands, you said. Would you like to explore the Farne Islands with me?’
Ababeel took to her wings. Hudhud sat looking after her. She hovered in the air like a hummingbird for a moment and then looked down. ‘What are we waiting for?’
Over the next few days, Hudhud took her around the group of islands, showing her the secret nooks and corners and crannies, telling her the history of the pretty little fiddleneck flowers. He took her to the tuckedaway caves and flew over narrow gorges between the cliffs, where the waves lashed and rose like sea serpents. Ababeel’s reactions were delightful—she cooed and shrieked and flapped and spun.
Mr Tuxedo, his mouth always full of fare for his newborn babies, nodded at them in approval when they crossed the puffin colonies. The chicks of the eider ducks had started to arrive too. Hudhud even took her to the islands visited by humans. Ababeel had believed that human heads had flappy skins of different colours. Hudhud, after a laugh that rolled right out of his stomach, told her that they were wearing hats. They did that to protect their heads from the hot-headed terns’ ummis and abbis. The Arctic terns were famed for dive-bombing anyone who came too near their nests and scaly-winged babes.
‘Oh yeah, I know we can draw blood.’ Ababeel looked thrilled. ‘But I didn’t know we could make them lose their marbles!’ She chirped as a tern made a man shut his eyes and run away, all the while thrashing his hat.
‘I don’t know why, but looking at manlings, I feel I need to find an answer. Someone had asked me to find an answer,’ Hudhud mumbled.
Ababeel cast him a look as if he were the one who’d lost his marbles.
Two weeks passed by and Hudhud couldn’t gather enough courage to visit Samwise and Frodo. He told himself that he was too busy showing Ababeel around, but he had introduced her to his razorbill and guillemot friends. He had even taken her to see young pufflings make for the sea, quite near the rocks his seal friends lolled on. If he had to be honest with himself, he missed the bulls like Ababeel missed the sea below her wings. Or whatever that meant. He flew to the sunning rocks in the evening, pretending not to look at the grey seals sprawled there.
‘Hey, Hudhud!’ Frodo called.
‘Hey, friends!’ Hudhud flew down immediately. ‘Meet my new friend—Ababeel.’ She landed after him on the rock.
‘Ababeel … what a pretty name.’ Samwise shifted on his flippers.
‘Not half as pretty as the lady, though,’ Frodo bowed like a gentlebull. ‘Pleasure.’
Ababeel beamed at the twins. ‘Hudhud has been talking and talking about both of you!’
‘Has he now?’ Frodo squinted at him.
‘You bet. He has even been trying to teach me how to dive like a seal. He knows so many things about the islands. That’s so cool!’
‘Isn’t it?’ Samwise’s triple chin waggled.
‘You must tell me stories from the sea,’ Ababeel chimed in. ‘Hudhud says you have some incredible tales from the underwater world.’
‘Ah, that’s nothing … We’d love to hear stories of your travels. We want to go on a quest, see? Frodo and Samwise?’ said Frodo, tap-tapping.
‘Yeah! We’re waiting to go on a hero’s journey one day,’ Samwise joined in.
They flapped their flippers in a high five and did a tapping dance.
Ababeel laughed heartily, shuffling her webbed feet to the rhythm too.
After that evening, they met with Frodo and Samwise every day, exchanging stories, having fun. Hudhud always brought Ababeel, not only because he spent most of his time with her, but also because he dreaded answering Frodo’s pointed question. He had many native friends on the island. But he had always kept away from Arctic terns. So Ababeel was his only friend from his tribe. Now that he knew what he had been missing, he made sure not to go near the tattletale terns like Kilkila who would crack down on him.
Three months wheeled away. The terns’ chicks had come out of their nests in the depressions on the ground and were learning to fish and plunge—all to prepare for their first flight to the South Pole to winter with their parents. The jumplings�
�baby guillemots—had begun leaping from the cliffs into the sea. This summer had left Hudhud breathless. And now he could see it was all coming to an end. The visitors had already started to leave the islands. Soon the Arctic terns would leave too. And Ababeel would go away. Not to a nearby island, but to the other end of Planet Earth.
Hudhud landed with a sigh near Frodo and Samwise, who were busy practising their dance moves for the girls, balancing rounded stones on their heads. It never failed to surprise Hudhud how fluidly they moved despite weighing more than 200 kilos each. He hardly weighed 100 grams but had two left feet.
‘Why so glum, chum?’ Frodo asked, tap-tapping, the stone rolling on his head.
‘She will leave tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow?’ Samwise’s stone dropped on the rock and rolled away. The sun had set and the sky was the colour of Hudhud’s feet.
‘The elders have decided it’s time.’ Hudhud’s voice was a whisper.
‘And …’ Frodo drew closer.
‘All right, okay, Frodo! Yes, she thinks I’m going to leave with the flock.’
‘So what’s your plan?’
‘There’s no way I am flying halfway around the earth.’
The bulls waited for him to continue.
‘Um … maybe I can just say I’m flying back. She won’t know if I don’t. There are thousands of terns after all …’
‘Boss.’ Frodo’s whiskers jumped as he spoke. ‘Hiding the truth is one thing, a blatant lie is taking it to a whole new level.’
‘Don’t act like scum.’ Samwise frowned.
Hudhud felt as frightened as he would in front of his gramma. ‘The sea monster … I-I can’t fly back … But I can’t never see her again too.’
‘Try telling her your problem, Huddy.’ Frodo’s voice was kind. ‘She’ll understand. She’s your friend after all.’
Early next morning, Hudhud met Ababeel as she flew in a hurry from one island to the next, saying goodbyes to her new friends.
‘I have to tell you something, Ababeel.’ Hudhud flew behind her. ‘It’s about me. And it isn’t something pleasant.’
‘We’ll have all the time in the world as we fly south to know the sordid details of your life.’ Ababeel smiled. ‘Let me soak in the sound of the crashing waves and the Farne sunlight …’ She flew with a spring in her flaps.
‘What are you so happy about?’
‘About taking to the sky again, of course!’
A curl of wind brought them the smell of the summer grass.
‘Don’t you feel this is home? Don’t you feel sad about leaving it?’
‘My home is the world, Hudhud. The whole wide world. That’s why I have wings … and not roots like mountains.’ She spotted Frodo and Samwise sprawled on the rocks, digesting their breakfast.
‘Goodbye, my rock star friends!’ She pointed at the rock and laughed at her own joke. ‘I’ll see you next year. And don’t you dare teach me how to catch octopus again!’
‘No, dear girl, we’ll just treat you to one. And next time, you’ll meet our ladies too. What say, Samwise?’
‘You can say that again, bro!’ Samwise gave Frodo a high five. ‘Be safe in your travels, sky girl. Nature speed!’
The terns started calling and Ababeel took to her wings. ‘So long, friends … and hurry up, Hudhud!’
Hudhud shrugged, looking at his friends, and flew after her, beseeching her to talk for a moment.
Ababeel landed in the sea of terns, all gathered together. The young ones taking the journey south for the first time looked as if they could hardly contain their thrill.
‘Please, I want to talk to you for a second,’ Hudhud said, landing by her side.
‘Shhhhh …’Ababeel shushed him. ‘It’s time.’ Her eyes twinkled like the sunrays on the sea.
The day was warm and bright. A sudden silence fell upon the huge flock. Hudhud found it eerie as he looked around. No wonder they called it ‘dread’, the moment of silence before the flight. Then, as if on cue, the thousands of terns took flight together en masse.
Hudhud sat on the rock, fascinated by the sight of the flock taking to the sky as a single beast. One tern turned in her flight and looked back. She hovered in the air and thrust her head sideways to beckon Hudhud, as if he were a truant child lagging behind. Without a thought, Hudhud spread his wings and flew to where Ababeel waited for him.
‘I know I can strike terns dumb with my charm, but not taking the flight with the flock was a bit too much, if you know what I mean.’ She joined the others, urging Hudhud to fly by her side.
Hudhud looked down in a daze at the rocky islands, which had been his home for three years. He almost turned to fly down again when he saw Samwise and Frodo looking up at the sky, smiling and waving a happy goodbye with their flippers.
‘Isn’t it wonderful to be travelling again?’ Ababeel tossed and flapped and glided in the empty space around him.
Hudhud flew with the large flock in a trance, only the sight of a happy Ababeel soothing his heart that was aflutter with fear. The memory of the fire-breathing sea dragon jabbed at him. Even a small, misplaced sound gave him a panic attack. But he kept flying, knowing that if he returned now, even his best friends would be upset with him.
A few days passed. Hudhud still flew with the flock, the fear inside him hammering only like a dull thrum now. Sleeping while one glided in the air was not so bad either. In fact, it was quite relaxing, he admitted grudgingly to himself. Even Ababeel’s chirpiness had rubbed off on him. She was just a twitter away at all times and sometimes they flew on their own, a little away from the rest. Though they journeyed above the ocean and not near the shore, Hudhud kept his eyes peeled for sea creatures. His curiosity was like that of a hatchling fumbling out of his nest.
It had been an exciting day flying above a happy pod of dolphins, followed by a cloudy dusk. The air smelled of rain. Hudhud’s instincts had taken over and his fears seemed like a distant dream. Ababeel drifted peacefully in the cool wind, a little away from Hudhud, when he felt a shadow on him. A pair of dark wings and sharp eyes loomed large.
‘Sea pirate!’ Ababeel shouted as the Arctic skua attacked Hudhud.
Hudhud was dumb with terror upon seeing the approaching bird. He froze in mid-air as the talons reached out and the downward-pointed beak snapped at him.
He tumbled in the air, a tangle of wings and webbed feet. But it was not due to the skua hitting him. Ababeel had dashed headlong into the pirate, and the two birds had rolled away in the air. Hudhud watched, stupefied.
Before he could come back to his senses, three more terns flew to Ababeel’s aid and pecked the skua from all sides. The skua thrashed his wings and, unable to chase them away, turned and took to the skies.
‘Are you okay?’ Kilkila asked Ababeel as Hudhud flew towards them. Ababeel nodded, still reeling a little. She looked up at Hudhud and asked, ‘Are you fine?’
Before Hudhud could reply, Kilkila and his two friends saw him, their stare sharper than shards of ice. Hudhud felt hot right up to his ears.
‘What is he doing here, sister?’ Kilkila demanded.
‘Haven’t you met my friend?’ Ababeel fluttered to Hudhud’s side.
‘Of course I have. The sea-dragon nerd. The tern who never travels.’
‘Kilkila, talk sense.’
‘Oh, so you don’t know?’ Kilkila gave Ababeel his stern older-brother look. ‘How would you? Flying wild all the time.’
‘Let’s go, Hudhud.’ Ababeel tugged at him and started to fly. ‘My brother is a headache with wings.’
‘He’s right,’ came a voice before they could fly away.
Hudhud turned with a sinking feeling in his gut. Gramma glided to their side. ‘My grandson has never travelled to the south.’
Ababeel looked from Hudhud to the old tern and back again in the falling dark. Her eyes drilled into Hudhud, and he shifted his gaze.
‘You lied to me all this while?’
‘Listen, Ababeel,’ he urged. �
�My parents were killed by a sea dragon—’
‘How dare you! What a fool I’ve been … No wonder you knew all the natives of the island. You’ve never left …’ Ababeel’s eyes welled. But she shook her tears away in anger.
Without another word, she flew away. Kilkila glared at him as he followed his sister in the gathering night.
Hudhud turned towards Gramma, seething silently with anger. Webs of lightning spread around them, tying a knot in his stomach. But it was his gramma’s voice that sounded like distant thunder. ‘The one who is afraid is a weakling. The one who lies is a coward.’
He swallowed a dollop of humility, and his anger burnt away like morning dew.
The wind picked up as the old tern flew away. KRRR … BOOM! He could feel the vibrations of thunder in the air. The dark sea rose and fell like a beast disturbed in its slumber. Hudhud reeled backwards, dread snaking within him. There was nowhere to go—the angry sea below and the stormy sky above.
Terns generally avoided bad weather on their journeys by following wind patterns. But he had got unlucky twice. Suddenly, it seemed to him that this was the abode of the sea dragon. The long-buried instinct of the traveller told him this was that very place of doom. A stone settled in his stomach and he found himself whirling in the wind. He had to warn the others! But no one would believe him. How could he be sure this was the place, they’d ask. The sea and the sky were the same everywhere. His gramma would think it was the storm making him feel this way. There was no sense trying to convince them.
Lightning flickered and stabbed at the dark erratically. Hudhud thought he saw the white outline of the dragon standing tall in the sea. No one had noticed it as big droplets of water started to fall from the heavens. He flew at top speed towards Ababeel and saw his gramma flying alongside her.
‘Ababeel … Gramma … Stop right there! Stop! Stop! Stop! The sea dragon—’
‘Oh, shut up!’ Ababeel’s voice was thick with crying. Gramma shook her head in disgust.
Hudhud gave them a wretched look and dipped his head. He glanced all around him for a way out, fear and rage bubbling on the surface. With manic strength, he flew towards them, lifted his wings and hit Ababeel and then his gramma, hurling them across the sky. A tongue of flame licked his tail, singeing the air around them. He looked back to see a cloud of fire rise behind him. Dazed and terrified, he stared into it, unable to move. He felt a pull and a drag from both sides as the cloud of fire disappeared as quickly with a loud whoosh.