Witi Ihimaera - Sky Dancer

“What is this giant demon?” Tui asked. “Is it a pouakai come down to haunt us from the uppermost Heavens?”

“Where are its wings?” Kawau cried. “Where are its claws? Look, it has no face, no beak, no crest —”

Skylark cleared her head. She looked at the apparition and gave a gasp.

“Do you know what the demon is?” Te Arikinui Kotuku asked.

“Yes,” Skylark nodded. “It’s Mummy.”

Coming towards the tree was Cora. But something was wrong with her. She looked like a sleep walker. She was wearing the Madonna outfit she had worn for the production.

“Skylark, don’t you understand?” Arnie said. “It’s not really Cora. As Time speeds onwards it creates these strange after-images of what is happening until real Time asserts itself again. It’s a hologram of your mother.”

Arnie was right. Even as he spoke, Chieftain Ruru flew at Cora, beak open to tear her to pieces. There was no contact. Cora’s image wobbled like jelly as he flew straight through her. The Runanga a Manu set up a cry of awe. “What witchery is this?” screamed Chieftain Kawau at Skylark. “What tribe are you from! Who are you! Kill the female sorcerer and stop her witchcraft.”

“No,” Skylark pleaded. “What happened was not my mother’s fault. She didn’t know what she was doing —”

Helpless to stop events that had already occurred, Skylark watched as Cora sat down, lit a cigarette and put it to her mouth. To the manu whenua, the action looked like Cora had made fire from a fingernail. Cora threw the match at the sacred tree. It moved in slow motion through the air.

The sacred tree burst into flames.

“Save yourselves!” Tui yelled.

The flames spread quickly among the branches. There was pandemonium as the manu whenua tried to escape. In a trice the tree had become a flaming torch, sending sparks up into the sky. Not one bird had managed to take wing. But something extraordinary was happening. Tui was still alive, looking as if he was bathing in the flames. Te Arikinui Huia, instead of being burnt to a crisp, was turning and dipping, and her wings were going right through the flames.

“How can this be?” Chieftain Kahu asked Arnie.

“The flames aren’t real,” Arnie answered. “Like the creature, they are a hologram, a simulation. They’re like the burning bush that Moses found on Mount Ararat, burning but not really burning. Have no fear. The flames will soon pass.”

As he spoke, the flames vanished. Cora’s image wavered and then it too disappeared. A hubbub arose among the Parliament of the Birds.

“This is your chance, strange chieftainess,” Kotuku said. “Deliver your message quickly before the manu whenua regroup against you.”

Skylark stepped forward and cut through the din with her glorious karanga. Even as she was singing, she could feel the sickness overwhelm her as Time accelerated again.

“Watch the sky,” Skylark called.

There was a sudden boom and crack . A seam of the sky caught fire and the sky ripped open. Giant black creatures which looked like spiders began to crawl through. Only, they weren’t spiders. They took wing as seabirds, flying out of the burning belly, heading down towards the offshore islands.

“What unholy intervention is this?” Chieftain Tui asked.

The coming of the seabirds from the future looked like a video in fast forward mode. On and on the seabirds came, spilling out in their hundreds. The sky reverberated with their menacing cries of triumph.

“Is there no end to them?” Kotuku turned to Skylark for an answer. Already the seabirds had obscured the sun, casting premature night across the Great Forest. They were spreading out towards the horizon, smothering the light.

Then suddenly Time stopped. Reached the present. Through the ripped sky slid a sinuous figure. Skylark shivered with fear.

“Kawanatanga!”

The wind turned cold and sharp. In an attempt to sober up his chieftains, Tui ordered that they all bathe under the waterfall. The brisk water flowing from the snow-covered mountains certainly had the desired effect, shocking the chieftains into sobriety and to focusing on this new and ominous threat.

Tui called them to order. “I am reconvening a Council of War,” he declared. “Chieftain Ruru, we will again need your advisory skills. Chieftain Kawau, the new battle will no doubt be fought again over your inlet, so we will need you to do a ground plan. Chieftain Kuku, Chieftain Kaka, Chieftain Pitoitoi and Chieftain Koekoea, please step forward. You all commanded the front-line troops in the first battle; we will need your leadership skills for the second. And Chieftain Kahu, your long-range surveillance will be invaluable to us.”

“May I speak?” a young voice intervened. It was Piwakawaka II, son of the valiant Piwakawaka who had died in the first battle of the birds. “My clan wishes to be involved in the second fight that is to come and to take revenge for the death of our father.”

“Of course,” Tui said. “Is everybody agreed? Do I have your approval that the son of Piwakawaka should take his father’s place among us?”

“Ka tika,” the chieftains nodded. “Yes, agreed.”

“As usual, not a woman among them,” Te Arikinui Huia muttered as the chieftains huddled in conference.

Meantime, other members of the Runanga a Manu had gathered around Skylark and Arnie. They were intrigued by the strangers and wanted to know more about them. “Ko wai koe?” they asked. “No hea koe? What is your genealogy? Where are you from?”

“My species originates from Europe,” Skylark answered, “but was also found in Asia. We weren’t introduced to Aotearoa until the 1860s.”

The young female birds, and especially Kahurangi, Chieftain Kahu’s lithesome daughter, found Arnie particularly interesting. Indeed, Kahurangi was becoming quite hormonally distressed. Arnie’s body-building physique had made him a strong, tough-looking falcon with spectacular musculature. Not averse to attention, he was striking poses, isolating and flexing the various muscle groups, pumping them up until they popped and sizzled. The young females poked and prodded him.

“What kinds of food does he eat to get a body like that?” Te Arikinui Huia asked.

“Raw steak, eggs, vitamins and energy drinks,” Skylark said.

Huia was dumbfounded. “Some of those foods are unfamiliar to me, but he eats eggs?”

“You mustn’t worry,” Skylark said. “He only has them sunnyside up, so you’re perfectly safe.”

She could have made a more sarcastic comment but Chieftain Tui called everyone to attention. He flashed his mazarine cloak, lifted his head and, white collar bobbing, trilled:

“Whakarongo ake au ki te tangi a te manu nei, tui! Tui! Tuituia!”

There was a hush. The other councillors of war took their place beside Tui to underline the fact that what he was about to say had arisen out of group consultation. Their demeanour was serious. Tui cleared his throat.

“Oh save the dramatics,” Kotuku said, “and get on with it, Tui.”

“Friends, nobles, countrymen,” Tui began, “we face again the threat of war, and we thank our two strangers, the Chieftainess Skylark and her warrior prince Arnie, for their long journey to warn us of the coming of seabirds from the future. As we have all seen, these reinforcements are of such number as to tip the balance of any second battle in their favour.”

The parliament warbled, whistled and chirruped with concern. Chieftain Titi was particularly agitated and took the opportunity to get into a close conference with Chieftain Kaka.

Tui turned to Skylark. “We seek more information from you, Chieftainess, before we come to any decision as to how to respond to the current threat. We have already won the battle at Kawau’s inlet. Did not Karoro flee the field? With his departure, did not Karuhiruhi sound the retreat? Why is it that we must fight this battle again? There is no logic to it.”