Witi Ihimaera - Sky Dancer

Skylark breathed deeply. She knew what she would say would hurt Tui, but there was no alternative except to tell the truth.

“Sir, the Lord Tane has given the seabirds a second chance.”

“But what is the reason?” Tui asked, trying to comprehend. “The Lord Tane has always favoured us.”

“I mean no offence to you,” Skylark answered, “but following your victory you forgot to make appropriate sacrifice to him, the very Lord Tane, who gave you your win.”

Te Arikinui Kotuku gave a gasp. “Of course, that’s the matter that has been troubling me —”

Tui blanched. “Stronger chieftains than you have made such accusations about me and lost their lives for it. But your truth is straight and I acknowledge the fault.” His face grew grim.

“It is no one individual’s fault,” Skylark answered. “A chapter of accidents has brought this about. For instance, my mother, in the future, could be said to have been the one to have caused this too. After all, it was she who, by her careless act, set fire to the sacred tree and led to the sky ripping open.”

She turned to the councillors of war.

“Sirs, please forgive my mother.”

“Yes, yes,” the chieftains responded. And that was that. Agreed. Done.

“I can’t believe it was so simple,” Skylark said, astonished.

“They have more important things on their mind,” Te Arikinui Kotuku answered with gentle sarcasm. “Once talk of battle is engaged, the cock is unconscious of anything else.”

“But that means I can go home now,” Skylark said.

Not quite. The chieftain looked at Skylark and then at Arnie, unsure of how to proceed.

“Chieftainess,” Tui coughed, “may I have your leave to discuss with your warrior escort the military disposition of the new seabird reinforcements?”

“You may,” Skylark answered with as much dignity as she could muster.

“Thanks, Skylark,” Arnie said. “I know more about these matters than you do and —”

“Oh give it a rest,” Skylark hissed as she stamped on his feet.

Oblivious to her and Arnie’s needling, the relieved chieftains turned to Arnie for intelligence about the new arrivals. “Brave warrior,” Chief-tain Kahu asked, “what can you tell us about these new seabird reinforcements?”

Arnie stopped hopping around, and pondered his reply. He could have tempered his advice but he didn’t. “The birds from the future are like nothing any of you have ever seen before. They are stronger, more ferocious than Karuhiruhi and his iwi. They are bigger birds with sharper beaks —”

“You keep talking about this thing — the future,” Chieftain Kawau spat with irritation. “What place is that? Is it further away than China?”

“It is not a place,” Arnie explained, “but rather a Time that is still to come. It lies beyond more birdsong mornings than you have ever dreamed of. To get there you would have to fly over a thousand dawns, even more years, and you would still not reach it.”

“Beyond a thousand birdsong mornings?” Kawau said. “You speak of things beyond our comprehension.”

Chieftain Piwakawaka interrupted him. “And what is in the future that gives the new seabird reinforcements such a size advantage, sir?”

“Well, for one thing, the food is better and more plentiful,” Arnie said. “Man has created a rubbish tip of the earth.”

“Man? What is that? Who is that?” Chieftain Koekoea said. “All you say sounds very odd to us. None of it makes sense —”

“What does make sense,” Kahu chipped in, “is what warrior Arnie has pointed out: the size of these new seabirds. Surely that is the reality of what we are faced with. Already our landbirds are becoming nervous —”

“That was because in the past God was on our side,” Ruru hooted, striking a note of doom and gloom. “Now we are being punished.”

“Yes, it’s all my fault that the Lord Tane is angry with us,” Tui said. “I have been too arrogant.”

“And because of it,” Chieftain Popokotea added, “God has taken the side of the seabirds, and we are lost.”

The korero was spiralling downward. Arnie realised it had to be stopped. “No,” he said. “This is all defeatist talk. You are thinking about losing the battle before it has begun.”

The runanga murmured in fear and indecision. Growing hysterical, Kawau intervened again. “How do we know you are not infiltrators or agents for the enemy? Are you pretending to be on our side when, in truth, you are not?”

“What a ridiculous accusation, Kawau,” Kotuku scoffed. “Look at them! They are not spies. They are landbirds.”

At that moment, Chieftain Titi coughed for attention. Both he and Chieftain Kaka stepped forward. “We have already suggested a treaty once,” Titi said.

“Not that old idea,” Kotuku sighed.

“Might not a treaty work this time?”

Arnie’s look was ferocious. Titi and Kaka backed away, and Arnie softened a little. “Kind sirs, no. The new birds from the future are here with only one purpose in mind. To overturn the Great Division so that their descendants will rule the future and the world. They are determined on your absolute extinction.”

Immediately a loud hubbub arose. Absolute extinction? The overturning of the Great Division? No. No . With heavy heart Chieftain Tui pondered Arnie’s words. He took a brief moment to confer with the Council of War, then announced the verdict. “We have decided,” he said. “It shall be war, not because we want it but because we have to defend ourselves.”

A few scattered cheers punctuated the silence.

“Chieftainess Skylark,” Tui confirmed, “thank you for your message. You have given us our warning. Although the Lord Tane has deserted us, let us pray that he will forgive us and return to us the mantle of his protection. Let all birds of the forest rest tonight and prepare for the morrow.”

The meeting broke up. Arnie turned to Skylark.

“Well, we’ve done our job,” he said. “You’ve obtained forgiveness for Cora and we’ve delivered our message about the seabirds. I know you want to go home now.”

But Skylark knew that Arnie’s heart wasn’t in his words. He had a mournful hang-bird look on his face and he kept on kicking at the paepae and glancing back at Kahu and the other chieftains as they planned the following war. Man oh man, how he wanted to be part of it. But he had promised Auntie Hoki he would look after Skylark and, like it or not, his job wouldn’t be over until he delivered her safely back to Tuapa.

Skylark did some quick thinking. Although she really wanted to get back to Cora as soon as, the problem was that Arnie had entered the equation. Without a doubt she would never have been able to make it this far without him, so didn’t she owe him one? Not only that, she also sensed in him some common ground.

There are solitary places in your heart, Arnie, she thought to herself, just as there are in mine. They have kept us both confined in the world of the ordinary. But does that mean we can’t dream? Does that mean we can’t find some extraordinary challenge in our ordinary lives and prove to ourselves that we can meet them? I’ve had my chance to do something amazing, something that other people only dream of and —

Skylark made up her mind. It was Arnie’s turn now.

“You know, Arnie,” she began, “We’ve actually got three days left before we need to go back through the Time Portal —”

Arnie’s eyes grew wide, but he was wary of the thought behind her words. “Don’t do this to me,” he said. “Don’t hold out something to me that you can’t follow through on.”

“I’m serious, Arnie,” Skylark said. “There’s a very good reason why we should think of staying for a while.”