Witi Ihimaera - Sky Dancer

A hush fell over the audience. It was spellbinding. Filled with anticipation. Sweet. Tender. Arnie gulped, looked at Skylark and held his wing out to her — and Skylark took it. “You’ll be okay,” she said. But her heart was thumping too.

Tui cleared his throat. “As the tide of the ocean recedes, so the tide has turned against the manu moana and takes them back to the sea where they belong. Let peace again prevail between us. Let the seabirds be happy where they are. Let them not try again to usurp the border.”

Pandemonium erupted. Birds tumbled and flipped in the air. A chorus of jubilation rose among the congregation. Tui lifted his wings to restore order. “Come forward, Chieftain Arnie, saviour from the future.”

But Arnie hung back and Skylark rolled her eyes and kicked him in the shins. “Ow! What did you do that for?”

“Go on! Everybody’s waiting! This is your moment. It was your destiny to do this. Everyone needs a hero. You are theirs.” She pushed him again, and there was nothing else he could do except grin stupidly, kneel before Tui and bowed his head.

“Chieftain Arnie,” Tui declaimed, “all the manu whenua thank you for your services. We wish to bestow upon you the highest honour any bird can receive. We dub thee, Sky Rider. Arise, Sir Arnie.”

The air rang with thunderous applause. Skylark felt a glow of pride, but couldn’t resist teasing him.

“What’s it like being Lord of the Wings?”

“I’m getting my own back,” Arnie replied. Before Skylark could stop him he turned to the audience. “I thank you all for this honour,” he said, “but I am only a garage mechanic from Tuapa. The honour you have bestowed on me really belongs to Skylark.”

Arnie knelt in front of her. “You are my lady,” he said. “I am simply your knight. You are the wind beneath my wings.”

A loud gasp arose from the manu whenua. A cock acknowledging a hen? During the formalities of the marae? Why, it was unheard of.

“Get up, Arnie,” Skylark hissed. “Oh please, Arnie, you’re embarrass-ing me.”

Arnie remained on his knees, and his gesture spurred Kotuku into action. After all, it had been Skylark who won the battle and been the cause of the manu whenua’s victory. Who knows? In her own world she was probably just an ordinary being, but look at her accomplishment in this world. Kotuku flew up to join Tui, Ruru and Kawau on the paepae. A yelp of protest came from Kawau.

“The Chieftainess from the future needs to be recognised, Tui,” Kotuku said. “Do it.”

Tui harrumphed, startled. He looked at Ruru who, remembering Skylark’s leadership at the inlet, nodded. “So many strange things have already occurred to change our world,” Ruru offered. “Another will not break the back of the camel.”

“Camel?” Tui shook his head. Sometimes Ruru could be so arcane and mysterious.

“Well?” Kotuku prompted.

“Don’t rush me,” Tui answered, his white collar bobbing. He looked down at Skylark. “Chieftainess, your love for your mother, and for us, has brought you on a journey that many of us would tremble at.”

And Skylark let go. All her life she had only counted on herself to get her through anything. She had never asked anything of anybody. She started to weep.

“Although you are just a small and ordinary bird, lacking in extraordinary powers —”

Kotuku stared hard at him with steely eyes. “What do you want to say a thing like that for?”

“—you have nevertheless proven courage beyond the call of duty. Who would have thought such a little bird could do so well? Ka mahi te tawa uho ki te riri. Well done, you whose courage is like the strong heart of the tawa tree.”

The manu whenua, swayed by Tui’s words, began to whistle their approval. Kotuku hadn’t finished with Tui yet. “Not so fast, Tui,” she said. “Down on your knobbly knees.”

“You’re asking too much, Kotuku —”

“Down I say!” Kotuku repeated, her beak slashing wickedly close to his manhood, “or else —”

Tui knelt on the paepae. There was a moment of suspense. Then Ruru went down on his knees too.

“I will not do it!” Kawau said. “I will not —” Ruru tripped his left foot and Kawau crumpled also.

One by one, all the manu whenua followed suit. Silence fell across the Great Forest of Tane.

“We will never forget you, Skylark,” Tui said, “nor you, Arnie, valiant champion.”

Swayed by the rightness of it all, the manu whenua finally erupted with throbbing cheers and shouted hurrahs. Some surrounded Skylark and Arnie, and many began to fly around the sacred tree. They made of it a whirling bright multi-coloured carousel of joy. Tui warbled with happiness. He saw that the wingless birds were bringing berries and fruits for the feast, and signed for the celebrations to begin. “Eat! Drink! Be merry —”

Right in the middle of it all, Arnie stood up and hugged Skylark in his wings, and was about to peck her — when something shifted, changed . Something came like an invisible fist and smashed all the flying birds to the ground. Everywhere birds were falling, and Skylark would have fallen too had Arnie not been there to hold her.

“It’s happening again,” Skylark said. “Time has begun moving forward.”

Acid rain began to fall, burning Skylark’s feathers. In alarm, the manu whenua sought deep shelter among the leaves of the sacred tree. Looking out Skylark saw the rugged mountains becoming dusted with hoar frost, glacial ice and snow. The surface split and crumbled, forming a corrugated patterns of hooks and chevrons like an ancient nightmare.

“It’s like a nuclear winter,” Arnie said.

The wind came up Manu Valley and in a trice all the birds of the forest were doubled, coughing and vomiting.

“What is causing this?” Tui asked.

Skylark searched the Heavens for an answer. She saw a huge ominous stain spreading from the rip in the sky.

“The poisonous gases of our world are affecting yours,” she said. “In our Time, our world is polluted. All the gases are pouring through the ripped sky.”

“Then it’s time for you to go back,” Kotuku said. “Although I will miss you, Skylark, your task is not over. Return to your own Time and tell the guardians of the future that they must close the ripped sky — not just against the pollution but anything else that might come through. Who knows? Another leader like Kawanatanga may arise, similarly obsessed with world domination. You did well to come here with your message and to help us. It is time for you to return now with mine.”

“Skylark and I should get moving,” Arnie nodded. “We’ve only got a day before the Time Portal closes.”

“Must you really go?” Kahu asked, looking for Kahurangi and motioning her to join him.

“I’m afraid so,” Arnie answered. “The sooner the better. The sun is sinking and the clouds are lowering.”

“What shall we do with the shotgun?” Skylark remembered.

“We’ll just have to leave it here.”

He was so cross with himself for forgetting the time, and now he was getting worried.

Skylark grinned. “That’ll set the cat among the pigeons. What on earth will a future archaeologist think when he comes across this artefact embedded in the Palaeolithic age of birds and dinosaurs.”

But Kahu was still persistent. He sidled up to Arnie and whispered to him. “Are you sure you wouldn’t want to stay behind with us? You are the son I never had. You could marry and bear me strong grandsons. Now, on that score —” he coughed — “I have a lovely daughter. You’ve seen the way she looks at you —”

Kotuku cut Kahu short. She took him aside. “You should know better!” She glanced at Skylark and Arnie. “Love doesn’t work that way.”