Witi Ihimaera - Sky Dancer

More, Mummy, more.

The pouakai shook her head. Nonchalantly, she picked one of the other blindworms up and threw it at the feet of her chicks.

Get your own dinner, children.

The chicks scrambled after the blindworm. They gave it some tentative pecks.

Mmmn, yummy.

In a frenzy, the chicks shredded the worm to pieces. The nest became a butchery site. The chicks exploded into violence, hissing, spitting, crashing and fighting each other over the other blindworms. Very soon, another six blindworms were massacred. Then one of the chicks saw Skylark.

What have we here? Dessert?

In space, nobody can hear you scream.

Back in Manu Valley, day had ended and Mitch and Francis had gone to Tuapa for the night. Hoki knocked on the door to Bella’s room. Bella had stormed off in anger, refusing to even think about Hoki going back to rescue Skylark. When she opened the door she was grim-faced.

“I should never have told you what I heard from Cora,” Bella said. “It’s only given you and Arnie false hope. Look at you both: away with the fairies. There’s another way. I’ll go. I’m stronger than you —”

“But when you change,” Hoki answered, “you’ll only change into a bellbird. I’m the one who will become the Hokioi. I’m the one whose name is imprinted with the genetic code of the Hokioi. I’m the one who can fly in the upper Heavens. It looks like all my pigeons have come home to roost, ne? I cannot escape my destiny. It’s already written, Sister. You and I always knew this day might come.”

“Not like this, though,” Bella said. “Not with this crazy brainless foolishness you seem insistent on carrying out. Look at you. A cripple who has to use walking sticks to get around.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“You’re so hopeless, Hoki,” Bella continued. “When it comes to physical things, you haven’t a show! If you can’t walk without aid, how are you going to be able to fly!”

“I know what you’re saying, but —”

“You’ve never been able to do anything right. Sometimes I wonder whether you know which side is up.”

“You don’t have to rub it in.”

“You’re dead in the water even before you start. No, Sister. No. I won’t let you do it. No.”

From his bedroom Arnie heard the two women arguing. He got up to find out what was happening and was just in time to see Hoki walking out of the house followed by an irate Bella.

“Does everything I say always go in one ear and out the other?” Bella yelled.

Arnie went after them.

Outside, the sky was already turning red from the sunset. Hoki had paused at the back of the house where there was an old armchair under some apple trees. Arnie caught up with his aunties there.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

Hoki had that look on her face. “Bella has been trying to persuade me not to go,” she said, “but I have no alternative. I’m going.” She took a deep breath. “And I’m leaving right now.”

“Now?” asked Bella, taken aback. She looked at Arnie as if it were all his fault.

“By my calculations, the pouakai’s island is due to come orbiting back towards our planetary system tonight. I need to be waiting for it when it is closest to earth. If I miss it, there won’t be another chance for Skylark. It’s now or never.”

“You haven’t heard a word I’ve said, have you,” Bella said, compressing her lips. “Well, go then.”

“No word of love, Sister? No word of good wishes?”

“Why should I waste my time wishing you well,” Bella shouted, “when all the odds about Skylark being alive and your chance to get her and return are so slim? She can’t have lasted this long. You’re going on a fool’s errand —”

“I’m not giving up until I see Skylark’s body,” Hoki answered. “If you won’t give me your blessing, I’ll go without it. Goodbye, Sister.”

She began to walk towards the cliff path. Bella turned her back and folded her arms.

“Aren’t you going to see her off?” Arnie asked.

“And condone this madness? No.”

“Hoki will be all right, won’t she?” Arnie persisted. “She and Skylark will get back, won’t they?” Waiting was a torture to his loving heart.

His question went right to the crux of the matter. Bella began to shake with emotion.

“Although the Great Book of Birds prophecies this flight,” she wept, “it ends at the point where Hoki begins her journey. It doesn’t tell us what happens next —”

“That settles it! I’m going, not her. Damn it, I’ll take her place.”

Bella slapped him hard. The welt reddened his cheeks. “Wake up, Nephew,” she screamed. “Nobody should go back there! Not even Hoki.”

Hoki was halfway up the cliff face. All around her the sky was deepening into crimson.

“Oh, how’s she going to get on?” Bella wailed. “I’m the one who has always done the dangerous stuff. I’m the one with the legs. She’s always been the scaredy-cat. And her sense of direction is hopeless! Even when there are signposts she often takes the wrong turning. I tell her to go left and she turns right. Sister! Sister! Wait!” Bella and Arnie started to run. Up and up they raced. The sun was going down into the sea. The dusk chorus was beginning. They were going to be too late. “Sister,” Bella cried again.

Hoki was standing at the edge of the cliff. She was chanting an incantation.

“E nga manu Atua o Te Wao Nui o Tane

Homai ki ahau te mana, te ihi, te wehi

Oh God birds of the Great Forest of Tane,

give me your strength, your dread, your powers …”

At her words, the manu whenua responded with a frenzied song. It came strange and wild from the north, south, east and west. It seemed to swirl around Hoki like a whirlwind.

“Equip me with strong wings for my journey

fighting claws, a fierce beak, acknowledge me

Let the Hokioi’s voice be heard again in the skies

The Spirit Messenger of the Gods themselves …”

The whirlwind and the birds’ chorus reached a crescendo. Bella and Arnie put their hands to their ears. Far to the north Birdy clutched her heart with anticipation, knowing something profound was happening. In the east, Joe felt the wind begin to blow and realised that the time had indeed come for the flight of the Hokioi. Down in the south, an image came into Lottie’s head of an old woman ready to embark on her last journey.

“For the last time,” Bella wept, “please don’t go, Sister.”

The birdsong stopped. Just like that.

In the Manu Valley, nothing except the wind. The sunset blossomed red and glorious, like a benediction.

“You’re such a softy,” Hoki said to Bella. “I knew you would come to say goodbye.” She gave a brave smile. Leaned forward. Gulped at the sight of the valley far below. “It’s sure a long way down,” she said.

Before Bella and Arnie could stop her Hoki stepped over the cliff and was falling. The wind was flapping at her black gown. Her black scarf came loose and fluttered away like a ribbon. She was holding on to her walking sticks for dear life.

“She’s going to kill herself,” Arnie cried out, alarmed.

The ground was rushing forward. “Heeelp —” Hoki screamed.

“Oh my giddy aunt!” Bella sighed. She cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted. “Open your wings, you stupid idiot!”

Arnie saw Hoki spread her arms. And that’s when it happened. All that was falling was Hoki’s clothes, shoes, scarf and walking sticks. But where was Hoki? Arnie heard a screech of triumph, and flying out of the neck of Hoki’s black gown came a gorgeous dark bird. The bird whistled and sang and soared in the morning currents.

“Is that Hoki?” Arnie asked.