Along the shore

When the ship is moving, Petra is not collecting data. So, when she is not analysing data, myself, Codrin, Cawlin and Petra are free to work on improving Petra's translator. It's quite fun telling Petra what to do. The translator has improved a lot. Now it can translate into human our words for the tastier species of fish, Cawlin's favourite fruits and the best flowers with the sweetest nectar for Codrin. It already mispronounced some basic words from the complex bird language like "go away" or "come here". Petra promised that she will try to procure some of our favourite foods. Her first aquisition was a plant full of white flowers for Codrin. It lives in a pot with Earth now. Humans call it Jasmine.

It's been sunny and windy. Petra and the rest of the crew are proud that the Drunken Duck has produced a lot of electricity. It then uses this energy to get the Hydrogen out of the water, which our engine burns to push the boat along the shore. Unlike the burmig of fosil fuels, the burning of hydrogen does not produce carbon dioxide. So it does not contribute to global warming.

In a few days we’ll dock at Cape Gata in Cyprus.

Back from the dead

I flew back to the ship. The journey was eventless. As I was trying to land, I heard Cawlin shout: “We need to leave now before that crazy owl brings that thing and eats us, too”. Codrin’s answer was just as loud: “I am not leaving you brainless bag of feathers. Athena would not have tried to kill Narcisus. Besides, if the bird of prey ate that whole fat duck he’d be in no mood to fly over here to eat more.” They were all hiding under the helicopter. When I landed on the deck near them I heard Penelope say quietly: “Philip and I are flying nowhere in the middle of the night.” I had to take charge.

Me: stop fighting! Athena found out where Icarus is. Sirius heard he is going to Alexandria.

Codrin: Well, Cawlin, I am right. Narcisus is safe.

Cawlin: Where did you say Icarus was?

Me: Alexandria

Our conversation then drifted to other topics until we heard Petra come back from Istanbul.

She was sad. Codrin immediately flew by her side.

Petra: Oh, Codrin. You are lucky to be a bird. I saw so many people more poor than the last time I was here. The inflation is up. There are men, women and children starving on the streets. Our politicians don’t just destroy wildlife, they destroy so many people, too, and then blame the people they just destroyed for all the misfortune created. The media convinces people to believe so many untruth. People then turn against each other. Instead, we should be helping each other and in the same time we should work together to build a better future that is sustainable.

Codrin: Just hang out with birds then. We are the better crowd!
Cawlin: My mother hangs out with goats. She finds them good company. She also gets free snacks off their back.

Petra had all the data she needed. So, early morning just after Athena returned for her daily nap, our ship left Istanbul.

An Egyptian Vulture in Istanbul

The ship dropped anchor some 500 metres from the shore. Since it was evening Athena flew off. Penelope and Philip also flew off looking for evening snacks. Petra swam about in a weird costume that allowed her to go underwater. She dragged behind her a small boat filled with tubes and bottles and other small stuff on which Codrin was now perching. Narcisa and I joined Petra in studying the underwater fauna. While she looked at the quality of the water and studied the algae and microplastics, our studies focused on fish. Before the fifth or sixth fish enetered my beak Athena came back and asked me to fly off with her to meet Sirius, a bird, who had information about Icarus. Narcisa stayed behind with Petra. Cawlin joined us in our journey inland.

We soon reached a large tree. On its branches stood a stately bird of prey with an orange head. When Cawlin saw him, he turned around and flew off. I landed under the tree and remained rooted to the spot, frozen in fear.

Sirius: Hello, Narcissus!
me trying to hide my fear: Hello... tell me about your kind and about your journey here.

Sirius:
I’m Sirius a male Egyptian Vulture
Once revered in many a culture
Often Associated with a Sepulcher.
We are the Royal Pharoah’s chicken
But poisons are causing us to sicken
After all being a scavenger
Toxins are a constant danger
We keep the messy cities clean and neat
Carcasses on the street we strip and eat

Carcasses on the street we strip and eat
But lying in the open are poisoned strays
And sad to say numbered are our days.
toxic dumpsters and illegal hunting
what exactly are people thinking?
A vulture outside soaring is an awesome sight
A stuffed indoor vulture- Where’s the delight?

me: Any other dangers to fear?

The killer wind farms
Also cause us harm
Why don’t people see reason
And work on a redesign
Or during our migrating season
Turn off the wind turbine

me: Like wild ducks when migrating, you must fly on wind currents. The currents then smash you into the blades of the wind farms. You can’t stop. You can’t fly the large distances you cover by flapping your wings.

Sirius:
We cover over 200 kilometers a day
Relying on tailwinds to increase speed
We stop at dumpsters along the way
Traveling great distances after we feed.

Madrid, Sofia, Istanbul and Crete I have seen
To Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Egypt I’ve been
Our trips are hazardous and thrilling
Our journeys are long and grueling

Gliding and soaring not much flapping
And compensating for crosswind drift.
Long flights without a chance of napping
The thermal wind currents give us a lift.

The very long winding land route we take
One current to the next our journey we make
Over the sea there’s no major thermal lift
These strong land currents are Nature’s gift.

It would be absurd
For such a large bird
To keep flapping its wings as it flies
It would not be very Energy Wise
Any vulture that stupidly tries
Will tire and fall from the skies.
Crossing a sea will cause it to fall down
And in the water unfortunately drown.

Athena: do you have any news about Icarus?

me: tell us what you know about him. How did you meet?

A falcon to whom I was introduced
Boasted about his very unique skills
A scavenger he said was of no use
They need a bird that hunts and kills.

I said:
You catch food your master eats well
You guard it till he comes by
You’ve never been free that I can tell
I laughed, he started to cry.

I was free once just like you
I had a spouse, I had a brood
Into a poacher’s net I flew
While I was hunting for food.

I do like my trainer he’s good and kind
I’m well fed, he takes care of me
But I wish another falcon he could find
Then I can go back to my family.

Cherub my regal spouse
The keeper of my house
She must feel so forsaken
But I didn’t leave, I was taken.

Poor talented Icarus he has perfected his art
Soon in a falconry competition he’ll take part
The competition in Alexandria he’ll grace
They are betting on his winning first place.

Out at sea

It's our first day out at sea. Petra proudly showed us the ship and presented us to its crew. It consisted of four humans total: all male other than Petra, who was in-charge of the science performed on the vessel. "I can fly, too" Petra joked and pointed towards the ship's helicopter. The men were in-charge of the ship and of maintaining the helicopter. None paid much attention to us. They could not understand me. But I could see none could follow my advice or consider it seriously even if my brilliant speaches were translated for their benefit. The males of all species think they know best.

"So what do you do?" asked Codrin

Petra: "I take samples of the ocean and check its health. The ocean is like a big garden. And the diversity of species and plants tells us about the health of the planet at sea just as much as it does on Earth. We lose many species every year."

Codrin: "you are like the doctor of the sea only you don't fix the problems you find. I believe humans should use their power to increase diversity at sea and on land. For example, the pointless cruising of the ocean could be replaced with ships like this that monitored it and humans could stop using the ocean as a dump site. Then the diversity would slowly increase."

Petra: "I love the sea, and I wish I could help it recover from the mess we created. Unfortunately, lawmakers don't care about science. Anyhow, let's move on. Do you want to my lastest inventions?"

Codrin: Sure. I've always found them both brilliant and useful!

Some rings with something like a bead on them were sitting on a small table.

Petra: These are light, water-proof GPS bracelets. You should all wear one in case you get lost. Let me put them on you.

I and Narcisa wore the bracelets proudly. Codrin accepted his out of loyalty for Petra, but Cawlin wanted nobody to know his wearabouts. "Birds should have the right to privacy just like humans. We are supperior. We don't need metal wings to fly!" he cawed loudly.

Her next invetion was a translator of kinds. In translated some basic words from our complex quacking, and even tried to go the other way. It gave commands and expected a duck to obey. As if I wanted to obey somebody's commands...but I admit the translator could be useful if Codrin is not here and I want to tell Petra what to do.

On the Drunken Duck

Before meeting Petra, I imagined she would be short, fat, and with gigantic glasses that hide the failing of human eyesight. I thought she'd look like an intelligent duck, only quite a bit larger. In reality, she is tall, slim and reasonably fit. Her only problem is the lack of feathers. Not that being chubby is bad. It just stops one from flying, and from being free. Even without the marked duck resemblance, I conclude Petra looks OK by duck standards.

We gathered in a circle around her to make a plan. The boat had to be off in an hour, which left enough time for her to get a few last minute provisions that were shaped by her new and undemanding traveling companions, which she, finally, accepted gracefully. In the meantime, we could go on the ship and make ourselves confortable, and as invisible as possible until she could explain us to her crew-mates. However, we'd be safer there than on land since the port is quite a busy place and has no vegetation to hide in.

The Drunken Duck was a wide catamaran called "Regina Maria" after Romania's last queen. It was painted in light blue. The bridge up front gave it the appeareance of a beakless duck. We all circled down. Athena was the fastest. She quickly perched on a high bar and fell asleep. Narcisa and I hid under a large antena. "It is a nice place for a nest" commented Narcisa. Cawlin and Codrin perched on top of the antena oblivious to the fact that it might obstruct the ship's TV. Philip and Penelope perched under a solar panel a little further away. Soon Petra came back with a large box and a large bag of frozen stuff. She said it was for Athena and hoped there were no live rats on board. Most of them had been poisoned. The anchor was lifted and the boat sailed off.

Fit to its name, the drunken duck moves slowly in port. It has a large turning radius. Petra explained it is powered by the Hydrogen in the sea water. It extracts the hydrogen from the sea, using a combination of solar and wind power, and converts it back to electricity to power its twin electric motors. So, we need to stop when we run out of food, but we don't need to stop to refuel. Petra installed some fishing rods to supply us with food. Philip and Penelope still have plenty of bugs to catch. Petra points out that the live bugs remind us than Romania does not kill bugs as agressively as other countries do that claim to be environmentally friendly.

As soon as we got out at sea, the drunken duck increased its speed since now it has more wind to power its electric generator for extracting the hydrogen from the water. When we wanted to go for a swim, Narcisa suggested using the bow-wave in front of the ship like the dolphins. It will also make it easy to return to the ship when we needed to.

A truck further

We spent the next three hours dozing among the boxes. None were edible, and we did not try opening any of the boxes for fear of unleashing the chemicals they contained. Athena complained about our bad manners, while trying to sleep the morning off.

Once we reached the port, our driver opened the truck to check its contents. We took that opportunity to fly out right under his nose, which was a bit dangerous, but worked. Sometimes no plan is the best plan. As we were getting away, we heard other people in the port making fun of "his cargo". They might have meant us. People are mean and don't appreciate brain and beauty when it's right in front of them.

We soon regrouped under a tree.

Narcisa: well, where to next?
Cawlin: Codrin, you and I will fly over the port and report back. We are the least conspicous.
A few minutes later Codrin flew back shouting excitedly: "I've seen the Drunken Duck . I've seen the Drunken duck !"
Philip: slow down. Tell us what it is you saw.
Cawlin: He saw Petra's ship.
Codrin: exactly!
Me: Well, see if she is aboard. It will make the explanations less akward if she is leading the mission. She must be more senior now than when she had found you.
A tall confident person was walking towards the water.
"It's Petra!", Codrin shouted excitedly. He flew towards her and simply asked "Where are you going?".
Petra: "Codrin? Is it really you?"
Codrin: "hmm... who else could fly and talk in the same time?"
Petra laughed. "As confident as ever. Tell me first what happened. Where is Mircea? How did you get here?"
Codrin:
"from Sanovita by wind and duck
water, air and a big red truck"
"He was shut in a cage by that drunk friend of yours" Cawlin said acusingly.
Petra: Oh, no! Did somebody from the village feel sorry and just let you go off on your own?
Codrin: "a crow and two sparrows did that job
not a stupid drunken village mob "
Petra: Well, I am glad you are here and that you are not alone. I was just leaving for the Gulf of Bengal on an expedition.
Codrin: Good, then we are coming with you!
Petra: hmm... I am not sure that is possible. Besides, it's a long way. Why would you want to go off so far?
Codrin: To save Icarus, of course.
Petra: who? what?
Codrin: He is Cherub the falcon's partner.
Petra: Chewhat?
Codrin: Nevermind, you said you are in charge. Take us along. Please!

In the parking lot...

We took off leaving our coracle to the inhabitants of the Delta. After a bit of flying we landed in a clearing near the parking lot were the truck is. We hid in the nearest bushes. Quite soon a human lumbered out of the truck. He ate some weird bread with what appeared to be meat on it. Then he changed out of pyjamas, brushed his teeth, and when he was almost ready for departure he opened the back of his truck to check. There was a list of items and a pen in his hand. He doubled checked everything, and seemed ready to depart.

Suddenly all the Delta birds from the bushes flew towards him making a horrible din. As he turned to see what the commotion was about, we flew into the truck. From behind a crate of deluxe wet-wipes I saw the stork returning from the nearest rice field with something in his beak. He swooped down over the human, and dropped something on his head. The human started screatching. Whatever it was, hopped away. Then the friendly Delta inhabitants left. The human recovered fast enough, closed his truck and drove off.