The escape

Winter is almost over. It's relatively mild. The children championed our survival. We are some of the few birds left. They argued we'd lay lots of eggs in the spring, starting much earlier than the chicken. Of course, Narcisa will lay eggs soon, but it won't be in captivity if we have anything to say about it. Our wings have grown back. Luckily there is a myth that says ducks without wings don't lay. It must have been Codrin who brought it to the attention of our hosts. Either Codrin or Cawlin come to check on us daily.

People still wear masks to hide their teeth. It makes them look less like the predatory beings they are. Narcisa adds "that's not the reason. It's the pandemic. Codrin explained it all to me when we were still by the Bega". Well, I must have missed that explanation. Although, I vaguely remember something about covering people's teeth instead of gasing chicken and other fowls or destroying all pigs at once as they did in prior years. Anyhow, most people I see wear their mask around their chins. It keeps the cold away.

My thoughts are interrupped by Narcisa who excitedly quacks "Here is Codrin! We are so glad to see you!".
Codrin: Listen! Something's happend! All humans look distracted. I spoke with birds who come from the other side of the Danube. They report humans hunt each other instead of shooting birds. They also set buildings on fire, and use metal birds to drop fire.
Cawlin drops in as is just as excited. He adds "The war with the Russians has started on the other side of the Danube. We must get away. Look, they forgot to put the latch on your door."
I push against the door and we all fly away. A noise is heard behind me. Some humans are behind us running and shouting. One of them throws a rock. It misses us, but a window cracks at a nearby shed. Codrin shouts: "You'll pay for the repair! That glas costs more than a bottle of wine!". For the moment all humans stop and stare. An empty bottle crashed behind us. We've escaped!

Captured!

We are getting closer to Delta. The river is so wide one can hardly see the other side. Humans have become quite rare and the fish are big and fat. Even Athena switched to a fish only diet. She says the fish is so good here she does not mind. She spends her nights guarding the coracle. We are all grateful for her vigilance. The rest of us augment our diet with the many jucy bugs that fly into us. Narcisa and I also eat plenty of water plants. The fish here get fat because there is so much to eat!

This evening Cawlin excitedly told us he could see the sea when he flew ahead. Narcisa and I steer the corracle into a small pond connected to the Danube via a narrow channel. It's a perfect spot to spend the night. With the boat safe, everyone starts looking for an evening snack. Narcisa and I swim towards the shore. Suddenly a net falls over us. We struggle, but there is no way out. Two burly humans tie us up securely, and carry us off along with their half-dead fish.

"It's a good catch" one mutters

"They need a bit of fattening up. Somebody must have been really sorry to see them both fly off!"

When they reached home, two children run to greet the men.
"You bought us a present!" they said while jumping up and down around us.
"You might say the present delivered itself. Bring the nippers" the man screames into my already damaged ear. Next thing we knew our beatiful wings were clipped. Now our mission has become impossible.

"Be quiet, Fluffy!" one of the children said.
"That just the name for him" answered the other.
I looked around in search for an annoying furry dog, but I then noticed they were looking at me.
"It must be your new name" Narcisa quacked adding injury to my already hurt pride.
What an insult to my intelect. Fluffy! How horrible, how demeaning!
We are taken to a cage with some wire on top to make escape difficult. Days merge into weeks. Months pass. It's so depressing to see the same faces over and over, and to have the same food. I don't know how birds get fat when they eat only grain. It must be the depression.

The encounter

Since we had passed the hydrocentral, the voyage felt less tense. One great peril had passed. Yet we knew we continued to be in deadly danger. We could still be attacked by so many predators. Cawlin announced we were getting close to the delta. The river was widdening. It had started to branch out. Just in front of us, wild ducks were landing on water. I jump off the coracle to chat with them. Under me a big shadow moves. It nears. I fly back in the corracle just as a huge head appears. I stand petrified and watch the churning water. He is temporarily confused by our boat, but he can flip it, and eat its occupants in no time at all and he knows it. His head is twice as large as my whole body. This means he could swallow me whole, and still have room for more. His back is wide, and he may be about the size of two men. Its eyes paralyze me. I can't move, but I can see Athena. She jumps at his head as if poised to gourge his eyes out. She stratches him with her razor like claws and manages to fly away. The injured fish departs leaving a small red stain in the water. Athena was just in time!

The door ajar

The waters of the Danube were quiet again. If I did not look back to see the faint line on the horizon, I would almost believe the hydrocentral to be a bad dream. My thoughts were suddenly interrupted.

Codrin: This is green power for you!

Me: What?

Codrin: Just something I heard Petre say once.

Cawlin: He means the hydrocentral. Humans say it's green.

Me: Wow! It looks grey enough to me. But I know that humans have pretty bad eyesight. They see worse than me even on land, and blurry underwater.

Narcissa: That's not what it means. It's harnessing the power of the water. We harness it, too, as we float downstream. We go at the speed of the river without pushing the coracle at all.

Cawlin: That's right! The alternative is to get oil or gas from under the sea or from underground, and then burn it to keep the featherless creatures from freezing in winter, and to make things flash or spin. They burn oil to move the metal killers leaving a stinky trail.

Penelope: Or they could use atomic power. I just heard they have one such plant in Hungary. It makes the water of the Danube be luke-warm all year long, and kills so much around it.

Me: Ok, but how did you convince the green power thing to let us through? Humans may think it's useful, but this particular one blocked our way, which was not helpful at all.

Codrin: Well, neither was the human at the top.

"What did he do?" asks Athena staring at Codrin with her large, soulful eyes.

"I'll tell you if you stop staring at me as if I were dinner." says Codrin. Athena looks at the dead mice instead. She regretfully notices there are only two left.

Codrin: After we left the coracle, we flew to the top of the hydrocentral. The door to the control room was ajar. I stuck my head in and shouted "Open the gate!" The human ignored me, and continued to stare blankly at the panel in front of him. I took a closer look, and saw that he was watching a tiny screen and that his ears were blocked by some black, roundish objects. I tell Cawlin, "he's on his phone, I could shout myself hoarse and he would not even notice, but look here's a switch. Try flipping it."

Cawlin: I glided down and hit it with my strong beak. I felt it give away. It flipped! The whole screen flashed, and a loud noise was heard. The gate was openning! The guard looked up from his phone and saw us. Instead of understanding and applauding our brilliancy, the words that came out of his pursed lips were "has! has! Ciori spurcate!". He looked for something to hit us with, but noticed the flipped switch and his whole face whittend. He muttered: "asta nu-i lucru curat!" just as Codrin and I flew off. Our mission was accomplished.

"I bet he won't leave his door open next time!" comments Philip.

Athena: "If humans get any more attached to their phone, they will soon be tripping over their own two legs".

Me: "well, they are very close, but for now I am glad there are few enough humans in sight."

Penelope: If they destroy themselves soon, they would have reigned way less than our ancestors, the dinosaurs. Yet birds survived.

Codrin: I just hope we won't all go down with them so to speak.

Cawlin: Yes, Mother worries about that as well, and I almost undertsand why. Humans make up such nonsense. They think of energy as free and overuse it. But everything has a price. It's simply a question of who pays it. The hydrocentral seems just as green as my feathers.

Clearance

The warnings of yesterday made me wary and uneasy. I was constantly scared of everything. Even if I saw a small catfish, I jumped on the coracle. I could no longer enjoy the beauty and the wealth of the Danube. I saw plenty of carefree birds flying above us or swimming near the shores, while Narcisa and I were always on the lookout for some hidden danger. The hydrocentral was the worst. The nearing evening brought it closer.

In the end a dim line of cement that stretched between a giant island and land appeared. As we floated closer I could see that it was built out of tens of smaller cement slabs that looked like fox claws. At one end a gate, small in comparison, waited to be opened. That churning water made me uneasy, is the understatement of the day.

We got closer. I could see the gate in great detail. Cawlin and Codrin left to see if they can get it opened. If not, we'll smash into it. We are now dangerously close. The noise is deafening. All of us are so anxious. We abandon the coracle and fly above the hydrocentral. Even Athena follows. If it passes unscathed we will jump back on it.

The gate opens with a loud buzz. It lifts heavily out of the water. Ripples reach the corracle. It passes under the gate, and does not sink. Hooray!! We'll soon reach the Delta! Cawlin and Codrin return victoriously. I can't wait to hear their story!

Dangers from above and below

After our first day on the coracle which we spent eating, this morning, on our second day, we had to make a plan. There were dangers above and dangers below. I gathered everyone around me and asked Cawlin to speak of the dangers of the Danube.

"What Dangers?" Penelope asked.

"I split them in four categories: 1) dangers from above, 2) dangers from below, 3) dangers that come from behind, and 4) dangers that lie ahead." said Cawlin a little patronizingly.

"Workpackage! Workpackage! You sound just like Petre's friends. Can you expand please?" says Codrin

Well, in category 1 we have predators, e.g., eagles and owls even bigger than Athena that have been known to even eat towny owls, while in category 2 we have huge fish that grow to be large enough to eat birds, e.g., the catfish, and the sturgeon. The lattest is endangered because he is hunted for his eggs, which people eat as caviar, a very expensive fancy food. I can't imagine a higher level of depravity than to eat eggs, even the eggs of a fish. It kills millions of fish, and the sturgeon takes 20 years or so to breed.

I: In the Bega I used to eat catfish, but now the tables have turned. The plan is to constantly watch for these monsters. They grow large enough to eat whole birds. People fish for them with baby ducklings. Some are even older than Mother Cleverbrain. I heard there is a catfish around here that is one hundred years old. Every bird has heard of him and all humans of the area know him and try to outwit him! Imagine that!

Narcisa: All we can do is protect ourselves. We must send out search parties. Cawlin flies ahead, Codrin flies behind us, and Narcissus and I dive, always having each other's back.

Cawlin: In category 3 you have ships and barges that could smash us. We might not even see them at night.

Athena: That's why I to perch on the boat and keep watch. I've given up plenty of tasty rats last night.

Narcissus: Thank you, Athena. I leave fish out for you every evening so that you would not have to do much hunting.

Cawlin: Even during daytime they might not stop for a floating island, not all, which is why we try to float close to the shore. Big boats need deep water, while we do not. And in catergoy 4 we have things that lie ahead and don't move like bridges and hydrocentrals. Each posses its own challenge, which we must work together to solve.

The STARLINGuist

I am a member of the Sturnidae

Well known for their mimicry

My master, a marine biologist

has turned me into a STARLINGuist

This man, Petre Ionescu

A baby bird he did rescue

That bird was me

and now you see

I grew up to be big and strong

I can speak in prose and song

You know he saved me now

It's time to tell you just how

On a ship through the Bosphorus

that was heading for Cyprus

In Turkey where the ship had to dock

As weather was good Petre went for a walk

As he was walking on the ground he spied

A baby starling, ignored, I would have died

He named me Codrin

Hid me in his cabin

he kept me warm, he fed me well

that he'd found me half dead, you couldn't tell

it started of when I'd imitate the telephone ring

He noticed my talent and taught me to sing

But sadly Petre would be going on trips

and I was not welcomed on most ships

He was forced to give me to a friend

Then my carefree days came to an end

This friend lived close to Sanovita

Shut me in a cage, fed me fruit and pita

Better said, small scraps of his food,

They were very cheap, but not very good.

My natural diet is fruit, nectar and seeds

Which can be easily found among the reeds

But Mircea was too lazy to pick something like that

Instead he'd go to the bar and complain he lost his hat

Till everybody in the villiage had heard

That last year, his hat had diaspperared

It did feel a little flat

To put up with such a prat

People forget I have my own role in creation

I eat nectar, which is good for polination

I bring the joy of Christmas when I disperse miseltoe seeds

I bring them to cities from their home among reeds.