Potoo. Space. Writing prompt from Rachel.
He held absolutely still.
It was their favourite game, well it was his favourite game,
maybe she didn’t like it so much, but that was the way things were.
Favourite things couldn't be everyone’s favourite.
“I’m serious! Where
are you?”
His eyes flickered open, just the right one, rolled around
and blinked right at her, and then shut tightly again. He held absolutely still, it would be almost impossible
for her to find him this way. In every
shape and in every form he would resemble some strange outcropping of wood,
meshed perfectly against the stump he sat on.
“Flik!”
He resisted the urge to look for her again. In this forest her voice pulled in strange
directions, she could be closer than she sounded, and it would be his glowing
yellow eyes that would give him away.
“Fine!” finality in her tone, again he resisted the urge to
look. But that sounded somewhat
definitive.
“I guess this treat will just have to go back inside!” That
was more interesting. He opens his eyes
to find her, and realizes she is right in front of him, not seeing. Less than ten feet away, one hand
outstretched filled with sliced up strawberries.
His stomach rumbles, and involuntarily he shifts from one
leg to the other, an uncontrollable tic.
“There you are!” A wide face, a bright smile, and she
deposits her handful of sliced strawberries onto his stump.
He shuffles forward two steps, seeming to stretch and then
shakes, ruffling feathers and plumage anew.
Beak descends and he scarfs a slice without bothering to chew.
“Hurry up Flik, we jump through the wormhole in less than
half an hour and you have to be back in your cage by then!”
His eyes roll comically, pretending to understand half of
what she says. But the urgency in her
voice is unmistakable so he continues to eat.
With her strawberry-sticky hands, she runs a finger over his
plumage, downy soft. He ignores her for
a moment, picking out the choicest pieces while she ‘pets’ him. It’s a strange bond they have, girl and….bird. Hurtling through space on an Ark ship, eating
slices of strawberries while stars fade by.
Finally he finishes, she extends a hand and he hops up.
“Let’s go Flik, who knows what’s on the other side!”
But he’s already asleep again, shock still on two legs, for
all the world just like a piece of stick.
A girl and her pet bird.
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