Hi all,
Unfortunately, my continuation didn't fit into 700 words as the narrative dictated the word count. Oh, well. If I would be banished for it then be so. )
Cheers.
Brotherhood in Trouble
Here we were, in the bar with large sticks being pointed at us. Dun Dee and Jasper just snatch three large boxes of fries from the two families seated near the kangaroo statue. Luke, being the smallest of us four, snagged a couple of bags from toddlers, which were, presumably, filled with burgers and more fries; and I had enough drinks for the four of us.
"You know who we are," I squawked.
"We do," said a jittery human. "We told you this would happen if you come back."
I stood my ground by raising my chest in the air, ruffling my feathers. I stretched out my long neck and showed my sharp, strong beak to the tourists and workers. Showing them who was boss of this outback was of the highest importance. Little did the humans know of respect for other lives than their own. The time had come for a little lesson and the emu brotherhood was going to show the humans their power.
"You are on our turf, human," I said. I scratched my leg with the other foot. "You invaded our lands with your dwellings and forced us out. You owe us."
"It's the way of the world," a chubby-faced human yelled out. "Do you know how many of us have lost our homes?"
No! Not the pity card. Not the best time. Luke was a sucker for pity. He almost always felt bad for the other side, the human side.
"My mommy had to work two jobs to pay for what that jack-ass of a bird has taken from me," said a tiny human who sat by the waterfall.
I looked at Luke. He was cracking. I could tell by the way his knee shook, by the way his beak clattered together. He was about to drop the goods and run. Think!
"Any last words, birdie?" asked a slim human.
"Gentleman and Ladies," I said as I moved my wing over several spears and pushed the tips down. "There is no need to be hostile. The rule is you feed us daily - morning and night - and we leave you alone until feeding time. Easy. Simple. If our demands for respect are not taken into consideration, bigger things will happen. Scary things. Strange things. And you don't want these bigger things to happen because, if they do, you will be paid a visit from the great emu elder - and he does not take kindly to humans who disregard the sacred pact between human and emu."
Like the night inching its way into the light, the tips of the spears rose again and drew closer to me.
"What the fuck are you talking about," said a human behind a cash register. His eyes grew big like the moon and sinister like Chucky. "Good people. Let’s cook some bird to cover the cost of what we've lost. Sound like a plan?"
The whole restaurant said yes in unison, which made me shiver. It couldn't have gotten darker for us in the brotherhood, even if Alfred Hitchcock was hired to scare the piss out of us. Birds or not, in the eyes of humans, we were thieves. And thieves had to be dealt with.
*** My continuation ***
“Run emu, Run!” I screamed and we ran for our lives. We ran as fast as we could and soon reached the Emu reserve. Here human laws didn’t work and humans declared this zone as a wildlife preserve. Well, stupid of them and good for us. Of course, we had to drop all the food at the restaurant and that sucked. Dun Dee, Jasper, Luke, and I angry and hungry as hell went to the Union Hill where the nest of great emu elder was. The old fart was dozing in the sun, keeping both of his eyes closed.
“The great emu elder” I started. “He opened one eye.” Once I got his attention we all told him what happened, screaming over each other, but naturally omitting some details. We were loud and full of indignation.
Other ostriches started to come to the noise until a considerable crowd was collected. Now all of us squawked and flapped.
“They drove us off from our lands and pushed us into reserves!”
“They eat hamburgers, fries and drink coke and we have to suffer on the diet of roots, seeds and leaves and occasional locusts, lizards, snakes, and rodents. What a shame!”
“It’s time to hold them responsible! Call the ancestors’ spirits!”
The eyes of Great emu elder now were wide open. He rose one of his wings demanding silence.
“Ostriches, emus,” he chanted, “I understand your grievances with humans. But don’t forget humans have some beef with us as our ancestor Terror Bird actually ate their ancestors raw. Over time both our species have evolved, only they evolved more. I still remember the times when they hunted us down and ate like chickens. Today we achieved the agreement with them and our species continues to survive. It might be not the best existence, but it’s better than being roasted. To call the ancestor’s spirits is risky and unpredictable. We don’t even know what consequences this would entail!”
His voice drowned in squawking and flapping of the brotherhood. “We want revenge! Call for ancestor’s spirit, old man! Your ostriches demand it! Order to bring forward ancestor’s eggs and read the spell, old man!”
“Ok,” Great emu elder nervously cleaning his feathers, “I’ll do this. But I have warned you and now am completely removing all the responsibility from myself for that forced action. Don’t run crying to me later, if shit hits the fan.”
“Shut up, old fart!” the young ostriches chanted, “we want the spells, we want hamburgers, we want fries…”
Now a group of ostrichs rolled ten huge eggs to the top of the union hill. The old bird rose on his feet, stretched its neck high up to the sky, and started belching the words of the ancient spell. The brotherhood went silent. No one has seen anything like this in their entire life.
Eggs started changing color from dull gray to white with yellow polka dots, then the shell started cracking and the huge bird heads started to show up. Eventually, the entire shells fell and the birds stood up on their feet in their full humongous height.
“Terrors birds” the brotherhood whispered moving away from Union Hill.
The birds were twice as high as Great emu elder. He was very old, had advanced arthritis, and wasn’t able to move away fast enough. One of the Terror Birds pecked him on the head and as he fell, it opened up its huge beak and gobbled him up.
The screams of horror sounded from the brotherhood and the crowd started running away in different directions from the Hill of Unity.
Dun Dee, Jasper look, and I ran like we’ve never run before while one of the huge birds was chasing us producing strange loud gargled sounds. It ran as fast as us, but it was too big for its own good, and we could easily outmaneuver it. Still, it chased after us with evil persistence.
“To the restaurant” I squawked to my friends. “We need to diverge their attention to people. Let them be the victims for once.” And we lead the giant bird toward the restaurant.
What started then was gruesome. The Terror Bird grabbed humans, tear them apart, and swallowed. Unlike us, they could not run for shit. “Here for you mother fuckers! Now you would know how to lock us up in reserves!”
The Big bird finally was full. It sat on the ground in the middle of the splattered human limbs and pulls of blood and closed its eyes.
Four of us approached the restaurant again, went to the deserted kitchen, and now gobbled as many hamburgers and fries as we wanted.
Then we heard the sounds of sirens. We knew what’s going to happen next. Humans would approach not in an honest fight, but hiding behind their mechanical monsters. High in the sky, we saw several of their mechanical birds, with rotating wings.
Again, in a panic, we ran away. But now we didn’t even know where to run and whom to be afraid of more.
We met again at the reserve, where now some other ostriches from brotherhood started to cautiously gather.
“What happened?” I enquired breathing heavily, “Anybody saw anything?”
“I saw it”, Dun Dee shook his head as if in disbelief, “The human birds threw the huge metal nets on the Terror Bird that slept, tied it up, mounted it on the big human vehicle, and drove them somewhere. I guess they’ll put it in the Zoo.”
Four of us got tightly together and embraced ourselves with our wings. We were happy to be alive and yet shaken and sad. Not because Terror Birds were caught, but we didn’t know why. “Humans.” I said, “How in the world did it? Fucking evolution!”
A release of the ancient terror birds of lore. And they get captured by the humans? So what next? I feel like (and know) you could have gone on for a thousand more words. The emus are still going to go hungry, the humans will have a new, but very dangerous pet, and elder emu doesn't look like he's got much power left. What's to become of them all? Well done!
Thank you! Yes, I could have. However, I think the continuation is sort of implied, and even in this chopped up version, I, alas, exceeded the contest word limit. )))
The story that broke the ice, and what a story!
You made me smile heartily.
Summoning ancient spirits never ends well, and these tedious humans are refractory even to prehistoric beasts ...
Thank you! Appreciate it! )))
@mgaft1 Прочёл завязку с помощью Google translator и понял, что не смог бы ничего придумать об этом. Вообще. Далеки от меня проблемы индейцев в резервации...
Ваше продолжение - очень в стиле одного из рассказов Джека Лондона. Про остров с туземцами, которым заправляет один старый белый алкоголик. В финале туземец говорит: "Мы не бояться этот старик. Мы бояться Белый Человек!"
Наверно, в духе современных трендов надо было написать что-то про постколониализм, "жизни эму matter" и всё такое прочее... это так любят выпускники западных вузов, который учили "социологии от Дюркгейма") И это всё кажется нелепым мне, потому что мне преподавали социологию от позитивистов-утилитаристов.
С моей точки зрения, у завязки мог быть только один конец. Люди бы не зажарили этих эму, а сдали бы их полиции. И была бы у каждого из них ещё одна criminal record.
А о проблеме индейцев есть очень интересный фильм "The Brave" 1997 года. Понимая, что ему не на что содержать семью, и что его жизнь вообще ничего не стоит, молодой индеец подписывает сделку с богатым садистом. Семья индейца получает 50 тысяч долларов (а это возможность уехать из резервации и начать новую жизнь). А садист... всю ночь пытает и убивает индейца.
Когда я рассказываю об этом фильме в чатах, наполненных русскими гуманистами и утверждаю, что это была честная сделка - в меня летят тухлые помидоры.
Но если в реальности подобные сделки были бы декриминализированы? Выстроилась бы очередь бедняков, желающих продать свою жизнь, честь, глаз или почку. А покупателей было бы совсем немного. И цены на органы и жизнь резко упали бы из-за дикой конкуренции.
Много раз думал написать об этом пост, но меня же сожрут комментаторы))) А здесь по-русски мало кто читает)
Рассказ Лондона не читал. Просто подумал что бы реально произошло. Этакое "страусиное сердце" ))
Жизнь Эму имеет значение. Наверное такой рассказ выиграет. Я же уже получил пять баксов . Это ли не выигрышь. Плюс опубликовал это еще на одном сайте и сегодня опубликовал перевод на Голосе и дальше опубликую на Ru STeem Поди не кисло. )))
@mgaft1 вот рассказ Джека Лондона) Интересно, как бы на него отреагировали современные американские борцы с расизмом?
http://lib.ru/LONDON/atu.txt
Точно. Этот рассказ был бы представлен доказательством белой привелегии, расизма и насилия белого патриархата над цветными.
Terror birds in a zoo. Wouldn't that be fun to see your child's feet in the air with his/her body inside the jaws of one of those creatures? And what is next for the brotherhood? Will their fate be any better? 8-)
Fun, fun, fun, and more fun. Better fate for brotherhood? That depends on whether people would be willing to feed them with hamburgers and french fries. :)