Savage Abandon

But the canary clung to the perch with its tiny claws, its eyes still peering directly into Tiny’s. Tiny set the cage on the ground again.

“Well, seems I’m going to have to give you some help,” Tiny grumbled.

He reached his hand inside the cage, only to get a finger nipped by the bird’s sharp beak.

“Ouch!” Tiny exclaimed, rattling the cage as he yanked his hand free. He sucked on his sore finger.

His eyes narrowed angrily as he again bent low and gazed directly into the bird’s eyes. Then without wasting any more time, he quickly reached inside the cage and grabbed the bird. He drew his hand out, opened it, then watched the canary fly upward and perch on a limb just above Tiny’s head.

Suddenly he saw a tiny white glob of something falling away from the bird. Tiny knew what it was, but couldn’t get out of the way before it landed on the very tip of his nose.

“Lord a’mighty,” he groaned, swiping the mess from his nose. He doubled a fist and held it up in the air, waving it at Georgina. “You stupid bird. Fly. Scat. Get outta here. And if you drop one more mess on me, I’ll grab you and kill you. I’m tired of messing with you. Do you hear? Fly! Fly!”

Suddenly Georgina took wing and flew away. With the canary’s disappearance, Tiny was overwhelmed by guilt.

He knew that the bird wasn’t used to being free to fly. More than likely it would be so disoriented, it would fly right into a tree and fall to the ground, easy prey for any animal that might happen along.

“What am I doing?” Tiny said, running his fingers through his whiskers. “Worrying about that bird?”

He shook his head, then grabbed up the cage and hurried back inside the cabin. He put the cover on and waited for morning and Mia’s reaction.

As he stared down at Mia sleeping there so innocently and trustingly, he could not help feeling guilty for depriving her of something that meant so much to her.

“But she deserves this, for the way she has treated me,” Tiny whispered, trying to justify what he had done.

“Yep, you’ll soon see that you cain’t push people like me around. If you do, you’ll live to regret it,” he said, yawning as the lack of sleep closed in on him.

He smiled toward the covered cage, then stretched out on a blanket in front of the fireplace and soon fell into an uneasy sleep, with dreams of the canary coming toward him, twice its normal size, its claws widespread and ready to attack him.

He awakened with a start. Sweat was beading up on his brow.

He went to the door and slowly opened it, then gazed outside to see if the bird had returned. When he saw nothing, not even any sign of the owl, he went back and sat down before the fire.

This time, he stayed awake. He wasn’t ready for more nightmares about giant canaries!

Chapter Seven

Money of th’ earth brings harms and fears,

Men reckon what it did, and meant,

But trepidation of the sphere

Tho greater far, is innocent.

—John Donne

As shadows lengthened all around them, Wolf Hawk and his warriors rode into their village bearing the dead bodies of the two youths, their futures snuffed out long before their prime.

A huge fire was burning in the center of the village. It was built each evening in preparation for the lengthy night ahead, when animals prowled and the fire was necessary to keep them out of the village.

The fire’s glow fell upon the face of Dancing Fire as she stepped out of her lodge at the sound of horses approaching the village.

Wolf Hawk saw the sudden horror in her eyes when she spotted her sons hanging, lifeless, across the backs of the horses.

Their stillness, the way they were placed on the two steeds, the blood that had spread onto the blankets wrapped around them, was proof that her worries had been confirmed.

Dancing Fire ran toward the approaching warriors. Her arms were outstretched before her, her hands visibly trembling, as she began wailing and crying her sons’ names. The rest of the village people came from their lodges, joining her mourning when they saw what had caused Dancing Fire’s horrible distress.