Squawk!" Uuffi stood stock still with one foot lifted up like he did when he wanted a human to pick him up. Using his very flexible neck, he swiveled his head slowly around looking at everything, first with one eye, then the other direction with the other eye. Oh! There it was--hanging under the sink on the wall. He waddle-flopped over there and stood looking up at it. How how could he get it? With his neck stretched as far as it would reach and the rest of his body standing as tall as he could, it was still out of his reach.
Frustrated, the a-a backed off a short distance and considered his options. He could try flying at it and maybe he'd knock it off when he hit it. But then he might bruise his head or hurt his neck or wings. Discarding that option, he considered whether Jozlyn had some sort of stick he could hold in his beak and reach up to bop the spray thing off its hook. He flew up to her table and looked around, but didn't see any stick-like thing. Flying to the desk, he peered over the front to look at the drawer. It had a knob in the center, so Uuffi tried to grab it with his beak and pull. But since there wasn't anything on the desk top that his feet could grab onto, all he succeeded in doing was to slide himself off the desk and dangle from the knob by his beak. Letting go, he dropped to the floor rather ungracefully. So he spent a few minutes preening his feathers back into shape.
Uuffi considered whether he had any more options. He really wanted a bath this morning. There should be plenty of sticks outside. He flew up to the south windowsill and looked out. Then he sailed off and around the garden, flying low, as sticks tended to appear on the ground for some reason Uuffi hadn't figured out yet. He landed in his favorite fruit tree. Catching sight of the fruit, he realized he was hungry.
So he spent some time picking and eating several of the delicious, juicy bright orange fruits. To eat a fruit, he held it in one foot and tore into it delicately with his large curved beak. The juice dripped down on his chest feathers and foot. When he'd eaten all the fleshy part of a fruit, he then cracked open the nut with his powerful jaws and carefully mashed the nutmeat in his beak before swallowing it. After touching the tip of his thick tongue to his foot to lick off what juice he could, Uuffi spent a few minutes trying to preen the drying stickiness off his chest feathers. There was really only one good way to get his feathers clean, he concluded, and that means a bath.
A bath--yes! That's why he'd flown out into the garden--to hunt for a stick to take back to Jozlyn's room so he could knock down his spray thing. He did want a bath--he wanted to take it with Traci.
So he looked around the garden again. Finding no sticks there because the gardeners had a bad habit of picking up useful stuff like that, Uuffi extended his search beyond the Keep's garden walls into the woods. Soon he found what he was looking for and happily swooped to pick up the long stick. Launching himself into the air once again, he flew up to Jozlyn's south window. But as he landed on the sill, the free end of the stick bopped against the stone and flopped out of his beak. Uuffi turned quickly and leaning over the sill, watched the stick fall into the bushes far below.
Straightening up, he sat on the sill and contemplated what his options were now. He could find another stick. Or he could just give up on having a bath with Traci today. He could always go to the shallow end of the pond and splash in that water. Or he could fly into the woods, go upstream to the waterfall and stand in the spray beside the falls. No, he really did want to take his bath with Traci. So, turning, the a-a flew back into the room and landed on the floor by the sink. Waddling slowly under it, he stared up at the spray thing with one of his beady eyes.
Suddenly it occurred to him that he could probably stand under the sink and jump up and down and if he could jump high enough with his crest feathers raised, he might be able to knock that thing off its hook. He succeeded on the third try!
The thing clattered off the hook, banged against the underside of the sink and then plopped right down over his head, scaring the poop out of him! With a terrified squawk, poor Uuffi flapped out from beneath it and went scudding across the floor in one direction as with loud clatters, the thing bounced and rolled in the other direction. With a final series of clatters, it rolled around in place, then its upper rim settled on the floor with a clunk. For poor Uuffi, the ensuing silence echoed loudly in the room |