"No, we'll use that as a reinforcement after he's learned the lilies and Kaffryn's blouse." The teacher stopped the group at the bed of yellow lilies. "Uuffi," he said, and Traci moved forward with the a-a on her arm. "Look at these flowers. See? We say their color is yellow."
Uuffi bobbed up and down on Traci's arm. "Yel-low--flowers yellow." He stopped bobbing to inspect his feathers all over his body. "Uuffi not yellow--not yellow--Uuffi red blue--red blue--why Uuffi not yellow?" He looked up imploringly up at Ethan, who seemed to be having some trouble with his mouth, as he covered it with his hand.
"Uuffi," the teacher smiled as he removed his hand from his mouth, "I wish I knew! We humans don't have pretty feathers like Uuffi does. I wish I knew why. All we know is that these flowers are yellow, but you, Uuffi, don't have any yellow feathers."
"He's still pretty, even if he's not yellow," little Jason said.
The a-a bobbed up and down, agreeing with the compliment. "Uuffi pretty--Uuffi pretty--red blue--red blue--not yellow--not yellow!"
Kaffryn came up to the still bobbing a-a and tapped him gently on his head. He stopped and looked at her. "Uuffi, what color is my blouse?" And she pointed to her chest.
He looked at her blouse, then over at the flowers, then back to her blouse. "Uuffi not blouse--not blouse--Uuffi not yellow--not yellow." Having so proclaimed the blouse's color in a round-about way, he raised his crest and resumed bobbing.
Ethan asked, "Uuffi, which one of the children has on some yellow clothing?"
This question so startled the colorful a-a that he flew off Traci's arm onto a rose trellis nearby. "Ethan not use intellience--squawk!!"
He saw the humans wince and some of the chicks covered their ears at his loud squawk. But they also laughed at his pronouncement.
"Uuffi sorry--sorry--not squawk--not squawk!" He looked at the chicks, who said they forgave him.
"Uuffi, why did you tell Ethan that he's not using his intelligence?" Leeannlyn asked, trying not to laugh any more.
"Ethan not know blouse yellow-yellow--Ethan teacher--teacher--blouse yellow--yellow." The a-a stated in his best matter-of-fact way. Then he decided to preen his feathers.
Chuckling, the teacher walked a short distance, "Come along over here for a minute, please, everyone. Since Uuffi seems to know what the color yellow is, now we can teach him what green is."
Abruptly Uuffi stopped preening and flew over Ethan's head, landing on another rose trellis a short distance ahead of the teacher. "Green--green--leafs green--leafs green--Uuffi know green--green!"
Ethan's eyebrows shot up. "How do you know we call the color of the leaves green, Uuffi?"
The a-a considered a moment. "Jozlyn says leafs green--leafs green--Jozlyn dress green--dress green--grass green--grass green--Uuffi not green--not green!"
Ethan offered his arm up to Uuffi, who steped down upon it. "Uuffi, I guess you know what a green color is then. You're a very smart a-a, you are."
Uuffi raised his crest, spread out his wings and stuck all his feathers straight out from his body. He made a very impressive sight and he knew it. "Uuffi smart--Uuffi smart--Uuffi pretty--pretty--squawk!"
He enjoyed how the human chicks laughed and clapped at his display as he swayed his body from side to side, so he added his bobbing dance to it. Ethan told them that school was dismissed. Uufi had learned a lot, and so had they, and it was such a fine day, they should play outside. The human chicks said goodbye and ran off in various directions. Except for Traci, who decided to stay with Ethan and Uuffi. The a-a, seeing most of his audience scattering, closed his wings, lowered his crest and settled his feathers back against his body. He lowered his head to Traci for a scritching. She obliged.
"Uuffi, are you gonna sleep with me again tonight?" She was happy that he'd slept in her room last night, because his human, the mage Jozlyn to whom he was devoted, had been away.
"Uuffi sleep with Traci--with Traci--Uuffi fly now--bye, bye, bye!" He looked up at her and then launched himself into the air and sailed up into the trees. Time for some fruit and then another nap. As he munched on his favorite sticky orange fruit, he felt very good. Now he'd been to school. Now he was a smart a-a! Smarter than all the other a-an he'd seen occasionally in the forest near the Keep
It was there that Jozlyn had found him seven years ago.
A storm had blown him out of his mother's nest, so the mage had raised him. He'd been free to fly off, and although he did fly far into the woods on occasion, he always wanted to come back to his human. Uuffi loved her and she loved him, and that was that. And now he'd been to school and he was smart! Jozyn would be very happy with him. |
