Fear rose in her throat and hollowed out her stomach—lost with no idea how to get home. Liana kept watching the plumed purple bird that flew quickly through the trees. But instead of getting closer to Oakside, everything looked more unfamiliar. No more sunny patches where she’d gathered acorns and found wood for the fireplace. These woods seemed darker and more dense, the air hot and moist in her face.
“Wait up,” Liana called out, trying to catch her breath. “Where are you?” She’d finished her sandwich hours ago. She had to stop. “Where are you? Come back!” Tree blossoms shone like candles reminding her of Cleo and Samuel. She was so hungry. Her stomach did flip-flops.
This time of day she’d be at home eating a slab of cheese on a fresh slice of bread spread with apple butter. Or an apple cut into slices some walnuts and a glass of cool water. Cleo and Samuel would smile to each other and talk about their day. But now they’d be worried. Why had she run away from that stupid boy? She’d show him if she ever got the chance, and wondered if she would. Liana hoped the purple bird was maybe showing her a different way home, taking her on a short-cut. That’s it, she thought. A short-cut. A chorus of crickets sounded like her own heartbeat. As Liana sat there shielding her eyes, a flock of birds flew toward her each carrying in their beaks what looked like small pouches.
“Eat,” said the purple bird returning to her side. “We’ve brought you food.”
They dropped purple and red berries wrapped inside a fine web that broke as they reached the ground. Liana ate handfuls cramming handfuls of berries into her mouth. She asked the purple bird, “What’s your name?”
“Sanunique. The birds call me their leader. They follow me in the sky when it’s time to migrate and when it’s time to build nests.” Her voice became sad. Several pieces of bark from the surrounding trees splintered and fell to the ground. “But I haven’t built a nest in years.”
“Why not?” The bird didn’t answer.
Liana munched tubers as she listened, long white roots that looked like carrots. At first, they tasted bitter, but had a flavor of corn and potatoes, not unlike a delicious chocolate pudding. As she chewed, the moisture filled her parched mouth. Most of the birds had flown away. But Sanunique remained. “I feel better now,” said Liana. “Please tell the birds thank you.”
“They were happy to help. You are our family.” Sanunique scratched the ground and flapped her wings.
“Don’t go!”
As Liana talked, she felt this funny sensation: her scalp began to tingle. Feathers the color of blackberries with a silver underside grew from her hair. She touched each one, oily and soft. They floated around her ears. Liana stood up and the rest of the berries rolled from her lap. She shook her head hoping to loosen the feathers. “Look what you’ve done to me! It’s those berries!”
“Is there a problem? I think you look beautiful with feathers.”
“I’m not supposed to have them. I’m a girl.”
“But what if you’re a bird? What if I’m your mother?”
“Impossible.” The stone where Liana sat turned cold beneath her. She grabbed the feathers that floated at the side of her face, and pushed them away. “That can’t be.” Liana twirled the feathers around her fingers and tried to yank them out.
“Useless to do that,” said Sanunique. “They’ll only grow back.”
“But if you helped…you said you would…” She wrapped her finger around another feather, shut her eyes and tugged hard but nothing happened. Instead, she held clumps of her own dark hair.
“Are you ready to listen?”
“You can’t be my mother.”
“I know, dear Liana, it’s not what you want to hear. People are all you know. But I’ve always been in the background. During my migrations, Pickard looked after you. He’s never been far, following you even in your dreams. He knows how things began years ago with the cowbirds.”
“What do cowbirds have to do with me?
“Cowbirds.” Sanunique sighed. “A jealous bunch. They wanted to replace me in leading the birds across the sky. As a distraction, they laid their own eggs in my nest forcing me to care for their young so I wouldn’t have time for anything else—all those open mouths demanding to be fed. Birds can’t tell one egg from another. We have no sense of smell. I watched my other babies sprout pin feathers. But for weeks, you did nothing. I thought you were a cowbird, especially when you hatched without wings.”
Liana’s hands felt numb.
“With Pickard’s help, I set you on the ground. But the predictions came true. That’s when Samuel found you.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because you know in your heart that I’m telling the truth. Why else have you been unable to talk all these years to humans, but only to birds? Why else have you dreamed of a girl with wings? Why have you suddenly grown feathers?”
Liana had no answer. Everything she’d ever known or understood blurred into clouds. Cleo had always said that she’d been a gift from the forest.
“There’s more,” said Sanunique.
“More?”
“One of the oldest stories,” she began, “that has been told to generations of hatchlings…The wisest bird-folk from eons ago, when we still knew how to fly to the edges of time, sang of the 0 + 1 egg that glowed with love. But carelessness and hatred in the world shattered its fragile shell. Its pieces fell to earth. Sometimes a bird reported finding a sliver. But it always turned out to be a tortoise shell washed up against a rock, or a left-over from a sandhill crane’s nest, never the real thing. The elders said that someone of my lineage would help to gather up its fragments and heal the Pool of Knowledge. All these years, I’ve lined my nest with that same hope.”
“Why have you waited to tell me all this until now?”
“Because the time of your Great Feathering has come—your feathers are starting to grow.”
But what of Cleo and Samuel? Liana couldn’t leave without letting them know that she was safe, or telling them what had happened. They’d be so worried. She owed them that much.
“I am here to lead you to the Pool of Knowledge where you can learn who you are.”
“I’ve heard about that place,” said Liana. “A woman named la guida with a silver cup lives there. But what if I don’t want to come with you and stay here instead?”
“Then you will always walk amongst humans in confusion.”
. Cleo had protected her with love from the scarring words of other people at the marketplace. Samuel had allowed her to see beauty in the simplest of things. Liana ran her hands through her feathered hair. The splinter in her heart felt like it was coming loose, but she wasn’t sure she was up to finding the 0 + 1 egg and all those other things Sanunique talked about. She just wanted to be an ordinary girl or bird or whatever she was.
“I’ll go to the Pool of Knowledge,” she said, “but first I must find Cleo and Samuel.”
Sanunique picked a berry that had rolled to the ground and placed it in Liana’s mouth. “One of these days,” she said, “you will have beautiful wings and learn how to fly.”