The Kin by Peter Dickinson

Author:Peter Dickinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504001397
Publisher: Open Road Media Teen & Tween

Oldtale

FALU’S PRAYER

Falu said to Gata, “Stay with my father. Pound grass seed. Mix bloodroot paste.”

Gata said, “My sister, where do you go?”

Falu said, “I follow Tov. He seeks the tooth of Fododo, Father of Snakes. Tov is clever. Perhaps he gets the tooth. But I set traps in his path. I lead him astray.”

Gata said, “My sister, this is good.”

Falu went first to Dindijji, the place of dust trees. As she went, she gathered nuts. She dug gumroot from the ground and chewed it, and spat the chewings into her gourd.

She came to Dindijji. She made paste from her chewings and spread it on a rock in the sun. Soon it was very sticky. She smeared it on the branches of the dust trees, and so stuck the nuts to them. Parrots came to eat the nuts, the little grey parrots with the yellow tail feathers.

They stuck to the paste. Falu caught them. From each she took a yellow tail feather.

She gave nuts to them and set them free.

She said, “Little grey parrots, fly to the First One. Say to him, Falu is our friend. She gives nuts to us.”

She stuck feathers to her buttocks, the yellow tail feathers. She rolled herself beneath the trees, and poured their dust over her head, the grey dust. She said, “Now I am a parrot, a little grey parrot with yellow tail feathers.”

At nightfall she climbed a tree. To its topmost branches she climbed. The little grey parrots came and roosted around her. They woke at the sunrise and flew hither and thither and sang their song. It was the time of the parrots.

Falu sang also. These words she sang:

Parrot, First One.

I am your nestling.

You brood over me.

You bring me sweet-fruits.

Give me Tov for my mate.

Five nights Falu stayed in the tree, neither eating nor drinking. Each morning she sang with the parrots.

On the sixth night she bound herself round with tingin bark and slept. The tingin bark held her safe.

Falu dreamed. Parrot came to her in her dream and said, “Falu, you are my nestling. I brood over you. I bring you sweet fruits. I give you Tov for your mate. Go where he goes.”

Falu woke in the morning. She looked at her arms, and they were wings. She looked at her fingers, and they were the grey feathers of the wing tips.

Her chin itched. She scratched it with her foot. She looked at the foot, and it was the foot of a bird.

She opened her mouth and sang. Her voice was the voice of a parrot.

Falu said in her heart, This is good. I go where Tov goes. He does not know me.

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