Black Swan Saga by Rod Giblett

Author:Rod Giblett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2019-04-13T00:00:00+00:00

7. The Ballad of Black Swan Lake

The Princess was delighted when she read the writer’s book, The Dragon and Saint George. She hoped it would become a best seller, not because it might give him financial or critical success, but because it would set the record straight and tell the true story of what happened on that dark night in the swamp, and to the dark knight in the swamp. Princess went to the writer’s house to tell him what she thought of his book and to thank him for writing it. The writer was pleased that he had set wrongs to right.

The writer had a son whose nickname was Prince. He had heard his father telling the story of the Dragon and Saint George many times. Like Princess, he had grown up beside Black Swan Lake and had learnt to love it too. Prince developed into a very good naturalist who cared for the plants and animals that lived in and around Black Swan Lake. He counted all the bush and water birds as they came and went. He knew all the species of plants, insects, spiders, fungi and frogs. He also kept records of the rising and falling water levels of the lake. He took visitors on tours around the lake to show them its splendour during the six seasons, especially the wildflowers.

Slogging through the swamp one day, Prince came across a wounded black swan. In those bad old days, duck-shooting had still been permitted at Black Swan Lake. The duck hunters had been here earlier in the day. They had shot into a flock of birds rising from the lake without bothering too much about what sort of birds were in it. They hit some black ducks and grey teal, but they also shot a couple of black swans. They were protected by law and were not permitted to be shot. After all, they are the bird emblem of the state of Hesperian Australis, which was originally the ‘Black Swan River Colony’. Its first postage stamps had a black swan on them. The ducks could be eaten, but the swans could not, so they were left to die. One did, but its partner did not. Prince was out looking for wounded birds, to look after them or put them out of their misery if they were beyond recovery. He found the dead swan and buried it; he also found the wounded swan and nursed it back to health. He carefully picked out the shot gun pellets from its wounded wings, bathed the wounds with melaleuca oil and flexed its wings to stop them getting stiff.

One day, the swan tried to fly, but couldn’t. Eventually, it must have been able to fly because Prince came back a few days later to find that it was gone. Or a fox had eaten it. Sitting in the same spot, a young woman about his age was painting a picture of two black swans playing and dancing together, their open wings showing their white flight feathers.

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