Fluttershy's Unexpected Journey

by JesterOfDestiny

Chapter 11 - Fluttershy and the Birds

The ship creaked in the wind, as the balloon slowly wobbled and swayed the airship’s body around. Most of the crew has mostly sobered up by now. Orrick kept the ship on target, with Fluttershy by his side. He was looking at the vague map, seeming to understand it less the more sober he become.

“Who gave you this map, anyway?” He asked Fluttershy.

“A witch-doctor gave me in the Elven forest.” She answered.

“A witch-doctor huh? What kind of witch-doctor?”

“Well…” Fluttershy struggled to answer the question. She didn’t know there were different kinds of them. “He had big tusks…”

“A grey elf? No wonder it’s so useless. I bet he’s never been to the Broken Coasts. All of these islands are wrong.”

“Well, he was the first one to actually help me on this journey.”

“You should go to a Kin-San witch-doctor instead. I used to have terrible ache in me hip, until one cured it with barely any effort. And she didn’t need a single baby in a jar.”

Fluttershy thought for a moment. Gabahn did keep a few babies in jars on his shelf. That was weird.

“Wait a minute.” Orrick continued. “You said you were in the Elven Forest?”

“Yes?” Flutteshy answered, waiting for the follow-up question.

“Cripes, you’ve been travelling for quite long then! What gives?”

“I don’t know.” Fluttershy thought back to the start of her journey. “I was at home, then suddenly, in a bright flash of light, I was in this world. The witch-doctor told me, I could get back home somewhere in the desert.”

“Oh, I see.” Orrick seemed to understand everything now. “So it’s not the love of exploration, but pure misfortune and homesickness. Well, I can respect both. Although I don’t remember what homesickness feels like anymore.”

“Where do you come from?”

“I come from a woman! That’s all I know for certain.” Orrick looked back at the map. “So you’re looking for help to get home, somewhere in the desert?”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Must be the Kenuph. They’re the ones who know the stuff about weird magical doohickeys.” He let go of the map and released it into the wind. “I can navigate there by myself, I don’t need a vague line!”

Fluttershy looked at the map flying away. “Well, I might have needed that map.”

“Pfff.” Orrick responded. “That lousy excuse of a map won’t help you in the desert!” He slightly turned the steering wheel. “…See? We’re headed straight for the Kenuph pharaoh!”

Suddenly they heard the navigator shout. “Entering Sheegal territory!”

“Oh, those blasted Sheegal.” Orrick grumbled.

“Who are the Sheegals?” Asked Fluttershy.

“Those good for nothing birdbrains live for the sheer joy of bloodshed.” Orrick grumbled further. “Many good pirates fell to their beaks. Except for good ol’ Crowbane. Blessings to that madman!”

The crew fell silent and become very attentive. They prepared their gatling guns. Orrick took out his handcannon. Fluttershy was hoping they could avoid the Sheegal, through the luck of the talisman.

Well, they didn’t. A harpoon pierced the side of the ship and lodged itself inside the hole it made. Soon more harpoons followed. Some of them were pulled too hard and fell out, leaving large gaping holes inside the ship. But the ones that remained, were just enough to completely stop the ship. The harpoons were followed by small airplanes.

The pirates tried to shoot the planes down, with their gatling guns. Orrick even managed to destroy one of them with a well-placed shot from his handcannon. But some planes managed to get through and large eagles flew out of the planes and landed on the airship. They grabbed harpoon swords with the fingers sticking out their wings and started slashing at the crew’s cutlasses. Two eagles landed in front of captain Orrick. After taunting both of them, he blasted one of them off the ship with his handcannon and slapped the other one with it.

“You gotta get to the lifeplanes!” He shouted to Fluttershy. “I’ll help you along the way, just run to the hold”

And so Fluttershy ran to the hold. An eagle tried to get in her way, but Orrick wrestled it out of the way. Fluttershy finally got inside the cabin, but Orrick was immediately blocked by two more eagles.

“Just go!” He yelled out to Fluttershy, while fighting the two eagles.

Fluttershy could easily find the lifeplane and got inside it. Unfortunately she didn’t know how to operate it. On top of that, the escape door was closed tight. But help came in the form of another harpoon, crashing through the door, than dragging it open for her and tilting the ship just right, so the lifeplane rolled out the hole, that the escape door used to cover. She started panicking and tried all buttons she could. One of them started the plane’s engines and she began flying, even if rather erratically. She almost hit two eagles flying in the air, who didn’t try to stop her. They both assumed she’ll crash into the ground.

That’s mostly what happened. Fluttershy didn’t know how to control the plane, which started spiraling out of control towards the ground, as it caught a strong wind. She tried stabilizing it, but she didn’t know what she was doing, so she bailed instead, hoping her own ability of flight wouldn’t forsake her. For a while, she couldn’t control herself in the violent winds and she spiraled further. But she managed to slow herself down just enough. The plane crashed somewhere into the rainforest, while she flew for a bit longer, eventually crashing right into some poor fellow’s house.

It was a budgerigar’s home, who immediately looked at the crashed Pegasus, in great surprise. Fluttershy groaned in pain, but other than an aching everything, she was fine. The parrot approached her in concern. Another one poke their head through the door. Fluttershy looked up at them.

“Sorry for that.” She said. “I feel out an airship.”

The parrots looked at each-other and helped her up from the ceiling’s debris. She was taken to the middle of a tiny village, in front of another parrot, with a headdress. Many other budgerigars gathered around them. The housewrecked parrots and the one in the headdress talked to each-other in a regular parrot fashion. Then the headdressed one turned to Fluttershy.

“What brings you here visitor?” He talked how you’d expect a parrot to talk.

“I was travelling with a band of pirates and they got attacked by the Sheegal.”

“Travelling? Here?” The parrot seemed surprised. He whistled something to the other parrots around them.

“In my defense.” Fluttershy continued. “This isn’t exactly how I planned to travel.”

“Where you headed?” The parrot asked.

“I’m headed to the desert, to the…” She tried to remember where exactly, “…the Kenuph.”

“Oh, the Kenuph?” The bird said in delight, then whistled a brief melody to the gathered crowd, which whistled the continuation of the melody.

“So, you know how to get there?” Fluttershy asked after being slightly confused by the impromptu whistle concert.

“Ah, the Kenuph!” The parrot continued. “They know many wonderful magic.” The crowd repeated the word magic with a bit of singing and the chieftain did the same. They did it a couple more times.

Fluttershy tried questioning further, but the singing crowd answered her before she had the chance to ask anything.

“Search for the monks! Search for them by the ancient lake! They’ll find you between the ruins.”

The crowd suddenly sang in very deep tones.

“Their overtones will show you the way!” The chieftain sang.

“Oh, dear wanderer!” The crowd sang the last line, then slowly quieted down.

Fluttershy was taken aback by the sudden singing, but she was delighted at the same time. Then she realized the answer wasn’t exactly helpful.

“Can you give me a map or something?” She asked.

Suddenly the crowd dispersed and started singing again. “Oh, dear wanderer!”

“Go, follow the choir.” The chieftain insisted.

“Oh, dear wanderer!”

And as such, Fluttershy went along with the singing parrots. Their songs seemed to be made out of random words, but she soon realized, they’re not singing words at all, just sounds, that happen to form words. They’re not trying to say anything, just a melody to follow, occasionally broken up with “Oh, dear wanderer”. Maybe that’s why she didn’t understand the wild birds before. They didn’t try to make coherent sentences either, just melodies.

She tried it herself. She picked the first few words she could think of; tree, vine, sky, forest. Things she could see in her immediate environment. Then strung them together along with an improvised melody. It seemed to have worked, because the parrots repeated it back. Could it be? Did she find out how to communicate with the birds of this world? Maybe, she’ll have time to find out. Until then, she’ll just sing along with the budgerigars.