Timeline

6

Clay swept his pine green hood over his eyes and gazed out onto the woods below him. His sharp eyes scanned the treetops. A bird whistled nearby and he glanced at it, then looked away, uninterested. The little bird fluttered closer, chirping insistently. He turned toward it with a scowl. "What?"

The bird tweeted a few more times. Clay sighed. "You know I can't understand you, right?" he told it. The bird made a face like what's the point and picked up a twig. Tilting its head to one side, then the other, it scratched a letter in the dirt. 

W.

"I know he sent you," Clay muttered. "I just don't know what he wants."

The bird chirped again, spreading one wing toward the distant horizons.

"There's nothing but a field out that way," Clay said. "The timestone I'm looking for isn't there."

The bird's eyes glinted as it  cocked its head and chirped again, waving its wing.

"There's nothing there," Clay insisted, but looked anyway. His eyes widened. "What in the..."

He squinted as the looming stone structure before him came into focus. "There was definitely no tower there yesterday," he acknowledged. The bird tweeted proudly and puffed out its chest feathers.

"Don't look so smug," Clay warned it. "Did Will tell you about the last bird that acted like that?" 

The bird's feathers deflated and it gave him a wary look. 

"I've done worse," Clay said with a shrug. He looked back out at the tower. Or where it had just been.

"Where did it go?" he exclaimed, looking at the bird. It twitched its tail, but made no answering motions.

"So, either you don't know, or you're just mad at me," Clay mused. "Well, one easy way to find out."

The bird hopped backwards, alarmed. 

"You gonna tell me?" Clay asked it.

It meekly raised a wing and tilted its beak up. Clay followed its gesture. "There's nothing up there, and definitely no stone tower," he said. The bird gave him a look and hopped to the edge of the bluff they were standing on. It pointed its wing up again, then out at the field. 

"What does the sky have to do with it?" Clay muttered. The bird threw its wings up in what was surely exasperation. After another few moments of pointing to the sky, it gave up and fluttered into the air.

"No, no leaving until you tell me," Clay said, waving his hand. The bird flew backwards to where it had been a few seconds ago, then shook itself, staring at Clay.

"Moved you back in time, birdbrain," Clay informed it. "And I will continue to do so as long as necessary."

The bird continued to watch him, tilting its head from side to side. It picked up the twig again and drew a sun in the dirt. Then it pointed up again.

"The sun," Clay said irritably. "What does the sun have to do with- ohhh." He surveyed the field where the structure had been again. "It's only there at a certain time."

The bird nodded, hopping to the edge of the bluff again. It looked back, blinking, then took off.

Clay watched it go, curious what else it knew. He could figure it out someday.

After all, he had all the time in the world.