"Well that's not good," remarked Polly at their new predicament. Though the storm had decided to dip after introducing The Birbalinda to the side of the rock, their situation hadn't exactly improved by a mile. An inch or two at most, but a mile? Nay.
On the plus side, the rock wasn't so big that crashing against it irreparably damaged the ship. On the downside, a rock was a rock, and crashing against anything of fairly hard and solid substance was not good news for a ship.
Polly crouched low and with great might used her leg muscles as one would a spring, shooting herself into the air. She plummeted towards rock's center like a meteor, except small. Though pulling her hair into a ponytail was part of her everyday routine, today was one of those days she was especially glad that it was a habit. The idea of zooming through the air with the wind whipping her hair into a tangled knot of sadness did not appeal to her in the least.
Polly landed with poise and not a single broken bone from the impact of slamming into a rock from nine feet above because after all, she had learned from the best: the long gone Captain Trixx. From her new position, Polly was better able to analyze the condition of The Birbalinda, which was better than she thought it would be.
"Don't mind us up here, fledge," called SAT to Polly. It had totally slipped Polly's mind that kiwis could not fly. But what about jumping? They certainly looked fluffy enough to take a fall.
"You can't jump down?" questioned Polly who hadn't the energy in her to shoot herself up to retrieve the lumps of feathers.
"If we could've don't ya think we already would've?"
It was an irrefutable argument, and so Polly had no choice but to launch herself like a rocket up, up, and away back to the deck of the ship.
Upon her arrival, Polly was then faced with a choice. Either she could carry the lumps of feathers down one by one or she could try and treat them like grocery bags and bring them down in one go.
"Thoughts?" she asked Fethar.
"Though I may dream of being reborn as a plastic bag flying through the wind waiting to start again in my next life, I can't say for certain that our crew mates are of the same mind. I do believe this to be a question you should be asking them, not me."
"One by one or grocery bag," Polly asked the kiwis.
"Grocery bag!" voted Wiki
"Grocery bag please," voted Ed
"Groceries," voted SAT.
"It is as they say," remarked Fethar. "Great minds think alike but fools hardly differ."
Although what Polly had to do was clear, she wasn't quite sure how to go about it. She was one of those kill first ask later sorta folks, except she didn't kill, and thus her planning how to do something before doing it would've been totally out of character.
Kiwis are about the size of chickens, which are by no means small animals. To add to that, Wiki, SAT, and Ed just so happened to be on the larger end of their species, whereas Polly leaned toward the smaller side. And to add to the already added, unlike grocery bags, the kiwis had no handles that Polly could stick her arms through for easy carrying.
"Right, I guess this isn't going to be as easy as I thought it was."
"I'm less surprised by that and more by the fact that you actually thought about this," snickered SAT.
"Okay, I've figured it out. Y'all are getting stacked and SAT is going on the bottom."
Ignoring SAT's bitter complaints, Polly prepared the pile with SAT on the bottom, Ed snug in the middle, and Wiki perched on top.
"I feel like the cheese in a grilled cheese that has yet to be grilled," commented Ed.
Polly wasn't sure how much of a good thing that was, but she was more focused on mentally preparing herself to jump and not drop any of the birds than on figuring that out. Perhaps if she held them horizontally like an accordion that would minimize the risks of any of the birds going astray? However something in her told her that would not be appreciated.
After about a minute or two of deliberation, she decided to go for it. Worst case scenario, Wiki or Ed or both would go splash, but as kiwis can, or at least should be able to swim, Polly was hoping that should they be unlucky, things would turn out alright.
"T-minus zero seconds until takeoff," called Polly.
And with that, she leaped. And then she realized.
As mentioned before, kiwis are not small animals. And Polly, having been up close and personal with kiwis knew this. So why she decided having a stack of kiwis in front of her as she jumped off a ship aiming to land on an unusually small rock was beyond anyone's, including her own, knowledge. In summary:
Kiwis: stacked
View: blocked
Rock: small
Hotel: trivago
"Fear not," said Fethar. "I will be your eyes."
"Roger that cap," replied a very, very relieved Polly.
"To the right, to the right, to the right, to the right."
Polly angled herself right by four degrees.
"To the left, to the left, to the left, to the left."
Polly had nothing but faith and trust in Fethar's wisdom, and so though it took her right back to where she started, Polly shifted herself four degrees left.
"To the left, take it back now y'all."
The unclear instructions called for Polly to put her minimal critical thinking skills to the test. To the left probably meant, go to the left. And take it back now y'all probably meant for y'all to take it back. Putting two and two together, Polly could only assume that she had to go left and take it back. So she tilted herself left and backwards so that she looked like a pencil with its eraser pointing towards the upper back left corner.
Mere moments later it was a touchdown. As a hat, Fethar had always hit and yet to miss.
The birds hopped down, and it turned out that there was just enough space for the four fellows to sit down comfortably. Polly had the sudden thought that if she took off her shoes, she would be able to dip her feet in the water. So take off her shoes and stick her feet into the water she did, and she absolutely did not expect to feel something touch her feet that very instance.
"Whowhatwhenwherewhy," rattled off Polly as she attempted to calm herself. "Be still my beating heart."
In her panic, Polly had turned her face to the sky and was therefore unaware of what was taking place in the space before.
"Pray tell, do mine eyes deceive me or do the rest of you also see this witchery?" squawked Ed with a sharp inhale.
"Nope, ain't just you," squawked back SAT.
Curious to see what the others were yapping about, Polly cast her eyes down to the sea and aptly joined the others in their state of shock.
Before them, a lone member of the purple and gold royal gramma race was hard at work blowing bubbles that were somehow aligning themselves into letters. It had been but minutes since their landing, but the fish had almost completed their first word.
x x x
Polly was no clock, but she knew that time had passed. The fish had been grinding away for a fairly long while and at last the fruits of their labor were beginning to show.
I'm @/ Evangeline n' I'm a 0.3 year old royal gramma (royal gramma only live for about five years so she's 16-ish). I was cryin real tears bc of my personality that is like so plain, totally drab, and undeniably bland compared to my beautiful scales, and then suddenly my precious clan was K.O.'d by the storm. Now I need to #cancel the one behind this.
Polly wasn't sure if that was the end of Evangeline's monologue, but she had questions, comments, and concerns. However, she didn't want to be that person who interrupted the middle of someone's story, especially if that person spent who knows how long writing that story by breathing out bubbles and painstakingly organizing them. But before that, would Evangeline even be able to hear them if they spoke? Fortunately for her, SAT. was ready to fire away.
"I don't think a two inch long fledge like you could do much against the forces of nature," remarked SAT.
As if the natural laws of the world didn't apply to her, Evangeline heard, and her displeasure was evident. With a heavy sigh that probably transcended dimensions and that created a ten meter wide ripple, Evangeline cleared her previous text and appeared to be gathering the strength she needed to start anew.
Polly couldn't help but feel some sympathy for the fellow vertebrate because she too knew the pains of writing. Why back in the day when she had to write essays about whatever her blasted writing teacher was in the mood for having her students write about, she'd take days upon days to carefully craft each stroke of her letters. Of course that meant more often than not she was turning in late work, but as any good artist knows, art cannot be rushed.
The land bound folk were on their twelfth rotation of positions on the rock, while waiting for the funky fairy basslet to do her thing when Fethar decided to speak.
"Certainly there must be a faster, more efficient way of going about this, no?"
"If you've got it, let's hear it," replied Polly, who was trying to figure out how to switch spots with Ed without knocking the bird off the platform.
"Perhaps...wait... but no..."
"Oho? Don't be shy, say some more," pressed Polly.
"No. Patience is a virtue."
Polly plucked Fethar from her hair so that Fethar could feel the weight of Polly's narrowed eyes. But the faceless Fethar was unfazed.
"Looks like Evangeline is wrapping up," called out Wiki.
Polly stuck Fethar back into her ponytail and turned her attention toward the writings of the fish. Unfortunately, it turned out the basketball team colored being had written quite a bit to the point where Polly's below par eyesight wouldn't be able to read the entirety of it.
"Um, that paragraph might be a bit much for these aged eyes 'o mine," said Polly to her people.
"Fear not," replied Ed. "For I am here."
With that, Ed began her dramatic reading of Evangeline's tale.
"Evelyn had been my bae five-eva since we were still in eggs," started Ed. "I still remember it like it was yesterday, when she became hashtag different. She had started chatting up this totally sus member of our clan, and I knew he was sus because instead of being purple and yellow like the rest of us, he was yellow and purple. That freak started getting real chummy with Evelyn, and somehow even my fam 'n pretty much everyone else I knew. I was the only one who never talked to him because I thought he looked wack. Anyways, it turns out he was the leader of a cult, and he convinced my folks and my homies to float on up to the surface during that storm and they all died. But I know that crusty musty loser's still out there plotting his next big thing... I can feel it..."
There was water in Polly's eyes, though whether her tears were from hunger or Evangeline's story were a mystery. After all, it had still been a hot minute since she last had a bite. Sashimi wasn't sounding half bad at the moment.
Polly felt a strange wet sensation in her hair.
"Oh the misery, oh the agony that poor dear must have experienced. Why I'm surprised her eyes haven't turned red with a desire for vengeance," sobbed Fethar.
Polly figured Fethar's vision probably wasn't the best either, because even she could see that Evangeline's eyes were glowing a vengeful scarlet. She also came to the conclusion that there was still much she had to learn about hats because the fact that they could cry and become soggier than a sock that had fallen victim to a puddle was new to her. Not wanting to deal with a dripping Fethar, Polly removed it and sat it down on the rock, hoping the slowly emerging sun would dry it out.
"Is there anything we can do to help?" asked Wiki.
It was evident the kiwis could empathize with whatever emotions the fish was feeling. Polly assumed it was because they couldn't get much done on their own island that they felt the need to reach out and help with the problems of Twelfth. She'd support them though, because she could recognize a good deed when she saw one.
This time, Evangeline cleared out the text she had created by zooming through them, not unlike an automated cleaning machine eating up dust.
Yes pls n' tysm. Idk how tho. Lmk if u hve any ideas.
* * * * *
Yayayayay an update!! And not one that's come literally months after the chapter before it was released!! Anyways if anyone here was like why does Evangeline speak like that skjskj not all teens talk like that skjskh wELL there's actually a sorta reason for it. Comment what you think it is and I'll confirm if you're right ^u^
(☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞ (☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞ (☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞ (☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞*
*the lenny faces suggest you click that spicy spicy vote button