บท 52: When a Bird Worked Together with a Snake

The sun started to tilt towards the west slightly when another 'strange' team moved forward from the stream's region. As a yellow colored bird with puffy white chest and black speckles dusted over it flew swiftly in the air in a circular motion at the top of the seemingly never-ending tree canopy, a small inconspicuous black snake was keeping up by shooting at the middle branches of trees in between the understory layer of the rainforest. Once a while the presence of the emergent tree layer made the bird flew higher to prevent unwanted trouble.

Years of living in these parts made the little bird to be more cautious and alert towards danger. The emergent layer of the rainforest was usually the home to large predatory birds who has no qualms to catch her as a snack.

Markisah was trying her best to comb the top part of the canopy carefully bit by bit from the stream's area outwards. She divided the location into imaginary blocks and flew above them in a clock-wise route. This method was suggested by Hana. She said by doing this, Markisah won't miss a single location. Since her new friend said there would be some, she would try to believe her this time. After a significant amount of interaction, she noticed that Hana was not as clueless as she thought. Maybe her spirit fruit had finally done its job to help her new friend significantly. She felt good thinking that she had increased the survival chances of her new friend. 

Since she flew in a methodical manner, she had come across several trees with similar-looking crown as was explained by Hana easily. However, those trees' fruits were different in shapes and size as the ones drawn to her. From there, she knew that those were not the 'coconut' she was looking for. She needed to complain to Hana later. Evidently, Hana's description was a tad bit too inaccurate. The little bird didn't know that the 'crown' drawn by Hana was a feature representing the palm tree families. Hence, any kind of palm trees might have the same kind of crown, including a coconut tree.

After flying for quite some time, she had seen a likeness which conformed to Hana's explanation!

Due to the canopy being quite high and dense, the crown of the tree was partially covered by other trees snugly. Only a few strands of leaflets jutted out from the top. 

Markisah chirped loudly, "Little Snake! I think I found it! Over here!"

From between the branches, a pair of predatory eyes were gazing hungrily at the 'plump' yellow bird.

...

Kuro was tens of meters away from Markisah's present location. Hence, he could barely hear the faint chirping of the bird as she descended straight towards the tree she mentioned. After all, the top of the canopy and the middle understory was quite far from each other. He tried his best to slither as fast as he could towards the sound.

Once he was near, his sixth sensed blared loudly as he detected the presence of murderous intent. Although the intent was not meant towards him, he knew it was directed at the yellow bird high above!

At an obscured tree branch, he saw a black shadow flashed by in the direction of the descending bird. Kuro similarly pounced forward in a hurry to intercept the creature. In his mind, he could already see the aftermath of letting his mommy's new friend died on his watch. Most probably she will ask him to stop dangling on her arms for good, or even worse, disown him.

...

Being in elation had dulled Markisah senses for once and made her noticed the incoming attack slower than a fraction of a second than usual. From the corner of her beady eyes, a large predatory dark brown bird approached at a high speed! 

Markisah reflexively dodged upwards as a black snake shot into the sky at an even higher speed and bit on the neck of the attacker accurately. The large bird managed to catch a few of her prized tail feathers as Markisah chirped with pain laced with unwillingness. 

Simultaneously injecting a paralyzing agent into its bloodstream, Kuro generated a small amount of electricity to finally knocked the bird out before they naturally plunged downwards following the pull of gravity. The little black snake expertly landed on a large tree branch with his new prey in his mouth. He placed it nicely like hanging a piece of rag on a clothesline. The bird twitched periodically while it lay fainted on the tree branch, most probably due to reflex from its muscles reacting to the mild electrocution.

Markisah sweated in fear. 

If she had turned her head a little slower, she would've lose her little life; not just that bit of luxuriant feathers. She felt glad that she was on the same side as the snake. At the same time, she was extremely appalled from losing her beautiful tail feathers. In her short life, she had been most concerned with her beautiful tail feathers besides the mind cleansing spirit fruit. Now her butt horrendously looked like a chicken. 

"Are you alright?" Kuro hissed in a questioning tone from the top of the tree canopy.

A sigh came by as she replied, "Yes. Get the coconuts now before I change my mind."

"Change your mind? About what?"

"The worth of befriending you lot." The little yellow bird snorted and flew away towards Hana's cave dwelling, leaving the snake to perform the task of bringing back the brown fruits. It was none of her concern anymore since she had done her part, even risking her life for it. Right now, she needed to claim her compensation for her deeds.

Kuro shrugged at the little bird's insolent antics and shook his head with disdain. The bird had already forgotten that he had just saved her life. This kind of 'friend' was not worth keeping. He will definitely report the bird's behavior to his mistress later.

Looking at the unconscious bird of prey, the little snake grinned as he already knew he won't return empty handed. It was perfect as a gift for Mommy. He was sure Mommy knew how to cook a bird since she can cook a fish, right?

... 

The little hardworking snake choose the coconut bunch containing the highest number of fruits before ripping the base of the dark brown bunch with his mouth. He then expertly caught the falling coconut bunch with his jaw before jumping down with ease through the tree branches just like an acrobat. Landing perfectly with a ten point score, it placed the fruit bunch down and fetched the unconscious bird from one of the tree branches not far away. Kuro painstakingly tied the bird's legs with a random twine he fetched from the immediate vicinity before he dragged the unfortunate bird together with the coconut front bunch with his jaw while humming the immensely popular shark-related children's song (1) under his breath. He couldn't understand why the song kept on circulating in his mind until it sometimes interrupted his concentration. He could only blame his Mommy for it; although she didn't sing the song out loud, her mind kept on repeating the song again and again when she was doing something monotonous. Naturally, both him and Shiro heard the song loud and clear in their minds all the time since they've been linked up.

Kuro slithered towards their cave dwelling with ease as his eyes darted around looking for the rest of the ingredients. Unfortunately, he still couldn't find what Hana wanted among the bushes.

The little black snake sighed deeply. The dish Hana promised might not be ready by today if like this.

He wondered, will Mommy make something else as a replacement?

...

Markisah flew in the direction of Hana's cave until she was sure the snake didn't pay any attention to her. She then changed her direction towards her secret valley. Although it would take a long time, she planned to push for it. She had actually seen the fruit known as 'chili' over there, although she had not tasted it before. Markisah purposely throw a tantrum to shake off the snake tailing over her before she could go make her journey. Her secret was too precious to be shared to these new friends. However, she could share a chili or two.

Author's Notes:

shark-related children's song = to people who might not come across the song (which is impossible since it has been viewed 2bil times haha), you can listen to it here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqZsoesa55w)