Berganashio - Chapter 21

Grinyella the meerbird fluffed her wings and sighed. Looking at Haniel the olive tree, she answered his question. "Anointing day was good until we were raided by the merciless sea-wolfs."

"Oh no! Bao piped in.

Haniel glanced at Bao. "I've never seen a sea-wolf before but I've heard that they are endlessly bloodthirsty!"

"They plowed through our feast tables and captured many meerbirds from the mob, including our new chief Keenwai."

"This is terrible news! What are you going to do now?"

"We would not stand a chance against them..."

Bao tried to be hopeful. "Maybe they will escape and fly home."

"I hope and pray so," Grinyella nodded. "Podder and I are trying the best we can to help keep the rest of the mob optimistic but it's hard because we don't know if we will ever see the captured ones ever again."

Bao waved to Leah her mother olive tree. She did not understand all that had happened with Lecher but she hoped that Leah would come back closer to her since the evil tree was now gone.

"You're my hero, Grinyella! You saved us from Lecher, the evil tree!" Bao declared.

Grinyella beamed. "I hate manchineel trees! Their berries have driven some of our meerbirds into wandering the woods in desperate search for them. They've gone mad from the berries. It's awful!"

"Now we know that they burn in fire very quickly though." Haniel acknowledged aloud.

"Yes!" Grinyella agreed. "I believe we have our work cut out for us now that I know the best way to destroy them with fire."

Every day Leah started to slowly grow closer to Haniel and Bao again. She seemed to appear healthier little by little since Lecher was gone. Sadly, some of her roots that had been entangled with Lecher were damaged permanently though. The roots did not have the ability to draw up water at all. Fortunately, there were other roots that had not been damaged that could still function properly.

Grinyella stayed with the olive trees for a few more days and enjoyed the time with them. One morning, Grinyella awoke, and stated, "I must return to the mob. But before I go, may I collect more olives for making more olive oil."

Haniel smiled. "Oh, yes. Yes, of course, as always you're welcome to the olives. If you don't take them, then the sparrows will come and help themselves. Of course, we don't mind that either. We value peace and providence as always. Right, Bao?"

Bao nodded. "Yes! That's right."

"Thank you as the olive oil is very important to us meerbirds. Every year our anointing days are sacred to us."

"If you do the anointing with the olive oil, Grinyella, then who anoints you?" Bao asked with bright curiosity in her eyes.

She smiled kindly. "It is my highest honor to be the one to anoint, rather than be anointed."

"Oh." Bao smiled back at her.

"How do you know what to say when the anointing day comes every year?" Haniel asked.

"The Spirit flows and I hear a whispering in my mind and heart." Grinyella closed her eyes for a moment.

Haniel tried imaging what that must be like. "It sounds powerful."

"It truly is." Grinyella flew toward the top of his branches. She began collecting olives and dropped them into her backpack. She finished harvesting what she needed. "Thank you, my dear friends. I must fly home now."

Bao and Haniel wished her a farewell and flew off into the sky.

Grinyella flew for a while but then grew fatigued. She walked slowly through the woods. Though she was the eldest meerbird of the mob, she still was strong and determined.

Finally making it back to the outskirts of the burrow lands, she was greeted by a young meerbird who excitedly yelled, "They're back, Grinyella!"

"Keenwai and the others?" She asked.

"Not Keenwai or Kunya, but the rest of them have escaped! Dror has led them home!"

Grinyella hugged the young meerbird. "Our prayers have been answered!" She exclaimed joyfully. They walked toward Dror who was surrounded by several others.

Dror looked at Grinyella who was approaching them. "I have been walking in my anointing of freedom, Grinyella."

"Thank the heavens above that you weren't all turned into shish kebab's on skewers. Those ses-wolfs think they can eat everything in sight!"

"Yes, we are very fortunate to have survived, despite some of the meerbirds who have have come back blinded."

"Blinded? And where are Keenwai and Kunya? Why didn't they come back with you? Are they being held as hostages?" Grinyella eagerly awaited for him to answer.

Podder stepped up from behind a few meerbirds who were blocking him. "Welcome home, Grinyella!" He greeted her.

Dror continued. "The sea-wolfs took us to their decaying ship. Instead of eating us like we thought, they enslaved us. Most of us became rowers at the bottom of the ship. Some of the meerbirds were made to cook the meat for the sea-wolfs. We rowed for several very fatiguing days. One day, as we were rowing, we felt jolting knocks on the ship bottom. We didn't know what it was but then a metal bar burst through the ship in several places and the ship started filling up with water. We thought we might drown because we were shackled together at the wrists and ankles."

Dror instinctively felt his wrist as if the shackle was still there.

"This next part is hard to believe... Four merfaries and an albino sea-wolf ended up rescuing us. They didn't even know that we were onboard. Their main mission was to sink the boat, but they ended up distracting the sea-wolfs for us. As many of you know on anointing day I was anointed with freedom. Right when I thought we would surely drown, I felt my hands get very warm and my body tense up. Light radiated through me and the shackles that were binding us all together, burst into pieces. Once freed from the shackles, it allowed us all to fly up away from the ship."

"But what happened to the merfaries, the albino sea-wolf, and Keenwai and Kunya?" Grinyella asked in amazement as she thought about the wild adventure Dror had experienced with the other meerbirds who'd escaped.

Dror swallowed. "They've gone to form an alliance with the merfarie kingdom."

"Ahh... I see." Grinyella looked over at Podder. "And the blinded meerbirds, what happened to them?"

"The merfaries have some kind of magical power to blind creatures with their birthmark scales. They meant to blind the sea-wolfs but some of the scales fell on some of the meerbirds instead." Dror said as he motioned to the near dozen meerbirds who had been recently blinded.

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Author's Note:

To read chapter 22, please follow the link below: