Helpless in The Falling Water

There I was perched on an oak tree with the autumn breeze rising and falling as it ruffled my dark azure feathers.  I looked down at the country side that was filed with grain and fruit fields as well as orchards. Strawberry patches that stretched towards the South. Even from the tree tops I smelled the sweet fragrance of them. In the apple orchards hung ripe, gleaming apples that mixed with the scent of the strawberries along with the orange groves with each piece of fruit little orange suns.  The stalks of wheat and barley swayed as if they were being gently stroked by the wind. As I clutched to the tree branch, my friend the raven came.

“You should see what I did to the farmer yesterday.” He said. “While he was picking apples I gnawed off one and it fell right on his head!”

“That wasn’t very nice,” I said.

“Oh don’ worry, I made sure it only made him smart little. You’re so boring. All you do is fly from tree to tree and just perch there like a rock.”

I bobbed my head and looked at him. “You just need to enjoy nature and appreciate it.”

“How lame.”  Obviously he was not in touch with the Earth like me but that was Okay. He was who he was. 

Suddenly a gust of wind blew so strongly that it almost knocked both of us off then it abated.

“Where did that come from?” said the raven. 

Before I could answer another gust shot forth that violently beat on the fruit trees and also the grain stalks that blew then almost flat. 

“Quite a windy day,” said the raven.

I paused and felt the wind and send a storm coming. “No, a storm is coming…from the west.” From the feel of the wind, I knew what was approaching would devastate the farm. All I could do was save myself.

“We have to go into the barn,” I said.

Then I felt a sprinkle of water touch my black eyes. In moments it started to increase intensity.  “Hurry!” I yelled.

Both of us spread our wings to fly but the growing wind was against us and we were making little distance toward the barn. Next I saw the fierce gusts slam my friend the raven into a branch of the tree. He shrieked in pain and fell in a wet mass to the ground.  I then I gave some slack to the wind until I was able to grab a branch. I jumped to the other side of the tree where I was relatively shielded from the windy onslaught.  The raven was unconscious so I quickly hopped to him into the torrent and pinched his wing and dragged him behind the tree. 

The rain was like small white spears being hurled down by an angry god. Water started to flood the fields turning the ground into a muddy marsh.  The fruit from the trees were being blown as though an invisible mouth were inhaling them.  The dark clouds above were like evil spirits abstracting the good, pleasant sun.  I looked and the farmers, along with some other humans, were piling into a wooden door into the ground. To my dismay and shock the storm rain began to increase even more and the malevolent downpour was reaching the other side of the tree.  Instantly  I was being drenched and hurled by the wind that made me and the raven roll like sodden tumble weeds.  Then we both toppled down a steep slope into a muddy puddle that once was sprouting with cabbages.  The raven began to sink in the mire that was like a sticky tar pit. I struggled to stay at the surface as I clawed and tried to flap my wings but to no avail. I was sure I would drown. Then, just as my beak became submerged, I felt something wrap around me and lift me out. I could not open my eyes because of the mud that completely covered my head. I was able to make out some sounds; sludge-sludge –sludge, as though large feet were walking through mud. Suddenly I sensed the rain stop falling on me and then I heard a metal clank and after that a deep rumbling sound. Next I felt that I was moving.  Also the prickle of water against metal  was heard as I went.  Next my feet touched a surface that felt like wood. Then warm water being poured over me. I opened my eyes and saw the  inside of what had to be the hollow of a big tree. There above me was a soft faced human with long dark hair bathing me with water. Next the human wrapped me into a warm, soft material. Next I my friend the raven dry and awake.

“They saved us!-the humans!”

Before a chirp came from me I saw the long haired human women open a window revealing a sunny blue skied day with a rainbow in the distance.  Immediately we took flight through the window and flew to our favorite tree. 

“I wish there was some way we could repay them,” the raven said.



“Don’t worry. I think they are happy just to have us around.”