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Short-Shorts
October, 2010
Autumn Harvest
He looked around as he flew and saw his target – brown and inviting amid its green sheath. There was a twig next to it that he could land on to grab his prize and haul it out, a twig that bent slightly under his weight when he lit amid the golden and half-green leaves. He stretched and opened his bill wide until he could get a good purchase on the nut and pulled back. And again. A twist of the neck and finally it was free – and HIS!
Someone had seen! Already the calls that accompanied every successful pluck were going up, and the black wings of his comrades could be heard fluttering in his direction. Cawing a protest that this one was HIS, he fluttered from the top of the walnut tree to the sturdy security of the dead tree trunk bedecked with the strange hanging lines that swayed so dangerously when the wind was high. The flat top of the wood was a good place to put down his prize and begin the long job of getting it open.
IF he could do it without dropping it, that is. He cawed again - this time in dismay as the round nut rolled away from the first blow of his mighty black beak and right off the flat surface toward the ground below. It bounced against the strange white stone and out into the flat black, with his diving after it from the platform before any of his comrades could see their chances.
Just in time, he pulled up and away before one of the metal beasts that prowled the flat black growled and roared its way past. He didn’t want to end up a pile of broken bones and feathers at the edge where the white and flat black met – not like the unlucky fellow he’d seen the other day. Already the flies were making a hearty meal of that comrade.
The beast was huge, and it hid where the nut had fallen. Then he heard it – a delightful SNAP! that told him that the heavy metal beast had done him a favor. All he had to do was wait for a moment or two – just long enough for the beast to pull away – before resuming his dive. There it was, partially crushed, with enough of the delicious insides squashed against the hard, flat black to make for a goodly snack. Some of the dead brown leaves shifted over it in the breeze.
It was a treat he’d have to share, though. Two other black bodies dove to the flat black with him and took up their positions around the smear of crushed shell and nutmeat. Together, they picked and argued over the largest portions and the tiniest motes of flavor. Above and around him, the caws of the others as they found and fought over other such treasures filled the chilly morning air.
It would be a small feast for him – but it was early in the season yet. Besides, there were many more nuts to be had for patient and greedy alike, and many more trees like this one loaded with autumn gold to raid before the time came to head for warmer climes.