Chapter 6…AFTERMATH

As I opened my eyes the bright sun made me blink. There was a smoky smell in the air and then I heard Bandy ask…”Are you OK?”
It was then that I noticed a very severe pain in my left leg and as I tried to get up …I couldn’t, and the pain got worse as I tried to put weight onto it.
“Don’t try to arise…I…I believe that your leg is fractured Stormy.” Bandy said.
I laid back down and tried to relax and asked…”Are you OK Bandy?”
“Yes…my undying gracious gratitude for your herculean efforts on my behalf. You saved my life whilst endangering your own Stormy my friend. Even if I could have attained my goal to reach my burrow…well…LOOK!”
Bandy pointed to the spot on the beach where the snacking spot and the Jacaranda Tree and his burrow were and the whole area was burned black with a smoldering lava layer still sizzling at the edge of the beach as each wave came to shore.
“Wow!”…was all I could say and then I think that I must have blacked out again.
The second time that I awoke it was nearly sunset and my bleary eyes saw Bandy crouching right next to me and a tall verticle figure blocking the setting sun from my view. As I regained consciousness I realized that the figure was Juan.
“Hola! ‘Bout time you woke up Stormy. We thought that we might have to change your name to “Sleepy”. Juan was trying to seem unconcerned but I could detect a seriousness in his dark brown eyes.
When I looked down at my injury, I was surprised to see lots of bandages wound around two sticks, one on either side of my broken left leg.
“Don’t try to get up…not for a while, maybe a long while Stormy. Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you.” Juan smiled and patted my wing.
“You did a very heroic deed saving Bandy’s life and you deserve all that we can do to care for you until you are totally well again…friend.” Juan was nodding and patting my wing again.
“And it looks like you lost quite a few tail feathers too!” Juan added.
“I had a tough time controlling my landing because of it…but luckily Bandy didn’t get hurt!” I said thankfully.
“I guess you couldn’t achieve the suggested “Tuck and Roll” Stormy.” Bandy surmised
“Guess not…I think I hit a “Rock” and “Rolled”…huh Bandy.”
We all had the first good laugh…well…since before the volcano.
Then I propped myself up on my right wing and asked Juan… “Are you and your family Ok?”
“Yeah…we’ve been through volcanoes before and our home wasn’t in the direct path this time.” Juan answered.
“What about the rest of the group? Are they all right?” I asked.
“We…don’t know. We’re pretty sure the birds flew to safety except for Oscar who can outrun any silly lava flow and probably has his head stuck in fresh sand waiting for it all to be over. I’m sure that the others made it to the sea but we really don’t know yet. We do know that we are going to have to find a new living area…the snacking ground and our Jacaranda are gone!” Juan said sadly.
Then I noticed up in the sky above us that a few very large very black birds were circling….VULTURES!
As the next few days went by I was beginning to get some feeling back in my broken leg. And I noticed that a few of my tail feathers had begun to grow back also.
Juan had found a very wet and exhausted Cougie washed up on the western shore. A long nap restored him to almost normal but there was a rather large spot of fur missing from his left rear haunch for which he had no recollection or explanation.
Toucie was flying about scanning the shoreline and found Bandy and me rather easily and since Maggie almost never went anywhere without Toucie, she had joined us also.
Theodore knew where we were but didn’t want to climb the steep hill to get to the crest so we communicated with him by wing signals from the edge.
We hadn’t heard Howie or smelled Flora in days and we were getting worried about them, especially since the vultures had stopped circling above.
And just as we were talking about who was missing from our close little group of friends, Toucie who has a very large beak lifted her head and sniffed…then sniffed again… “FLORA!” she exclaimed and went to the edge of the hill trying to trace that telltale aroma.
But wait…out of the grasses emerged an entirely black skunk, not at all like Flora who has a large white furry back. Then the skunk tried to speak but then just collapsed.
Juan took water over to the stranger and helped it drink and then after looking closely he turned and yelled “It IS her! She’s just covered in soot…ashes from the Volcano…but it’s Flora all right.”
As Flora regained her strength and looked around she said…”Sorry that I didn’t wear my Jacaranda cologne again!”