Chapter 8-1

DD,

There I was. In the vast expanse of water that is the South Sea, I struggled to float. My sodden feathers, once my pride, now threatened to be my undoing. I clutched with beak and claw to a shred of coconut husk, buoy of salvation. It bobbed with my every movement and with each swell of the ocean. Without it, I'd be sunk. Then, on the horizon, I saw it. A sail! I, who was beyond hope of ever feeling this much joy again, prayed that my exhausted eyes, so hungry for this very sight, were not tricked by delirium. It must be real. And it was! I could hear the hornpipe -- they were dancing on deck. But dusk was falling, would they see me? I leapt atop my bit of flotsam crying, "Ahoy! Wishbone! Ahoy!" I squawked and fluttered with all of the energy I had left in my body until I heard the blessed sound, "Bird ho!" I was lifted, dripping from the sea and a moment later, dropped on deck of the most nefarious pirate ship in these or any other waters. Thus it is how I came to be locked in the Wishbone's hold awaiting my fate in the hands of her captain, the notorious Pollo del Mare.

Sooty and Shaken