The Beasts of Wawanakwa

Introduction
This is a series of short stories from the perspective of the animals of TDI in the style of The Canterbury Tales. The first story is from the very first episode, and I’ll try to keep the animals’ stories in the same order as they appeared in the show.

The Seagull's Tale
Not so many years ago near an island not very far away, a seagull was hunting for fish. He was having a rather average day when, for no apparent reason he started having trouble flying. Somehow, something had gotten hold of his neck.

''Scree! Scree!'' The poor middle-aged seagull was fighting for its life against the thing around his neck. He was having a little trouble breathing and so tried to fly away from it with no luck. Finally, he got so tired he stopped fighting. He began to realize that it wasn’t hurting him, but it was still holding on tight. He was near shore so he decided to come ashore to rest and try to figure out what to do.

It was a bright blue day with a light breeze, so floating ashore was no problem in itself, but he began to notice many other things floating ashore with him, and none of them were fish. They weren’t anything else he recognized, either, but they weren’t attacking him, so he just kept his eyes on them and they all traveled gently to shore.

The beach sand was nice and warm and he began to get drowsy, but was keenly aware of the sand crabs, which were normally no problem. However, since he couldn’t fly right now he needed to keep far away from them.

He decided to try to work his way free from the ‘thing’ again, and was concentrating so hard on that that he didn’t notice the human coming towards him until too late. ''Scree! Scree!'' he screamed, but the human had pinned his wings to his sides, so all he had were his feet and beak to fight with. The human protected itself from his beak by getting a hold of his neck. The human wasn’t hurting him, but he knew that should come next.

He was so scared he thought he might pass out, but when he pooped on the human in terror instead he realized this might let him escape. No such luck.

He finally froze in terror and hoped that the humans – he had just noticed the second one – would let him go. He watched them closely for any signs of what they might do with him.

“Hey, Reddy, this poor gull has a plastic six-pack ring around its throat. Wanna help me get it off? Eeww, ick! It’s so scared it pooped on me. Aww.”

“Poor thing. Hey! Help me out here, Rhonda, I’ve got a great idea! Since we’re scouting spots for the cameras to film from, we could add our own ‘Don’t Pollute’ message right now! We’ve gotta figure out how best to film this.”

Rhonda washed off in the shallow water while Reddy held the gull, then they both walked around the shoreline as quickly as they could while carrying their cameras and extra passenger. They were hunting for the best vantages and views to help deliver their message.

They knew better than to consult with the higher-ups, since that would likely cause a conference on what to do about not only the seagull, but the litter-ridden beach this camera crew was tromping on. That could take hours, if not days, and these two filmmakers had a seagull to save. Not to mention the shorelines and lake. And it was all now possible due to an unlucky bird with perfect timing.

They had been planning to only film the pristine parts of the island to make it seem more exotic, but this would be much better.

They finally found the perfect location and put the broken bottle into the sand. They considered putting the aluminum can there, too, but thought that was overkill. They didn’t want it looking staged, after all. Next, they had to figure out how to film the poor, helpless seagull without it taking off and ruining their picture.

“If we use that ‘paper tape’ and tape its wings and feet to its body, it won’t be able to do much of anything, and the tape will come off without hurting its feathers,” suggested Rhonda hopefully. “One of us will still have to stay near it in case it gets free, though.”

“You’ve gained its trust, or at least its not so terrified anymore, so why don’t you do that and I’ll film. Just watch your shadows, though. Wouldn’t want to put the bird through this twice, eh?” responded Reddy.

“Right. I think I’ve still got a roll of it in my bag here. Sure works great for putting those X’s on things like that big stage. Never considered using it on an animal before, though.”

They put the tape carefully on the gull together, making sure it wouldn’t be visible at a distance, then Reddy moved back to the camera, already in position. They waited for the perfect wave set, and Rhonda put the bird gently in the water. The poor gull watched Reddy and the camera with tired resignation. It was washed gently onto shore, where it gave a single call, sounding almost bored. A few moments later another wave scooped it back into the water.

Reddy started to worry about it. “Maybe we should feed it before we let it go. Don’t know how long it’s had that thing on its neck, after all.”

Rhonda agreed, and they got a few more shots of the gull just sitting in the water with the plastic, made very visible by the play of sunshine and shadow caused by the waves.

“These are great shots!” murmured Reddy as Rhonda waded out to get the bird.

The seagull had stayed terrified for awhile, but slowly calmed down when nothing happened to him. He was still tired, but since he was being carried he just watched everything around him moving by. Finally he began to doze. Even their voices were lulling him to sleep.

He woke up when they stopped walking. They were working in the sand with one of the unknown things, and seemed excited. Their excited noise was making him start to be scared again, but they didn’t seem to notice him much. Then they finished working in the sand and both looked at him.

They started looking at his feet and wings and neck, but not in a scary way. More as if they were confused, like they didn’t know what he was. Maybe that thing on him confused them, too? Maybe they were trying to figure out how to get it off of him?

The human that had held him the whole time gave him to the second human. That made him nervous. His human began to paw at a small thing it had carried the whole time, then pulled something out of it. Both humans were interested in the small, whitish, round thing, and started attacking it and pulling it apart. They were rather gentle about it, though, like they were worried they were going to scare him.

Too late.

His human held some of the white stuff towards him. Food? But then it started putting the white stuff against his feet and around his wings! Fight?! But it was too late. His feet and wings were held against his body by this white stuff now. It didn’t hurt, but now he really couldn’t fly.

The human holding him looked at his feet and wings again, then gave him back to his human - the one that had put this bad stuff on him. His human waded into the water near where they had dug in the sand and looked at the second human, who was walking on the beach.

His human waited for a little while, then put him into the water and let him go. He couldn’t paddle or use his wings at all, so the waves carried him onto the sand. He just looked at the human on land, and since he felt so helpless had to let out a cry of despair. He barely noticed when another wave came and scooped him off the beach. There was nothing he could do about it anyway.

He just stared in whatever direction he was facing, but kept his eyes on the two humans. His human waded out deeper to pick him up. He tried to bite it, but couldn’t control his body’s position so naturally missed.

It picked him up and took him back to land, where both humans looked at him like they were still confused. His human removed the white stuff, and that didn’t hurt, but now he was afraid again. He knew something more was coming because they still didn’t let him go.

Reddy and Rhonda were both worried enough about this seagull that they wanted to have a vet look at it. “Look at the water it’s had to live in!” exclaimed Rhonda. “Besides, I don’t know if canned sardines in oil are good for it.”

“Look at it – it’s scared to death of us,” retorted Reddy. “A trip to the vet could finish this poor thing off in itself. Besides, how bad can canned sardines really be for it?” He held out one of the aforementioned sardines he’d bought for his own lunch. The seagull wanted nothing to do with it and turned its head away.

“Let’s let the vet see if its throat is hurt, at least,” said Rhonda. “That thing could’ve been on there for days.”

They’d borrowed some scissors from The Tuck Shoppe. It was the same place they’d purchased their lunch. They carefully cut the plastic off of the seagull’s throat. The problem was that their gull hadn’t reacted much, as though it didn’t realize its noose was gone. Both of them were worried that if they set the gull free now it would die just from the stress it’d been through today.

“All it needs is some time to calm down and de-stress – somewhere quiet,” suggested Reddy.

“The boathouse is probably the one place here no one wants to be,” opined Rhonda. “And you can hear the waves pretty well,” she added with a grin. “That ought to make our seagull feel right at home!”

“I’ll put together a box for him and we can let him de-stress alone, off the ground. Then we can film it all from a good distance away,” added Reddy with a smile of his own.

The humans had carried him towards a building, and the other human went inside. His human waited outside, still holding him snug enough to keep him from getting away. When the other human came back, they held him and his neck and did something to his neck. He was just so tired of fighting …

They ate after that. Tried to offer him something, but he still remembered that white stuff they offered him that held his feet and wings, and turned his head away.

His human and the other one went different ways. His human set him down, but he was about the same height as before. Then water started pouring on him. It felt good. He was thirsty so he opened his beak for a drink. That felt really good. He started to relax, some, and look around.

Scrik?! he chirped in surprise. He could move his neck again without that ‘thing’ moving with him. He started seeing if he could move more, and if he could raise his wings. Screek! He could! He was so happy! He was free!

But, he was all wet now and still with his human. He started to dry off, then saw the second human coming towards him. He was still too wet to fly, so he jumped to the ground. His human was faster and gathered him up. The second human joined them.

Both humans hurried towards the open water, still holding him. They stopped near the shore and put him on the ground. He was confused, but free, so dried off more of his feathers and hurried towards the shore. Suddenly, instinct told him to stop and see where the humans were and what they were doing now. They were standing still, so he did, too.

The humans didn’t move, except for the second human moving that thing around on its shoulder while still staring at him. He dried off enough to fly and reached the top of the tall thing they were near. He could finish drying off here, in safety, where the sun and breeze would help.

The humans didn’t come any closer, but they were still focused on him, which made him uneasy. He finished drying off and stared back at them. He cried screek! at them because it was a great stress reliever. Also because he was still a bit mad at them for messing with him.

He stared at them a moment more, memorizing where NOT to be in the future, then turned and took off towards the lake where he could catch some dinner.

Rhonda had wanted to get the bird to drink something. She’d read that drinking water reduces the severity of shock, and that animals are especially susceptible to the effects of it. Also, it was midday, so cooling the bird down would probably help it anyway. She turned on the outdoor hose just enough to get a stream, then put the zombie-like bird on the nearest outdoor table of The Tuck Shoppe and let the hose pour some water on it.

The bird started to react! It drank some water and started to “wake up.”

Hooray! thought Rhonda.

Suddenly the seagull seemed to realize that plastic noose was off its neck. It started moving around a lot. Too much.

This area was a high “people-traffic” zone, and Rhonda and Reddy preferred to keep this bird a secret from the others because too many questions could lead to involvement by the higher-ups. Or more questions, like, “You were doing WHAT while you were supposed to be scouting camera angles and locations?” Possibly leading to, “You’re fired!” which would mean all their hard work today would never make it to the screen.

She dropped the hose and scooped up the bird before it got away. Then she spotted Reddy coming their way and rushed towards him. They both hurried towards the boathouse as she told him how the cold water had revitalized their gull. He explained that he was returning so soon because the boathouse was locked, so he couldn’t make a birdhouse.

They stopped near the boathouse and Rhonda set their bird down. The gull started drying off some feathers and hurrying towards the water. Then it stopped, turned around and looked at them for a moment, as if to say ‘thank you.’

Reddy was true to his name and was already beginning to film their gull as it got ready to leave. He stayed focused on their seagull when it flew to the top of the boathouse, and kept filming as it finished drying its feathers in the bright sun with a gentle breeze blowing past, which lightly ruffled them.

“This is the perfect ending to our ‘Day of the Gull',” Reddy gushed. “The lighting is perfect and we have a great view of the cliff in the background behind our seagull!” Just then, their seagull cried screek! quite loudly at them.

He’s saying “Thank you! and Goodbye,” Reddy gushed again, near tears because of the excellence of the ending to their film and all their hard work that day. Also because they were saying goodbye to a new friend whose life they’d saved.

Rhonda, also near tears, said, “I’m glad we were there for him. And I’m gonna miss him.” Then she burst into tears because they’d probably never see him again.

Several days later, Reddy and Rhonda were screening their ‘Day of the Gull’. The other camera operators were agog at the simple, yet elegant tale it told, and were thrilled to be a part of the screening.

Word got around, as Reddy and Rhonda had hoped it would, and some of the executives wanted to see it, too. Naturally there were various opinions voiced, but it was almost a unanimous vote that the seabird washing up to the beach with the plastic 6-pack binder on its neck should be a part of the show. It was a great attention grabber and might make older demographics sit up and take notice of this show, too. Unbeatable PR and free publicity to boot!

Gull was wandering the beach hoping to find another one of those things that got caught around his neck. If he could show everybird else what to watch out for, he’d be a hero to his fellow fish-eaters. He couldn’t tell his tale to them often enough. There were always more birds to gather round as he told of his adventure on the island. And over the course of his re-tellings, he realized that those humans had in fact helped him by getting that thing off his neck.

He never got tired of telling that tale, but he never wanted to re-live it, either.

The Seagull's Tale
I would like to thank two of our fellow wikians, Rhonda and Reddy, for allowing me to use their names in this story. I've only just met the users here, so no one really knows me yet, so that was brave of them! Their names have great alliterative properties, too.

The scene referred to specifically in “The Seagull’s Tale” is the scene in the pilot episode of TDI where Bridgette said, “I thought we were going to be on a beach,” and Chris replied, “You are!” The visual then cut to the scene where the seagull was washed off the beach.

Gideon pointed out to me that the Tuck Shoppe is depicted as a shop-n-go, PX-type store, or a 7-11, which don’t have tables. I thought that it might have a table and bench outside, since they were supposedly on an island. Of course, we never actually saw the Tuck Shoppe.

For me, the humor in this story is the extremely differing points of view between the humans and the animal for the same occurances. I hope you all enjoyed it!