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 his 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 still with his human. He started to flee, then saw the second human coming towards him. He was still too in shock 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 tried to prepare his wings to fly 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. His wings were finally ready to fly and he reached the top of the tall thing they were near. He could finish feeling better 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 stretching his wings 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 flapping its wings 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 slowly flapped its wings, preparing for flight in the bright sun with a gentle breeze blowing past, which lightly ruffled its feathers.

“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 everybirdy 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 Buck's Tale
Far above the land a few clouds were floating lazily along and the sun was sparkling back from a rather large lake. It was a mild summer day and many animals were lolling about, munching on whatever they fancied, and just enjoying the serenity of it all.

A herd of deer were near the lake, some having their first drink of water that morning. They would soon leave for the pinewood forest nearby to escape the heat of the day. A breeze could be heard stirring through the pine boughs and making the waves lap the beach. Squirrels and chipmunks nearby could be heard chittering and birds were calling and singing. It was a truly peaceful day.

They didn’t notice at first, but a dull roar began from far away, slowly coming closer. When they did notice they began moving towards the forest. There they could watch and be safe from whatever was making the unnatural noise.

The noise got louder, and finally revealed itself to be coming from a boat. It motored up to the dock and let several people out, each carrying lots of equipment. They went different ways, each with a purpose. They unpacked their equipment and turned it into lights, microphones, cameras, and lots of wires attached to the equipment. Then the people began milling about, waiting for something else to happen.

The animals were curious. When people came here, they were usually loud, smaller humans that from a distance sounded like a flock of seagulls. A few full-grown humans accompanied them, and they made for the wooden buildings nearby. Oftentimes, the kids and animals would be friends, and the animals enjoyed the tasty treats the kids fed them.

These all looked like full-grown humans, and only a couple of them went towards the cabins.

Most of the animals went back to feeding, but a few wandered closer to the people. Some were just curious but others remembered how yummy the treats were that the kids gave them.

Soon the reason for all the people and equipment became clear. Another boat pulled up with a person, and she sounded the same as the kids that used to come here – high-pitched and excited. She rushed up to the adult on the dock and gave him a big hug.

More kids came, one to a boat, and soon there were a lot of kids. These were older than the kids that used to come here, but they were obviously kid-like. They all fell in the water when the dock collapsed, but none seemed hurt, and they all rushed to the cabins and communal washroom. When they emerged, some time later, most of the animals had wandered away to find a good resting spot during the heat of the day.

One lone buck, however, had really enjoyed the company of the kids in the past, and stayed out of sight but close by. Soon the kids were all near the fire-pit by the docks. One of his favorite kids had loved feeding him lightly toasted marshmallows and graham crackers here, and even though those were a sticky mess this buck started to drool when he saw the kids were all sitting around the pit.

Since he was reminiscing about the treats he failed to notice when one of the kids started to come near him. This boy was wearing lots of black and some yellowish clothing, with some green hair on his head that seemed almost like grass. He was well camouflaged, for the most part, and was very stealthy, without actually creeping, which would have set off all the buck’s alarms.

He seemed to want to be friends with the buck, but when he was near enough, put out his hand, which snaked around the buck’s neck, and held him fast. Then he used his other hand to rub the buck’s forehead. It hurt some, because the boy was using his knuckles to do the rubbing.

This was not friendly, but the buck didn’t want to hurt the boy. It was almost like the boy wanted to be a buck and fight with his antlers, but without antlers this was the best he could do. Maybe he was claiming this area as his own. Either way, this buck wanted no part of these kids anymore.

The adult was making announcements and the kids started moving around. Soon, the boy took notice of the adult’s words, let him go, and moved over to stand with some of the other kids.

The buck just ran back towards the woods. He looked back once to see what was happening, and the boy seemed to have forgotten about him. The human buck had claimed his territory, and the whitetail buck respected it. He was really going to miss those yummy treats, though.

He rejoined his herd and told them about the kids and the boy in particular. They were all curious about that, so spent some time over the next several days watching them, but didn’t go near the kids or the camp again.

They did notice that one by one all but two of the kids left camp on another boat. Then they all came back again and walked all over the peninsula in groups. This was near the end of the summer. Near the end of that day, a bunch of them ended up in the water at the end of the dock, almost like the time they had all arrived at the beginning of the summer.

Maybe it was just as well all the deer had stayed away from them. They were crazy!

The Loon's Tale
It was dawn on a calm, early summer day near the edge of a big beautiful lake. A large flock of birds was gathering. There was nothing unusual about that, but what was unusual were the many different kinds of birds that were gathering in the same area together – ducks and geese, seabirds, wading birds and even some birds of prey. They weren’t eating, mating or caught in a trap – they were watching a seagull that was standing on top of one of the rocks.

The seagull was being patient and waiting for more birds to join them. Soon, he began his tale about getting something caught around his neck and the strange humans that held him captive all day. Then about them finally getting the thing off his neck and letting him go. Some of the audience had heard Gull’s tale already, but many hadn’t.

Many birds asked questions about the thing around his neck, and Gull answered the flock’s questions as best he could.

“What were you doing when you first noticed it?” asked a duck. Catching fish was his reply.

“What did it look like?” asked a wader. Gull had finally found another thing like the one he’d gotten caught around his neck, and he held it up for all to see.

“Oooooooh,” responded the flock.

“Could I feel it?” asked another seagull.

“Can you bite through it?” asked a bird of prey.

Soon the plastic 6-pack holder was being passed through the crowd – carefully. No one wanted to have to search out any humans, since even the birds of prey couldn’t bite through this thing.

They all got to feel it and see it up close. No one could pull it apart or do any real damage to it, and they were all grateful to the seagull for telling them his adventure and helping to protect them. Soon they all began to scatter in order to find food, and to tell others what they had learned that morning.

A few birds stayed in order to ask more questions, mostly about the humans. The gulls wanted to know about the places the humans gathered to eat, the birds of prey wondered if any small, furry animals gathered there, and the ducks and waders wondered whether the humans were feeding birds bread or corn or fish anywhere.

Gull mentioned that the humans went into a particular building for food, and that they had offered him a fish to eat, but he was so scared that he didn’t notice much else about that place. He further commented that the humans didn’t hurt him at all, but these were the only two humans he saw that day, so other humans could’ve been doing anything elsewhere.

A loon asked if the two humans were a couple.

“They seemed to be. They did everything together and were helping each other with me,” replied Gull with a visible shudder.

“Did you notice if they did anything special for each other?” asked the loon shyly.

Gull began to suspect that this young loon was looking for a mate, and hoping Gull’s adventure with the humans would provide a way to win over a mate. It was late spring, after all, so if you didn’t have a mate yet, you might not get one at all this year.

Gull remembered the bag that one of them searched through for the stuff they wrapped around his wings and feet, and thought of something that might help.

“One of them had bright red stuff it put on its mouth. It had the red stuff in a shiny stick, and it put it on its mouth a couple of times that I noticed,” remembered Gull. “The other one carried Redlips’ things across the rocks for it once, too. And Redlips stayed with me while the other one went to get food for both of them.”

Now Gull was thinking a whole boatload of new thoughts about that day. Did they want to adopt him as their child? Nesting seagulls often have a spot on their beak for their babies to peck at so they can be fed. It turns bright red for some seagulls, and returns to a dull orangey color during the rest of the year.

Was Redlips hoping he’d peck its mouth for food? The other one didn’t put red on its mouth. Was it the male? Seagulls generally look identical year-round, but some animals don’t. Maybe they wanted him to be their child? But he was already an adult, with a nest and a mate. Maybe the humans didn’t know that. What wonderful humans they were if he was right.

The birds had been watching him think, and all stayed silent while he finished thinking his thoughts.

“We should fly over to the food place, and maybe I can find another stick with red stuff in it for you,” Gull burst out suddenly, startling all the remaining flock.

“Um, okay,” replied the loon, since it was her question that had resulted in this response. “I’ll need to land somewhere high, though, while you look for the red thing, since I have trouble taking off from low places without water.”

“Okay,” replied Gull distractedly as he started taking off towards the food building.

The rest of the birds, though confused by this turn of events since Gull never wanted to go near the humans again, were willing to fly to the food supply with him.

Many years ago, lots of humans came often, usually in the summer, but few birds were old enough to remember back that far. It seemed that the humans had returned in force, though, since there were about a dozen people there now, and another two tables added out in front of the building.

The humans were too busy to really notice the strange flock of birds that came to roost on various nearby perches. Some humans were eating, others hauling boxes, and one was directing the people with the boxes. Most humans seemed to be hauling stuff into the building from one of the boats at the docks.

None of the humans had bright red lips, but the birds were more interested in what food was being eaten. They were patient, and eventually the commotion was over and everyone was gone or inside the building.

The seagulls and ducks looked for crumbs under the tables, the birds of prey were interested in small mammals and fish, so they looked for chipmunks and squirrels near the tables, and the wading birds didn’t see anything of interest here. The loon kept looking for someone with red lips, and waited for Gull to come back with information.

The crumb cleanup crew finished, the squirrel-types had seen the birds of prey so stayed hidden, and the loon was beginning to loose patience, so she gave a brief hoot to remind Gull that she was still there.

Gull came to Loon and they decided to look for more people elsewhere. The rest of the birds decided to go their own way for the rest of the day.

There were plenty of people down by the boats, and one of them was Redlips! Gull wasn’t sure what to think of his human – that he now believed to be a ‘her’ – but decided to try to look inside her bag for the red stick. Unfortunately it was attached to her middle. Gull looked for the male from that fateful day, and eventually located him, too, but the two weren’t together for now, so he wouldn’t be carrying her bag.

When the humans stopped for lunch, Gull’s two humans were together, talking and eating at that table. Fortunately, none of the many humans were paying much attention to anything else, and Gull went under the table to where Redlips was sitting. He saw her bag, but he couldn’t see into it, or even see an opening. He left the way he came, unseen, and waited, hidden nearby.

When his two humans had finished their meal, the male, whom Gull had begun to think of as Palelips, picked up the unwanted parts of their food and threw them into a tall metal circle next to the building. The table was now empty except for Redlips. Meanwhile, Redlips looked inside her bag and pulled out the small stick Gull wanted!

As Redlips began to put another layer of red on her lips, Gull flew from his perch to her table. She was startled enough when he landed to put out her hands to stop him from coming closer, but not to grab him. He easily plucked the stick out of her hand, but he was gentle enough not to hurt her. He was not going to be caught again, either, though, and flew off before Redlips or Palelips could reach him. As he was leaving the table, he heard Redlips say something to Palelips, and it didn’t sound angry Gull was happy to note.

“Darn bird scared the heck outta me,” Rhonda complained to Reddy as he came up beside her. “Probably thought my lipstick was food, poor thing. I sure hope it doesn’t eat it,” she continued worriedly.

“Makes me think of our gull,” commented Reddy distractedly as he watched the seagull fly away. Then to Rhonda he said, “It’s hard and metal, so he’ll probably drop it pretty soon. Great!” he added sarcastically, “More trash on the island.”

“Funny that the seagull actually took it out of my hand,” Rhonda commented. “People haven’t been here for years, except to maintain the electricity and plumbing in these buildings, so the birds either aren’t scared of people, or they followed us.”

“You’re okay, right?” Reddy asked Rhonda.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, smiling at Reddy. “Thanks. It could’ve really hurt me, but it seemed careful just to get my lipstick. It seemed to realize we were two separate things. Nice bird. Good karma.”

“Maybe that one is used to people and trash, and just happened to be over here today.” Reddy gave Rhonda a brief hug, relieved that she was unhurt. “I’m really glad we helped one of them, too. Hopefully, with our little film, we’ll help clean up beaches and oceans all over the world, and save a lot more than just birds.”

Rhonda smiled again. “I need some more lipstick. Wanna come with?”

“Sure,” Reddy smiled back.

After their purchase at The Tuck Shoppe, they both looked to where the seagull had disappeared from view, reminiscing to themselves as they walked hand-in-hand back to the boat, where there was a lot more work waiting.

Gull landed on a wide, clear stretch of beach and waited for Loon to land in the water and make her way up to him.

“Here ya go,” said Gull proudly as he presented the red stick to Loon. “Those two humans were the same ones that saved me from the neck-thing while my mate and I were working on our nest. We’ve got eggs now, so I’m glad they found me,” Gull stated with less agitation than when he’d talked this morning. “I’m really glad I got to see them again,” he concluded.

“Thanks a lot,” said Loon. “I didn’t think you’d take us on an adventure when I asked my question. I just hoped I could get guy advice,” chuckled Loon, somewhat embarrassed by the results of her question. “That was really great, though. We got to see where the humans eat, and we even got to see how she made her lips red. I’ve gotta try that,” added Loon.

“I’m glad I could help,” replied Gull. “I hope you come back and tell me if it worked, when you get a chance.”

“I will,” responded Loon. “Now I just have to figure out how to put this on like she did. I need a place to keep it, too, so it doesn’t get stuff on it.”

“I know just the place,” said Gull. “Follow me.”

Gull had seen his people working on a wooden box together, and had noticed a large, flat shiny thing on the wall while the side of the box was open. He knew that flat shiny things let you see yourself, just like still water.

They flew down to the docks again, and there was the narrow, tall box that Redlips and Palelips were working on together. When they finished, Redlips put more red on her lips while looking at the shiny reflection, then put her red stick back in her bag.

“And that’s how you do it,” said Gull to Loon, in the tree where they were hidden. “I’m gonna take off now and get some lunch. Whatever you do, don’t let them catch you, and maybe hide it in your nest.”

“I will, and thanks again!” said Loon back.

Gull and Loon went their separate ways for lunch. Loon didn’t return until the next day, hoping that the human traffic had died down.

It was quiet except for a slight buzz that Loon figured were insects, since it was dawn and she saw a lot of flies inside the box. There weren’t any humans around, so she went in with her red stick and got up on the shelf where the shiny circle was hanging on the wall.

She held the red stick with one wing while she looked at her reflection, and didn’t have any problems. The red stuff slid around the tip of her beak as easily as a fish, and looked really pretty. She was almost finished when her reflection moved and made a hum/whir sound. Loon froze and just looked at her reflection. She noticed that she had a pretty red eye that didn’t match the actually pink stick.

She quickly jumped down and ran out to the water where she was able to take off. She kept hold of her pink stick in her beak and flew back to her nest. It was probably nothing that had scared her, but there was only one way out of that box, so she just used it. Besides, she couldn’t see out from the inside.

She should go see Gull, and tell the flock how nice the pink stick was, and let them see it, too. Maybe the male loon she really liked would be there, too!

She brought the pink stick to show the other birds, and decided that their overall reaction would tell her whether it worked or not for attracting mates.

When she flew in, all the birds welcomed her, then couldn’t stop looking at her pink beak tip. ‘What could make her beak that color pink’ was what most of them were thinking. All of the birds thought it was attractive, partly because it was so different. The male she really liked thought so, too, and he was young and still looking for a mate, just like her.

The friendly attention finally made her brave enough to ask if he would be her mate, and he hooted ‘yes.’ He was shy just like she was! She hooted joyously in return. They were going to have some beautiful chicks this summer, and it was all thanks to the courage of Gull, and that lovely human’s pinklip stick!

Rhonda had gotten up early to test the sensitivity of the microphone in the confession booth. It was all ready to go, just needed some calibration tweaks. She heard some scrabbling in the confession booth and figured it was a rat, so she turned on the camera’s record button so she could adjust volume as it moved from area to area. She was watching the sound recordings, so didn’t notice what was being filmed.

Rhonda didn’t hear any more scrabbling noises, so she figured the animal had left. She was going to turn off the recording when she saw what was being filmed in the confession booth. She was so startled that she hit zoom or something on the camera controls and startled the loon putting on her lipstick. The poor loon jumped down and scooted out of the booth.

Rhonda was in shock, but rushed out onto the boat’s deck to see where the loon went. She was just in time to see it take off over the lake at full speed. She went back inside to see if she’d just imagined what she thought she saw, and played the confession cam recording. She hadn’t imagined it! Maybe she was going crazy. She’d wait for Reddy to come back and show him this recording and let him decide.

Reddy was working on some of the other hidden cameras nearby, making sure they worked perfectly and were picking up sounds the way they were supposed to. His favorites were hidden in the trees and on rooftops, where they could pick up the sounds and sights of nature.

They’d all been recording the previous day so the focus and sound could be adjusted for maximum clarity. Reddy played them all at once so the volume and pictures could be synchronized for TV. When the flock of birds came in, no one had noticed, but now Reddy saw that they were together – eagles, hawks, ducks, geese, herons, pelicans and seagulls flew in together and gathered in the trees and on the rooftops.

Maybe they were all curious as to what the workers were doing? Reddy kept playing the recordings. The ducks and gulls ate what people had dropped, the pelicans and herons left, and eventually so did the hawks and eagles. One seagull and one loon stayed longer than the others, but they finally left, too. The gull and loon had acted like friends, then left together. Odd.

Reddy finished modulating the feeds and saving the settings, then thought through what he might say to Rhonda about the strange bird behavior. He was smiling to himself as he walked back to the boat and into the recording room that he and Rhonda worked in now.

Rhonda jumped up, almost screaming that he had to see something. Reddy forgot all about what he was going to say to her as she pushed him towards the confession cam TV’s. She flipped a switch to show him the picture and sound, and they watched a loon climb up onto the shelf where the camera in the confession booth was located.

That was startling in itself, since loons enjoy the wide open areas of lakes. Why did it come inside the small booth? As soon as Reddy thought that, his question was answered, although the answer was a complete surprise.

The loon looked around and listened, then picked up something off camera. It came back into the picture holding a small lipstick! In its wing! Then it began putting that lipstick onto the tip of its beak! It was actually quite adept considering that it didn’t have hands, thought Reddy.

“Wait a minute,” blurted Reddy. “Isn’t that your lipstick? The one that that seagull stole today?”

Rhonda was staring at him like he had two heads. “There’s a loon putting on lipstick, and your question is if it’s mine?! Well, yeah, it’s mine, but the seagull stole it, so how’d that loon get it? And why’s it putting it on its lips-beak, I mean? At least we have it on film so we don’t think we’re completely bonkers,” blathered Rhonda.

“We should show this to our bosses,” responded Reddy. “This’ll get on TV for sure!”

“Hunh,” Rhonda sighed, exasperated. She couldn’t believe her ears. These birds were acting organized, and all Reddy wanted to do was show it to the execs.

“When I was working this morning, I saw a seagull and a loon act like buddies on the recordings from yesterday. You need to see this.” Reddy showed her the recordings of the big flock, and where the seagull and the loon were together.

“This is strange,” offered Rhonda. Reddy agreed. “It’s kinda creepy, too, like the birds are planning something.”

“Like Hitchcock’s The Birds, replied Reddy. “Maybe we should just pretend we never saw it and let someone else ‘discover’ it.”

“Sounds good to me,” agreed Rhonda with a slight shudder.

A couple of days later, one of the interns had to be rushed to the hospital for shock, and the producers thought, ‘Ratings!’ So the loon with the lipstick aired, and bits of the flock of birds aired, too, but no one thought anything more of it, except for two camera operators and a lot of birds.

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. Turns out when I watched it again that there were two aluminum cans behind the gull.

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!

The Buck's Tale
As most of you probably know, 14 of the contestants ended up in the water again at the end of "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island". Those 14 tied for the win, and were forced to play for the million bucks *chuckle* in "Total Drama Action".

Also thanks to MrD for looking up trivia for me – after Duncan gave that buck a noogie, no other deer were seen in the first season (except for the human deer in the paintball hunt.) ;-)

My thoughts for this story were that the buck told all the other deer to "stay away from the ‘noogie people'."

The Loon's Tale
I wasn’t going to do this Tale at first because I couldn’t think of a story to go with it. I kept wondering, though, if there was a way to bring the loon in via the seagull. It finally dawned on me that the loon could be one of Gull’s audience, and the loon was lovesick, so Gull came up with an answer. I was thinking I’d end the story with Rhonda and/or Reddy staring open-mouthed at the loon video as it occurred, but we all know R & R too well to just leave it there.

Also, the human/animal distinction started to blur. For the seagull and the deer tales, they were just average animals and the humans were just human. For this story the loon had to become slightly human, so it was tougher to write the human story, but it was well worth it to see Reddy and Rhonda at work again!

I hope you all enjoyed it and thanks for your wonderful comments!