The Girl and the Moa - Chapter 6 - by Quillian

Chapter 6

I woke up and jumped out of bed. I ran to grab a handful of nuts. I wanted to still be hungry in case the birds wanted to give me food, since it is impolite to say "no". I learned that lesson from my Grandma. When I got to the river, Moona was there working. I said, "How can I help?" 

She said, "Put the ferns in sap and then dunk them in the dirt."

Once that was done, she made me stick the ferns on giant leaves and tie them around myself to wear. Then, we set out to Moona's Nest. Moona had told me about where she lived but I never imagined so many birds. There were brown, white, gray and tan. It was awesome! 

Moona said, "Stop gawking around, you! You will draw attention!"

Just then, a bird came up to Moona and said, "Gla ba goo." 

Moona said, "Ba ba joo kx."

We kept walking. Once out of earshot, I said, "What did he say?"

Moona said, "He said 'Hi, who is that? She looks weird.' Then, I said, "She is Glosha."

I said, "We better hurry so you don't have to answer more questions."

Once we got to the top of the nest, we had to face two big guards. One said, "Who is that?" 

Moona said, "Do you really expect to know the whole colony?" 

Then they let us pass. Once we were in the top of the nest, we saw the chief. Moona said "Sa bo" and other blabberish. The Chief led us to the back room of the hallway (yes there are hallways in a nest). Inside, there were only a couple of chairs. "So," Moona said, "I will be the translator, so talk." 

I said, "Chief, I am a human," and took off my costume.

Moona translated. 

The chief said something and Moona said, "She wants to know why you are here." 

I said, "You and my chief have to have a meeting and end the war kindly all while keeping our friendship a secret."

"Hmmm," she said, "ok, but you have to warn your chief ahead of time."

I said, "Okay, Moona will come with you to my chief  so she can translate and I will prepare my chief. I will say to him that you birds might want a meeting with him."

Once we were out of the room, Moona said, "Let's meet really early tomorrow morning so that we can still have time to talk before the meeting."