Their beauty, however, is not what makes them strange. Mr. Satin has a passion, and that passion is for all things blue. This passion gets him into trouble, so in his homeland, he is called by the locals "Jock the Thief." As a bowerbird, Jock lures females in for breeding by constructing a bower, or "love-nest hut." Jock contructs his bower with great care, weaving twigs and grasses into a narrow, arching avenue, fronted by a wide, flat apron. Females are attracted to the bower, where he mates with every one he can attract. Each female departs to raise her young alone, leaving Jock to maintain the splendor of the bower. Every day Jock patrols his bower, weaving and straightening, adding and tidying. But his bower MUST be decorated with blue, especially on the apron. Every day, Jock goes in search of more blue objects for the apron of his bower.
Before the advent of man, Jock collected blue parrot feathers, blue blossoms and berries, and the odd bluish pebble to display on his apron. Flowers wither, feathers fade, and berries rot or are eaten by other creatures. To keep his blues, Jock would have to work every day to weed out the faded blue things and bring in fresh, bright blues. People, however, make blue things, and they leave them out where Jock can see them. Jock, being a bright fellow, seizes every opportunity.
If you were a bird, what kind would you be?
Linke pondered this question for a few seconds, then scribbled a quick answer on the parchment:
A Satin Bowerbird.
Linke scanned her paper with satisfaction, adding a few notes to it. She got up from her cozy nook, and folded the parchment, shoving it into a large envelope.
A frizzy-haired, cocoa-skinned sixteen-year-old girl with attitude, Linke was the sister of the copper-rider J'om, renouned drummer. Linke didn't feel threatened by her brother's success; she herself had proved her worth with a scratchy singing voice and a poetic wit.
The reason the satin bowerbird was her bird of choice was for two simple reasons:
First of all, Linke was very much interested in picking up random tidbits of information that neither she, nor anyone else, had any use for except to add to the clutter in their brains. That morning, she had been reading a field guide to exotic birds, and had chanced to find the same silky-feathered bird that served as an excellent answer to the daily quiz.
Secondly, Linke loved the color blue. Ever since she had discovered the color (four years of age), Linke had painted her room and all her belongings in every shade she could find. She learned the word for blue in as many different languages as she could look up, and named all her pets with the words gleaned from her extensive search (among her many pets were a very large, white dog--doomed to Linke's "experiments" with blue hair dye--named 'Bleu," a small black cat named 'Azul', two blue budgies named 'Blau' and 'Blu,' and several blue fish that did not require names). When she moved out of her parents' house at the age of sixteen, Linke painted her entire house and all the inner rooms blue...
All her clothes were blue, and most of her makeup, as well as everything else she owned.
So it was to her immense delight to find a woman--bird, rather--who shared the same intensive love. She determined at once that if any man was ever to woo her, he would have to do so by providing all sorts of blue articles for her...
And now to Linke herself--or rather, her brother.
We find Linke in her brother's cathair...It is dawn.
Linke smiled with satisfaction as she entered J'om's bedroom. The lazy lunkhead was still asleep...but not for long.
"Hey, Jiom! Wake up!"
Jiom's eyes opened; he rubbed the dark brown orbs free of their sleepy haze.
"What is it?"
"You've slept through half the morning! C'mon! You're an apprentice drummer, remember? You can't afford to sleep in!"
Jiom shook his head to clear the confusion. "I had such a weird dream.." Linke shook Jiom's shoulder once more, and then left Jiom to his privacy, running out of his place and into the bright sunshine of Danach's double suns. Her bare feet slapped the warm flat rocks that surrounded Jiom's home; she climbed carefully backwards, down the short distance to the ground. Once safely on the ground--ugh! She hated heights!--she praised her steady hands and feet.
"Praise be, goddess," she murmured, and then crowed like a triumphant bird. She faced the double suns, Zar and Andial, and did a small dance, the rhythm starting in her feet and traveling upward to her head. She twirled in a circle, palms facing upward to the warm rays, and she began to sing a song that her brother had composed for her.
"Tell me love, how is it that you know my feelings?
Tell me truth, you quick-winged bird of ebony feather
I can never catch you, chain you, bind you in a cage
If I did I'd never see you dance in the heather
And if that were to happen, what would be the point of keeping you entrapped?
You would never sing again!
How could I force you to live in quiet servitude, never to be free, cuz of the vanity of me..
How could I..?
For now you can keep your knowing secrets
But beware of the cruel-hearted green-eyed demon inside
For if you would keep your secrets, and taunt me with them often,
How could I keep from locking you beside me..?"
Linke paused in the middle of the chorus; she had heard her brother return from his apprenticeship. His deep brown eyes melted sweetly, dreaming, no doubt, of the pale-as-snow, strange beauty Weetzie...as his sister watched, quietly giggling from a distance until Jiom heard her and chased her around the rocks.
"Jiom loves Weetzie! Jiom's in lo-ove!"
Jiom caught her, shaking her angrily.
"What? Why do you say that? Why would you say that? How did you know..."
Linke blinked, surprised at his outburst. Still, she retorted with her usual vigor-
"It's hard not to notice your dreamy moon eyes! They are sweet and longing, but at the same time, they burn with a passion untold, as hot as dragonfire."
Jiom let go of her, shocked, wondering, thinking out loud.
"Then why hasn't she noticed?"
He turned to his sister.
"Tell me that!"
"I d-don't know!" Linke trembled and cowered, thinking that maybe Jiom would hit her..but he didn't. He closed his eyes, and went to his room, slamming his door behind him. Linke stood carefully and slipped out of his home, closing the entrance quietly, and climbing down the rocks, scrambling for a hold in some places.