Bird's Eye View

A Pixilated Woodpecker, satiated with rubyberries, noticed the new tree out by the water. There were the funny-looking animals milling around the base of the large tree, but they were far too big to worry about. (He was more worried about animals about the size of a cat or hawk, to whom a woodpecker might provide a tasty meal.) He flew unsteadily from the trunk of a rubyberry tree to the basket-like structure near the top of the new tree. He was king of the woodpeckers now, as he was at least ten yards higher than any of the other woodpeckers. Time to advertise for a mate. He drummed into the trunk of the new tree. No sap, darn it. And it had lost its bark. But there had to be bugs here somewhere. He drummed the trunk again and again. He was about to give up when a female woodpecker flew to the perch. The male thought about how to impress her. He looked down at the hull. There had to be some of the tasty little crawling creatures at the waterline of the trunk. He remembered stumbling on them at one time, amongst the rocks. So he confidently flew down and clutched a plank of the hull, right by the waterline, and started exploratory taps. After a few drumming sessions, he found one of the tiny crabs that he was looking for. A delicacy. The female had flown down, and saw the crab in the male's bill. She opened her bill. The gallant male fed her the crab, and then drummed on the keel of the ship, looking for more food.

Naturally, the other Pixilated Woodpeckers heard the drumming, and a few of them flew over to see what was happening.

"Ya know, they'd pay good money for thish back home," said Louise.

"Yeah," said Sigourney. "Let's give Captain Haljon a surprise. He's sucha nishe guy. Let's pick a crate of these!"

"Good idea! Let's do two!" added Thelma.

And so the three women walked back toward the ship to pick up some empty crates. They started picking the rubyberries. Their progress was not as fast as it could have been. There was some loss due to woodpecker theft. There was a slightly greater loss due to the women nibbling on them. And still more time was lost as the women lost their focus as they got more and more tipsy. But eventually they enclosed three crates of rubyberries, and placed these in the hold of the ship. Some of the woodpeckers took an interest.

Very shortly after the rubyberries were loaded, the captain and his crew had returned and started loading the water casks. It was at this point that the captain noticed that something was amiss.

1. The women seemed to be quite unsteady and uninhibited, as if they had gotten into the rum.
2. There were some woodpeckers drumming. Nothing unusual, but something did not seem quite right about the direction from which the drumming was coming.

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