From a crouching position along the opposite wall where he'd ended up in his terrified flight, Uuffi watched the spray thing for any more signs that it might move again. He'd never seen it upside down. He wasn't even sure that what he was looking at was indeed his spray thing. What if it wasn't? But then, it had been the spray thing when he'd seen it hanging under the sink. So, feeling somewhat braver because every feather was sticking straight out from his body, he finally started waddling slowly over toward it, keeping his wings ready to rescue him should it move again.
As he approached the floor in front of the sink, he suddenly stopped. Oh, no! He stared at the wet gloppy trail of his own poop he'd let loose when the spray thing had attacked him! He had never soiled Jozlyn's floor before. What would she say when she got back? Uuffi couldn't clean it up himself. If she came back and saw this--well, she just might go away again and never come back and then what would he do? Well, he could live with Traci and Pollyn. They liked him. But they didn't have a spray thing so he could take a bath with Traci.
A bath! That's what he'd come here to get--his spray thing, so he could take a bath with Traci. Uuffi waddled carefully around the trail of poop plop and approached the spray thing. After inspecing it from all angles, he decided it really was his real spray thing after all. Now, how was he going to pick it up, since it had landed upside down? Uuffi carefully considered this. When he tried to pick it up with his beak, it just scooted away from him.
"Uuffi!" A familiar voice startled him into a squawking jump. Jozlyn was just stepping out of a pottern in the middle of the room! A pottern is an energy construct or gateway that magin make when they want to teleport. Remembering his trail of messy poop, Uuffi shrunk his neck as far back into his body feathers as it would curve and looked imploringly up at his mistress.
Frozen in place, he watched as she swiftly deconstructed the pottern. Without moving, she studied him, the upside down spray thing--and then noticed the messy trail of poop. To his surprise, she smiled, sat down on the floor and patted her leg for him to go to her!
Immediately flying to her lap, he butted his head into her stomach as he peeped, "Uuffi sorry--Uuffi sorry--sorry--sorry--sorry--Uuffi bad."
He felt her hands gently scritch and pat him. "What happened, Uuffi? Did you want a bath? Is that why you tried to get the strainer down?"
Looking up at her, he peeped in his most piteous little baby voice, "Uuffi want bath--bath--spray thing attack Uuffi--bad spray thing--bad Uuffi--peep?"
"Oh, Uuffi, I bet you were awfully scared when that thing came off the hook and hit you." She patted him some more, then said gently, "You haven't been bad, Uuffi. I think that strainer scared you so much you didn't know what you were doing. Don't worry. I'll clean up the floor. It's okay, Uuffi. After I clean up the floor, then you can have a bath, okay?"
He butted her stomach again. "Uuffi want take bath--with Traci--with Traci--Jozlyn take spray thing--to Traci--to Traci?"
From the counter top where she placed him, Uuffi watched her clean up the floor. "Uuffi, why do you want to take a bath with Traci? Did she tell you that you could bathe with her? And what did Pollyn say about all this?"
"Pollyn say Uuffi drown--drown--Traci say get spray thing--get spray thing." He bobbed up and down as he watched her wash the rag in the sink.
"Okay, Uuffi. Let's take the strainer down to Craylan's quarters and we'll ask Pollyn if you can take a bath there. Maybe it would be better if Traci came up here and watched you take a bath."
"Jozlyn take spray thing--take spray thing!" He bobbed faster and then climbed up on her shoulder while she picked up the strainer. |