The Lovebirds (2)

 The two lovebirds lifted from the tree and swung their wings swiftly in the direction Isang was leading. Along the way, they chatted about everything and everyone they saw. Up above the trees, the birds charted their course with their mental compasses. They were also guided by the sizes, heights and barks of trees; the unique colours like the flaming heads of some and the spaces indicating a valley, stream or even a path for motorized vehicles. Where smoke billowed or its smell was perceived showed nearby was a shack with a human occupant who was probably a hunter, someone setting traps or a gatherer of wild produce. The small spaces humans occupied were along the banks of streams. Isang and Iwang used to count them with the digits of one limb but currently, the picture was drastically changing.

With the time his brain computed they had flown, he was certain the imposing edifice he was looking for should just loom in the distance with its yellowish points this fruitful season. But a vast space ahead with broken tips of trees indicated Isang had travelled in the wrong direction. Or did he?

'Hold it,' Isang said, not believing his eyes. 'I hope I didn't travel the wrong way.' They alighted on the bough of a massive bush mango tree and he was peering around with consternation. The bush mango didn't bear this year as last year the rains, which normally stopped around the middle of October, fell till December; the harmattan - which scorches the leaves and makes them fall - was brief; most fruit trees couldn't flower well while the rain swiftly returned in February instead of March. Generally, fruit trees bore scantily this year. 'But I can remember,' Isang said, thinking hard, 'I mean, the grand high-rise wasn't too far from here.'

'Are you sure, the space ahead isn't an indication,' Iwang uttered, 'of its destruction?'

'Hold it,' Isang replied, 'let me check.'

Isang flew towards the space as Iwang waited for him. He whiled away the time watching a scaly anteater clambering on a nearby network of creepers.

Isang wheeled over and over the spot to be certain the debris scattered all over the place down below wasn't that of the high-rise he was looking for. He returned to Iwang, shaking his head furiously.

'Thank Goodness, I didn't bring my woman straight off to this point. I would've been brutally wounded with shame. The five-star hotel is gone. They bombed it to bits!' Isang said.

Just then a motorized vehicle was heard chugging towards them. The two parrots glanced at each other and decided to follow the sound to see what was going on. They lifted and flew away.

Three dry seasons ago, Isang had been travelling with a large pack of lovebirds to feast in the area as it was replete with goodies. He stopped travelling with the pack when he got engaged. So with what he had just seen and heard, he was curious. Who tore down in a day what the mighty artisan - nature - erected in several hundred years?

More distance covered showed more edifices had gone down, the debris with diverse colours strewn the floor of the forest. The roofs were broken, their logs ready as fuel. Some already had been burnt with patches of stunted crops occupying the vacuum. The transition was quick and massive.

With shock Isang had led the way and Iwang had followed and they drifted past the motorized vehicle which actually was a tractor that had stopped in a huge clearing near enormous stacks of timber and there were young hefty men standing around to load them into the bucket of the tractor. As the two advanced, they were being greeted with more humans and the sound of various equipment which sawed and carted away bulk of the debris of the magnificent high-rises innumerable birds and animals used to lodge and dine in.

Miles and miles of where they found more humans were once where the monkeys, baboons, deer and buffaloes used to roam freely in the day and at night, the flying squirrels, porcupines, bush babies and wildcats.

As more swathes of cassava, plantain and bananas greeted their eyes, Iwang said: 'What are these guys up to? It seems they want the monkeys and grasscutters and we and their chickens to hobnob together. It's sad!'

'Sad indeed!' Isang replied.

Flying into the human enclave was a trek as flying through the jungle was a leisure ride. They had to stay high up in the air and flew long distances as it seemed anything less would bring missiles landing on their backs. They had drifted into a large plantation dotted with one crop, palm trees. The ravens streaked through them and kites and vultures wheeled above the adjoining human hamlet looking for lizards, chickens and carcasses to steal. It was the first time Iwang had reached a human habitation though he had heard so much from other lovebirds about humans. His eyes popped out. They were sitting on a palm frond near where the motorized vehicles were offloading their bulky goods from the jungle.

'There is no harm in taking out the mammoth trees. But let the small  ones grow to fill their spaces. But these guys just seem to take the big wood, clear off the small ones and then burn them. In the ensuing clearing, they plant their cassava, corn and vegetables on their plots ...'

'I had said it before and would say it again: it seems they want the wild animals and their domestics to be on the same level,' Iwang cut in, laughing.

'This is no laughing matter,' Isang said.

'What else do you want me to do?' Iwang asked a rhetorical question.

'Um. Then a few years after, they would phase out plantain and bananas and plant oil palm trees or cocoa. How many animals and birds would survive on one or two diets all their lives?'

While sitting on the palm frond, Iwang was quite observant. Based on what a lovebird which had escaped from a human cage had told a lovebird and that one had told another and the rumour had spread to every other lovebird in the wild, Iwang wanted to see if the rumour and his observation would add up.