Peeko's Day Out

The cabin is a uniform sandy tan mixed with knots of brown throughout the well used wood panelling. A relatively simple room, a door to the outside deck and a proper bed with linen sheets and everything against the wall. People told her linens weren't the best thing to take on a seafaring vessel, something about molding from the moisture, but there was no way she was going to sleep on... straw...

There's a special table against the wall opposite the bed with a large wooden birdcage and a handmade perch. Random sticks and knarled branches fastened together with wooden dowels, string and a glue made out of sap, stone dust, and... 'animal byproducts.' The birdcage had a makeshift birdbath made out of a carved bucket with sloped edges and a little staircase down into the water. Although it was empty right now.

Kashika was trying to put Peeko's special little hat on his special little head. He twitched and tried to duck out of it at first before she managed to hook the string underneath his chin and secure his fate. She crunched down with her hands on her knees bringing her face level with his. “Awww... look at you. You look so cute!” She cooed at him. His beady eyes blinked as he cocked his head slightly to the side at her voice as if to say,

“Really...?”

Kashika stood back up again and gave Peeko a scratch on the cheek. His eyes rolled back into his head it felt so good. But her fingers trailed away from him as she began moving away.

“Be a good boy, Peeko” Kashika said, turning and sauntering out of her cabin. Peeko watched as Kashika began conversing with a crewman outside. The door clicked closed.

Peeko fluffed himself up and shook all over. He scratched at the hat with his left foot but couldn't quite get a grip. He twisted, shook, tilted upside down, tried throwing the hat off with sheer body force. Until finally he had it in his beak. Rearing back and to the left he flung the hat as hard as he could at the tabletop. It bounced once and slid to a short stop. Peeko glared down at the hat, making sure his assassination was successful, burning his hatred into it's stupid hat soul. Inducing a fear into it that would stir it awake in the coldest, deadest of hat sleeps for a thousand hat lifetimes. Which was around 17 bird years or until Peeko forgot.

He tapped his beak against the perch and looked up to the morning sunlight filtering through the cabin window before squeaking and flapping over to the narrow windowsill. Climbing himself up the soft wooden wall to the latch he flicked it a couple time with his beak until it popped open. He climbed back down and pried the door open slightly with his foot, squeezing his well fed body through the narrow opening and fluffing himself up on the other side. Shaking his head and ruffling his feathers from the uncomfortable feeling of squeezing through the window. Bright sunlight made him squint and blink a few times before his vision adjusted.

There's a ship in front of his view, a small merchant type vessel. Just large enough for two or three people to live and work on. Below him is the clear green water, a few stray kelp swaying in the harbour waves. There was some kind of lichen like creature stuck to the stone walls beneath the waves. Whitish, craggy shells and an exposed sucker mouth puckering every few seconds when the tide washed over them. The walkway that stone supported was clean for the most part, a few bits of stray gravel here and there and a cat that sat on the raised perimeter ledge staring and meowing at Peeko.

The walkway was bleached from the sun but there were still faint hints of its original tan colour peeking through. It was a rough aggregated surface that had seen as many footsteps as fish guts. One part of it had small, hairline cracks forming. Perhaps from age or a heavy, drunken impact sometime in the past. The walkway met up with a larger street lined with railings, ropes and unlit lanterns. Other walkways were arranged neatly on both sides of this street, some with docked shis, some without.

The lanterns were little more than wooden poles with a housing for an animate crystal penny blossom with plants enclosure filled with a little dirt. Their bioluminescent petals, leaves and stamen pruned and cultivated for maximum glowiness when the sun went low. The top of the lanterns coated in black, sometimes with the shameful tarnish of bird poo. Railings were moulded right out of the poured stone. A repeating archway pattern with a flat top wide enough for an obese cat to nap on without fear of falling into the water in its sleep. Looking around other parts of the port it appeared this was a well tested hypothesis.

Ropes were tied to riggings built right into the pavement. Unused ones were bundled while others were connected to their requisite docked ships. Some of the ropes seemed freshly wound whereas others looked frayed and destitute. The street connected to the main road of the port. A bustling shanty market whose sole purpose was to scam tourists or crew into paying more for something they could've gotten at the main shops. The price difference being the cost of 'convenience' they would say, and sometimes they were right.

Peeko cocked his head down at the cat who was now licking it's paw while glaring at him. It was a dark brown cat with jagged chocolate stripe markings. It's eyes were almost the same colour as Peeko and it was missing a couple whiskers on it's left side. It's paws had a noticeably lighter shade of brown and a dark chocolate splotch right in the middle of the 'wrist.' It's tail was fwipping back and forth lazily. It was probably very warm sitting there under direct sunlight. Watching Peeko but also watching the water opportunistically for tiny fish taking shelter from their sea and airborne predators amongst the docked ships. The water was more than a foot below the level of the walkway, unless the cat planned on going swimming, it wasn't getting anything from there.

A loud splash was the answer. The cat dove deep into the water, scattering the many fish that had been previously bobbing along nonchalantly. The cat wriggled a little, hidden in a cloud of bubbles racing towards the surface. The light dancing off of the objects under the ripples distorting what Peeko could see. Then the cat twisted and awkwardly paddled it's way up to the surface with something in it's teeth. Bits of red were flowing in a thin stream from its mouth, mixing in with the clear water. The cat's head popped above the surface, the fish in it's mouth thrashing violently, twerking the cat's head this way and that with the force, but the cat wasn't in a hurry to let go. It grabbed the craggy stone surface with it's claws and slowly grappled it's way up the side, struggling slightly to keep from falling back in or lose the fish from it's full body convulsions. But within a few seconds it put one paw, then the other, on top of the raised stone edge of the walkway and climbed ashore again. Dripping wet and probably refreshingly cooled off.

It threw the fish on the ground with a sudden fling of it's neck, revealing the haemorrhaging punctures and rips in it's side. It continued thrashing and flopping but the cat held it down with it's right paw and smacked it in the face repeatedly with it's left like it owed it money. Continuing until the fish stopped thrashing. The cat wiped it's head with both paws to get stray drops of water out of it's eyes. Licking them afterwards. The fish twitched again, but a few more solid bats to the head made it motionless.

Peeko decided that he didn't want to witness what was going to happen next and flew off while the cat ripped off it's first chunk of meat.

The little bird glided over the stone and wood town on a good breeze coming off of the ocean that pushed him lazily onward. Below him people were scattered here and there between the interweaving streets. The buildings were mostly the same height, made of a uniform tan stone similar to the docks. Wooden supports and awnings of various craft darted past underneath his eyes.

He landed on a rooftop and waddled towards the edge to take a look at the bustling but narrow street below. People of all ages carrying cloth bags, leather sachels or wooden boxes of various sizes. Some women sitting at a cafe talking. Dressed in loose fitting whites, browns, reds, yellows and most other colours of the rainbow. Blouses, dresses and leggings of various lengths and cuts designed for the heat in more than one way for some. A kindly old elderly waiter brought drinks and a plate of breads and sauces for one table. One of the girls was a bit more expressive than the rest, flailing her arms in the air and bouncing in her seat in excitement. One of the other girls sighed in embarrasement at her friends antics while getting playfully shook by another friend as the waiter pointed to someone else in the cafe. Peeko wished someone would give him some bread. But Kashika would probably make him do tricks for it.

Peeko looked to his left towards an intersection connecting to a wider and more well taken care of road. Lot's of carts, lots of big animals pulling the carts, lots more people. It looked like that road was mostly for travel, very few shops were set up on it's sides. Although some enterprising people had found places to set up makeshift vendors with their carts, usually selling things on sticks to hungry travellers.

Seeing nothing of bird-interest down there Peeko flapped to the edge of another nearby building, clicking his tongue and mumbling thoughtfully. The wind ruffled his feathers and he squawked annoyedly when some dust got in his eye. Peeko hopped to a window ledge below him. There was a proper tiled awning below the ledge where he could see people gathered in the shade. He watched one person leave with a small basket of fruit. He couldn't tell what fruit it was but fruit is fruit and he's hungry from all the flying. Peeko's small avian brain reasoned that if the person walked out from under the awning with fruit then perhaps the fruit came from under the awning itself. Flapping to the upper part of the awning he slowly inched his way down, listening for any signs of threatening humans.

Reaching the edge safely he slowly tilted his body over the awning to look underneath. Gripping his claws into the softer tile edging and hanging upside down he twisted awkwardly left and right and saw the coast was clear. He reached for a support rod for the awning with his beak and pulled himself, upside down, to it. With a short flap he got himself on top of the support. There were a number of bins, boxes and baskets arrayed before him. Most of the contents were foreign but one small crate was full of something Peeko recognised. Strawberries.

He clicked his beak and twitched his head back and forth wondering if he should risk it. So delicious but so dangerous. He tapped his beak on the support anxiously making incoherent mumbling noises. With one more tonguey click he decided and flew down to the space between the crate and another basket. It would be hard to describe what was going through the little birds head when he made this restless decision but the closest translation from Peekonese would be, “Fuck it.”

Peeko knows the humans will be back, they always come back. Slowly reaching his red beak out to grab one of the knotted wicker weaves of the basket to pull himself up, he kept a sharp lookout in the corner of his eye. Peeko poked his head above the basket to see a massive pile of juicy strawberries.

He pulled himself upright to sit on the basket edge, fluttering his wings to keep balance. Eyeing the one he really wanted Peeko plodded across the pile. Grabbing it just in time to hear the owner clomping back into the room. His gait that of someone who should really eat more berries. Or less, depending how you looked at it. The owner clumsily dashed at him growling and waving some kind of wooden scooping implement. He's seen Kashika wave one around like this too, but never at him. It was at a human male...

"I didn't do it!" Peeko squawked, gripping his tasty red booty with his foot and flapped as hard as he could, mimicking the man in his memory. "Wasn't me!"

Peeko was too quick, with a few more flaps he was out of the store completely. Bystanders were laughing and pointing at his caper as the store tender chased fruitlessly behind. He headed upwards towards a ledge underneath the roof overhang of the building across the street. In the shade no less. landing one footed with a little awkward plop on the wooden beam with his berry safe in the other.

The shop keeper was growling at him from below waving that wooden thing at him. Peeko slowly raised his foot to his mouth and took a savoury bite of the forbidden fruit. Staring directly at the human as juice dribbled down his chin. The former owner of the juicy strawberry imagined the bird was mocking him in only the way a non-sentient, colourfully winged rat could. “Yeah I got your strawberry, guy. Oh my god, mmmm, the strawberry's so goo-d. Oh my god look at it, it's all over my face. Oh yeah, that's good strawberr-y. I'm eating this strawberry that I didn't even pay for right in front of you. Mmm I'm taking another bite, just think about all the berries my dirty bird feet walked all over to get this delicious strawberry that I didn't pay for. You don't know where these feet have been, I don't even know where they've been, and you'll never know how many I walked on. Maybe I pooped in some too, think about that while I take another bite of this delicious... free... strawberry. Mmm it makes it taste so much better knowing that it's stolen.”

The shopkeeper stormed back inside in disgust. Everyone else was smiling and looking at Peeko, chatting to each other, laughing. They knew what he did, they knew.

The stem, nothing but nibble marks, drops at his feet and rolls off the ledge to the street below hitting some girl in the head as she passed. She annoyedly brushes her hair wondering what it could be and is disgusted to find it's the remains of an eaten berry. Peeko doesn't care. Peeko's going flying somewhere else. A hop, flap and a squeak and he's off. Keeping himself below roof level to avoid more annoying wind gusts.

After zigzagging through a few streets he spots piles of shiny on the ground. His heart skips a beat. He soars past entranced by the glimmer as it shifts and dances in the sunlight. All time seems to stop in his mind as he watches one of the men sitting in the alley in a circle throwing something around. The man grabs a shiny and tosses it into a pile in the middle. It twists and twirls in the air, glinting off of every facet. The clink of it hitting the pile snaps Peeko out of his trance. He sees a wall in front of him and narrowly swerves to avoid it. Getting his bearings and his brains back he decides he wants to get closer to investigate. He lands on another roof above the men. They've got piles of the same shiny gold disks that Kashika always has around. One beside each of them and another between them all.

He flutters to the ground and watches from a distance as they throw around other objects on the ground. Sometimes one of them gives a gold disk or two to another man. Peeko is entranced by every glint and sparkle. He thinks Kashika is too, maybe that's why she collects shinies herself. The men spot Peeko and he freezes, not sure what they're going to do. But they seem friendly and motion at him, talking amongst themselves. He recognises some of the sounds but doesn't know what they mean. But when they put a disk down near Peeko and ask him to come closer he has to at least be polite. But he's also scared, he doesn't know these humans. Every time one of them twitches he flutters off to a safe distance. But they don't chase him or do anything else scary so he waddles back slowly. One of the men pushes the disk further towards Peeko, he figures they must be giving it to him, It's so shiny. He walks up to it and sees his own reflection. He's a pretty bird.

He taps his beak on the coin, getting a close look of every detail he can. Lifts his head and wonders what he should do. Well... there's only one thing that makes sense. He grabs the disk awkwardly in his beak, bracing it with his tongue. and flies away. One man yells at him and the rest laugh. He flies back to the port, Overtop of the fishing cat, it's sound asleep next to the mostly fleshless skeleton of it's prey. Back to the still open port window. He squeezes himself back inside and lays the disk on the sill. He pushes the window closed as best as he can and climbs up the soft wood frame to grab at the latch. He stands on it with his full body weight and bounces a couple times to set it like he always does. Climbing back down Peeko grabs the disk and flutters back over to his perch. He lays the disk on the perch base, it will make a nice ornament for him. Kashika comes back in and sees his hat on the table and the gold disk. “What's this...?” She wonders aloud, When she gets closer to see what it is Peeko feels pride in her noticing his new ornament. “You were a good boy weren't you Peeko?” She pats his head.

Then she picked up the disk and walked away.

She took his shiny.

Peeko was agast. His chest was puffed out, his head reared back and his wings were slightly ajar with a flurry of confused emotions filling his head. Best translated into one word.

“Bitch...”

Written by @terraset
Illustrations by @spudfuzz

2017

Authors Notes:

This was a short story I wrote as practice back in 2017 for a convention. It's set in the Strawberry Riot universe but is non-canon. I noticed that the only copies I have of it are all on paper and I thought I should probably upload it. Back then I struggled a lot with wanting to write anything at all and in my opinion this work came out not horribly but probably could've been better. Which is nice because it gives me a bar to measure my future work with. I have a few new projects that I've started working on that will be posted to Steemit. In my opinion my skill has improved since writing this and I hope I can post things people will enjoy reading.