The classic song from which this event takes its name is chock-full of gifted birds, which is appropriate for today's gift to us, from our esteemed admin
Keep Looking.
Keep's notes: "Nokikana means coot in Finnish. The Eurasian coot is found across parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, including both my home and in Finland.
I hope you all don't mind I haven't written a poem this time! I wasn't in a particularly poetic mood, so you get to try my first shot at fanfiction instead."
Year 87, KeuruuKeuruu was a place of routines. Lalli liked routines.
He knew when he had to get out of bed and when he had to report to the scouting headquarters. He knew the different scouting routes, and how long he was expected to patrol for, and what food the canteen would serve when he got back.
Tuuri said Keuruu was boring and stifling. She wanted to see new and exciting places full of different people - like Reykjavik, wherever that was. Sometimes she would say these things when Onni was around, and they would start arguing. Lalli thought Tuuri was being stupid. Life was easier if he let the routines carry him from day to day, falling into a safe and predictable rhythm.
There were other rhythms in Keuruu too. Grandma had said it was important for mages to pay attention to the changing seasons and the cycles of living creatures. Keuruu was not Saimaa where the lakes and islands were endless, but the land was still alive here.
As summer approached and the days got longer, Lalli’s return route from second shift night scouting would take him by the lakeside just as dawn was breaking. Lalli would run the last few hundred metres back to the scouts headquarters to the squawks and honks of the waking waterbirds. Ducks, geese, even swans, and flocks of white-beaked nokikana.
Every May, the nokikana would make their scraggly little raft nests out in the reeds. Soon enough, the chicks would be out following their parents, their bright red and yellow heads like tiny flames on the water.
One time after Lalli had a night off, Tuuri woke him up from napping, insisting that he should “go outside” and “talk to people”. Lalli thought this was stupid, as he was perfectly happy napping. Still, he let Tuuri drag him to the canteen, where he picked at his food while Tuuri chatted to some other skalds. Afterwards, they went out to the lakeside. The nokikana were out on the lake with their chicks. Tuuri turned to Lalli with an excited look, like she’d just remembered something.
“You know Lalli, we have a book about birds here in Keuruu. It says that nokikana are found on three different old-world continents! You could travel thousands and thousands of kilometres away from Keuruu, and you might still spot them.”
“Mrr.” Lalli didn't really understand what Tuuri was so excited about. Of course birds were found in other places. Wasn’t that how birds worked?
“Lalli? Are you listening? Imagine all the places we could see nokikana… if only we could get out of Keuruu! We’ll make it someday, Lalli!”
Tuuri grabbed Lalli by the shoulders. Lalli twisted until he was free, and ran back to his room. Tuuri was getting weird. This meant that it was better to leave, or she’d start saying weird things around Onni again. Lalli was already seeing the nokikana here. Why would he need to see them anywhere else?
Year 91, SaimaaLalli was pretty sure this house was safe. There were no traces of trolls and everything was surprisingly tidy, despite being understandably run-down after nearly a century of abandonment. Maybe the owners had moved out before the rash had happened.
The others would be glad. It was very rainy. Emi was probably whining about his hair already.
Still, Lalli made sure to check the big chest of drawers in the main room. Sometimes small vermin beasts would nest in drawers and cupboards. Other times, they might have food or interesting items. Like the funny colourful cube Lalli had found in that strange old-world building with shelves full of small objects.
Unfortunately, the drawer only contained a strange, shiny piece of paper. It was coated in a transparent substance that was peeling at the corners. On one side was a picture of a nokikana paddling in an unfamiliar-looking lake. The other side had a message, slightly blurred by water damage and the wrinkling of the transparent covering.
Thankfully, most of the message was in Finnish.
“Dear Täti Lilja - Merry Christmas from Australia!”
Lalli paused. He was unsure what “Merry Christmas” meant, although he was sure that he’d seen it somewhere. Maybe. He would ask Emil about it later. He was also unsure of what Australia was, although he assumed it was some kind of foreign, old world country. Like “Singapore”. Tuuri had always gone on about some place called “Singapore”, after she’d found a booklet about it by someone called “Lonely Planet”. Apparently it had been a city full of old world technology, and travellers from other parts of the world could “fly” there. Lalli wasn’t sure how they were able to fly places. Tuuri had tried to tell him about old world cities and technology, but all Lalli knew from the photos in her booklet was that they were dangerous places full of tall buildings that probably had lots of trolls in them. Old world people were very stupid like that.
“My studies here have been going well, and I’ve made a few friends. The weather is very hot though! It feels strange to have warm weather at Christmas. December is still winter to me!”
Lalli considered this line carefully. He was not aware that months could be other seasons. Foreign countries were weird.
“There’s a nice lake near my accommodation, and I’ve been going for walks every weekend. I know you were probably wanting pictures of interesting Australian animals, but the nokikana feel like old friends, and I can’t help taking photos. They call them “coots” here, which I found funny. Still, it’s nice to see some familiar wildlife. It’s like a bit of home has followed me here.”
Lalli flipped the paper over again. He looked at the nokikana, paddling past a strange papery tree trunk that stood in the water. Even in a foreign country, it looked just like the ones in Keuruu.
Tuuri had wanted to see nokikana all over the world. Lalli wondered if she’d have been excited to see this picture. Lalli had thought that birds would be the same anywhere, but even some of the birds in Denmark had been different.
If souls were birds when the swan took them to Tuonela, Lalli thought that maybe Tuuri’s soul was the kind of bird that travelled to different places. It probably didn't work like that. Probably the swan just took the souls to rest, and nobody worried about what kind of bird they were. This felt like a stupid thing that Emil would say. Still.
Lalli carefully placed the picture back in the drawer, and ran outside to bring the others in.
…
Somewhere else, a small white bird flew above a strange looking lake. Travelling this far was probably risking her freedom a bit, but Tuuri had always thought that some things were worth the risk.
Besides, physical distance didn't matter so much in this form. As far as Onni knew, she was just scouting for him. She would return soon.
For now, Tuuri swooped over the flocks of nokikana that gathered on these distant waters. She heard the piercing whistle-call of odd-looking black ducks, and the warble of a small brown bird in the reeds. Trees with sheets of pale paper-like bark stood on the waters’ edge, and the swans among them were black instead of white. Even if their quest didn't work out, it was worth re-awakening just to see this place, where everything familiar was somehow new all over again.
