She didn’t take too kindly to being left in her care when Tamura had to take this journey. She thought the woman was scary and strange and that she saw her in her dreams scaring her and threatening to cook her alive in a big saucepan on a big fire and eat her up.
Mara was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, following the death of her parents, and was not sleeping well and suffering from nightmares, which made her believe Mama Haga was out to hurt her. Tamura had assured her that she wouldn’t harm her if she tried and that her little mind was playing tricks on her. Tamura only managed to snap out of his thoughts when one of the men let out a thunderous snore and instantly Tamura covered his head to deafen the noise and he fell asleep from mental and physical exhaustion.
Chapter 5
The following morning, the yard was alive with the whole compound doing their usual chores, which surprisingly fell into place with very little said between them, and Tamura thought they worked like ants, organised and efficient.
The visitors sat around the big fire at the centre of the compound to have tea with some homemade rye bread and porridge before saying their goodbyes to head back home via the new route. Tamura’s uncle hugged him and wished him well and promised to visit soon if his aging legs permitted him.
Tamura suggested for his uncle to use a donkey to travel and he told him if he could afford one he would. Tamura almost felt sorry for him, until he remembered how lazy he was.
They hugged again and parted. At the king’s compound, the daily routine was underway. Leona was in high spirits, but she wasn’t sure why. Her mother noticed and enquired of her, “You are in a good mood today, sweetheart, what’s your secret?”
“Nothing, Mother, it’s just a lovely day today, isn’t it?”
“If you say so,” said Queen Eleaza reluctantly.
Leona started singing her favourite tune, “Somewhere over the rainbow…” Her mother thought, maybe Tamura was coming back today enough to make her daughter to be so high-spirited, but then again maybe not because it was too soon for them to come back yet. She shrugged her thoughts away and went back to her darning after calling on the king to see if he needed anything.
She knew he would ask the subjects if he did, but just to make sure he wouldn’t give her a moment’s peace if she chose to ignore his attention-seeking tactics, she told him, “I will be in the crafts room, darling, if you need anything.”
The king smiled. “Thanks all the same, dear, I have people around me all day to tend to me except if I need your special tender loving care,” he said, winking at her with a cheeky smile on his face.
Eleaza knew he needed to hear that whether or not he admitted it and added, “That’s perfectly all right, but like I said you know where I am.” She left, smiling and shaking her head.
Tyza burst into the crafts room, without warning to see his mother, and he knew exactly where to find her. He wouldn’t talk to her in front of the king whom he thought was too strict, but once he cornered his mother on her own, he could easily convince her to do anything.
He sat very close to her and put his chubby arm around her neck ever so gently like it would break and whispered, “Mother, would you and father mind so much if I brought a bird home to keep as a pet, please?”
His mother said, “I knew you were up to something, you know you can’t bring any live animals home, your father will have a fit, and anyway what type of bird are you referring to?”
“A grouse,” shouted Tyza, “it’s a poor old bird, lonely and all by itself in the woods, I found it with a broken leg. It can’t survive for long like this, the foxes will get at it!”
His mother rolled her eyes up and said, “Slow down, will you, you are hyperventilating, the way you are speaking so fast. And since when have you started caring for birds anyway? I thought you were their number one enemy, why the sudden compassion?”
“It’s a long story, Mother, can I keep it or not?” Tyza asked getting impatient.
“Ask your father, why me?” said Queen Eleaza.
“Ooh, Mother, you know he will only say no,” he sighed and left in a huff to go and ask his father. He had to brace himself to telling his father the embarrassing account of what another grouse had done for him and how much he owed the ‘grouse family’.
He felt his compassionate story would win his father over. His father wanted him to play less and concentrate more on his schoolwork. It worked! he thought as his father finally agreed to let him keep it after he gave an account of what had happened in the woods a few days before. He didn’t wait to see the king going into a fit of laughter as he hurried out of the lounge to go and make a cage for the new resident.
He quickly went to see one of the subject’s sons who helped him build a cage with mash wire and sticks; they stuffed the cage with soft hay and made it cosy for the sick bird.
The boy’s mother offered to treat the bird’s leg and bandaged it with a clean cloth and advised him on what to feed it on before putting it carefully in its new home. “You need to let it go or eat it when it’s mended. Birds of this nature don’t like living on
