58
Billi is chased away
First, Kotwal had turned up suddenly.
He seemed to have come to the mango tree ahead of Billi. How had he done that? Did
Kotwal know that Billi would come here? And how come that Billi could keep
thinking so much even when he was jumping. And why was he in his jump for such
a long time? Why had he not landed? He kept searching for solid ground to land
on. There wasn’t any to be found below his feet. He seemed to have gone over a
low ridge, and found himself in a leap that covered a lot of distance, most of
it downwards, before landing very badly, injuring himself some more. He tumbled
along for some more distance, over very sharp stones that hurt him badly. When
he sat up, he seemed to have come down very close to the village. Yes. It was
indeed his village, and those seemed to be same dogs that had chased him in the
morning. Billi ran again, back into the village, to hide from the dogs.
Up in the ridge, Kotwal reported back
to Teetiri and all the other birds. The dogs seemed to be only ones who loved
Billi. They were running after him, barking loudly and chasing him all around
the village, Kotwal said. Their plan had succeeded. Teetiri had led from the
front, like a true leader, keeping to herself the final dangerous part. Billi
had thought that Teetiri was at a nest, while she had actually been sitting at
the very edge of the high ridge. And as Teetiri had predicted, Billi would have
become very desperate by the time he had failed to catch the jungle bush quail
or the sparrows. He had jumped to try and catch Teetiri, but had actually
jumped over the fifteen feet ridge, and landed inside the very village that he
had come away from, to escape the dogs.
