The Lost Feather

It had been found and now it was lost, sold to the highest, mortgaged to the hilt, pawned out of existence and taxed in perpetuity.

Found in the night, lost in the haystack, sold for a penny, used as collateral, used as a battering ram, sawn off, picked up and dusted off, then blown upon by a delicate breath. Small movements.

The feather, a feather duster sans pareil, dustless in its velvet casing, shining as if illuminated from within, supporting a tiny self-charging led bulb. LED standing for lighter end down, nestling in its compartment of showcase. Under glass, under lyme, under the weather, under the table with the children and animals of company.

The YBK and entourage, now inclusive of Harpy, limping on one wing dramatically, arrived at the mid-morning outside the village of.

Don’t come any closer, I hit you with my stick, but so far only in the eye of my mind, came a young voice, how can you tell?

Come out from your hiding, said the YBK, I am bound to fall in love with you by and by.

What presumption is this, cried the Judge’s Daughter, I beg to differ, I shall hit you with my stick twice as hard now.

Sheba, standing forward, said, We have come, fine and powerful girl, at the behest of this splendid Harpy,

The Harpy spread her wings and showed a feather shaped gap where there should be continuous.

She has lost a precious feather without which, etc. you get the picture, continued Sheba, In her feathers are recorded all the design history of man and women kind, made to deliver, for all time, a digital data base and historical record. A bit like Finterest but with a historical ordering anyway. She has the only record as she cannot be digitise, being mythical and invisible to most social media outlets.

She, here Sheba gestured towards the Harpy, who had begun to preen the remaining, Tells us that if the feather is not restored to its rightful, why then it will fade like an old photo that has been left on the pavement in the sunlight and its glory will be lost for eternity.

How do I know this to be true, said the Judge’s Daughter? I found it whilst rambling from over there to here, is it not a fact or fiction that finders keepers and losers weepers?

Let us not return to the playground from which you have obviously only just graduated, continued Sheba. There is an order to be upheld here. Can we find some reward that will compensate for the handing over of this treasured artifact?

Turning to the Sphinx she said, Help me out here, I’m getting nowhere.

I suppose, said the girl, in the voice of I’m considering this, I suppose that I would consider my own weight in gold and jewellery things in exchange for the feather, I’ve read in a story that that is a thing. Do you have much gold and jewellery about your company?

This girl is harder to deal with than I expected, said the YBK, She drives a hard bargain, are all young women so bargain orientated, I had hoped that she may require saving all the time?

She do not, said Sheba, this is but another fiction made by men to bolster their egos.

We do not currently have two copper cents to rub together, said Sheba, but my accomplice here, here she indicated the monumental presence of the Sphinx, knows where all the gold, treasure and jewellery of various piratical pirates is hidden, dug down in pits of ingenious trickery to ensnare the innocent treasure seeker.

Perhaps we could tempt you to a flight upon our tapis volant, which it says on the safety blurb, can only take six, but has regularly carried an army or two, to a lost Caribbean island to find the hidden stuff there.

Sound interesting, said the girl, is the oaf in the blue armour coming with.

I’m afraid that we have been given responsible for his wellbeing, said Sheba, so he is a fixture, yes.

Ok then, said the girl, let’s go.

Wait there just, said the Harpy, As this quest has a time constraint, the health and colour of the feather will begin to degrade soon. May I suggest that I take care of it during the negotiations and gold rummaging escapades. If I swear upon my wings to honour the outcome?

You’re not coming with?

No, I’m afraid of heights.

The YBK sidled up to the girl with a stick, shield up in case of stick encounter and said, I could lend you a sword if you like, do you have any experience with edged weapons?

I’m well practised with this stick, said the girl, is sword any different?

It is more pointy in nature, but the sword also has a choppy thing going on, think wood chopping or vegetables, said the YBK, swishing his sword in what he thought might be an impressive manor.

Are you suggesting that I should spend more time chopping vegetables, pigeon holing me as a kitchen slavey. Said the Judge’s Daughter or JD from now.

What is a slavey? said the YBK, I’ve not come across.

That is neither here, said JD, put your swishy sword away and lets go, Ill be taking my stick.

Let us went, said she Sphinx to Sheba and the Thread, these two young people are lost to us, but we have a task that must be filled. I shall takes us to the red cross on the map where the treasure is rest.

They flew away