“I’m not food!” said McCluskey. “I’m not tasty at all. In fact I’m not even edible!”
“I fancy a salad,” said the condor, now at the side window.
Wow! thought McCluskey. It must be this magnetic storm. Everything’s gone haywire - even this bird’s eating habits!
“You’re in luck!” said McCluskey, throwing a lettuce out. The condor swallowed it whole.
“Got any more?” asked the condor.
“Err.. yes, I think there’s another one...” said McCluskey, knowing in fact that he had about three hundred lettuces on board.
“Any more?” said the condor again, after swallowing the second lettuce. “Got any dressing?”
McCluskey located his emergency bottle of vinegar, happy to cater for the bird as long as it remained vegetarian.
McCluskey fed lettuces one-by-one to the condor, which took a swig of vinegar in between each of them. Eventually the condor said it was full. McCluskey was relieved to see that there were still about two hundred lettuces left - maybe it would be enough.
“What’s for pudding?” said the bird.
“Don’t look at me like that!” said McCluskey anxiously. “I’m not sweet! Not sweet at all, rather bitter in fact!”
“I can smell something sweet,” said the condor.
McCluskey knew what it was. It was a bar of luxury yak milk white chocolate, the Emperor’s favourite, which the Chef of the Imperial Kitchen had added to the lettuce order.
“I can’t smell anything,” bluffed McCluskey.
“It’s a sweet, buttery kind of smell,” said the condor.
McCluskey made sniffing movements with his short snout and said, “No. I can’t smell anything like that.”
“Can I have it?” said the condor.
“Have what?” said McCluskey.
“The white chocolate!” said the condor, lifting one of it’s big feet from the landing ski to stretch it’s talons, causing the blimp to rock again.
The Chef is not going to be very happy about this! thought McCluskey, reaching for the chocolate, but then there was a loud bang and the blimp shook as the condor suddenly took off. The air was now full of bursting fireworks, and McCluskey saw the condor flying off into the distance, where it disappeared behind a mountain.
As the impromptu firework display continued, McCluskey, fearing for his life, tried the joystick again and found he could steer the blimp. Using all his pilot’s instincts he dodged the rockets, aerials, cherry bombs,
chrysanthemums and peonies that exploded all around him.
The fireworks display went on far a few minutes until climaxing with a huge explosion that knocked McCluskey to the floor of the basket and threw the blimp out of the Chilly Peaks mountain range altogether.
To be continued
© David Severn
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