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Being a bird was miserable.
Perhaps if he’d been born a bird, Jamie wouldn’t find it so bad but he wasn’t born a bird. He was a true scot. A human scot. The only problem was no one would believe this nor even consider the possibility of him being not a bird but a man instead. Truly miserable.
As he perched himself high on the ceiling, uncomfortably away from sight of any guards, he watched the prisoners below wallowing in almost as much misery as he was. He’d been like them once. Scotsmen they were, true Highlanders. Most of them at least.
Jamie had been in a fight recently. He could still feel the effects of it even in his now small and feathery body. They’d been captured and locked in a cell with a bunch of others. Jamie and some other unlucky lad had been taken before some strange Englishman who needed them for some ‘tests’ as he put it and that’s when it had all gone wrong. More wrong that’s it already was. Jamie could barely believe what happened once these tests began as both of them were turned into small birds, much to Jamie’s own horror. Suddenly much lighter and faster than his captors, he managed to evade them and escape from their grasps, partially due to his own quick thinking. Jamie’s tiny heart raced the entire time as his escape was almost unsuccessful but he got lucky. His fellow captor was not.
“Leave him,” the Englishman had said. “He’ll come back in time. He’s nowhere else to go to.”
Oh aye? Well, Jamie would show him. He flew as fast as he could out the cracks of this place and over the hills and as far as he could go. It wasn’t until he was a good few miles that he realised the man was right.
How would anyone ever be able to tell he wasn’t actually a bird? Not to mention the problem of turning back into a man which seemed near impossible. Jamie imagined it was some kind of dark magic the Englishman used on him that caused him to be like this, but who around here would even know enough about that kind of stuff to be able to help him. Someone might but he couldn’t be certain. Not to mention there was the laird still locked up by those red coats as well as his fellow Scots. He couldn’t just leave them behind.
And so Jamie flew back and managed to get into the room that the laird, among others, was being kept in so that he could keep watch over their tired forms. Every so often he tried to get closer to them but wasn’t sure if the guards would know it was him and take him back to that awful magician who did this. He decided to be cautious about things.
Jamie wondered why it was a bird he a turned into. Perhaps it was because birds liked to sing and he was a piper but then again pipers didn’t sing, they played and birds couldn’t do that. They hadn’t any hands or arms for that matter. Not to mention the other man also became a bird. Perhaps he played music too but either way it was just too puzzling to Jamie. He couldn’t even tell what kind of bird he was. All he knew is he felt small.
Among the murmurs of annoyed Scotsmen, Jamie heard a familiar turn. It was being played out of what looked like a odd flute. Jamie watched its player a while, taking in the strange air that the man seemed to create with his rendition. The man was an Englishman but not like the rest that held them prisoner. He’d been walking in the hills with two others when they’d found them and he had promised to help the laird. Jamie wasn’t sure what to make of him. Something about him seemed unnatural but not in a scary sort of way. He was almost like a fae in the way his strangeness drew you in and his eyes seemed far older than they ought to. Jamie thought he didn’t quite seem fully English.
“Oh doctor would you quit that out,” said another man close to the doctor. He was English too and a sailor. “You’re making a dreadful noise.”
“Am I? I hardly noticed,” the doctor responded before continuing to play a different song.
Jamie did whatever the bird equivalent of smiling was in amusement at this, hopping closer. It wasn’t long before he found himself quietly joining in. It was strange at first but Jamie soon figured out how bird song works and treated it like playing his pipes, entwining it call with the soft music of the flute thing. The strange man stopped, looking around in both confusion and intrigue. No one else seemed to hear Jamie but this man. The doctor played again, scanning the area as he did so. Jamie sang again, hopping closer towards the man.
The doctor seemed positively delighted when he finally caught sight of him and even pointed him out to his companion.
“Look Ben, a blackbird! How wonderful”
“Marvellous doctor,” Ben replied with as much enthusiasm as a bucket in a storm.
The doctor walked closer to where Jamie peered down at them, his face coloured joyous warmth.
“Now then, how did you get here?”
“He’s probably just lost,” Ben said. “Old thing probably has a nest up in the loft.”
The doctor peered at the Jamie blackbird curiously, one hand rubbing over his chin making him very much cartoony.
“No, I don’t think so. He seems almost…” the doctor paused, carefully studying Jamie. “Ah, would you mind coming here please,” he asked the bird, holding out his hand.
Jamie hesitated.
“I won’t bite.”
The doctor smiled a big grin. Jamie felt less tense at that and shuffled a bit from side to side. It was almost like he could see through this disguise of Jamie’s and was asking him as a person rather than a scared animal. Perhaps even spoke to him as both. He flew down and landed on the doctors hand rather ungracelessly but the doctor made sure he didn’t fall. This finally caught some of the others notice who all looked either shocked or slightly confused.
“Well I’ll be,” said Ben.
“There we are,” said the doctor, his voice gentle towards Jamie, lest he fly off again. “So you can understand me then.”
Jamie perked up. His tiny eyes looked into those of the much bigger creature in front of him. He felt so small but not scared, not anymore.
“I thought so. You’ve been watching us for some time haven’t you?”
Jamie was surprised by this. He could have sworn he’d only been discovered recently. Had he really been watched by this man far before their little duet. The doctor chuckled at bit seemingly recognising his surprise. He read Jamie like a book and understood the bird’s unspoken responses which only made him all the stranger.
“Don’t tell me you speak bird too doc,” Ben pitched in. The doctor glanced at him in amusement.
“Not all birds have the same languages Ben. Besides, I didn’t have to. This one was singing a Scottish song. He’s a Jacobite.”
“What, a Jacobite bird? Give over doctor.”
“I’m being serious. He knew the song I was playing and sung along. He also seems to have been watching over his fellow Scotsmen.”
“He learned a song, so what?” Ben didn’t believe a word of this. Maybe if they were on another planet but this was an earth bird. He didn’t know them to be patriotic. “He’s just a plain old bird.”
“Nothing is ‘just’ anything Ben. Everything is unique in its own way.” The doctor turned his attention back towards his new bird friend. “Don’t worry, I know what you are. Now then, we may need your help. It seems you can get to places we cannot.”
Jamie wasn’t sure what he was going to have asked of him but anything was better than sitting doing nothing, helpless to protect his fellow highlanders.