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in a nearby bird. There were birds
everywhere, and so tame. Their songs filled the air with music.
    As he listened, Jack began to
hear a different sound. A deep background noise that gradually got
louder as the source moved closer. It took a while for him to work
out what it was, but when he did, he couldn’t believe what he was
hearing. Without doubt it was the doof-doof-doof of bass notes
coming from a car stereo system.
    A car stereo? Here in the
distant past? It can’t be!
    Maybe he was getting crossover
signals from real time. But Chainsaw was getting something as well,
for his head was up sniffing the air.
    Then Fluoro spoke. “I think we’d
better check this out. Could be interesting.”
    Without waiting for a reply he
moved into the thick surrounding bush.
    Chainsaw looked up at Jack
asking if they should follow. Jack didn’t like the look of the
tangle of undergrowth in the bush, but nor did he like the thought
of being in this land on his own.
    He bent over and gave Chainsaw a
reassuring pat, before following Fluoro into the darkness.

Chapter 5
     
    Fluoro, Chainsaw and Jack made their
way through the forest heading for the strange sound. All the time
the doof-doof beat was getting louder. Soon they could make out
another noise like the honk of a cheap car horn. Doof honk, doof
honk, doof honk…
    They arrived at a clearing in
the forest. Now, more notes could be heard. Someone was whistling a
tune in time with the doof-honk rhythm.
    Fluoro stopped at the edge of
the clearing. “I think we’d better hide,” he said.
    The humans edged back into the
forest, but Chainsaw stayed in the clearing staring in the
direction of the sounds.
    “Get in here, Chainsaw!” hissed
Jack.
    The cat turned to him and
flicked his tail slowly a couple of times. He turned back to the
sounds.
    Across the other side of the
clearing, bushes began moving as some animal pushed through. The
booming bass beat was now causing Jack’s ears to throb.
    Then the source was marching
towards them.
    It was a moa!
    A very big moa. Probably taller
than Fluoro and Jack stacked on top of each other. That’s if it
ever stretched to its full height. Even crouched over in the
walking position it was as tall as any human.
    Jack shook his head in wonder at
the sight of the giant bird. It was much more impressive than any
models he’d seen in a museum. The feathers were well groomed and
more like hair than feathers. Its thick scaly legs could have been
those of a dinosaur.
    The most striking feature
however, was the S-shaped neck. The throat was a royal blue, so
deep a colour that it could’ve been face paint. The blue skin
bulged with each doof beat.
    The honking came from an animal
behind the moa, a giant goose as tall as the moa’s legs. While the
moa was marching to the beat, the goose was waddling, taking two
steps for each of the moa’s.
    Both were heading directly for
Chainsaw, who had crouched down to hide in the grass. When they
were almost upon him, the moa gave an extra long call, followed
quickly by two shorter notes: dooooof, doof, doof. Then it halted
so quickly the goose had to veer to the side or it would have
crashed into the moa’s legs.
    Chainsaw flattened himself to
the ground. Yet neither the moa nor the goose had seen him. They
stood there as if waiting for something else to happen.
    Jack turned to Fluoro. “Is this
real?”
    “Who knows?” replied the man
shaking his head. “Strange things can happen when you empty your
mind of all its clutter.”
    Before Jack could comment,
another bird flew into the clearing, filling the air with a series
of high-pitched whistles. When it saw the others had stopped, the
whistling changed to a loud croak, and it glided down to land on
the goose’s back.
    “Kaka,” whispered Fluoro.
    The kaka peered around the
clearing, then let out a call that sounded to Jack like “Pat!”
    “Yes?” While the answer came
from the direction of the moa, it was far squeakier than the big
bird’s