Chapter 2: A Talking Parrot

Janara went quickly to the stairs between the many guests in the bar room of her hotel, in order to attract no attention. Attention usually was very dangerous in cities like Djel and she knew that.

Without problems she reached the other side of the room and went up the stairs. In her small room she placed the cage with the saved bird on the table and opened its door. Slowly the parrot came out and then fell down exhausted. He was obviously too weak to move around further. Janara quickly removed the cord around his beak and got water from a jug. Carefully she gave the bird something and waited for a reaction. But what happened now she had not expected. The bird looked at her and said, weakly however clearly, "Thanks!" Then he took the cup and drank the remaining water.

Janara's eyes widened at the sight, but the curiosity finally triumphed.

"Are you enchanted?"

"Not that I know", answered the bird. "Oh boy, am I hungry! I need food. I had nothing for days!"

Now that she had talked a little with the parrot Janara was no longer surprised about his intelligence. As a sorceress she had already seen many strange things in her life, and therefore this bird was no big miracle for her anymore.

In order to help the hungry bird Janara went to one of her bags, got a small bag and strewed some brown tubers on her hand. Casually she said:

"By the way, I'm called Janara."

"I am Iago", the red parrot introduced himself. "Is that Yukuma root?"

"Yes, how do you know that?", she asked surprised. Only sorcerers knew these roots, and they could hardly be distinguished from normal ones.

Iago only shrugged.

"I worked together with a sorcerer, Jafar, for a few years. I've learned a thing or two in that time. But how do you know it and what do you want to do with them?", he now asked distrustfully.

"I am a sorceress and the roots will strengthen you. I'm afraid you are still too weak to be able to digest real food. We should be careful."

"You are a sorceress? Aren't you called witches?"

Janara sighed. Nearly everyone who met her asked her that. But there was an important difference.

"Witches depend on herbs, lucky charms and other magical articles to be able to do magic. Sorceresses get their magic like sorcerers from within themselves or from the environment. You should have known that, as a former pet of a sorcerer. And now eat the roots!

But Iago would not stand for that.

"I was not his pet! And I will certainly not eat these roots. I know exactly that they are poisonous!"

"But not if the roots are dried. Why would I want to poison you at all? For you I just sacrificed all of my money!", Janara tried to calm him down. But Iago didn't look very convinced.

"You must eat them, otherwise you'd starve nevertheless. Please believe me, I don't want to harm you. You can trust me."

He had had too many bad experiences to trust strangers that easily, but for some reason Iago believed her. Hesitating he took the brown pieces of plants and pushed them into his beak. Then he swallowed them with the water the girl had gotten a while ago. Immediately he was a bit better.

Iago stretched carefully and noticed only now how bad he actually felt. Every movement hurt and he was terribly tired. As he turned he saw his prison from outside for the first time. The cage was full of feathers he had lost, and he couldn't believe how he had been able to bear living in this narrowness for so long.

But the cage suddenly reminded him of the evening when he had been locked up there.

"Cassim! I must find him!", he called upset and got ready to fly away. But Janara was faster and held him down gently.

"Calm down. You're still too weak to fly. Who is Cassim and what has happened?"

"He is my friend and he was captured. I must find him before something happens."

"Mmh. Perhaps I can help you if you tell me more", said Janara calmly. "Who caught him and when?"

"It was about one week ago when we arrived in this city. Because of a sandstorm we couldn't ride further, and so we went into a tavern. Many dangerous looking men sat in there. I told Cassim we should leave, but he wouldn't listen to me! He never listened to me! We were surprised of a few men who grabbed Cassim and bound and threw me into the cage. Then they beat him down and I was locked into another room. They captured him because... because... " He hesitated. "I don't know why!"

Just in time Iago had interrupted himself, because he didn't want to tell Janara that Cassim was the King of Thieves. Perhaps she wouldn't want to help him any longer, and although he would've never admitted it he knew that he needed her help.

But Janara noticed his hesitating. She decided however to pretend not having noticed it. Perhaps Iago would tell her everything later, when he trusted her enough. Or if it became necessary. In any case she wanted to help him as well as she could.

"Well, I'm afraid we can't do anything for Cassim today. It's too late to go out now. In cities like Djel it's very dangerous to be seen on the roads after sunset. Besides you are too weak. You should sleep a while, so the Yukuma root is effective and you recover a bit. Tomorrow morning we'll immediately go on the search, okay?"

Iago wasn't very happy with this solution, but he knew it was right. He felt like sleeping the whole next week. Even this conversation had completely exhausted him.

"Okay."

Janara nodded and got a few covers for Iago. Weakly he lay down on them and the next moment he had fallen asleep.

Poor chap, the sorceress thought. Probably he couldn't sleep well for a week.

Quietly she got a piece of bread from her bag and ate it. Then she went to bed, too.