Girl. Disappointment, Irina Tall Novikova, 2023. Ink, gel pen, paper. 10 x 15 cm.
A Timely Disturbance
Alexander Grant
Fixing a time disturbance usually required two things: tracking down and returning whatever had been displaced from its time, and patching the portal that was responsible.
The year was apparently 1801 AD. Sil was in a place unfamiliar to him, somewhere deep in the hills of western Canada.
After all these years, it was still a mystery to Sil how the moment he and his time-traveling house jumped to a new time, he knew immediately when and where they were, as well as the source of the disturbance he was sent to fix.
Glancing at the mirror in the entryway, Sil ran his hands through his tousled brown hair before smoothing out his trousers and shirt. They had magically transformed into something suitable for 1801, a fact that still annoyed Sil. Having his clothes constantly changing in both quality and comfort got quite irritating.
He was certainly not a fan of any time without proper technology. Sil had no trouble admitting he was impatient. He liked to get his missions done quickly and efficiently, something much easier in times with technology readily available.
Sil reached behind him, grabbed a heavy wool coat off the coat rack, and rummaged around in the top drawer of the dresser beneath the mirror until he found the Portal Correction Tool, or PCT for short. He’d need it to repair the portal that was currently ripping apart space-time—but before he did that, he had to find whatever the portal had displaced. In his own time, the PCT appeared as a hand-sized, touchscreen tool, and all he had to do was attach it to the portal and press start. It would completely seal the portal, hands and oversight free.
In this time period, however, the PCT was a needle that came complete with magical, reality-sealing thread. Sil absolutely hated it when the PCT was in that form. It was small, hard to keep track of, and even harder to use. But since there were still years left until the sewing machine was invented, he was stuck with the needle and thread. Clutching them in his hand, he walked outside.
As he took a deep breath of the fresh northern air, Sil caught sight of a wagon rumbling down a dirt path that wove through the tree line on his left. Thankfully, the man coaxing the horse along just gave a friendly wave—which Sil dutifully returned—before disappearing from view. Sil supposed his time-accurate clothes did have some purpose after all, but he still resented them.
Once he was sure the stranger was gone, Sil closed his eyes and concentrated on the tugging sensation gently aching in his chest. He snapped his fingers and a path of golden light shot out from between his ribcage, snaking between the grassy hills on his right and into an imposing forest.
While he certainly loved the technology the future time periods provided him, Sil could never get over the simple, beautiful magic that he was imbued with. It gave him all the information he needed for his missions, let him fix portals and track whatever the portal had spit out as well as travel through time whenever he sensed a new disturbance.
Sil followed the golden string of light that floated peacefully in the crisp morning air. He shivered as his boots squelched along the dew-kissed grass, pulling his coat close against his frame as his gaze wandered upward towards the swaying pine trees.
Ducking beneath a thick branch, Sil found the source of this particular time disturbance nestled among the fallen pine needles and tangled underbrush.
A dodo bird, who should have been extinct more than 100 years ago and certainly not found in Canada. They were native to the island of Mauritius off the coast of Madagascar.
She was larger than he would have expected. Sil didn’t know how he knew the gender of the bird, but the magic alerted him that this particular dodo was a female. If she stood up, she would be about three feet tall by Sil’s estimates. She had downy gray feathers with a black beak and small white tail. Streaked lines of black curved through her gray wings, and Sil could almost admit she was rather cute.
The golden light tracking the dodo stretched out from Sil and stopped right beside the bird. Sil knew the golden light was only visible to his eyes so it wouldn’t scare the dodo, but he needed to be as quiet as possible when sneaking up on her.
The bird noticed Sil as he took a step forward. She stood up, tilting her head curiously before tentatively walking over to Sil. Catching the bird would be way easier than he thought.
The dodo squawked, a high-pitched, warbling sound that left Sil desperately fending off a laugh. But the bird suddenly lunged for his hand, snatching up the PCT needle in her beak and chortling with glee as she ran off deeper into the forest.
Had a dodo bird really just outwitted him? Sil stood there in shock for a moment, cradling his nicked hand.
He groaned and took off after her. He didn’t have any time to waste. All time disturbance portals needed to be fixed as soon as possible, otherwise they’d continue to grow and grow, spitting out more things in the wrong time. When that happened, things tended to get…messy. Sil shuddered as he remembered a particularly bad experience in 2014 New York. Suffice it to say, confused wild hippos and large cities did not mix. Sil needed to finish this mission fast in order to hop back to a more comfortable time. And hopefully, his next mission would be in a time period with his beloved technology.
Thankfully, the dodo bird wasn’t exactly a fast runner, and Sil caught up to her within a few minutes. When the bird noticed his presence, she squawked again and started weaving between the trees. Sil could swear he saw joy in the bird’s eyes. She was definitely enjoying this.
The dodo skidded to a halt as they emerged from the forest onto a short cliff’s edge and Sil managed to grab hold of her.
“You’re coming with me,” he muttered, taking out a length of rope from his coat and tying it around her neck.
He yanked the needle from between the bird’s beak and waved his finger. “This is mine, don’t take it again, okay?”
He didn’t think the dodo could understand him, but she stared at the ground and looked properly chastised so Sil assumed she got the message.
After dragging the reluctant dodo back to the house and locking her securely inside, Sil closed his eyes and let the magic beating steadily in his chest guide him over to the portal.
Sil reached the swirling purple maelstrom of growing energy in no time. This shouldn’t take too long, Sil thought. He’d definitely seen worse.
He pulled out the PCT needle and a golden thread drifted out of the eye. Sil pierced the edge of the portal with the metal tip. The portal crackled, hissing in resistance as Sil began to sew. While he hated it, Sil was rather adept at sewing and soon enough, neat stitches of golden magical thread had all but sealed up the rip in space-time. Sil yanked down and closed the last stitch, sealing the portal for good as he stuck the PCT in his pocket.
As the portal shut and the timeline was restored, Sil felt a breeze steeped in magic envelop him. He shivered as chills crept up his spine. It was an exhilarating feeling, restoring time and using magic.
“Alright, time to go!” he called out to the dodo once he returned to the house. He stepped inside, wrapping his arm begrudgingly around the neck of the bird as the house shivered and shook and jumped to this particular dodo’s original time—1490.
After the ten-second traveling period passed, Sil grabbed the bird and pulled her outside.
“There you go, you’re free now,” he said, shoeing the bird with his hands.
The dodo didn’t move, staring him down before tilting her head and squawking. She walked a few feet away before stopping and turning back to look at him.
Sil sighed. Of course, the bird wanted him to follow her.
He looked back at the house longingly. It would be so easy to just leave and jump back to the future. He’d done it plenty of times in the past.
But the bird was insistent, turning back and nudging Sil in the leg with her head until he moved in the direction she wanted.
“Ugh, fine, lead the way,” he muttered, following the bird as she chirped with joy.
As they walked, Sil caught sight of a few other dodo birds traipsing around. But none came closer than chirping a happy greeting at Sil’s dodo, who chirped right back.
After a few minutes of walking and constantly looking back to make sure Sil was still following her, the dodo finally stopped at the top of a large hill which overlooked the ocean.
She plopped down in the grass and looked at Sil expectantly. He rolled his eyes, but sat down next to the bird, who nuzzled her head beneath Sil’s arm and chittered happily. Sil hid a smile, but slowly stroked the bird’s feathers, which were surprisingly soft and very comforting. He leaned more of his weight into the bird, finally letting his body relax as he looked up at the sky.
The sun was setting, and its fleeting rays were desperately clinging to the edges of the rolling sea. The waters swelled gently, crashing in pink-tinted waves along the rocky seashore. Flecks of burnt orange and hazy lavender streaked across the sky, occasionally interrupted by patches of fluffy white clouds.
Sil stared at all of it in awe. He would have missed all this beauty if it wasn’t for this stupid, friendly dodo bird.
An idea struck him then. He turned to look at the bird. Technically, if he had sealed the time portal, then the disturbance was fixed. Which meant that he could bring the dodo with him to another time as long as he returned her to her original time at some point further down the road. She could become an anomaly in the timestream, just like he was.
The dodo glanced up at him as if sensing his thoughts.
“Do you want to come with me?” Sil asked. He didn’t know for sure whether his magic let him communicate with her, but by her frantic, ecstatic wiggling and happy noises, he figured she got the message.
She hopped up and jumped around, squawking joyfully and leaning into Sil as he laughed and hugged her.
“Well, if we’re going to be spending more time together, I think you’re going to need a name. How about…Feather?”
The dodo shook her head and shuddered, chirping a discordant note that Sil took as disagreement.
“How about Cass?”
She nodded her head and ruffled her feathers in agreement. Cass let out a happy chirp—Sil was already getting better at distinguishing them, before settling back down next to him.
“You’re something special, you know that?” he said, looking down at the bird snuggled close beside him. Cass met his eye with an innocent gaze, and Sil could swear she smiled at him.
Alexander Grant is determined to write the queer fantasy romances he longed to read as a kid. He seeks to bring greater representation to the sci-fi and fantasy genres with his diverse stories, perfectly suited to a cozy break from the scary world outside. His journalism has previously appeared in Anderson University Magazine. He currently lives in Georgia with his boyfriend and his cat and enjoys basking in the sun like the finest of reptiles while dreaming up his next tale. Feel free to message him at [email protected].