Gomez and I had never liked each other. This enmity began when we were growing up in the slums of Barelona. Both our families were poor in those pre-conquest days, when the only sight of gold we had was in the setting sun, and life was a daily battle with not enough money even to buy a loaf of bread. It was no wonder that we turned to crime to feed ourselves and our families.

The dislike turned to hate one day when I was eight. Neither Gomez nor I had eaten in the past two days and our
diet before that had been none too good. At last we could bare it no more and we decided to steal some fish that had just been delivered to the local market.

I had always been the braver of our pair, (and still am if the truth be told) so I volunteered to steal the fish while
the stallholder wasn't looking if Gomez would keep a lookout. The stall was empty. The glossy multi-hued fish on
the counter made my mouth water and my belly roar. I grabbed two and ran out straight into the arms of a
policeman that Gomez had called over. Getting me into trouble meant more to him than the empty stomachs of our brothers and sisters. I hated him ever since then and hated him more than ever as he glared down at me from the lip of the pit.

Yet what was I supposed to do, he held the keys to our survival and we would never get out without him, as I
thought this I saw in my minds eye his eight year old face jeering as I was led away in the hands of that policeman. I would not give in this time!

"Esteban, you stay where you are," I called, "We're all staying where we are. You go back to your precious Pizarro, I'll never give you the Condor."

"You will regret saying that Mendoza, but if that is the way you wish to play it -" he waved away the protests of
Gaspard - "then fine, it is your funeral, in fact it is your grave." He turned and disappeared, Gaspard walking
behind him in disbelief.

"What are we going to do Mendoza?" whispered Zia, her hair covering her eyes, tears falling down.

I couldn't answer - I didn't know. I am a proud man, I believe it to be better to be brave and go without then
take the easy way and be called a coward.

Time passed till it became late dusk. Zia had been sobbing all evening, but now was quiet, her face buried in
Esteban's chest. Tao was sitting by the wall of the pit his knees up, his eyes looking up to the sky, saying nothing.
Only now did I comprehend the force of what I had done. We were like flies trapped in a room, able to see our way out

but with no way of escaping. I had turned down our only saviour because of an feud between two 8 year old's. I felt ashamed, and went to sleep not wanting to meet the gaze of the children.

I know not what time it was I woke but the sky was still black. Suddenly I heard something, a crack of a tree
branch, a rustle, a crackle.

"CAAAACK, RUN FOR THE HILLS, RUN FOR THE... CAAACK "

Esteban woke and shouted "Kukepetl, I knew you wouldn't let me down." Everyone awoke and the fear of the past few hours gave way to a measurement of joy. Suddenly it all became clear to me. The Flying Condor couldn't get us out of this mess but that flying parrot could. It was a gamble, but it could work.

"Tao, come here," I shouted. "Have you got that book you're always looking at?"

"Yes," he said digging though the many pockets in his poncho. "Here it is."

I grabbed it from him, and teared out a page. "Hey," said Tao, "that's the only copy I have, it was handed down..."

"SHUT UP ABOUT THAT STUPID BOOK," I screamed, and regretted immediately when I saw his lip begin to shake. It wasn't his fault that we were here but mine. "Esteban," I whispered, "If I write a message to Sanchez and Pedro telling them where we are could that bird take it to them?"

"I don't know I - suppose - it could" Esteban said hesitantly. "Good" I said and wrote a message to those
buffoons I had brought along. "Keep it simple, you know what they're like," I thought as I used a bit of lead in
the pit bottom to write a note on a blank leaf from Taos book.

"Here girl, Kukapetl come here girl." I felt a fool talking to a parrot. A Commander of an entire brigade reduced to this! But it was no time for me to act high and mighty. I had tried that once already today and look where that had got me!

As a child I remember being taught the story of Noah and how after the Great Flood he had released a dove to find land. I knew how it felt to be him, releasing a bird into the unknown, not knowing if it would come back, or if the message would get through, or if it would be ignored by those two idiots...

"Find Pedro.. Find Sanchez. Give message," Esteban said to Kukapetl as he released her, message in beak. I sighed deeply as I watched her fly out of the hole and out of my sight. I lay down again, the sounds of an alien continent shrilling in my ears. I wanted to be back home, back with my brave soldiers in the army where we knew what was what and who was top. Instead I was here with a boy who said he was the 'Child of the Sun' and another who was the last dregs of his civilisation. I hadn't even begun to try and understand Zia.

The night was just turning into morning when I heard it -- a low hum which got progressively louder and louder, I
looked up and saw a bright white light....