Chapter 18

Ryan was a man of his word. He tried attacking the birds with rocks, but they were too fast for him. One flap of their wings, and they were soaring far away. Ryan came up with another idea after failing a couple of times. Ryan went to gather palm leaves and knitted them together into a round basket. His movements were sloppy at first, but as he continued making more baskets, he quickly got the hang of it. Ryan piled all the baskets together and dug a large hole in the beach. He tossed all the small fish and shellfish into the hole, then placed the baskets on top with twigs supporting them. The birds would trigger the traps once they came to feed on the fish. The birds had never come into contact with intelligent human life, so they foolishly went straight into it to eat some of the fish. The moment Ryan saw one of the baskets fall down, he lunged on top of it. The trap actually caught a bird! Ryan fumbled to secure the trap and opened the basket. He exclaimed, then laughed. "