The Bird, Part II

A longtime friend of mine told me that I should rewrite the story of a few days ago, The Bird, from the bird’s point-of-view.  It may help if you read that story first, as the real events that inspired it compliment this story.

A strange thing happened yesterday. 

I was coming in to land next to the water on a little island, but as soon as I touched it, the island rocked and moved, and I was in the cold water.  I beat my wings furiously, but they never caught air.  I tried again, but tired was the only thing I was getting.  I stopped to rest for a moment, and stretched my neck for a gasp of air.  The air that I could taste, but not fly into.

The water was so cold.  I fluttered again, but it was harder this time.  Each time it was harder, and I was getting nowhere.  I had to get out of this, but I just couldn’t.

Suddenly I was upside down again, scooped up with something held by one of the great two-legged things.  Then I was face-down in the grass.  I tried flapping my wings again, but only the left one worked, and just for a second.  At least I wasn’t going to drown.  I would just rest.  If only I could reach the sunlight – but there were mostly shadows this time of day.

And then the first ant came, crawling up my leg and biting me.  I tried to jerk away, but he bit me anyway. Another followed, and with a few minutes he was joined by a couple dozen of his closest friends.  The first few bites hurt, and I guess the rest of them did too, but I cared less about the ants than I did about the cold.  The cold was going to kill me, and I hoped it did soon, at least the ants would go away.  I had eaten their kind whenever I could scratch them up, and now they would eat me.  That was the way of things, I suppose.

Now I was upside down again, caught by one of the great two-legged things.  I tried to flap my wings one more time, knowing I couldn’t.  It was more of a flex than a flap.  I had no idea what was happening, but the two-legged thing was a little warmer than the ground had been, so now I waited to die from being eaten.  The ants lost interest, running from my cold plumage straight to the talons of the two-legged thing.  I had never given dying too much thought, but I thought about it plenty now.  What was taking so long?

Next came the roar, and the hot wind.  Wait.  That didn’t feel bad at all.  There was a second two-legged thing now, and it was watching me.  Perhaps the first one was going to feed me to it.  I tried to look at it, but every time I turned my head, I had to close my eye against the hot wind.  It was deafening, but it felt good.  I tried to fly again, but only shuddered, which took more energy but felt good.  The cold was inside me.

My feathers were mostly dry now, and I closed both eyes against the hot roaring wind.  I just rested in the clutch of the two-legged thing.  I had tried too many times to move and couldn’t, so there was no point in trying.  It kept turning me upside down, pointing various parts of me at the hot wind - the wet parts.  I gripped the two-legged thing with both talons and held on as hard as I could, but I was pretty sure I would fall if it let me go.  It didn’t.

  

It pried my feet loose and put me on a branch.  Somehow, it was night now, and I had never felt so tired.  I closed both eyes.  For the first time in what felt like hours, the air was warm.  The two legged thing came back one more time and touched me on the head.  I didn’t care.  It would return to eat me, but now was now.

I woke to the sound of doves, and opened my eyes to look around.  Had it been real?  The cold of last night was gone, the roar of the hot wind was silent, and the idea of ants sounded appetizing.

Heard a sound, one of the two-legged things was coming to eat me.  It was now or never, so I put everything I had into beating my wings, and they caught sweet, cool air!  I shot into the sky, far beyond the reach of the two legged thing, and landed again in a tall tree.

I still wasn’t sure how or why, but I was still alive.  Today was starting out on the right note.