Ba-bump.

Ba-bump.

I feel. I have never felt before.

All I remember is not feeling anything. This feeling… I can feel it growing.

I need to do something. Yes, I must do something now.

All of a sudden I opened my eyes. Something was in front of me, and I knew I had to break through it. I knew I had to get out. So I did. I moved whatever I could move, pushed and hit. 

The thing cracked as I became more frantic. Finally it broke, letting me see something else. First, the light blinded my eyes, but then I got used to it and it did not hurt. I saw many things. Many colors. I like it. 

I looked and looked until I remembered I was not fully out of the thing. 

I pushed and shoved, breaking more of the thing, and eventually fell on something. It hurt. I don’t like it. But I know what to do. I have a body, and my body has legs. I need to use them.

Slowly but surely, I maneuvered my body and used my legs to stand up. Although shaky, I was standing. I like it. Yes, now I remember, I have two legs, two wings, a head and a tail.

Then I felt something on the sides of my head. This is sound. I heard something. I looked around me, in search of the sound. It was not hard to find.

[https://i.imgur.com/9UHcM0H.png]

The sound comes from a bigger-me. It looks very familiar. The big-me approached, and I called out to it. It bowed down and licked my head, sometimes it made some sounds. It feels like inside the thing. I like it.

I understand, big-me is important. But then my tummy hurt. I want food. I called out to big-me. 

“Food! Food! Food! Food!”. I think it understood, because it brought a lot of food. I did not hesitate and went headfirst in the food. I bit small chunks of it, swallowing hungrily. It was delicious.

While I was eating I heard another sound. Curious, I looked for the sound, and saw another roundish thing, just like mine, but it was not broken. It was shaking, some cracks appearing.

Then I saw another thing, also shaking. Slowly, the things broke open and two like-me came out. Interesting. Big-me made some more sounds and helped them. I noticed big-me’s color was different from the like-me’s. Interesting. What is my color?

I looked at my wings, and I think my color is red. Yes, I am a red-one. Big-me is also a red-one. The two like-me are.. green. Yes, they are green-ones. Interesting.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

The two green-ones were also very hungry like me. They approached the food and we all ate together. I like it.

A little time passed, and I was no longer hungry, so I stopped eating the food. I walked around a bit, looking at everything.

Almost everything around is grey, but there is a big opening. Through the opening I can see many colors. Green, brown, blue, white and even colors I don’t remember. Interesting. I like it.

Then I saw something among the blue and white above. Something was approaching. As it came nearer, I realised it was another big-me, but a green-one. It was moving its wings up and down to fly. Interesting.

[https://imgur.com/QOAee0J.png]

Very soon the big-green flew through the opening and landed near us. It looked at me and the like-mes while making some sounds. I really like those sounds. I looked at everyone and realised they are family. Family is important. I like it.

But suddenly I felt heavy. So heavy. Yes, I want to sleep. I returned near my thing and laid down. Soon the like-mes cuddled with me and we slept.

***

When I woke up, I felt better. I remembered much more than yesterday, and also understood what I did not before.

I moved to stand up and felt my sisters slip off me. Unlike me, they were still sleeping soundly. I looked around the nest, and discovered Mother laying close behind us.

I approached her excitedly. We touched heads and made happy sounds together. We stayed like that a bit, and were joined by my sisters soon after.

A while later, Father flew inside the nest carrying a big grey prey. Food!

Me and my siblings ran unsteadily to the food before devouring it in large bites.

In the corner of my eye I saw Father and Mother looking at us with a happy face. When we were finished eating, Mother touched heads with Father a bit, and then flew out the nest.

I looked at her flying in the sky. She became smaller and smaller, just a black spot in the clear blue sky, and then she disappeared. I felt sleepy again, so this time I went where Father was lying and laid down next to him. It was very comfortable and pleasantly hot. As I fell asleep, I felt my sisters cuddle with me.

***

As the days went by, my thoughts became clearer and I was able to walk and run with ease, and so did my sisters. We played together all the time, chasing one another around the nest. Sometimes Mother or Father played with us.

They know the best game. It’s very simple but very fun; they move their tail around and we have to bite it. But their tails are too high to bite, so we need to jump to reach it.

Every time one of us bite it successfully, they raise it higher. At one point it was so high none of us could bite it, until I tried moving my wings after jumping. It gave me that little bit of height I needed to bite Father’s tail.

It became harder and harder to bite the tail by jumping and moving the wings. Again, it reached a point where none of us could bite the tail. I thought really hard, and came up with an idea.

I retreated some distance away from Mother, before running towards her tail with all my might. A few steps away, I jumped and moved my wings. I came really close, but could not reach Mother’s tail.

But my idea was good, I went way higher than before. I watched my sisters imitating me, but they couldn't bite the tail either. What was wrong? 

***

The next day, I watched Mother land in the nest. I knew Father would leave soon and focused my attention on him. After touching heads with Mother, Father turned to face the entrance. He ran a small distance while moving his wings up and down, and then took off to the skies.

That’s the trick! You have to move the wings while running! Excited, I ran to Mother shouting “Game! Game! Game!”.

She looked at me curiously but happily complied. My sisters stopped running around to come and watch. I took a dozen steps back, facing my target seriously. Mother’s tail was really high, it was not gonna be easy.

I extended my wings and broke into a sprint. Immediately I moved my wings in an up-and-down motion with all the strength I could gather. Even before jumping I felt the difference; I was a lot lighter.

Just a few steps away I jumped and kept moving my wings. I flew so high I almost missed the tail, but I decisively took a bite. Success!

Not used to jumping so high I almost missed the landing, but still, I did it.

My sisters were running around flapping their wings excitedly, while Mother looked at me with big round eyes. Hehe, she didn’t expect it.