The World's First Ostrich
Chirp was small. No, he was tiny, a midget. No he was practically microscopic! He hated being small. He wished he would have a sudden growth spurt so that he would at least qualify the title “Eagle Spy.” The little eagles always qualified to go out on missions to spy and gossip. Except for Chirp.
Why? do you ask, was this important to Chirp. The answer is simple. If you are tiny, you don’t have much strength and others underestimate you. Also, you don’t get much respect.
Chirp’s mother had always said, “Now, now Chirp, someday you’ll accomplish great things. You know the saying ‘Expect the unexpected.’ Before you know it, your chance of glory will come.” Unfortunately Chirp’s father didn’t feel very sympathetic for him.
“I don’t understand why you aren’t growing,” he would always say, turning up his beak in disgust, a thing he did at least twice a day. He would turn to his wife and frown at her. “Grace, you aren’t feeding him enough.” And he
would force Chirp to choke down five times as much food as he usually ate and repeat this painful process everyday. But always he would be disappointed because Chirp just got fat.
Chirp was very athletic, especially for his size. But his wings were simply too small to keep up with the others even if he moved his wings three times faster than the rest of the class did. At the end of P.E. the others would tease him, “Try and at least keep up with our dust clouds we leave behind, teacher’s pet!”
Chirp was not gifted or talented. He just had a knack for remembering things. He couldn’t help it if he knew the answer, now could he? But the teacher could only get his results from classwork and tests for he could not see Chirp raising his wing to answer his questions.
Chirp was now looking longingly at a poster. There would be the annual race of the birds and he was finally old enough to enter. His determination grew stronger than ever and he was filling out a form to participate when a most familiar and unpleasant voice behind him snickered, “You’re going to take a shot at winning the race. You’re even dumber than I thought.”
Chirp turned around and smiled and cleverly hid his anger he longed to throw but his mother’s years of advice held him. The gigantic eagle before him was Claws and he had been winning the races for several years in a row.
“Yes, I’m entering,” he replied, his smile fading away. “You got a problem with that?”
“Yes, I do,” snarled Claws. “I don’t know why the judges will even let you participate. You’re so small, they’ll think that you’re underage.”
Chirp bit his tongue. “There’s no harm in trying,” he shrugged. “And besides,” he added for good measure. “You aren’t afraid of me, are you? You’re so confident that you’re going to win, right?”
Claws growled resentfully, “Stop yappin’. I don’t need to be afraid of you. You’re the slowest eagle in the world, so there’s no point in defying me!” He spat on the ground and flew off. Chirp took off in a huff too, muttering to himself angrily, “I will win, I just have to.” But in his heart he knew Claws was right. He was slow and all because of his size. He was so deep in his thoughts that he nearly crashed into a house.
“Whoa, that was close. Hey!” Chirp said, as realization overcame him. “What kind of house is sparkly blue like the stars?”
“That kind of house would be my house,” said a kindly voice as the door opened.
Chirp stared, wild-eyed at the person. He was dressed in perwinkle blue cloth from head to toe. He had a long, white beard and fuzzy white eyebrows.
“Won’t you come in?” the stranger said cordially, gesturing inside. “I’ve just made a pot of stew and I hardly have visitors.” Chirp nodded weakly and stumbled into a cozy dining room. He watched eagerly and the man ladled hot steaming stew onto his plate. When Chirp tasted his first spoonful it was sheer joy.
The stew was composed of succulent tomatoes, crunchy baby corn, soft, salty golden mushrooms, and chunks of flaky soft fish. Chirp finished his plate and
sheepishly asked if he could have more.
“My, my, what a hungry fellow,” chuckled the man.
“Please, sir,” stammered Chirp. “You’re very kind and all but I don’t know your name.”
“My, my, what a fine gentleman you are. I can’t tell you my real name but you may call me Mr. Wizard.”
“Mr. Wizard, your stew is the finest I have tasted.”
“Why, thank you. I do have a bit of talent for cooking.”
“Um, Mr. Wizard, can I tell you something?”
“Anything.”
“At home, we’re going to have a race and I’m old enough to enter. But I’m so small that I won’t have a chance.”
“Don’t you say that! Of course you do! Now listen very carefully. If you do not fly well would you give up your wings to have some other way of racing?”
“Anything to be fast and fly like the wind!”
“Good, now tomorrow the race will begin. Do the opposite of flying. Be one with the earth. Then you will win. Now off to bed with you.”
Mr. Wizard led Chirp to a cozy bed and gave him the sweetest water Chirp had ever tasted and closed the door. Chirp knew he should sleep but how could he? He had to fiqure out what Mr. Wizard meant by being one with the earth, whatever that meant. Eventually sleep drifted him to dreamland. Chirp woke up at dawn. He flew out and killed a mouse for his breakfast. Chirp was watching a rabbit hopping when it landed him. So that’s what Mr. Wizard meant! He bade Mr. Wizard a hasty farewell and hurried back home for the race would start soon. He finally made it with one minute to spare. To his dismay, he was placed next to Claws who smirked at him.
“See you at the finish line, loser!”
“Just you wait! I’ll see you at the finish line!”
“In your dreams!” An ancient looking eagle flapped in midair and blew the whistle. The eagles took off in the air. Except for one.
Chirp immediately waddled as fast as he could on his little short legs. Hot tears ran down his cheeks as the audience laughed with hysterics at the funny sight, which made Chirp even more determined to try harder. His legs gradually stopped aching as he waddled, no jogged faster. The sidelines gradually grew more blurred as he picked up speed and he soon begun to catch up with the rest of the competitors.
“Hey, this is fun!” said Chirp breathlessly. He wanted to chuckle when he past Claws, who was staring at him in disbelief. Claws flew as fast as he could but Chirp was getting faster until Claws had to give up despairingly.
A loud, enthusiastic cheer rang out when Chirp crossed the finish line followed by a howl from Claws who was consumed in bitter rage. An eagle approached towards Chirp cautiously with the trophy. Chirp felt a cold wave of anxiety wash over him.
“Congratulations, young sir!” exclaimed the eagle handing him the trophy. “Never have I seen such a thing! Astounding!”
Just as Chirp was feeling better, Claws, out of spite cried out rudely, “Odd-Stretched!”
Luckily, some eagle officers dragged Claws away but that didn’t make Chirp feel better. Not even his father for the first time in his life complimented him could cheer him up. He gathered his belongings and set off for Mr. Wizard’s house. When he got there, Mr. Wizard was waiting for him with another bird like himself by his side.
“Why run away with such a wonderous gift?”
Chirp stared at his three toed claws. “I like being fast, but everyone thinks I’m a freak. I don’t belong with them anymore.”
Mr. Wizard nodded. “That’s right, you don’t. You have to make another tribe to belong to. You can start right now with this lady. Her name is Farla.”
Chirp found it easy to talk to. They soon became best friends. After about two years later, they agreed to get married. One glorious day, their eggs hatched.
“Beautiful,” said Chirp, sighing. “Three males and three females.”
“We’ll call the three males Fleetfoot, Long-Toed, and Lightfoot,” announced Farla decisively.
“And we’ll name these eye-droppingly adorable girls Windy, Starbird, and Sunflash.”
“Aw, look at the ickle little kiddies,” a most familiar voice spoke behind them. Chirp whirled around and lashed out his toes protectively.
Claws had launched himself in the air, but Chirp’s lethal claws had ripped off most of his tail feathers. Claws glowered in rage.
“Look at what you’ve done, you odd-stretched freak!”
Chirp clicked his beak menacingly. Under all of Claws’s anger there was jealousy, a jealousy that Chirp was faster and had a nice wife and children he could be proud of. Claws, without another word flew off. To ease Chirp’s embarrassment, humans today call him Ostrich instead of Odd-Stretched to make him feel better.
