Lost, Afraid and Alone; In A Crowd

Once there was a grand and beautiful little eaglet whose parents reluctantly left each day to go out for the hunt. They were so very proud of him/her. They made sure that he was living in a large and safe nest high on the rim of the great canyon. Each day the little eagle out of curiosity would spend hours looking over the edge of the nest at the whole world that stretched out into the distance. Of particular interest was the silent river that moved like a thin snake through the bottom of the canyon far below.

One day with no parents to pull him back the little eagle crawled closer to the edge of the nest. Finally, the brave but foolish little eagle climbed right up onto the rim of the nest, in order to get the best view possible of that fascinating part of the world that lay below. But his balance was unsteady and to his horror he fell out... down, down he tumbled through the air, his little eaglet heart thumping loudly. Scared and getting dizzier by the second all he could remember was that his parents always spread out their wings when they jumped into the canyon. And so with all the courage his little mind could muster he haltingly stuck one wing out, way out. Now instead of tumbling he began to whirl around and around. So he finally got enough courage to stick out the other skinny little wing. Finally, at last after what seemed an eaglet infinity, to his great surprise he began to glide. However, lacking control he began to swoosh back and forth, sometimes towards the canyon, sometimes away from its jagged walls. Soon he crashed right into the side of the canyon, landing hard on a very narrow ledge of rough rock. Now frightened and all alone, he clung to his new barren rock ledge. He was surrounded by the loud roar of the river rapids vibrating and exploding not far below.

He was alone and scared. He tried to be brave, but instead all he could do was cry and cry. His eyes blurry with tears, he began to see fuzzy black spots moving around near the river below. They were black and they had wings. They looked a lot like him. This discovery cheered him up. However, the recent experiences of life had taught him to be timid. So for several days, alone and unnoticed he motionlessly watched, crying himself to sleep each night. As each new day arrived he grew "hungrier" and "hungrier". Finally, out of desperation he jumped off the ledge and began to glide towards this group of birds. There he stayed near the bottom of the canyon living with his new community. He wanted to believe that he was one of them, but something was wrong. He was definitely more clumsy than all the others. The others in jest would often swiftly fly at him as he was running hard trying to get air born and knock him back down to earth again. He tried his hardest but he just wasn't swift.

They laughed at his brown feathers calling him "faded feathers" remarking how shiny and black their feathers were in comparison. And he was growing so big that they didn't even want to play with him. And when he opened his mouth he talked funny... at least it seemed that way. Every time he gave a friendly squawk, all the other birds would stop what they were doing, grow silent, look at him, look at each other and then in unison all break out in laughter. They would laugh and laugh, some of them laughing so uncontrollably that they would fall down and roll on the ground! As you might expect he finally didn't talk much. It was a miserable life living in a cruel community. Even though he was with a lot of other birds, he felt alone.

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