Earth Overcome: Part 9, Agon

  Today was Mother's Day, I know this is kind of tactless, but mine is dead.  So is my Dad.  They've been like this for two years, and I've visited them before, but this was the first time I had gone there since my gaining of scales.  Sure I was in Chicago and they were in San Francisco, but when you have wings you can go anywhere.  What was weird wasn't that I had wings, or that I had just helped saved a painter ninja.  What was weird was Long, or the lack of him.  He was quiet.  My best guess was that he was leaving me alone so I could mourn. 

  It didn't take long to find their graves once I was there.  I had gone there so often when I was in the orphanage I had the path memorized.  I had flowers because that's what you bring.  It's the unspoken rule.  Well, not entirely unspoken, but I think you get it.

  "Hi Mom." I said. "Happy Mother's Day.  Hey Dad.  How are you guys?"

  I was quiet for a moment to let them respond.

  "That's good, that's great.  Hope you like the flowers.  Don't worry Dad, I'll be back for Father's Day." 

  I was quiet again.  You know, if I really concentrated I could almost hear them.

  "So." I said slowly. "I don't want to take your thunder but I kind of have a problem."  I knew they were listening because they always did. "I kind of have scales, and claws, and wings."

  I knew this was going to be long, so I sat down in front of the tombstone, and told them all of it.  I told them how I got my powers.  About how I beat Dark Sage.  I told them how Bridget was scared of me.  I told them everything about the team, our first mission and how I flew here.  There were some parts where I could here them laughing.  Some where they were quiet.  Sometimes they didn't make any sounds.  It kind of felt like they were there.

  "...and now I don't know what to do next." I finished.  I was quiet again, waiting for an answer that never came,  They were gone again, and it didn't feel like they were there anymore.

  "August?" said Long. "Someone is behind us."  The first time he spoke and he was right, someone was there.

  "So, you're here." she said.  I turned around and found my sister, Bridget and she did not look happy.  "Shouldn't you be out killing more people?" she asked.  Ouch.  That kind of hurt.

  "Bridget come on.  Not in front of Mom and Dad."

  "The reason they're dead is because of you."

  "You blame me?" I asked quietly.

  "Yes, I do."

  "Wouldn't the one who killed them be Dark Sage."

  "And who brought him into the picture?" she asked.

  "Bridget please..."

  "No!  I already told you to get out of my life.  Now stay out!"

  "You're not being fair." I said.

  "I spent two years of my life with that creep because of you!"

  "You know what?!" I told her.  "I'm sorry!  Excuse me!  I'm sorry for going to China!  I'm sorry for ending up like this!  And I'm sorry for everything else I have no control over!  So why don't you take your judgmental self and get over it."

  "What did you say to me?"

  "You know last time I checked, I'm the one with the scales.  I'm the one the bad guy tried to kill.  I'm the one with a Chinese man in my head!  So I'm sorry for wanting to see my parents!" 

  Then I turned around and stomped out of the cemetery.  Leaving her with her mouth wide open.

About a Bird and His Hunger

Introduction:

  This was another school assignment based off the story from yesterday.  Enjoy!

 The Story:

 

“I’m hungry.  I’m hungry.  I need food.  I’m hungry.  Wait.  I’m hungry.”  Honestly those are the thoughts I have every day.  I know it may seem primitive to your giant human mind, but I don’t have the convenience of food in my nest.  I wish I did.  That would’ve made this whole experience much easier, and then I wouldn’t be hungry.

                On that particular day I was on the hunt for, well, food.  Anything really, though I prefer worms.  It had been hard that day, not much rain so not many worms.  I decided to go to the usual house, where the lady has food.  Though when I got there the usual person wasn’t!  It was an older woman sleeping on the porch swing.  I decided I’d give it a try, so I hopped up and squawked at her.  She woke with a snort and started yelling in her weird human language.  For all I knew that meant food, but no.  She picked up a stick at started shaking at me.  I didn’t want to get hit, so I squawked again and flew away.

                I couldn’t believe her, who was she to say what I could eat and what I couldn’t eat?  Humans are spoiled brats.  All I had wanted was some food, maybe just a crumb.  Humans are terrible, well, except the ones that give me food.  Those are alright with me.

                The problem was that I was still hungry and I still needed food.  It wasn’t really fair that I had to starve, and I didn’t feel like dying.  I kept flying around the same area until I came across a tree.  A tree with a hole in it.  You wouldn’t believe what that hole was filled with.  Nuts!  Acorns and walnuts and pecans and whatever other nuts grew in that area, and there they were.  Mine for the taking.  I landed on the branch and stuck my head in.  It smelled delicious in there.  I will admit I was curious to how they all got there, but I was so hungry I didn’t care.  Just as I was about to take a bite of acorn, there was a loud squeal behind me.  I pulled my head out and looked around, it was a squirrel chattering at me.  It must have been her nest and her food.  I didn’t want to steal.  So I opened my wings and flew away.

                At this point I was on the brink of falling out of the sky.  It was all because of hunger.  I needed food.  I just wish the squirrel had been a little more kind and shared his food.  I didn’t see why he needed all those nuts.  There were plenty for both of us.  Still, I didn’t want to be rude or steal, so I had flown away, but I needed to find food before I didn’t make it to tomorrow.

                I flew for about another hour, scanning the ground for something, anything.  That’s when I saw it, something pink, something squishy.

                “Worm!” I thought.

                I immediately folded my wings in and went into a dive.  I rushed toward the ground faster, and faster.  Then I made wings pop back out just into to slow my fall enough to land.  The worm wasn’t fast enough, and I snapped it up the second I touched the ground.  Delicious.  I hopped around a little in victory, but then I decided to fly back to my nest.  I needed rest for tomorrow, because I would be hungry again.

P.O.V. (from a bird’s eyes)

  Introduction:
 
  This was another school assignment where I had to take a poem and turn it into a story.  This one was by Emily Dickinson, one of my favorite poets.  Here's the link http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/bird-came-down-walk-328

and here's
The Story:

  The bird honestly thinks that this neighborhood is the best.  Only for a few reasons, but sometimes those reasons can mean life or death.  Though the bird doesn’t think about life or death, or even survival.  It thinks about food.  That’s mostly it.  You could argue that he thinks about survival because he thinks about food, but that’s not it.  The bird is just really greedy.

                It’s because of his greediness that the bird likes this neighborhood.  He likes it because it rains often.  When I said the bird only thinks about food, that doesn’t mean he isn’t smart.  He actually is rather intelligent, but he uses his intelligence to think about food.  You see, this bird has it all figured out.   Because it rains often worms come out making them easier to find.  He had actually found an angleworm that very morning and enjoyed it very much.  It also means more to drink.  The grass in one particular house’s yard is long, very long.  So the rain collects on it and makes it easy to drink.

                Though there are problems, the bird has yet to find a spot without them.  The biggest one is beetles, the bird hates them.  They look disgusting, they taste disgusting, and they feel disgusting.  So disgusting that the bird doesn’t want to be near them.  Well, more of them come out for the water, just like the worms.  So when the bird sees them he hops to the nearest wall and looks rapidly around for more before continuing the hunt for worms.

                There was something that made up for it.  Someone in particular.  She would sometimes watch the bird hunt for food, and the bird would pretend that he didn’t see her or else she would go away.  He did notice her, even when she was trying not to be noticed.  Somehow she had gotten it into her head that if he saw her, he would fly away.  Most of the time she sat on her porch and scribbled in her notebook, but sometimes the bird liked to take advantage of her.  When it had been a day without as many worms as usual, or if he just wanted more food (most of the time it was the second one) he would hop up to her and cock his head.  She would stare at him, then scribble something in her book.  After he stared at her for a while she would dig for something in her pocket.  After she found something she would give to him.  Whether it be a cracker, or biscuit, or in this case a crumb.  Usually this ritual would signify the end of this bird’s day and he would fly back to his nest.  And just to prove my point on how smart this bird really is, the bird has his nest built in this neighborhood.  I like to think that is proof plenty.