A Collection of Short Stories

Love in Leaves

    Once there was a young songbird who lived in a birch tree. He was named Miki, and had bright blue wings and a light brown chest. He sang with his high voice and hoped to catch the attention of a nightingale named Nadine. Nadine was beautiful and lived in the birch tree next to him. Her wings were the color of the dirt after a rain, and her eyes were black like the night. He went out of his way to fly near her nest and say hello to her. He complimented her light brown tail feathers and offered to help her with anything she needed. He loved how she said hello to him and all the other birds, the way she helped Old Man Swallow fly to visit his daughter. 

    One day he decided he wanted to ask her to come on a picnic with him. He knew just the place, and planned to ask her the following day. However, when he went to her nest the very next day, his confidence failed him. He said he was just passing by and was going to visit a friend who lived in the mountains, about an hour's fly away. He had never been to the mountains before, and hated the snow. It seemed as if his worries grew wings and flew out of his mouth, while his confidence huddled in the corner.

    He had heard stories of an old owl who could help people with any problem. Perhaps the owl could help him ask out Nadine. The songbird didn't doubt it. Owls were known to be very wise. He pulled out a map drawn on a leaf from a branch, and looked. Nadine had given him the map when he had first moved to the birch trees. The owl's nest wasn't on the map, but there was directions to the nest of a raven who could help. He grabbed the map and began to fly in the direction of the raven's nest. When the birch trees thinned and turned into alders, he knew he was close. After searching for a while, he found the correct nest and tapped the bark of the alder tree with his wing. The little alder cones sat in bunches, dangling off the ends of the arching branches.

    "Hello," the raven said poking his head out of the mass of branches. He stuck out his wing. "Fiducia. What brings you here? You don't look like your from 'round here." Miki smiled shyly and began to speak.

    "I'm looking for a wise owl. You know where he'd be?" Fiducia puffed out his chest and frowned.

    "Why do you need a wise owl when you have this?" he asked and gestured to himself. "What do you need?"

    And before Miki could help it, the whole story came spilling out of him. Fiducia nodded along. When he was done the raven didn't even pause before launching into his speech. "It seems what you need pal, is some confidence. Gals will find the shy act cute, but it ain't going anywhere with no talk behind it."  Was Fiducia right? Miki wondered. Even now, he was having trouble trying to get the words he wanted to say to roll off his tongue. It was either an explosion of words, or nothing at all. Maybe he did have problems with confidence.

    "Now pal, come up and talk to me. Pretend I'm your sweetheart. What would you say to her?" Miki shifted his feet on the branch and ruffled his feathers.

    "Um, so how's the weather-" Before he could finish he was interrupted.

    "No! Wrong, wrong, wrong," Fiducia yelled. "Problem one. Don't ask about the weather. That is world's driest, most boring topic. And second, I can barely hear you. You gotta speak up pal! Be loud like me!" Fiducia gave out a loud cry. "Your turn pal."

    Miki flapped his wings again and gave a cry. "No!" the raven interrupted once again. "Pal the point of a cry like that is to get attention! Praise! Noise warnings from the neighbours!" Miki cried again, louder this time. There was something relieving about yelling into the open like this. Something that made Miki want to fly back home to his little nightingale Nadine. But he had come all this way, and he had to see the owl.

    "You're getting the spirit now, kid! Now, I can't give you exact directions to the owl, but I do know a friend you could visit. She's a quiet ole gal and she doesn't like to yell like I do. She lives over by the Japanese maple trees." Fiducia flapped his feathers.