When the birds stopped chirping

A Bird's Loneliness - Tales of the Birdmen (Original Short Story)

This is a prequel to the main story which explains the past of some of the characters. It revolves around characters that will be later introduced but can be read indepedently without prior knowledge of the setting, have a nice reading! :)

Flawless, the sky remained silent over a century of natural disasters, deserted by albatrosses and seagulls flying beyond the clouds towards more welcoming lands. As far as the human eye could see, there was water everywhere fading in the horizon where sea and sun melted into eternity. The road went on forward, there was no more place to return to, only hope for a brighter future once earth was on sight.

Dawn coloured the sky in sweet colours, transforming the sea into a lovely, mesmerizing blossom of hot shades from vivid red to sunny yellow.  Waves of gold crashed upon the bridge, wrapping the hopeless in their warm embrace. A soft, fresh breeze cooled the air, as to make the increase of heat bearable.  The storm had calmed down, and now there was only silence, a deafening, deadly silence only perturbed by the song of the waves.

The city of dreams floated under the sun, as fragile and ephemeral as a mirage, illusion of a long wished, unreachable future, shimmering in the distance. A muffled sound roared and fainted, forgotten echo lost in the passage of time, like a wild animal sleeping.

High skyscrapers like in previous centuries shined in the daylight, defying the sky heights before it collapsed to ruins all of a sudden. Flames, chaos, despair: a sight of war frozen in time. People screamed, running away from the disaster faster and faster. Smoke filled the air, covering the sun. The streets were dipped into pitch darkness. The only spot that had been preserved from the battle's consequences was a hill from where the sun beamed on the raging sea beneath. Waves crashed upon the rocks. In the horizon, giant winged animals were flying effortlessly above the water like a promise of freedom.

Waves howled, crashing upon the hull, awakening Tesamu with a start. The sun rose up on the after world, transforming the surface of the sea into a blazing fire of hot shades. He rubbed his eyes, sitting on his toes, and looked at the sunset shimmering beyond the cabin's window, melting with the surface of the sea in the horizon.

He held between his hands a lone page lost from an old poetry book he was reading the last evening before falling asleep.

"Often our sailors, for an hour of fun,

Catch albatrosses on the after breeze

Through which these trail the ship from sun to sun

As it skims down the deep and briny seas.

Scarce have these birds been set upon the poop,

Than, awkward now, they, the sky's emperors,

Piteous and shamed, let their great white wings droop

Beside them like a pair of idle oars."

 ...

The child stuffed the book page in his pocket, sitting on top of the mast in the watchtower to admire pensively the morning sky. He let his imagination wander wishing he had wings like these kings of heaven to break free from his harsh life on the boats and fly above the sea towards the unknown. He dreamed of adventure and most of all freedom in order to keep living after the disaster that condemned mankind to a life of eternal wander.

He gave up on sleeping after having a weird dream the last night about a city floating on the ocean like a shattered boat. Caught amidst the storm, built on an ancient submarine volcano, a web of urban districts connected by high-speed roads birthed under his pencil while he sketched the city of dreams on his drawing carnet. A few lines suggested the waves roaming, the sunset shimmering, but still something was missing.