Footsteps

The Blue Macaw

Once upon a time, in a remote corner of the Amazon rainforest, a baby bird was born. Its feathers were grey and scraggly-looking, but would soon become a rich shade of deep blue.
When it did, a team of people dressed in green, trained to spot this royal plumage, trapped it in a small metal cage and locked it safely. The bird didn't see much on the way to the zoo, being in the dark, dry vault next to the suitcases on the plane. It arrived, scared, lonely, but mostly confused, at the Ottergrove Zoological Garden. It was a big, noisy, smelly place, colourful and dusty. The bird was hastily named Raisin and placed in an enclosed habitat with a few other smaller birds that had nothing to do with it or its habitat: one of them was a penguin- who's idea was that?

The manager of the menagerie, Thomald Stocks, was a very impatient color-blind man who disliked anything that didn't have sharp teeth, bone-crushing jaws and strong arms. He obviously didn't care for the colorful gentle feathered creature department.

On the corner of Skeeter and Drentwood stood a yellow house with a large backyard where a brazil-nut tree grew. People lived in the house, but they aren't tremendously important for the story, although I'm sure they were very nice. If you really must know, they were called Lily and Carson and they liked eating lasagna for breakfast.

Raisin liked eating brazil-nuts for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner, but the zoo keepers had put him on a strict diet of crunchy bland bran flakes. Every morning, Carla and Gwen, the zookeepers, would push a deep platter of the brown mixture through a flimsy plastic grate next to the fake palm tree. They were quite surprised that day when a soft mass of indigo squeezed through the small opening, and disappeared behind them in a flurry of feathers. Their eyes open wide, they stared at the penguin for a while, before silently deciding that they wouldn't tell Mr. Stocks. He probably wouldn't even notice. After all, every bird looked the same through his grayscale eyes.

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The macaw rushed through the empty staff building at great speed, found an open window and sprang out, feeling the wind in his feathers for the first time since his capture. He soared above the green trees, gaining height rapidly. To anyone looking up, he was a flying blue dot.

People pointed in awe at the small spot fluttering between the clouds. The macaw wasn't recognized as a macaw by the townspeople; it was just a flying blue speck, but that itself was the most interesting thing that had been seen in the sky for ages.
The Ottergrove Gazette was pleased: they wasted no time and started distorting the faint parrot calls and digitally applying pale smudges to the videos to mimic a spaceship of sorts.
It was the most fun they'd had in years and villagers were fighting their way to the newsstands to purchase the latest edition. This was understandable, as the paper usually bore boring headlines such as "Ottergrove Knitting Festival ahead, exclusive interviews with the contestants! "or "Scandal at the bakery: Mrs. Calloka found what in her cookie?".
The next morning, on the front page and in large characters, next to the 22nd bakery scandal and the village's book club notes, was written "Extraterrestrials in Ottergrove".

Samuel Kirkwood, following the wave of excited villagers, was headed towards the square where the Ottergrove Gazette's stand was. He grabbed a copy, opened his red leather wallet and started counting his pennies.

At that exact same moment, Raisin, unaware of the kerfuffle in the world below, landed atop a tall pine. From his perch, he could see the whole town. Most importantly, he could see a little yellow building and a big tree. After a short feather grooming, the azure creature took flight. A good description of his thought process: going to food.