Fairytale of a bird

There was a man who never felt important and he craved so much for becoming someone who would at least have some power over others. He believed that this would bring him the strenght and the recognition and that people would now finally see him and love him. 
One day he decided to go into the forest where he found a little chick bird, that just fell out of the nest. It was a beautiful yellow green canary with feathers that still stuck to his tiny body, and he couldn´t fly yet. The man thought to himself: "Well, this little bird knows nothing about this world, I will teach him and he will listen to every one of my words, he will sing the song I will make for him and he will give me pleasure that I need so much".
So he took the small baby bird with him and put him into a cage with food and water. The little bird was very happy to see that someone takes care of him now since he was so lost, he thought that this is his new home. The bird knew already how to sing and he sung very well, but that did not satisfy the man. He wanted him to sing the tunes that he would teach him himself. So the man pressured each day upon the bird the tunes of his own and after a while, the bird forgot how to sing as he used to, because all he remembered had to be forgotten. He even forgot where his real home used to be. The man was everything to him, the only person he knew and wanted to please. 

As the years went on, the little bird turned into a beautiful bright creature with feathers so soft, but he didn´t know about it, because there was nothing or no one to tell him. He sung the songs for his master every day, trying to please his needs, and every day he felt as if nothing ever came back to him for his trying. The man sometimes forgot to feed the bird or to give him water, so he had to stay for days and nights hungry and starved. The man would also spend little time with him, every day less and less, so the little bird had a feeling that the man doesn´t like him anymore. He tried to sing better and louder, he tried to have a sweeter voice, he tried to dance on the porch just to make his owner happy, but the man seemed to care no more. The bird´s feathers started to fall out and lost all their shine. The little bird sat sadly on his porch, thinking of what life could be like outside the cage which he never left.
Once, the man put the cage on the balcony and the bird could see the outside world after a long time. There were other birds sitting freely on the tree branches, singing away happily. There were trees and green fields and mountains, but all way too far from the bird. The only thing that separated him from the life outside was the cage. An invisible wall and a difference between life of happinness and life of sorrow. 

The bird started to chit chat with other birdies who saw how their poor fellow is starved and they were telling him things like : "hey yo brother, you should leave the cage when you get a chance. The man who owns you and says he loves you, is your tormentor!" But the little bird didn´t believe them. "He is not my tormentor, he saved my life when I was young. He helped me and taught me how to sing. He fed me with food and water". But the other birds looked at him rolling their eyes and objected : "but you don´t belong into the cage. That´s not your nature. You were born free and this man took away your freedom. You should live like us who are free and can fly and chase the sky!" and as they said, they spread their wings and took off into the air full of freshness and circled above the town, joyfully playing games with each other. The little bird sat on his porch and thought for a while about what they just told him. He didn´t know if they talked the truth, but the idea of being able to fly freely made him shiver with the excitement.
                                     
Months have passed and the man started to avoid the little bird and he was coming late home and then he kept telling him that it´s the bird´s fault that he is not happy. He put all the blame on that little bird in its cage, made him feel sorry for things he´s never done, so the bird truly started to think he´s surely done them. 
One day the man asked him : "I saw you chatting to the other birds, what have they told you?" And because the bird was happy that his owner is suddenly interested in him again, he splurted out : "we talked a lot and they told me that I belong to the nature, that I should be set free", but the man arose and looked at him angrily. "Why are you talking to such ugly, dirty creatures? They are no good for you. You will stay where you are and be happy for all I´ve done for you, ungrateful thing!"
And with that, he stormed out of the room and didn´t return for days. The bird was afraid to even look up, so much was he ashamed for making his master angry. And also, everytime he did make him upset, the man would stop feeding the bird, leaving him all by himself. But what confused the little bird were days, when the man came back and acted as if nothing happened, and sat down next to cage and asked the bird to sing for him nicely, and kept telling him how much he´s missed him and how much he cares for him. So the bird´s little heart always plummeted to the stars and started to beat faster with excitement and grow fonder. He always thought to himself...."well maybe the birds aren´t telling me the truth after all. This man cares for me!" and this thought gave him a warm feeling that substitued for all the pain he´s ever felt.

In the meantime, man´s moods kept changing like a weather. One day he was nice to his bird, another day he would shout and roar at him for not singing his song well enough. He made him shiver like a leaf in the wind, fearing to say anything at all. 
The bird started to be exhausted by these sudden changes, he could no longer predict if he is going to be treated nicely or badly, he could no longer say if he is doing things out of fear or love, he could no longer see who he was and where he belonged to. And eventhough he knew he´s got the wings like other birds, he felt powerless to fly. 
One day, the bird started telling the man how unjust it seems that he is treated with so little love, that he isn´t even allowed to fly or talk to his little friends. He even got so angry, that the man had to back up a bit. The man said to him, trying to calm him down : "Ok, sure I never prevented you from flying around or talking to your bird friends, you know you can do all that", and as he said it, he set the bird free. The bird was speechless. He had his freedom and all it took was to speak his mind. Surely his master couldn´t be a bad man if he agreed to let him go and come back as he pleased. He must have finally understood his needs. The bird was chirping away joyfully with other friends, sitting on the bench, but then his mates noticed something peculiar. 
"Look overthere! Down in the street. Isn´t that your master?", said one of them. There he really was, lurking behind the bushes and watching the birds from bellow. 
"How dares he?", said the other bird. 
The little bird was thinking differently. "Maybe he is just worried about where I am, or he didn´t mean to look like he is watching me, it all could be just a coincidence", but other birds disagreed. 
"No no, mate, he is certainly following you, trying to find out what you´re doing."
And with this, the little bird returned home. At first he was happy to share his new experiences with excitement, as his master sat near him and listened attentively, seemingly interested. After all that what was said, the man stood up, grabed the bird by its wing and threw him against the ground, hurting his head. 
"There you go you ungrateful bird! You won´t be telling about us to anyone no more. You miserable little thing. I own you and you are mine, and therefore you have to listen to what I say is right for you", but the bird seemed now very upset and said to him crying : "I want to go home! Just let me go". The man turned at him with evil eye and then started to cry himself. "But you know I can´t, we´ve known each other since you were a little bird, you remember how I saved you and cared for you, and taught you to sing for me. We have so much together and I do love you". But the bird didn´t believe him anymore. 
So the man broke his wing as well. It was excruciating pain, but the bird was brave enough no to show it. 

Days went on and things were looking bright again, but something inside the little bird´s heart has changed. He seemed more withdrawn now, quieter and compliant. He sat on his porch, dreaming of his freedom, of his nest that once used to be his only home when he was little, he dreamt of finding again his Mummy that lost him when he fell out of the nest. He dreamt of his bird friends behind the closed windows, how they frolic with each other and fly around in circles, he dreamt of a day he could set his wings free and spread them to fly and fly. But even when his cage was open and he could fly away, he never dared to do so, as he was scared he will be found and hurt, or he thought maybe his master would be really sad if there was no one to sing for him again. So he always stayed, hoping that his master will come and be happy one day. He hoped that his singing could cure him out of his terrible disease. He hoped that if he didn´t see his bird friends anymore, things would get better. He thought that it might be his fault anyway, and that his master could be right as he always said. he definitely loved him, didn´t he? At least that´s what the man kept saying all the time. 
But the more the little bird hoped for a change, the more it was obvious that nothing will ever change. The man was often angry, spitefull and blamed all his misfortunes on other people or on his bird, and birdie just sat and took it all, trying to remember the good times they had together, no matter how scarce. It all seemed like a distant memory, the good times they once have had, they already begun to fade and get obscured with darkness of the presence. But even that little comfort could have warmed the little bird´s heart that kept beating quietly under his bright coloured chest. 
The bird retreated from his other bird friends and barely ever saw them again, just in case his master would see them together. He didn´t want them to be shooed off, nor did he craved for the punishment. So he rather stayed in his cell most of the time, dreaming of a happy life. But then, from all that stress brought upon him, the birdie started to lose his feathers in such amounts and so fast, that he looked like a naked chicken soon. He felt embarrassed so much and his skin aked him so badly, that he never went outside his house anymore. He cried every now and then, but there was no help for him nor a cure. Even the best pet doctors didn´t know what the trouble could be. 
The man kept coming home drunk and made things even worse when shouting at him, depriving him of so much needed peace. The world started to shatter all around him. Birdie had no more friends, they haven´t seen him in many months now, so it appeared they all either gave up on him or most of them migrated to warmer country. Birdie was all alone. But wait. There was one little bird whom he sometimes talked to through the window pane. They talked in secret about things that worried our little bird. They were really sad things that made the other bird often listen in utter horror. "How could he do such things to you, birdie, if he said he loved you?", the bird asked him. 
Birdie thought for a while and quickly realized how true it was. "Well of course not", he replied meekly and looked at his friend. 
"But don´t worry", said the bird, "I can help you to leave this cage and your cruel master. You just have to have the will to do it yourself", he ended the sentence. 
The birdie thought something like that impossible and absolutely insane. He thought million times of leaving the cage, in his dreams. But never before did he dare to think that to escape the cage is something achievable. He was stunned and shocked, but when his friend left, he had to think of his suggestion. The only trouble was, the bird was a last of his good friends who really cared about him, and he was to migrate to warm country in few days, never seeing him again. Birdie was thinking. "I should take this chance and go, once my friend is gone, i will never get to find out what´s life like beyond these walls, it certainly will be my death" and with these thoughts, he started to plan his big escape. 
Although he lost his vitality, strenght and feathers, as well as his good spirit and fondness for singing, his heart beat faster the more he thought of his escape. His master never noticed any change, he was too sure that birdie will never leave him, and he was too obsessed with his own problems. Sometimes he would come home so drunk he would only fall into his bed and didn´t know the rest of the world existed. The plans of little birdie never crossed his mind. But eventhough birdie did want to go, he was too much sad for his master and felt guilty that he will abandon him completely, he thought things could have been better only if his master cared for him more, or liked him more, and if he wouldn´t break his wings everytime he felt like it. 
The grass was green and flowers bloomed all around, but birdie didn´t see much of them, as his soul was so small with fear. "Will I go or will I stick it?", he argued with himself. 
Finally, one day, the man went mad at him for not behaving the way he was expected to, so he took a big bottle and swung it over little bird´s head, short of hitting him. The birdie escaped back into his cage, tightly holding onto the railing and porch, trembling with fear all over. 
"Open the cage you little prat. I´m gonna get you and you will see what I´m capable of!" But the birdie held on to the cage and never allowed his master to reach him. He felt as this was the final drop. At that stage he knew, no man can treat him like this. That night made him to decide to leave the comfort of his nest and to fight for way out to freedom. 
It took him only few days to gather the courage. He didn´t know how to leave, but he told his friend behind the window. "Listen, I want to do what we were talking about. Will you help me out?"
There was a silence on the other side of the window. After a while, a tiny voice replied in amazement. 
"Of course my boy, I will stand by you no matter what"
And so,one beautiful day when all the flowers were in full bloom and the wind sent the boats sailing on the wide seas, the birdie packed up one seed of grain under his wing, took a last gulp of a water to strenghten himself and opened up the cage with all force. The window was half opened, so he didn´t wait for one second and squeezed himself through a narrow gap, just to see the daylight so strikingly beautiful he nearly fainted. The light was too bright for his eyes and wind too sharp for his naked skin, but he didn´t feel any of it. All he felt was a great gratitude when his heart started to beat wildly in his chest. His little fellow bird waited outside on the roof of the opposite house, cheering up joyfully. As soon as they sat next to each other, birdie hugged him with all emotion. But there was no time to waste, they both had to rush as fast they could, before the master came back and saw them. They flew a long long way, into the hidden forest behind the town. The birdie couldn´t catch his breath, he didn´t fly for so many years, but it felt like heaven. he wanted to cry with happinness, it was such a good feeling at last. 

When few days passed, the man kept looking for his bird everywhere seething through his gritted teeth, swearing and cursing him, destroying everything that came into his path. But because the two birds hid so well, he never found them. 
And so, the birdie finally got a chance to see what´s beyond the horizon when he flew back home after so many lonely years. He said goodbye to his friend as they parted in tears, but he knew his freedom was awaiting him. And his Mummy and Daddy? They were happy to have him back alive and safe. The little bird made it back home to where he came from, and realized the real value of once lost and found freedom. The fate of the man after the birdie left him wasn´t good. He drunk a lot more, lost all his money and friends and bitterly regretted he didn´t kill the bird in the first place, but that was because he was a man who didn´t care about any living creature, a man who hated himself so much that he needed someone else to suffer instead of him. But that was over. No more bird singing to his tunes, no more, no more, no more. 
And what happened to our little bird? He started to recall his long lost voice in which he used to sing his songs, he found out that his feathers grew back neatly, and he learnt that other birds loved him no matter what he sings. And so he lived happily for many years and sang the songs from his heart to those who would listen.