Once upon a time there was a boy who hated to be alone. So, knowing not what to do, he locked himself up in the highest room of the tallest tower. All day he sighed to himself, wishing that there was something to ease this horrible loneliness that had taken hold and gripped him tight. Then he realized that his tower was growing.
Every day that the boy spent up in his tower—and there were so, so many—there was another ring of bricks added to the middle, making it taller. And taller. And taller. Before long (but actually after quite a spell in his tall, tall tower) the boy couldn’t even see the ground. All hope left the boy then, and he was convinced that he’d never get down.
An eagle had taken to visiting the boy, but only for a few minutes each day. The creature would sit on the sill of the tower’s only window and simply stared at the boy...and the boy stared back. Inch by inch, day by day, the boy gained the courage to scoot closer, and finally—finally!—he was close enough to touch the proud bird.
Shyly he reached out his hand and stroked the soft tawny feathers of the bird’s head. The eagle screamed, flying past him into the room and buffeting the boy back against the sill with its wings. The boy screamed as well, and then he was falling, falling, falling towards the ground. The air was snatched from his lungs as he plunged downwards—silently now, face frozen in fear. The eagle dove after him, turning suddenly into a girl.
“Spread your arms!” she shouted, blonde hair streaming out behind her. “Quickly now!”
The boy shook his head, uncomprehending, as the girl demonstrated. Suddenly his gaze was riveted to the ground—the fast-approaching ground. “I can’t!” he cried in absolute terror. “I’m going to die!”
“No, not die!” the girl insisted, tilting her body to fall towards the boy. “Fly!”
He shied away instantly, dropping like a rock for a good twenty feet before recovering. The girl had been the eagle—the eagle who frightened him into falling into this whole mess in the first place. There was no way he would trust her!
“Two hundred feet!” warned the girl, louder now. “Spread your arms!”
“No!” the boy shouted back. “How can I trust you?”
Her bright eyes shone with urgency in the sun. “You can’t!” As an afterthought, she added, “One hundred feet!”
Panic like never before shot through the boy’s limbs, freezing him in place. He was going to die, going to die, was dead, dead, dead. There was no way out—doomed.
“NOW!”
What could it hurt? He was going to go splat on the ground—whatever was down there—anyways. Slowly he spread his arms and felt a peculiar sensation: the wind tearing through his feathers, catching the currents and slowing his descent. The girl was an eagle again—she had spread her arms. So did that mean...?
A turn of the head assured him that yes, he was a bird too—a great bluish-black raven, to be exact. A whoop of relief became a joyous caw, and he flapped upwards to join the eagle. As they rose through the air, he saw an innumerable forest of towers—tall and cold, just like his. There were more people? More lonely people?
As if she’d read his mind, the eagle gave a piercing scream. Instantly the cries of hundreds of birds answered her, and the boy-turned-raven noticed the great multitude of birds, wheeling through the sky-- eagles, ravens, hawks, sparrows, condors, pigeons, bluebirds, and the like. “You’re not lonely anymore!” she said.
She was right, he realized. “How many others are there? In the towers, I mean.”
“Millions!” replied she, almost gleefully. “Millions, just waiting to be rescued—to join the flock, hundreds strong. To be a part of the family, forever free. Will you help us?”
Millions. Towers. Hundreds. Flock. Family. Help. “Yes. Yes! Of course! What can I do?”
The eagle girl grinned somehow, and cried out in triumph. “Come on!”
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