For Lilian and the Indigos - Above Top Secret

THE BEST FLYER
Once upon a time there lived a family of birds; there was Mama Bird, Daddy Bird, and
Little Chick, and she was always hungry for seeds.
Now the Bird family lived in a bird house in a tree, on a beach between a forest and a
lake. It was very beautiful and the Birds were very happy, except Daddy Bird. Daddy
Bird was sad because he was not very good at finding seeds, and so it was Mama Bird
who kept Little Chick fed. The only thing Daddy Bird was good at was flying, and he
liked to fly, as that’s what birds do. When Daddy Bird was sad, sometimes he got mad at
Little Chick for chirping so much, but it was not her fault; she was just doing what little
chicks do.
The creatures in the forest would say to Daddy Bird, “Why don’t you stop flying around
and find seeds for your chick?” The truth was that, as he was flying, he WAS looking for
something. It was a special worm that lived only on the beach of the lake. When he ate
the worm, it made him feel better and gave him energy to fly higher than any other birds.
There was a rule that the other birds made long before Little Chick or even Mama and
Daddy Bird were in the world. They said the worm was not to be eaten because only
good flyers could scoop ’em out of the water and it was not fair to the bad flyers. And so
Daddy Bird had to hunt the worms at night when everyone was asleep. As he skimmed
the beach of the lake looking for those wiggly worms, he could sometimes see what the
legends called FISH. The FISH were supposed to be birds that were made of one whole
wing, and they could fly UNDER the water. None of the forest creatures believed the
fish were real. None of the other birds ever saw FISH. Only Daddy Bird did because
when he flew at night the moon would shine on the FISH.
One night Daddy Bird went hunting worms and an owl up in a tree saw him do this. The
old owl did not like Daddy Bird because the owl thought he should be finding seeds for
Little Chick. And now the owl really didn’t like Daddy Bird because he was breaking
the old rule about hunting worms.
One day the Bird family was at home, chirping away and eating seeds, when they heard
someone tapping at the door. Daddy Bird opened the door, and there was a badger from
the forest. The badger said, “I have been told by the owl that you, Daddy Bird, have been
eating the forbidden worms, and the forest creatures have decided that I must come to
your house every month to see that Little Chick is getting enough seeds and you are
getting NO worms!”
And so it went; every month badger showed up, and every month badger saw a fed Little
Chick and sad Daddy Bird. Mama Bird became sad too because Daddy Bird couldn’t fly
like he used to. She loved him very much even though he was no good at gathering
seeds. She could find enough for everyone.