Chapter Text
Two birds sat in a wire. One was fascinated by the roaring machines rushing below them while the other admired the beauty of everything he saw.
“Look at the machines go!” The first bird would say to the second. “They’re so cool. One day I’m gonna ride one.” The second bird only nodded. He had no interest in the beasts that had taken his parents from him. The monsters that flattened his parents like pancakes. His attention was turned to the sky.
He would say, “the sky is so beautiful. Look at all the colors and cloud shapes! There must be a million different shades.” The first bird only laughed in his face. He thought his machines were much tougher than the first birds colors and cooler than a sky they saw everyday.
As the years went by, both birds continued to learn about the world from their wire. The first bird watched the machines, which he’d learned were called cars, and figured out how the two-legged things made them work. His friend, the second bird, had tracked storms, memorized cloud shapes, and marveled at how amazing sunsets were. How he loved the sunsets.
And one day, they both let go from their wire. Except the first bird went down and the second went up. The first stayed close and perched on cars, talking with all the other birds. He never left the area and stayed trapped in a loop, each and every day being the same. Except for the clouds. He noticed they changed every morning, just like the second bird said.
The second bird did leave. He had taken to the skies to explore other places and see everything he could. He was long gone by the time the second bird had realized his mistake. He was stuck clinging to machines and never changing. At some point the first bird wondered if there was more to life than his cars. He wondered if he should have left with the second bird to live a real life.
But it was too late, and the first bird never truly let go of that wire.