Haru closed his eyes and focused, he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of someone he considered a professional.
"Once there was a hawk who lived in a golden cage. Hawk’s lord was very wealthy so the cage was huge, half the size of this room and filled with everything the hawk could ever need. A large window allowed Hawk to look out over all the lord's lands and it never had to fear the larger birds that it was told would hunt it if it ever got out. Eagles and falcons swooped and dived outside the window, always watching the hawk in it’s perfect cage. But despite all the grandeur of it’s home Hawk had no room to fly and it’s wings grew weak.
Every day Hawk would ask the lord “Will I never be allowed to soar?” to which the lord would say, “It is too dangerous, better to sit here then risk the unknown. The world is large and cruel, you wouldn’t last a day on your own and the others will never accept you.”.
But Hawk was lonely, and it grew to hate the lord for caging it so. Many years passed and Hawk’s sorrow grew until one day the lord’s servants forgot to lock the cage after feeding Hawk. The cage door was heavy and it took all day for Hawk to push it open. With the door open before it the hawk stood, terrified of it’s next move. If the lord was right Hawk would never survive, eaten by the very things it wanted to be, but slowly it stepped out into the greater world.
It’s wings were weak but not broken and with great effort it hopped and flapped it’s way up into the window. As soon as it showed itself dark shapes dove towards it from the sky and the sun blinded it as it tried to see it’s death coming. But just before they reached Hawk the shapes stopped and hovered before it.
There were birds of every kind arrayed before it and all of them bore smiles. The largest eagle came to rest on the windowsill next to Hawk. “We have been waiting for you. It is hard out here but we can all help each other, will you join us?” the eagle said and Hawk was stunned, the death it had been promised hadn’t come but Hawk was wary. “Won’t you eat me, you’re so much bigger than me?” The eagle frowned and shook it’s head. “We have battled each other before and I cannot promise we won’t again but we need not eat each other when there is enough fish and sky for all. Before you ever need to worry about protecting yourself we will make sure you can. Please come with us, there is so much for you to see.”
Hawk wanted to trust the larger bird as they were alike but turned back and looked at it’s cage. “I do not think I can fly, it has been so long.” Hawk said. The eagle simply smiled and said, “you will again one day, until then we can bear you. Once you are ready you will soar higher than any of us.”
Just then the lord came into the room and saw Hawk had escaped its cage. The lord was enraged and demanded Hawk return to it, trying to shoo away the other birds. “Rest on my back and we can leave this place together or you can and return to your cage and never feel the wind.” The lord rushed across the room determined to catch Hawk but just before hands could grab him Hawk wrapped its wings around the eagle and the eagle dove off the high window.
Together they soared over streams and meadows, lakes and valleys until they reached the coast and the eagle set them down on a high cliff overlooking a vast ocean. “There is more beyond the blue for you to see one day, when you are ready you will see it all.” said the eagle.
Several years later the lord was walking through his keep. He looked tired and alone, shuffling about with no one to keep him company. When he heard the beating of many wings he turned to the window and was amazed by what he saw. “There is the man who tried to cage me.” Hawk said to its children. “See how sad he has become? The cage was beautiful and he made sure I never wanted for anything, and all it cost me was the ability to fly. Beware the cage my children, for the fear it instills cuts deeper than any talon or beak. And pity the man who builds it, for he is as trapped by it as you are.”
Hawk and it’s children turned and flew away and the old lord wept for what he had lost."
[D3,EE] Oh Hail No!
Performance/Water: Telling Suzume Rin a story | TN: 1 | Success:
2 / Opportunity:
1 / Strife:
2
