The story of Phoenix- Part 4

The end!!!! (finally) 🙂

QBN

Hey BirdNerds! I’m sorry I kept you all hanging but I just couldn’t resist! *evil laughter* But finally the end to Phoenix’s story has come. SUSPENSE! Dun dun dun… Read on to find out what happened to him and if I kept my word not to split it up into another part…

Where was Phoenix? There was still no sign of him through the deep tangle of bushes and twining leaves and branches, no flash of feathery wings or tawny belly beaming proudly with a yellow spot that had grown over time (They are not called Yellow Wattlebirds for nothing)

I slowly breathed in and refused to let water leak out of my eyes, but couldn’t stop some pearling in the corners. I sniffed and wiped my eyes as they blurred, and looked up and-

-Phoenix was swooping down from a nearby tree excitedly, looking as though he had never left and worried us all.

“Phoenix!” I called joyfully, as he made his trademark dive-bomb and jackknife twist onto a little shrub with rather weary looking faded bottlebrush flowers hanging off it limply. He gave a halfhearted lick then gave up and just sat down calmly on it, feathers ruffled from his great escape.

It took about five attempts for us to show him where the food was, but he spotted it eventually and started licking greedily, acting like he hadn’t eaten for a month even though his rather plump belly didn’t help this illusion. He stopped licking after a few minutes, then paused, flew up a tree, and watched us curiously from above.

We knew he would be fine now, so we decided it was time to go, though we would check up on him regularly. I thought my grandparents would enjoy having him around, dive-bombing them and their guests, sitting up in a tree squawking like he owned the place, greedily licking at the last crusts of nectar… I sure enjoyed him. My grandpa scoffed at Phoenix, “He’s very plump” and “He’s not very smart”, but I could see the gleam in his eye and decided Phoenix would grow on him.

When we started to leave for the car, we found Phoenix sitting on it, fluffing up his wings and deciding this was a good place to sit. Actually, Phoenix thought everything was a good place to sit. If we had left him at our house, he probably would of tried to land on the cat, and that wouldn’t have ended well.

Phoenix lived the high life from then on, free nectar mix whenever he wanted, lots of “perches” to land on, humans to order around… but he sure didn’t seem to be getting any wilder. He was as tame as ever, perhaps more so, but at least now no cat with a murderous spark in its eye could chase him down and hunt him.

As I thought, Phoenix eventually made his mark on my grandfather, who seemed almost fond of him now.

For the next week, every time I checked in with my grandparents, Phoenix was fine. We stopped worrying because apparently he was always there, morning and night, unwilling to miss his nectar mix, and whenever I went over to my grandparents house I could always spot him in a nearby shrub, or flying down to greet me with vigour.

One day, my grandpa was picking me up from school, and one of the first questions I had was; “Hows Phoenix?”

His reply was unexpected; “I haven’t seen him” “He came down for his precious nectar mix at morning, but I haven’t spotted him since.”

The next few days, there were still no sightings of Phoenix. I was worried, but we checked all around the garden. No Phoenix, but no dead body either. What we reckoned had happened was that he had finally become a proper wild bird, maybe found a group and mate, and was eating all by himself.

Of course, we couldn’t tell for sure, and I was still scared he might be dead because it seemed rather sudden, but there was no real reason he would die. There was no dead body found, so we believed he had found a path in life, the path he was always meant to take, following the yellow brick road tirelessly, approaching the bright Technicolor swirl of freedom that lay ahead.

The Phoenix who rose from the ashes was reborn with a brand new life ahead of him.

Hey BirdNerds (again!) No, this time I’m not here to announce another part to Phoenix’s story. This was the last part, so no more waiting for the next part! You may have noticed the reference to the Wizard Of Oz in there, and no, its not cos I watched it 12 times on repeat, its cos I just finished reading Cathy Cassidy’s book, Sundae Girl. (Its a great book, by the way) Yeah… See you next time! Maybe with Skittles’s story (My Rosella, named by Ambybirb) Until then, Byeeeeeeeee!!!