The room was cold and dark. Faint streaks of light could be seen through the smallest of imperfections in the walls, giving minuscule levels of visibility. Not a breeze. Not a sound. There was no way in or out of the room, or so its craftsman would have boasted. However, from the smallest of fissures in the neigh-impregnable defenses, there came a blade that began to cut through the mortar like a hot blade to butter. The process was painstaking. With much effort and patience, a single hole was formed. Through it came a woman.

  She dropped to the floor below, she looked up to examine the space. The light was far better now, due to the hole she had formed. The room was empty in all places but one. In the farthest end of the corner opposite her was a red, high-backed chair. The chair was the kind you might find in some solemn study in the home of an old English warrior who had many stories to tell but lacked the strength to tell them. There was a small coffee table beside it with an open book, though the book was covered in dust. The woman surmised that this room had once been used often, but after it had been boarded up what lay inside was neglected to dust and time.

  While these things were interesting, these were not her goals. After a weak chirp echoed off the barren walls, indicating to the woman that what she sought lay behind the chair. She approached and glanced behind.

  There it lay in the corner, shivering and weak. A red bird looked up mournfully. Everything about the bird was red. Its eyes, its beak, its talons, everything. Its vibrant color bore a strong contrast to the bleak grey behind it. The woman knelt and examined the creature. Its wings were unharmed and in fine condition, the same was true for the rest of it, save for one pitiful sight. Its legs were bent out of shape. It looked as though they had broken and then healed, but they had not been set back in place correctly.

  The bird kept its mournful gaze upon the woman. It knew that she was examining its legs and it was ashamed, it began to try and hide.

  “No no, wait!” Implored the woman, though with much tenderness.

  “I think your legs are just fine. Besides, why try to stand when you were born to fly?”

  A smile crept to her face. She was trying to exude tender care for the weak being before her. It was well received and the bird shifted it’s way toward her. She scooped it up and held it close. She embraced it, and then looked around toward the exit.

  Behind her, standing in the only ray of dim light from the hole she had made, stood a figure. He was well dressed in a black tailcoat. The look on his face was impossible to read. At one glance it was filled with rage and fury, at another it was weeping with utmost grief, while others were more complex and even seemed happy. The languid body shifted its weight and began to meander over to the highbacked chair which suited him perfectly.

  The woman was frozen stiff through all of this. He sat and then waved at her to stand before him.

  She obeyed.

  “You ought not take things that are not yours. This” he indicated toward the bird reproachfully, “this thing is of no use. It cannot even fly.” The man laughed

  “But it’s wing are perfectly fine! I’m sure it can fly!” The woman pleaded

  A spark of light lit in the bird’s eye. The man saw this and his ever shifting gaze honed in on a single emotion. Anger.

  “You cannot fly!” The man cried with great force

  The spark of light died in an instant. The bird shivered and became small, not just emotionally, but its physical form shrank as well. The woman saw this a drew back away from the man. His laugh was both sinister and giddy. When it finally subsided, his cold eyes locked onto hers,

  “Now, give that thing here, it is mine”

  The woman stepped back again, though this time she was up against the barren and damp wall. “N-no..”

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  “…no?” The man stood slowly and began to inch his way forward. His tall, imposing figure only became more frightening the closer he got

  “I- I was told I could keep him!”

  “KEEP HIM!?”

  The change of tone to outrage startled the woman, she wanted to flee, but there was nowhere to go. The man had halved the distance between them,

  “And just what, pray tell, do you intend to do with him?”

  The bird looked up at her hopefully and she looked into its eyes, “I will take care of him. I will make him better”

  Maybe she imagined it, but she thought she felt the bird grow a little in size. The man barked a laugh, but his tone shifted flawlessly into that of a true caretaker,

  “You are not the only one who has come here with empty promises. You will take him, you will allow him to grow, but you will see him for what he is and he will see you. You are unable to bear that. Either you will break under his gaze or…he shall break under yours”

  The man indicated toward the birds legs. His tone became enticing the more he spoke.

  “Trust me. It is far better for you if you simply left.”

  The man walked forward, though the kindness in his voice caused her to relax her grip as well her guard and he took the bird from her. The man began pushing her toward the exit she had made. She resisted a little, but what the man had said had startled her And kept her from moving by her own will. She managed one final glance at the bird. The bird looked into her eyes and the small fire of hope dwindled into a mere smolder, soon to be entirely washed away by the waters of despair. She couldn’t bare it. The bird needs to fly. It cannot live in here!

  “NO!” She shoved his hands away and grabbed the bird and held it closely.

  Instead of lashing out, the man laughed again, “oh, so you do believe you will be different?”

  “I don’t know!” She said that to the man, but then she looked down and then said to herself, “I don’t know…” then she looked into the eyes of the bird again, the embers of hope still faintly glowing within. Then she said to the bird,

  “I don’t know…I may not be…I may not be able to bear you…you may not be able to bear me… but I don’t want you to live here anymore, you can’t!” She began to cry. “You can’t listen to him anymore. Please, I’m begging you. You can fly, you can!”

  It was as if she had blown wind into the dying coals and then fueled them with fresh wood. The fires of hope were set ablaze within the bird and its size doubled, tripled, and more.

  “What have you done?! He cannot look at me! He must not LOOK AT ME!” The man became frantic, but there was nowhere to run.

  The hue of red on the birds feathers became vibrant and rich, like the deepest light of a rising sun. Its wings stretched and pressed against the walls of the cold damp room. The walls crumbled under the pressure. The woman, though frightened began to laugh. To see these walls fall brought her the truest joy that she could never express. It seemed the bird felt the same way. Outside was an open field at the base of a tall mountain, a single waterfall dividing it’s center. A rich forest lay behind, teaming with life and color. The bird’s hue of red seemed to be the only shade missing from the beautiful life before them.

  The man in black felt quite the opposite of joy. His ever shifting face settled into one. This one seemed to be more steady than all the others before it, like he was no longer able to hide it. His face showed true and pained fear. He cowered before the mighty bird before him.

  The bird stooped down and gazed deeply into the man’s eye. The bird blinked once. The man screamed and began to shrivel as the bird once did… when he could bare the pain no more, he fled into the forest and out of sight.

  The great red bird and the woman were left alone. Though she was ever joyful, she could not help but notice two things. One, the bird had yet to look at her. Two,

  “He…he isn’t gone forever is he?”

  The bird stoically kept his eyes on the forest, “No…he is not. I must always watch for him and never let him build again”

  The woman walked forward, and laid a hand on the birds wing,

  “Why won’t you look at me?”

  The bird laughed painfully, “because he is still alive”

  “Then I will watch for him with you”

  She took her place by his side and sat.

  “That is not yours to do young one”

  She leaned her head against his wing, “I know”

  The bird grew a little more. Something inside him broke while something else seemed to fit in place. He moved in front of the woman and gazed deeply into her eye. The hope within his eyes that she place there had become bright rising sun. A life giving sun. She looked into his eyes and saw the beauty of life and colors in all there truest forms. He saw music flowing from every branch and every stone. She saw life breath in every creature. He saw joy in every pain. She saw peace. He saw love. She saw love.

  The bird’s form began to shift. Though it’s gravity never changed, its body shrank and its feathers folded and merged into a red tunic. The wings became arms. The legs that were once broken became healed. The head became that of a man’s. All the while their gaze never left each others.

  When all had ceased, the man smiled bright, but not so brightly as she did. They laughed and embraced. He pulled away from her only so far as to look into her eyes again,

  “Thank you”

  They leaned into one another and kissed. Warmth spread through both of them in unison. Together they stood in that moment for what both seemed forever and not long enough and there a perfect love was formed.

  The end.