The Yellow Bird

A Short Story By Nate Butkus 

Bird. That bird. Yellow, with green eyes, and half crimson half ivory feet. That bird could be burnt with a torch and I would do nothing. I might even ask to burn it myself. That black obsidian ring on the ivory part of his right foot makes me think he’s a spy of some sort. How does he even find a way into my house every morning? I’ve locked all the doors, all the windows. I must have been looking around so much for possible entrances, that I forget to look for possible exits, and then just as I finish checking for the second time today, that awful repulsive bird is gone. It has collected every piece of information that it had to for today, it had collected all of the information that it had needed to collect on me for the day and now it was out of my house hopefully for good. But the next day of course it was back, ready to spy on me some more. Now, like any sane human, I tried to come up with a plan to stop him from…from well, being bothersome to say the least. The ring. That beautiful obsidian crystal on the ivory part of trouble itself’s right foot. The key must be the ring. As usual the bird was watching me with it’s camera-like shifty eyes. But unlike usual, I was carefully watching that horrid bird too. This was getting boring. Why not enact part one of my plan. I threw a bell with some bird seed inside just far enough away from the bird so that that little rascal would have to fly to get it. Sure enough, that yellow devil turned his back to me so I lunged at him, grabbing his left foot first, and then his right foot. In one sudden motion, I yanked off the obsidian ring. Up close, it looked like there was a small button on it. One that could only be unlocked by a key of some sort.. “OW!!!” I unexpectedly screamed. I looked at my hand that was holding that creature’s left foot. There was a big two centimeter gash on my finger. Did that bird just scratch me? No, it couldn’t have, I checked to see if there was anything inside my wound, and sure enough, I found a pitch black obsidian needle attached to the crimson part of that bird’s left foot. I looked back at the ring hoping it would fit. I tugged off the needle, and checked to see if it would unlock the button on the ring. It did not. For some reason that evil yellow thing started squawking like crazy! “What is it?” I frustratedly asked, he touched his gnarled foot to the other side of the needle. “I knew that. I didn’t need a foolish bird like you to tell me that.” I lied. I put the other side of the obsidian needle into the button on the ring. It unlocked with a satisfying click.  

“Ten…nine…eight…seven…” said a voice inside the key  

“oh no no no. I will not be killed by a bird!” I said.

“…four…three…two…one…ignition!” the voice said as a rocket launched into the air destroying half of my house’s roof. My anger was short lived because something came out of the ring. It was a disc of some sort. It had an alien language on the front, but on the back there was a note written with very good handwriting. The note said ‘look for the unusual in a place you never go.’ I looked at the bird who was now perched on my shoulder and he nodded toward the backyard. As I went outside, I noticed a small tree where there had never been a tree before. There was a small note on the tree. It said ‘print your name on this tree and-’ that was where the note stopped. This was kind of creepy, but I had a feeling that that bird would never stop following me if I didn’t put my name on that tree. So, I got a knife, and put my name on that tree. Suddenly the ground came out from under me and I fell onto a soft couch in a palace. In a chair across from me, there was an old man. 

“Hello?” I said. 

“Who are you?!” said the old man. Then his confused expression turned into dread. 

“What is that th-thing on your shoulder?” he asked “It looks like a pet bird I had years ago and then…” 

“And then what sir?” I asked. 

“And then I…I killed it. Is it back for revenge?” 

“I think it has already had it’s revenge.” the yellow bird’s ghost nodded as it faded away. 

“Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you!” he said “for your gratitude I will let you live in this palace with me. It will be nice to have some company.” 

That is how I ended up in a palace.       

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