Going South for the Winter

Being reborn as a bird had to have been the most freeing feeling a person could feel, Freya thought to herself. She had died with a broken heart, feeling as if a bird had gotten its wings clipped so it could no longer fly, but now she felt as if she could fly from any of her problems. 

She landed on a branch, feeling it bending with her weight but still she chirped with cheerfulness as a song took hold. All of her human problems were gone and now she was a simple finch, yellow feathers glistened in the morning sun as she sang her morning song. A song of heartbreak and of being reborn into something else. 

Her trust had been long broken but now she didn’t have to worry about trusting others but herself as her wings took her a flight once more to find a nice juicy worm for breakfast. The sun colored the clouds with a nice orange, she felt small, the world so much bigger than her. Down below the trees were bare from the cold, the chilly air bit into her tiny body as she swooped down to pluck up a worm and gobbled it down. Now it was time for her to get going on this little journey to the South. Technically a huge journey but she didn’t mind. 

Crows of the purest black were flying near, it didn’t take much to stay out of their way as her head cocked at the black and blue flowers that sprouted from the deadened Earth. It was a miracle to see any sort of blooming plant life during the winter, she had noticed. She could hear other bird-like singing songs ‘A bird doesn’t sing because it has answers. It sings because it has a song,’ a quote from Maya Angelou. Freya had once seen it in a book of poems that she once adored. But now she had a new life, a life of flying. And right now she had to focus on traveling to the south so this cold wouldn’t kill her frail body. 

The scenery changed from mountains with no color to a flat plateau. The grass grew long, with the yellow color of deadness, but there wasn’t much else to see than that. Soon it grew dark, days were like that. Short and plain with nothing but flying, eating, and sleeping. 

She soon found a tree with an abandoned hollow in it and began to nest, the night soon brought a chill that wasn’t there during the day. Her head found a nice cacoon of warmth within the underside of her wing as sleep eluded her. 

“You’re nothing!” Ronan, her ex, screamed. “You’re not beautiful, you can’t do anything, you’re useless!” 

“Ron...” Freya whispered as tears and sobs stole away her pleading words. 

“We’re done!” Ronan roared before slamming the door in her face, shutting her out of his life forever. 

The next morning she awoke with dread. Even though she had a new life, her old one still haunted her. What could she do to move on? Suddenly Freya realized that the sun had begun burning away at the coldness that had come in the night before and she was off, flying away from her problems without a nice meal that would have made her feel better if she had thought of it beforehand. 

“You are nothing...” his words haunted her as she flew faster. Not having a clue where she was supposed to be going. South, she was supposed to be going south. The scenery changed again from a flat plateau to rocky ground, not yet a mountain but she could soon see them. 

A commotion caught her attention as noon came around. Two squirrels were jumping from tree to tree. She had always enjoyed watching animals in their natural habitat, and that hadn’t changed when she had become a bird. 

The lack of food had started making her head grow light and her wings grow heavy as she dived down to find a bush of red berries. They were juicy as she pecked at them needily. Those nutrients livened her once again, but flying had grown harsh on her weak muscles so she settled in at an old barrow to watch as the rain began pouring down. Soon all the animals were trying to find a place to stay in. One of the squirrels from earlier found her and snuggled in close, its fur soaked from the cold rain. 

“Hello,” it chipped. “Name is Astra.” 

“I’m Freya,” the bird chirped back as she continued to watch the others frantically trying to find a place to go. 

A thought came to her after an hour of silence between them. “Did you have a past life?” 

“Yea, I was a turtle. I find that I was once a very lazy creature,” Astra replied making Freya giggle. “And you?” 

“I was a human,” her laughter soon died as she begged for the squirrel not to question her further. 

“Ah, yes humans are fun creatures to observe.” Freya agreed with that statement. Being up in the air she saw many humans doing activities she had once done long ago. “Something seems to be weighing on your mind.” 

“How did you move on from your past life?” She didn’t think a turtle had much to move on from, but it was worth a shot. 

“Just spread your wings and fly,” Astra gave the bird a wink before bounding out. The rain had stopped, droplets reflected the branches making them bigger. 

Maybe problems were much like those drops of rain. Bigger than they seemed, so she spread her wings and flew just like the squirrel had advised. 

As she flew she thought of everything in her past life and slowly let them slip away as she finally moved on from her past and decided that she would make the best of this one. 

“I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to fly, I’ll do what it takes till I touch the sky,” the little yellow finch sang as she finished her journey south.