Late Departure

The ground was getting harder and colder. “We need to start heading out.” Mom nagged at my dad. “Let’s just wait awhile” dad commented back before heading out before he got some smarts words from mom. Our neighbors, the Robbins had left a few months ago and we were the few idiots staying behind. They complained about leaving but they wanted to leave early to get good housing.

The worms weren’t coming out as often anymore and the air was getting colder. “There’s more food for us since their gone,” dad would say when the robins left.

“Hey mom, I’m going out to fly for a while,” “alright, make sure to come back for dinner.” I jumped out of the nest without realizing how windy and cold and it smacked me out for a second and I forgot how to flap my wings. I quickly regained control and I flew out. An ocean of red, green, oranges in the south were swaying back and forth from the wind. As I headed north, the colors disappeared and was a barren wasteland of limbs reaching out to heaven. I didn’t hear many birds in the many miles that I flew. A geese or two honked from here and there but nothing more. Growing tired I swooped down on a branch. My friends, Sam the Swan, Hemmingten the hummingbird and duke the duck all were gone and I had nothing else to do other than watch the humans that were moving around the ground. They had no wings, two long legs and that was it. It was cold and yet they sat down on the bench and some of them were running around. What a bunch of Idiots. It was getting darker so I decided to fly back home. When I came back, mom and dad were at it again and mom was not letting dad get any word out. “we’re leaving and that’s the final!”

“Bu-“ dad started

“Don’t but me, either we all leave or me and Marty are leaving without you.” 

And so the next day we were packing our bags and getting ready to leave. Dad pulled of a map and huddled us up. “Okay gang, if we head south, we can make it to Florida in three days and we could stay with my aunt for a few days before we get going to Mexico, which will take us about a day to get there.” 

We set off for our trip to Florida and everything was going good. The wind may of had been gusty every now and then, but it didn’t stop us. Sometimes the wind worked in our favor when it came from behind us so we glided most of the time and we thought we were going to get to Florida in two days instead of three. Unfortunately, all of the good things turned for the worst when we ran into a snow storm. We tried to get though it but the snow was making our wings heavy. We found a cave to wait out the storm. We huddled into the farthest corner of the cave we could manage and huddled together, trying to preserve heat. 

“If we would of have had left earlier, we wouldn’t be in this predicament!” Mom snapped. Dad had no comeback to this because the statement was true so he continued to stare at the blizzard outside. We spent the night in the cave.

The next day, the snow was still falling but it was brighter now so I explored the cave while mom gathered rocks and dad was staring out at the cave, hoping for the snow to end. The cave was bigger than it seemed last night. There were rocks hanging from the top, as well as he bottom. I was hopping from corner of the cave to the next corner when something caught my ears. It sounded like water. Looking around there wasn’t any water around the cave at all. It seemed that the sound was coming from the walls. Pressing myself against the wall, I walked along side it and the noise started to become louder and louder. Trying to figure out a way to get closer to the noise, I found a small hole in the bottom corner of the cave. I tried to pick through but my pick would hit the ground and not let me see what was inside. Trying to find a way out, I finally decided to slip though the hole bottom forth rather than head first. When I did that, I easily slipped through the hole and popped out on another side of the cave. Forgetting I knew how to fly I fell a few feet to the ground but I managed to be alright. Looking around, The cave was brighter than it was before as if the sun was shining. It was a normal day in mexico type of weather and the thing that stood out the most as the fact that this part of the cave was huge! There was the water moving around that I heard in the cave and there were even trees and other bushes with their leaves still on it here. This place was saved away from the harsh weather by the cave. “Marty!” Mom yelled.

“Mah! I’m here!” I yelled. “Where is that noise coming from?” My mom questioned again. I couldn’t get my head through the hole anymore because of my beak but I wanted my parents to see the magnificent the cave was hiding away. After me giving them directions, they managed to get into the hole and on the side of the cave that I was at. “Holy mother-bird!”dad exhaled and mom screeched out, causing me and dad to fly away from her. “This place is beautiful! It has everything we need and the warmth.” “Honey, I don’t want to go to Mexico anymore. Let’s stay here.” Mom said while flying over to the tree. “The snow looks like it’s not letting anytime soon so looks like this is our winter hang out.” And so we stayed the whole winter and we left the cave in the spring. It was our secret winter hide out and we always stayed a little bit longer than everybody while they trailed on to their migrations every year.