Wednesday, January 24, 2007

The Girl and the Eagle

This is a rough draft... please let me know if you have any suggestions or note any misspellings, etc. I will be going through this later. Also, this story begs for illustrations.


Once upon a time there was a young girl who was raised underground named Newt. She was a normal girl.. she had two legs, two arms, ten fingers and ten toes. Her family was horribly poor, and could not afford to live in town, so she was raised underground, away from the light of the sun. She would eat snails and hermit crabs at every meal, and she made friends with the rats who lived with her. She was a sad little girl, and she envied the people who lived in nice houses, wore clean clothes, and ate steak and ice cream three times a day. She would console herself by playing tricks on the people who lived above ground. Sometimes she would remove a manhole cover for somebody to accidentally fall into. Sometimes she would steal bicycles from children's yards. Sometimes she would just jump out and scare the 'day' people.

Newt tortured the 'day people' because she was sad and because she had no friends, but whenever she pulled a new prank, she found that she was no happier than before. She found herself becoming more and more sad with every prank. After one particular episode in which she had scared the wig right off of an old woman, Newt witnessed the old woman pointing at her accusingly and saying "You are a dirty, horrible little girl, and that's all you'll ever be!" The comment didn't stop Newt from giggling and laughing away with delight, but later, when she sat down next to an water-reservoir pipe, she thought about the old woman, and she cried. She cried because the old woman was right. Newt looked at her clothes, and looked at the dirt built up on her skin and under her fingernails. She WAS a dirty, horrible little girl, and she had no friends.

As Newt sat, she watched an eagle flying far over her head. As she stared up at it flying around the sky, unchained, seemingly unworried about the world beneath it, she thought she noticed the bird looking at her. She felt uncomfortable about this, and decided to look the other way and pretend she hadn't noticed the bird, but every time she glanced up, the eagle was hovering closer to her head. The eagle let out a screech and started flying directly toward her. She was very scared now... but was far too frightened to move. She tried to move, but her legs were too heavy to move, and a knot started forming in her throat. Newt closed her eyes, and heard a flapping of wings. When she opened them, the eagle was staring her right in the face. This was no ordinary eagle. Now that it was near her, she could see that it was a great bird... it stood even taller than she did. She also saw that it's feathers were lined with gold threads that glowed from within. It's eyes were a deep emerald green, and were as painful to look at as they were compelling.

"What troubles you, little girl?" asked the Eagle. Newt was so captivated by the beauty of the eagle, that she didn't think it strange at all that it talked to her. She almost expected it. She replied to the eagle in a frightened tone, "I'm horrible, and mean, and dirty and ugly and no one loves me." said Newt. "I was born underground and have had a horrible time of life. I'm tired of being dirty and smelly and ugly. I want to be richly dressed and popular and live above ground like the 'day people'. They wouldn't even let someone like me be seen in the street right now."
The Eagle had a sad look on his face as he listened to her story.

The eagle paused after hearing her story... as if deep in thought. Then, he plucked out one of his feathers, and handed it to her from his razor-sharp beak. "Take this feather." said the eagle. Then staring at her with his deep, penetrating eyes, he said, "You will no longer be known as "Newt". Your new name will be "Mercy". With this feather, you will be allowed to walk above ground with all the other people, and you will be a brand new person. By holding this feather with you, you are showing people that you belong to me now - to the royal family of the Golden Eagle. But..." warned the eagle, "Since you are now a member of my family, I ask that you play no more tricks on people. It displeases me to see you make fun at others' expense." The little girl cowered at his very mention of this. She had no idea how he knew that about her, and didn't question it... she simply replied with a whimpering "ok". The Eagle appeared to nod slightly, before flapping his large, thunderous wings, and taking flight, eventually disappearing into the sun.

Mercy, filled with hope and fear, ventured out into the open air of the daylight. Her bare feet stepped quietly and comfortably onto the wet grass of the new morning. She felt naked and awkward out in the open where everyone could see her, but the sun's warm rays soon warmed her, reassuring her that she was welcome here. She shuffled her feet, which still seemed a little dirty, but the wet grass brushed away the dirt and filth built up on her feet. She liked having clean feet. She couldn't remember when her feet had been so clean, so she walked through some taller grass near the edge of town. Just like the turf on her feet, the tall grass was also wet with dew, and seemed to wipe a lot of her grime and filth away from her... cleaning her up and making her more presentable to the 'townsfolk'.

Mercy looked down at her hands and feet. They were a vast improvement from earlier in the day. She was so thankful to the eagle, that she reached inside her pocket, and grabbed the feather he had given her, and squeezed it gently with pride.

Mercy decided that, given her new appearance, she would try to go make some friends. Mercy walked into town, and saw some younger children playing with a ball in the street. As she approached, she noticed that the children seemed brightly lit. She had never noticed before how some of these people seem almost illuminated. She walked up next to them to greet them, but when she came near, they looked at her and all screamed and ran away.

"Why did they run away from me?" Mercy said to herself. "They treated me as if I still lived underground and was coming to scare them." Mercy wanted to play a mean trick on them for running away from her, but she checked herself. The Eagle told her that she was no longer to play tricks on people, so she was trying to respect that promise.

She came across an old man who was playing the fiddle on a street corner for money. As she looked into his kind, honest face he also seemed to glow brightly. The man almost looked heavenly. Mercy stood in front of him to listen to his music, but when she came near, he stopped playing... and looked at her with wonder, then fell to the ground and started crying.

She walked away sad and dejected. "Even an old fiddle player is brought to tears and sadness at my presence."

Mercy walked around town, surrounded by people who were filled with light all around her, and they all just stared in awe at her. "They're all just mocking me." she thought to herself. "They're all shocked to see someone as ugly as me in the world above ground." she told herself. The crowd just stood there, staring at her for a while.
She walked around distressed for several hours. Wherever she went, people's response seemed to be the same. They even seemed to be following her now and staring at her like some sort of circus freak.

She became very angry. The people who lived above ground seemed more beautiful and bright than she had imagined before, and she felt more ugly than ever. She wished very hard that she was as bright and beautiful as one of the people she had met in town. She felt like she had been tricked into trying to live in the above ground world. The Eagle had lied to her. Maybe he was paying her back for playing too many tricks on people.

As she thought about the Eagle, she pulled the feather from her pocket and looked at it. It still gleamed and shimmered in the sunlight. She looked at it with contempt. It was so elegant and beautiful, and she was still very ugly. She threw the feather at the ground and folded her arms across her knees and moped. As she sat there, she could hear the soft whipping of the wind through the trees. Then it became louder. Soon she heard a great flapping of wings and gusts of wind blowing against her. It was the Eagle. She didn't look up. She was very angry, but was too scared of the great bird to say so.

"What troubles you, Mercy?" his voice almost sounded melodic. She felt compelled to answer, despite her strong urge to angrily avoid him.

"You said you were going to make me a brand new person - someone special. I'm no different than before. I feel even uglier than I was when I lived underground. People stare at me, and run when I come near."

The Eagle let out a long, drawn out sigh. "If only you trusted me. If only you saw yourself the way that I do." He walked over to a nearby pond and called Mercy over to him. A great pressure swept her off her feet and walked her to the waterside. She felt that if she had not walked over herself, her legs would have moved on their own. The eagle stared into the pond, and motioned for her to do the same. At first she saw the Eagle's reflection in the water, then peering in behind the Eagle, she saw a glowing, golden creature so bright she had to shield her eyes. To her amazement, the being in the reflection shielded her eyes at the same moment. She gasped with the instant realization that she was the angel in the water's reflection. She was bathed with light and gold and feathers and decorative jewels around her neck.

"Your light is so bright" said the Eagle, "that you actually have illuminated the people you have encountered. Their light is reflected from your own... and your light is reflected from me. People stare, but they stare in awe... in amazement... they fear of the amount of glory that shows from you. I have not lied. You are precious to me, and I have filled you with light, and I want you to spread that light to others." The Eagle looked at Mercy lovingly, then she hugged the Eagle's neck tight before letting him go to turn toward the sky and disappear into the sun again.

...and the girl was happy.