The Bluebird and the Shadow

Once upon a time not very long ago, in a place not very far from where you are now, there was a forest wherein there lived a bluebird. This bluebird had lived in the forest all her life, and was content to remain there forever, liking nothing more than to sing her beautiful song as she flew between the familiar trees, and above the familiar treetops. Her shadow, on the other hand, was not content.

The shadow had been content with the bluebird that cast it for a long time, but now it was growing more and more annoyed with its companion. 

“Must you sing all of the time?” the shadow said exasperatedly one day, staring up at his friend from the branch she perched on. 

“But I love it so, my friend,” the bluebird replied, pausing in her rhapsody to look down at her swart compatriot. “Wouldn’t you do something you loved more than anything...more than anything?”

The shadow crossed its dark wings huffily. “Not if it irritated my friends so much with its constant repetition. You’re making my ears ache.”

“But my dear shadow,” the bluebird said with perplexity, looking to make sure. “You don’t have ears.” This did nothing to improve the shadow’s mood.

“But why don’t you want to leave the forest?” the shadow asked the next day, as the two of them hopped in between grassy patches on the forest floor, searching for worms. “If we left only for a few hours we could have such adventures.”

“But I don’t want to have adventures outside the forest,” the bluebird replied honestly, pecking absentmindedly at a blade of grass. “There’s plenty of room for adventure within these boundaries, and we are safe from hawks and cats in our forest, while there is food aplenty.” To illustrate this, she sucked a mealworm from a patch of wet earth and swallowed it.

“Perhaps enough room for you,” the shadow said darkly, though he could hardly help that.

“Why do you fly so high, though?” the shadow cried distantly the third day. The bluebird was swooping far above the forest floor, her shadow so distant below that it was barely cast by the daylight trickling through the treetops. 

“Why, I fly because I am a bird, friend shadow,” the bluebird said, winging down to perch on a fallen twig above where her companion stood. “And I fly high so as to enjoy the gift my wings have given me even more.”

“That’s all very well,” said the shadow, crossing his wings. “But when you fly so high I can barely reach the ground, much less enjoy the flying.”

“I’m sorry, my friend,” said the bluebird humbly, reaching out a placatory wingtip. “I didn’t realize--” But the shadow shook his head emphatically.

“I have decided to go and seek another companion, friend bluebird. I have grown tired of staying in this wood, and wish to see what else the world has to offer.”

And whatever the bluebird said, the shadow’s mind would not be changed, and, after a short farewell, it took itself off and flew away to find another, better companion outside the forest.

Quickly reaching the edge of the wood, the shadow soared across the border for the first time, reveling in the new sights before it, of fields and brooks, of distant mountains and unfamiliar trees near-at-hand. 

“I am sure to find a great new companion soon enough in this wide new place,” said the shadow to himself, flying easily across a field and up a grassy hill.

Soon enough he reached the top of the hill and found a large boulder sitting there quietly. 

“Good day, sir,” said the shadow politely, alighting close beside the boulder.

“As good as all the days before, and assuredly as good as all the days to come,” replied the boulder contentedly. “But you are unfamiliar to my vision, little stranger. You are too tall to be a blade of grass, and too polite to be a field mouse.”

“You are correct, sir,” said the shadow. “I am neither. I am a shadow come from yonder wood to seek a new companion who better suits my inclinations.”

“Indeed,” rumbled the boulder. “A most adventurous shadow. I wish you good fortune in your search. But if you will excuse me, I must resume watching the grass of my hill grow. ‘Tis a wonderfully slow process, and a delight to spectate.” 

“Perhaps I might join you,” the shadow said excitedly. “You may be the perfect companion I have been looking for, for I have wished for silence for a long time now, and you surely value quiet as much as I do.”

“If I were a betting boulder, I would bet my moss that I value it even more than you, my talkative little friend. But if you wish to enjoy the solitude of my hill, you may stay with me and be my shadow, a companionable silence is almost as good as a lonely one, I suppose.”

Thanking the boulder, the shadow drew close and placed himself beside the steadfast stone, lying back upon the sunny grass of the hill and enjoying the complete silence that lay across it.

However, as an hour passed, the shadow began to become uncomfortable. Though the boulder’s silence was as much as he had wished for, it did not move at all, and the shadow was reasonably sure it would never move at all. 

He began to miss flying through the dimness of his forest home, and soon enough, the stillness became too much for him to bear. 

“Forgive me, friend boulder, but I was mistaken,” he said in tones of confession. “I was not meant to be the shadow of something unmoving, however edifying your quiet nature is. I will seek out another companion, and so I bid you farewell.”

The boulder, not appearing to notice what the shadow had said or its detachment from it, murmured sleepily as the shadow moved away down the hill, “that rogue of a field mouse ate one of the blades of grass I was watching, and I had such high hopes for its future. I would tell it off, but I just haven’t the time.”

Continuing on, the shadow left the field and the boulder’s hill behind, coming next into an unfamiliar wood, with many tall, thin trees sharing space with many short, thick trees. Hanging from one of the branches of one of the latter kind by its tail was a monkey.

“Good day, sir,” said the shadow, stopping beneath the monkey and raising a wing in greeting. 

The monkey stared at him, then shrieked with laughter. “Haha! A little bat hanging from the grass! Haha! What a good joke!”

“Ah,” said the shadow, “I think you might have forgotten you’re upside down.”

Seeming to notice this for the first time, the monkey released its tail from the tree branch and promptly fell on its head. Leaping to its feet, it shrieked again in raucous enjoyment. 

“Aha! I wondered why the trees were hanging from the grass and didn’t pop out and fall into the sky! Haha! What a good joke that would be, all the trees to go flying away, give the squirrels flying lessons, ahaha!”

Suddenly losing interest, the monkey ran at the nearest tree and head-butted it, causing it to fall over backwards, half-stunned.

Taking his chance, the shadow hopped up to the monkey’s eye-level and poked its nose with a wingtip to gain its attention. The monkey’s eyes focused and crossed to look at the shadow.

“I am not a bat, actually, but a bird’s shadow on a journey. You seem to have an adventurous spirit, and I am seeking adventure myself. Together I think we could enjoy many great escapades. What do you say, monkey?”

Said monkey jumped to its feet, before promptly falling about laughing again. “Ahahaha! Monkey doesn’t want to have escapes with no one but monkey! I’ll go and have one now, and little bat bird can stay and watch trees fly, haha!”

But before the monkey could take two bounds toward a tree, the shadow said, “I suppose you’ll miss the joke, then.”

Bounding back, the monkey bounced around the shadow, chattering. “What joke? I didn’t miss a joke, I never miss a joke! Haha! You’re lying! Or are you joking? What joke?”

The shadow shrugged. “Oh, nothing. I was just thinking how funny it would be for a monkey to have the shadow of a bird.”

The monkey froze, then shrieked with mirth. “Haha! Little bat bird as monkey shadow! Monkey casting bird shadow! Hahaha! Yesyesyes! Be my shadow, tiny dirt bird! Haha!”

Deciding to let the last comment go, the shadow drew close and deftly tied its dark tail to that of the monkey.

Leaping onto the nearest tree branch, the monkey launched itself through the trees, shrieking and whooping with the shadow swooping behind. 

Hours passed in the unfamiliar wood, but the shadow’s new companion’s energy never abated. With the shadow close behind, it sought out any adventure there was to be had. 

Sneaking up on a crocodile snoozing by a shaded creek, the monkey pulled its tail and ran off laughing, the shadow barely avoiding being bitten in half as the beast chased them through the trees. Next it scared a flock of birds into flight by dint of leaping out at them from behind a bush, flapping its arms and bugging out its eyes. 

Taking a short foray into a wide grassland beyond the wood, the monkey succeeded in tying two panthers tails together before narrowly avoiding being eaten by a squad of hyenas, only surviving after the shadow hurriedly told them the joke about the cheetah, the warthog and the pygmy hippo who’d lost its way, the monkey making its escape back into the wood while the hyenas were paralyzed with laughter.

Discovering a band of monkeys like itself, it armed itself in the branches of a chestnut tree and barraged them with a rain of nuts, the war escalating as the simians replied with whatever they could bring to hand. At the shadow’s suggestion, the monkey salvaged victory over the enemy’s superior numbers by asking them whose tail was the longest, whereupon they got into an argument amongst themselves that quickly turned into a fight, causing them to quite forget about the other monkey.

But though the shadow enjoyed the thrill of constant movement behind the monkey, its lewd shrieks and raucous laughter soon began to grate on its nerves. 

“Something tells me I made a mistake, friend monkey,” the shadow panted, flattening itself very successfully against the tree behind which they were hiding from a wolf the monkey had just shaken a dew-soaked tree’s worth of water onto. 

“Hmm?” the monkey said distractedly, one ear cocked as the swearing of the wolf grew more distant. 

“You have an adventurous spirit,” the shadow said, untying its tail tip from the monkey’s. “But forgive me, your idea of adventure is underdeveloped. There’s more to having an adventure than yanking something’s nose and seeing how fast they can chase you.”

“There is?” 

Sighing, the shadow bid the monkey farewell, who thought it was so funny that it fell out of the tree laughing right onto the head of the passing wolf. 

Watching as the monkey sprinted off into the trees, shrieking and cackling with the wolf snapping at its heels, the shadow felt a sudden pang for the sweet sound of the bluebird’s song, so much easier to listen to than the incessant chatter and laughter of the monkey.

Taking to wing, the shadow flew out of the wood in search of something a little quieter and less energetic than the monkey. 

Flying over the grassland beyond the trees, the shadow caught sight of the panthers he and the monkey had met unknotting their tails from each other. After that he flew over the pack of hyenas, now cackling at a new joke, and then a pride of lions lying in the afternoon sun. None of these were good candidates for new companions, the shadow told itself.

Perching on the uppermost branch of a lonely tree, the shadow was surprised to see somebody else already there. A large elephant was walking slowly around the tree, talking to itself and looking down as if it had lost something.

“Good afternoon, sir,” called the shadow, flying down to the grass and raising a wing in greeting.

“Good heavens, who said that?” trumpeted the elephant, staring around. 

“I did, sir,” admitted the shadow, waving its raised wing. “Perhaps you are too far off of the ground to see me, but I am certainly here if you look closer.”

Lowering its enormous head, the elephant stared down at the shadow. “Well, twist my trunk,” it said in amazement. “A little black speck that speaks, I’ve never seen anything like it. Or maybe I have and I just forgot it. I suppose I should make sure. Have we met before, little black speck that speaks?”

“Indeed not,” replied the shadow, flying up to perch on one of the elephant’s ivory tusks. “And I am not a black speck actually, but a shadow on an adventure seeking a new companion.”

“Ah, yes, I see you clearer now,” the elephant said, the closer of its eyes focusing on the shadow. “A shadow on an adventure! What an unusual thing for a shadow to be on, I’ve never heard or seen the like before. Or maybe I have and I just forgot it.”

“It is unusual, I think,” said the shadow, nodding. “But it seems you were also looking for something before I introduced myself, perhaps I can assist in the search.”

“Looking for something? I don’t think I was, but perhaps it was something I forgot, that would not be unusual. Or maybe it would be...”

“Mayhap you are looking for something to help you remember,” suggested the shadow. “And I am in search of a new companion myself, perhaps we could help each other. You could be my new companion, and I could be your shadow and assist you in remembering.”

The elephant found this very agreeable, and so the shadow attached its tail tip to one of its enormous feet and the two of them set off together.

The shadow found that he was indeed very useful to the elephant, as it seemed to forget something every few minutes, and would stop walking abruptly to wrinkle up its trunk in concentration as it attempted to remember. 

When it forgot which was its left foot and which its right, the shadow was able to point them out. When next it forgot whether it had at some point had three tusks and lost one somewhere, the shadow reassured it that it only ever had two. And when the elephant forgot whether it was hungry, or whether it was actually thirsty, the shadow was able to call attention to its rumbling stomach and point it towards the nearest fruit tree. Thus the day wore on.

Though the shadow felt it was very useful to the elephant, he was also quickly becoming exhausted. The elephant’s company was enjoyable, as it was a kind and methodical creature, but its size was becoming an obstacle. It was so enormous that the shadow had to yell to be heard from its back foot, and its voice was quickly becoming hoarse from overuse. It could also barely see anything of the elephant but its back foot, it was so immense. The shadow began to miss the quiet conversation of the bluebird, and even the ear splitting laughter of the monkey. 

What he really needed was something with good conversation, and very much nearer to the shadow’s own size. Detaching his tail from its foot, the shadow flew up to perch on one of the elephant’s tusks.

“Forgive me, friend elephant, but I must continue on with my journey, I wish you good fortune and thank you for your company.”

“Good heavens, who said that?” trumpeted the elephant, looking around. Sighing, the shadow took to its wings and flew off.

“What an odd circumstance,” mused the elephant to itself, walking on contentedly. “A voice from nowhere, I’ve never heard the like before. Or maybe I have and I just forgot it.”

Soaring over the grassland, the shadow soon reached its outskirts and flew down into a low valley where a fast-running river wound through its grassy floor. 

Alighting on the river bank, the shadow drank from the swiftly flowing water, thirsty after its flight. The valley around the shadow seemed quite empty of activity, a quiet place of windblown grass. 

He was preparing to fly off again when a silver fish poked its head out of the water close by him. 

“Good afternoon,” said the fish politely. “What brings you to the bank of my river? My, my, I feel as though this will be a memorable day. I have never seen a shadow travel alone, thus you must be on a journey of some importance.”

“Yes, indeed,” agreed the shadow, bowing to the fish. “I am on an adventure to find a companion who better suits me. I have searched long, and grow weary, I think I may never discover such a comrade.”

The fish nodded, a difficult endeavor while floating. “That is an unusual predicament, with which I wish you good fortune. Farewell.”

It was about to swim away when the shadow called it back. “Forgive me, sir, but I have just thought of something. It may seem unusual, but why not take me on as your companion? You are far quieter than my previous companion, and even slightly more active than the one before him. What do you say?”

“It is indeed unusual,” said the fish. “But no more unusual than a conversation with a shadow on my riverbank. This really is turning out to be a memorable day. Very well, friend shadow, I accept your offer.”

So the shadow drew close and dove into the water beside the silver fish, attaching his tail tip to the fish’s tailfin as it submerged and swam away down river.

As their journey continued, the shadow felt as though he had finally found his right companion, and in the strangest of places. Unlike the boulder, the fish was talkative and constantly aware, its wide eyes always looking around as the two of them sailed beneath the surface.

Unlike the monkey it was sober and polite, speaking through the water with the shadow about many things. Unlike the elephant, it was nearly perfectly proportionate to the shadow, so not to strain the shadow’s voice. And unlike the bluebird, it did not sing all of the time, nor fly so high that he almost lost himself. 

But as the day wore on, the shadow still became more and more uneasy. The fish was an enjoyable companion, but its watery home was strange and began to wear on the shadow’s mind. 

The more he swam through the clear water with his black wings, the more he missed flying along the ground beneath his far distant companion, and with every passing minute he regretted leaving his forest home more and more.

The shadow missed the feeling of the ground rushing beneath him, the quiet solitude and beauty of his home, which he never appreciated until it was far behind. And above all, he missed the sound of his bluebird’s song, calling through the trees.

“Why, shadow, what’s the matter?” asked the fish, for the shadow had stopped moving forward. 

“I have made a terrible mistake, I now realize,” answered the shadow. “Forgive me, friend fish, but I must go. Thank you for your hospitality, I wish you well.” And without another word, he untied his tail from the fish’s and swam away as fast as he could fly.

“What a strange creature,” said the fish to himself, swimming off. “This really has turned out to be a very memorable day.”

Rising to the surface, the shadow pulled himself out of the water, seeing that the sun was on the horizon, about to set. 

“I won’t be able to find my home in the dark,” he told himself. “I must hurry.”

But when he attempted to fly, he found his wings were too sodden with water to carry him. No matter how hard he tried to, he could not. 

Despairing, the shadow sat by the river bank, beginning to cry to itself. 

“What a fool I have been,” he wept. He would now surely never hear his bluebird’s song again.

From the boulder to the monkey, and from the elephant to the fish, the shadow knew he should have known from the very start that none of them were as well-suited to him as the bluebird. And now, the knowledge that he would never see his dear friend again filled the shadow with grief as the sun began to slide beneath the horizon.

But then, a nearby cry rang through the empty valley, so wonderfully familiar that the shadow leapt to his feet, looking around.

And the bluebird appeared, soaring over the rushing river, singing its song as loud as it could. Catching sight of the shadow in the dimming light, it stopped singing and sped to the ground, falling upon him and embracing him.

“My friend, oh my friend!” the bluebird wept. The shadow held his friend close, but then stepped back in wonder.

“How can this be?” he asked. “I was sure I would never see you again.”

“I have been searching for you ever since you left, my friend,” the bluebird told him. “I know you do not wish to see me, but I could not help but follow you out of our forest. You were right, I see that now, I was far too confining to be a good companion, forgive me my friend.”

“No, my dear bluebird,” said the shadow, embracing his friend. “It is I who must ask your forgiveness. You are the best companion a shadow such as I could ever wish for, and I only wish it had not taken this time away from you for me to understand that. Come, let us hear no more of your apologies, you have nothing to be sorry for. You have rescued me from a terrible fate I made for myself, and I will forever be grateful. Come, let us go home.”

Tying his shadow tail to his companion’s blue tail, the two flew off together, back to their forest home.

And there they remained, perhaps until this very day, exploring the mysteries and beauties of their home, the bluebird loving nothing more than to sing its rapturous song, and the shadow enjoying nothing more than to listen. And, every now and again, the two would unlink their tail tips and fly side by side, high above the sunlit forest floor.

THE END