This is me

Chapter 5: Freedom is not free

The stabbing pain through my paw. I had fallen to the ground, followed by a shower of crystal daggers. The cage fell to my side, causing another crash.

I heard screaming, humans making a fuss over anything like always. They were worried about the fat woman while I lay on the floor outside the house. Alone and in pain. Outside the house? I was out of the house!

I got to my feet as best I could, my paw was bleeding, but I didn't care. I took flight with difficulty; I already had some feathers grown on my wings. I had to flee.

"Hurry, follow me!" The thrush led me.

We went to a nearby tree, and I perched. Pain shot from my leg and washed over me in seconds. I screamed.

"That can get infect," Pikio muttered, "only a human could help you."

"No thanks. I have enough of them. I really don't think they know how to heal me. I'll heal myself."

"I don't think so... not this time," insisted the bird. "In the outside world, if one is injured, he dies."

"I'll be cured," I affirmed and started walking down the branch.

"Paco!" I heard the boy yell. "Paco, come here!"

I looked at him from the side, almost indifferent, and settled on the branch. The boy began to cry while his parents tried to make him enter the house. The girl joined him in tears. I felt sad for a moment. After all, I had learned various things about them, but now I was free.

"It's your fault, fat aunt!" they complained.

They entered their house, and I never saw them again.

***

After a couple of days, my wound was inflamed. But I could fly and walk. That was enough to keep me going.

"My head burns," I claimed while I chewed some leaves from the tree.

"It is because the feathers on your head are black. And don't even say anything to me because I'm all black. You can imagine how I feel", commented Pikio.

"Look at that parrot," a human muttered.

They pointed to me, and I hid. They always saw me. Was it that they only had eyes for me? I was just one more bird. I didn't know what special thing they saw in me that they wanted to call me so much. They showed me food, hoping that I would come down and approach them. Ha! They wanted to bring me branches and sticks so that I could get on them and they could get me off. They whistled at me, and I responded to them. That, as always, drove them crazy. They wanted me to speak to them, but I didn't.

We had settled in the trees of a nearby park. Sometimes others like me passed by, but they were completely green, with a red crown. Like Parrot Wing and Parrot Beak. Where and how would they be?

***

My leg ached more and more. I didn't see a big problem, but it worried me that it was taking time to heal. I was on a low branch looking for tree seeds when something came to rest behind me.

"Hello, little bird," she purred.

I gulped and turned. It was a horrible cat.

"Hello..."

"I invite you to dinner."

"Ah, no thanks. I just ate, as you'll see..." Another came to stand behind me, and I turned to see him. I was happy in a way. It was Mica. "Mica," I said with some enthusiasm. "What a scare you have given me. How are things going?"

"Oh, very good," she replied as she looked at her claws. "They have not wanted to buy another parrot. Pity. They want someone else like you, but I have to admit you're pretty weird."

"My colors are weird... but it's not that bad. They sure get over it..." Both cats looked at each other, and then they fixed their eyes on me. "Well, I have to go. A bird waits for me..."

"I'm sorry, but it seems to me that my friend wanted to invite you to dinner," she murmured. I got scared.

"Mica... we are friends... right?" I stepped back. She advanced, and I collided with the other cat.

"We were at my house. Now you don't live there anymore."

I dodged the scratch she was about to give me and dove off the branch. They jumped after me, I took flight before hitting the ground, but one of them caught me with its claws. Luckily, I squeezed out of them, leaving some of my feathers behind.

I ascended as fast as I could before the other caught me too. They fled when some children approached. I was relieved that they had appeared.

I perched on a nearby branch. The children were beckoning and pointing at me. Pikio landed next to me.

"Let's run away. What are you waiting for?" 

"They are not bad; they have scared away the cats that were chasing me."

"Cats?" He said, surprised. "Wow, don't trust anyway..."

"Parrot, come here!" one of the children yelled.

Seeing him, I noticed that he was tightening something, pointing at me. I tried to focus my eyes sufficiently to see what he was doing.

"Watch out!" Pikio gave me a shove, and an object crashed violently against him, taking him away. To my horror. I could see how the bird that had helped me so much fell to the ground. Part of the small world that I knew shattered before my stunned sight.

He did not move anymore.

"PIKIOOO!" I flew up to him while the children approached him and laughed. I yelled at them in fury when they grabbed Pikio. "Don't touch it!" I bit one of the fingers and, for the first time, made a human bleed.

He slapped me and threw me to the ground, which made me dizzy. I heard other older humans draw attention to the children, and I lost consciousness.