The Song of the Lark [ONC 2022]

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Lark Wilson always felt he was different - from the way the flowers seem to always bloom whenever he was near or the howling of the wind intensifying whenever he was in its company; to the fact that wild animals seem to gravitate to him whenever he went outside - but he had no clue as to why. He even got his first name after a lark that was sitting on a basket in which he was found at the doorstep to Wilson's Home for Children and Youth.

He would always atribute the way creatures of nature appeared to be drawn to him to his calm and gentle nature because what else was he supposed to think about all this.

Things kept getting even more confusing as he got older until on the day of his eighteenth birthday when a small lark living nearby started to bring flowers, colorful pebbles and random elements of nature and leave them by his window.

Every day after that, Lark would find a new gift left by the lark. Some days it was a shining stone, other days a feather, nothing extraordinary but always something to take note of. 

Once he came of age and moved to a social housing provided to him by the government he thought this oddity would cease yet it followed him there too and so did the lark. This left him no other choice but to accept it as his new normal.

As Lark kept finding these gifts, he soon came to believe that the bird itself was his friend. The unusual friendship with the small bird lasted for a few years now. The lark would always arrive at Lark's flat early in the morning before he was awake and leave shortly after delivering the current gift.

Lark would reach out his hand and pet the bird. The lark would bob its head up and down as if it understood everything Lark said to it and would seemingly answer back with its high-pitched chirps.

He decided to name the bird Sky, after skylark; not a very creative name, but Lark never saw himself as a witty guy.

It was not to long before people came to believe Lark was a little odd, especially after the way he acted around this new friend. His overall demeanor didn't help either. He always kept to himself and barely interacted with others - but he was polite and well-behaved.

Ultimately all this has led to the way he was now - a twenty-three year old Horticulture School graduate who worked as a gardener in a small botanical garden next to his apartment house. A young man who unlike his peers found joy in his solitude.

* * *

It was one of those great spring days, a Saturday, where you knew summer would be coming soon. Lark was on a lunch break, sitting on a bench in the garden and eating his sandwich, with Sky resting on his thigh while he was petting its head. There was a break room available for staff but Lark was always happier being around nature. It was a nice place to contemplate, to clear his mind of any unimportant clutter.

Finishing his food, Lark looked up to the myriad of colors that filled the magnificent garden and as always he was mesmerized by them. He didn't even notice when the lark had left.

"Sky?"

He looked around and didn't see his companion anywhere. However, he did notice a flash of green in the corner of his eye. It was a small pebble in a shade of iridescent olive green. After years and years of researching things Sky brought him he knew it was a really rare gemstone, a peridot stone.

He reached his hand out to pick it up. As soon as his fingers made contact with it, the gemstone that now sat in his palm was starting to glow faintly, like sunlight bouncing off water. Lark was confused. From what he read, peridot stones didn't glow. He looked at the pebble quite intrigued when suddenly a dazzling light flashed and blinded him temporarily. When it disappeared, so did the stone. This was very out of the ordinary and Lark thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.