In The Stardust

Thrushwhippers

"I'm telling you, Moss, there's something wrong with her," Willow told the critternarian, who was petting Whistle. "I just got her a new cage because her old one was too small, for some reason, now the new cage is too small! Should I feed her less flower nectar?"

"Miss Duckweed, I assure you, Whistle's in perfect health," Milton replied. "She's probably just growing."

"But she's supposed to be the smallest songbird in the world," Willow pointed out.

"Perhaps, but I've never seen a bird this small," he said. Whistle was rather tiny. When Willow first got her, she barely fit into her palms. But now she could barely perch on the teen Troll's arm.

"I guess I could get her another cage until I can figure out what's really going on," Willow suggested. "But it should probably be ten times her size."

Willow ran out before Milton could say another word and headed straight to Lily's.

"Cuz, you home?!" she shouted. "I need you to go cage shopping with me!"

"Again?" Lily called out from inside. "What happened to the other one?"

"She got even bigger," Willow answered. "That Milton Moss guy thinks she's growing, but Thrushwhippers are supposed to be small."

"Willow, you've seen other songbirds," Lily pointed out, emerging from her pod. "They're all much bigger than Trolls. Just because something's smallest doesn't necessarily mean it's small."

The average Troll was about four inches tall, if you measure from their hair, and very few birds were smaller than them.

"I don't know," Willow admitted. "I just want to know what's going on."

"It'll be fine, calm down. Let's get her a cage."

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

That night, Willow surprised her pet bird with her new cage, that took up a large amount of space in her room.

"Here you go, Whistle!" she cheered. "If this isn't big enough, I don't know what is! Plus, it comes with a swing, slide, microwave oven, massage chair, record player, light-up mirror, and let's not forget the jacuzzi! Would you believe they only had one in stock?"

Whistle flew inside her new home to check it out. She turned on the record player to play some jazz music and settled into her nest.

"I knew you'd love it," Willow said, closing the door. "Goodnight, my little angel."

Later that night, Whistle waited until Willow was sound asleep, then slipped through the cage bars and headed out the window. She was planning to go for a night on the town. Little did she know there was something big heading straight into the village, flying into Willow's tree.

The large creature looked around the house and began knocking stuff over. Eventually, it reached Willow's room. It knocked over a dresser, Whistle's cage, and the crib of Crystal, Willow's baby sister. The teen Troll was too deep in sleep to hear Crystal's bawling, until the creature flipped her bed like a flapjack.

"Huh... Wha?" she muttered, before noticing what a big mess her room was. The creature was already gone, so she had no idea what caused it.