Are you my mother?

by kanestiel

The tiny bird gazed up at the man who sat quietly on the bench, perceived his large wings with a curious tilt of it's head. The man copied his movement and tilted his own head with an equal fascination

"Are you my mother?" The little bird asks a blue-eyed man sitting on a bench. The man tilts his head to the side a little and stares at him. The bird copies. After a few lengthy moments the man speaks, slowly.

"No. I am not your mother. Are you lost?" He asks, his voice hoarse and raspy from disuse. The young chick nods solemnly at the ground. So lost is he in his own fright and misery that he does not see the man rise from the bench and step towards him. He doesn't notice him kneeling until warm and gentle hands are closing around him. He chirps in fear as he is lifted and the hands open. He finds himself face-to-face with the man.

"We can search for your mother together," he says. The bird chirps happily. The man smiles a tiny smile, no more than a slight quirk of his lips, and ignores the false images of his brother yowling like a hungry cat. He carries the tiny bird across the lawn, scanning the trees.

"Are you lost, too?" asks the bird. The question goes unanswered at first, until-

"Yes. I am very much lost. I lost my way long ago. I am hoping to find my way back. I'm almost there, I think." He states thoughtfully. The bird ponders this. He doesn't understand what the man is talking about. But the hands cradling him so softly are comfortable, and he finds himself getting rather sleepy. Before he knows it he is drooping into the soft fingers, riding the soothing rise and fall of the man's careful steps. Then, he sleeps. He doesn't hear him stop and say "Hello there. You must be this chick's mother.", nor does he feel himself being gently set into the nest he fell out of so recently.

He sleeps, and when he awakes his mother is there, with a loving face, a tender voice and delicious food to be greedily eaten. He loves her instantly, and she him. He listens to her teachings, and stays with her every moment he can.

But at night, as he sleeps beneath the safety of his mothers wings, he dreams of the lost blue-eyed man on the bench In his dreams the man is smiling, because he isn't lost anymore and has found his way back home, to his own nest, with his own family.