CHAPTER 6

In the middle of a thick forest, in a nice town, in the state of Wisconsin, sat a bird family. The mother of the nest was a very pretty white canary. She was sitting next to a proud looking yellow canary who was most likely the father. In their nest sat three baby birds, two of which were picking on the smaller one.

"Come on, mini. Just sing us a little tune!" Said the white one, who was pinning down the smaller yellow one.

"Come on! Get off of me, Roderick! I won't sing for someone like you! You don't even deserve to hear mom's lullabies at night." The smaller bird said smiling a daring smile. Obviously it got to his brother, for Roderick got off of him while growling and glaring.

"Nico! That was very uncalled for!" His mother scolded him. Nico just ignored her and turned around. His parents both favored his brothers to him. Thomas and Roderick were big, strong, and already flying. Nico was still in the nest, not flying, just singing his tunes whenever he got a new one. He would always be the runt who just dragged them behind.

"Nico! Listen to your mother when she talks to you." His father walked up to him and forced him to turn around. Nico scowled up at his dad. His dad never hesitated to compare his failures to his brothers success. It really ticked Nico off. "Don't scowl at me because you don't want to be scolded. You deserve it. Roderick simply wanted to hear a song, but you go and insult him. It's very disrespectful. Your brothers never did-Nico get back here!" Nico had hopped up to a higher branch before his father could start his stupid rant.

Nico often climbed the tree like this. His parents and brothers didn't dare come up this high in a flimsy almost dead tree like this. That's why he liked it. He could easily hop and semi flutter his way up and no one would come after him. His brothers didn't care, his parents didn't like bothering with it. Nico was perfectly content up here on his tree branch at the top of the tree.

He also enjoyed it because it was a place where he could sing his songs without hearing his brothers and fathers nagging about it being bad. Or their laughing. He knew they did it just to keep him from singing, but it got to him sometimes. He once stopped singing for a whole week because of them. Jerky family.

"NICO! Come down here! We need to talk!" His mother yelled up at him. He decided he would listen, but only because if he didn't he wouldn't get dinner and his stomach growling made him realize that wasn't a good thing.

"What is it, mom? You gonna continue scolding me?" Nico said. He put only a fraction of the anger he was feeling into that sentence, but it was still enough to make his mom glance away and shuffle nervously. She wasn't used to being disliked, she had been the beauty of her home for all birds. Being hated was new to her, and the fact that it came from her son made it worse.

"Well. With your sister having just hatched, and us needing to get going on to our next spot…well…we need one of you three older kids to…um…dear?" She turned from her kids to her mate. He cleared his throat and continued for her.

"Yes…right. One of you is going to have to leave the nest. We can't feed all of you or wait up for you all while traveling. So one is to leave so we can keep at the same pace as before." He looked each of his sons squarely in the eye. Then turned and walked away, stopping only to say, "Decide amongst yourselves." Before leaving.

"I say Nico leaves. He can't fly so he would only be holding us up. Dad can't carry you everywhere, and we aren't going to either. So, why don't you just drop out of the nest, huh?" Thomas said. Nico knew that was coming.

"If I drop out of the nest, I'll die on impact. And they didn't say to kill the one who left. Which should be one of you two. You can both fly and you both know how to gather food. You'd be leaving the nest in a year anyway. I still have two years." Nico said turning away.

"Who cares if it kills you? You'd die anyway if you tried to live on your own. So why don't you just die now?" With that Roderick and Thomas pushed Nico out of the tree. He fell out of the nest and started falling.

While falling he closed his eyes and opened his wings. Just like you practiced, Nico. Come on. You managed to get a foot up off the branch last time. Just catch the air, slow down and start flapping. Kay. Now go. As soon as his wings opened fully he went shooting up and then finally stopped. He started flapping his wings and found it easier than he thought it would be to fly.

He flapped back up to his nest and landed on the rim. His brothers heard him and turned with shocked expressions. "What? Never seen a bird fly before?" Nico asked with a cocky look on his face. He hopped down off his perch on the edge of the nest and walked past his brothers, whose looks of shock had changed to looks of rage.

"Nico! Did you just fly? That's great!" His mother was praising him? The hell? Did he really just need to fly at an early age to get praise?

"Great job, son. Never seen a bird start flying so early before their time. Great job." Even his father was proud? He should've tried this ages ago! He smiled up at his parents, the first true smile he'd given them since he was born and met his family.

He looked over at his brothers. They glared daggers back at him. They weren't done trying to get rid of him. Especially now that he became liked and had an achievement over them. They were determined to get rid of their pathetic little brother. And Nico knew it.