MARGALO AND THE FALCON
CHAPTER ONE: HUNGRY ORPHANED BIRD
Margalo was a young canary who had recently been orphaned. Her family had been killed during a storm, which had knocked a large tree branch onto the family nest. She had been the only survivor. over the past few days, she had tried to get by on her own. It was lucky that she had already learned to fly, or else she'd have died from hunger and thirst in the tree that had once been her family's nest.
Even with the ability to fly, however, she was fairing poorly. While she could get water, she was struggling to find food. Her two-part stomach growled loudly and she could see, in her reflection in a puddle, a haggard and thin-looking young bird. She tried not to think of what was going to happen to her if she didn't find enough food withn the next day or two. She knew that if she gave into despair, she'd just lay down on the ground and wait to die.
She flew to the top of a Dumpster, pried open the lid and climbed inside. While she didn't think the contents would be very appetizing, a starving bird couldn't exactly be picky. And so, she dove in, tearing through trash bags and trying to find something edible. She was disgusted by the foul odors from the trash bags, but her proventriculus and gizzard were growling loudly, craving food.
She rifled through one bag, finding mostly trash, but also an orange. It wasn't at all ripe. Indeed, it was starting to rot. Still, it might keep her alive. As she was about to eat it, she heard an angry hiss and meowl.. A hungry street cat had climbed into the Dumpster and now was greedily eyeing her. The cat didn't have a lot of meat on him and she knew that even a young bird such as herself would be viewed as a decent meal to this half-starved cat.
She quickly flew out of the Dumpster, narrowly avoiding the grabbed claws of the cat as she flew past the top. She sighed with relief. While she hadn't gotten anything to eat, she had also avoided being eaten. Thus, she had something to be grateful for, as bad as her situation was.
She didn't find any food the rest of that day and came to lay down, in an old cardboard box, for the night. Her two-part stomach was growling loudly now. Still, hungry as she was, she knew she had to get sleep. She simply had to have the energy to find food tomorrow. If she didn't, she knew that, by the end of the day, she'd be so weak that she couldn't fly or move, and would slowly die as hunger claimed her young life. Her body, if it wasn't eaten by some hungry street animal, would be tossed unconcernedly into some garbage can. As she went to sleep, trying to hold back tears, she hoped that that wouldn't be her fate.
