RISE AND REDEMPTION OF A THIEF

CHAPTER ONE: FIRST THEFT

Margalo Canary's gizzard was clenched tightly. Her nerves were a mess. She had, thus far, never intentionally stolen anything. She was a bird with a conscience. And yet, a series of unfortunate and tragic events had sent her happy life with her mother cascading into a different and dark direction. On Christmas Day, 2001, her mother had been killed by an Angora cat. She had ran, just acting upon instinct, and had hoped her mother would be right behind her. But she never saw her mother again. The cat had eaten her and would have eaten her too, had not a peregrine falcon by the name of Horace Falcon, who preferred to be called only by his surname, grabbed her right before the cat could torture her to death.

She had thought that Falcon was nice, for a few days, and had even planned to tolerate his two raven assistants, Donovan and Cassandra Raven, though they were jerkish. Falcon had given her food and taught her to fly and read. However, he'd been subtly using her as a distraction so that his ravens and he could steal items while people focused on the cute canary. Margalo, of course, had had no idea what she was being used for. And she had gone into a house, thinking she was rescuing an item that the people had stolen from Falcon, only to discover with horror that she was indeed the one stealing. She had been captured but Falcon had rescued her.

Now, feeling that she was a thief and a mother-deserter, for she blamed herself for not protecting her mother from the Angora cat, she had gone with Falcon and the two ravens. Still, she may have deserted them, especially after learning that they were predators, killing animals, and even seeing Falcon try and kill a mouse child, had not she landed herself in another pinch. She had intervened to stop Falcon from killing the mouse child by stabbing him with her stick pin. This had saved the mouse, but Falcon had attacked her and taken the pin, threatening to discard it. However, in a desperate plea, she had agreed to do what he wanted, even theft, if she would be allowed to keep her mother's stick pin, all that she had left of her dear mother.

And so now, she was heading toward the house, a nice house, with five floors, of people she didn't know and who had done her no harm, to see what she could steal. She didn't want to do this, but she had been trained by her mother to keep her word. Plus, she feared what Falcon would do if she said no. She knew he ate birds and she was a bird. Would her mother rather that she die or that she steal and live?

She didn't want to do what Falcon suggested. But he had taken her stick pin and told her that it would "have an accident" if she didn't go through with it. And so, when the mailman had left the mailbox open after leaving in a hurry one day in late January, she climbed inside and Falcon shut her inside. How she hated the dark!

She hoped that the people would come that day and find her and that she wouldn't be stuck in here for days! She was already feeling claustrophobic, with all the letters in here. Plus, she could only hold out so long without peeooping (birds lacked a bladder, and they produced semi-solid uric acid, which went into their urodeum, a part of their cloaca, and then these were pushed into the coprodeum, the top part of the cloaca, and sent into the rectum, to remove the water. When she finally had to go, which happened more frequently in birds than mammals, she would expel them out her proctodeum and her vent as peeoop.) and if she went, the people would not at all like the bird splat on their mail.

Thankfully, she only had to wait three hours. She was glad when she saw the box open and a hand reach in. Now she could put on her act and get out of there and go relieve herself (she had been panting for the past several minutes since she couldn't sweat, due to the strain on her cloaca.) She shrieked as the hand grabbed her. A man's voice cried out in surprise. "Ah, it's a Howler!" he cried stupidly. A Howler was an angry letter from the Harry Potter universe that yelled at people.

Margalo, however, hadn't read the Harry Potter series and thus had been unaware of the reference. "I'm not a howler bird. I'm just a canary," she replied.

"What are you doing inside my mail box?" he asked.

"Please, it was cold and I had nowhere to go. I went inside to shelter and then got shut inside. I'm pretty weak right now. I could use some help."

"Well, come inside for a bit and we'll give you a nice bath. Then you can be on your way."

And so Margalo went to the bathroom, relaxing in the hot water. It did feel good on her, after being in the dry and cool air of the mailbox for three hour. Plus, it had a toilet in there too, which she had made glad use of before going into the bathtub. The man wanted to watch over her, but she said "I know it may seem odd for a bird, but I like to bathe alone, without anyone watching me."

The man just shrugged and said "Call if if you need anything."

"Ok, I will," the young canary said.

She splashed around in the bathtub for a while, putting on an act. It seemed convinced, for nobody was bothering her. As soon as she heard all footsteps leave the vicinity of the bathroom, she subtly left the tub. She searched around, hoping that there was something of value in here. And, luckily, for her, there was. A fancy necklace, worth at least $100, had been left on the counter. She assumed it probably belonged to the man's wife. She hated taking something from the mate of someone that had helped her. Still, she wanted her mother's stick pin to remain safe. And so, she flew up to the necklace, and, with a heavy heart, covertly wrapped it around her talons. She then flew out the window, which, thankfully for her, had a crank handle, which, with a few twists and turns, opened it enough for her to squeeze out with her filched loot. Her heart pounded in her chest, fearful during the entire process of being discovered and this time taken to jail. Thankfully, for her, she made it out safely and was able to put some distance between her and the house.

About ten minutes later, the man entered the bathroom and found neither canary nor necklace. He realized that he'd been had, but what hope did he have of finding a canary in a huge place like New York City? He would just have to be less trusting in the future. What a sad world it was that even a cute looking canary child could steal a necklace from a man helping her?

Falcon, meanwhile, was pleased and congratulated her. She felt so awful, like a filthy and wretched sinner, a lying, conning thief. And this theft would just be the first of many more to come.