What am I?

Once upon a time, an egg fell out of a nest in a tree on a river bank and landing in a river, floated down stream where a mother duck, thinking that one of her eggs had fallen in the water picked it up and put it in her nest.

But, when the egg hatched out, the little bird stuck its head out and the moment the mother duck saw it, she threw it out of her nest and onto the river bank.

“Get out”, quacked the duck, “You’re not one of mine so you can't stay here”.

The little bird was, understandably, very hurt and confused and tried several times to climb back into the ducks nest but, each time, the duck threw him out.

“Go away, go on”, she said, “Go and find your own kind”.

“My own kind?”, asked the bird, “But what am I?”.

“I don’t know”, said the mother duck, “But you’re not a duck so you can’t stay here”.

Sadly, the little bird wandered away feeling very frightened and lonely along the river bank
and as he walked he kept asking to himself, “What am I?”

Then he came to a place where little baby rabbits were hopping about and, seeing them, he thought, “Maybe I’m one of them”, so he started to hop about after them and twitch his beak the way that rabbits twitch their nose and all the baby rabbits, seeing this, started to giggle.

But then the mother of the baby rabbits came out of her rabbit hole and, seeing what was going on, started to shoo the little bird away saying, “Go away. You’re not a rabbit. You’re not one of us”.

“What am I then?”, asked the little bird.

“You’re not a rabbit, that’s what matters”, said the rabbit, scowling, “And you can’t stay here, so be off with you”.

So, sadly the little bird continued on its way until it saw a group of little fish following their mother up stream and thought, “Maybe that’s what I am”.

And then, jumping into the river with a splash, the bird started to swim after the little fishes, swishing its tail feather just like a fishes tail but the mother of the fish, when she saw the little bird, got very angry and, swiping her long fish tail, gave the little bird a slap.

“Here, you! You get away from here”, said the mother fish, “You’re not one of us. Go and find your own kind!”.

“What is my own kind?”, asked the bird, “What am I?”.

“I don’t care what you are”, said the fish, “All I know is you’re not a fish and you don’t belong here”.

So, sadly, the little bird dragged itself, dripping wet, out of the river and onto the bank.

But, nearby, a wily and wicked old fox who had been watching the bird and fancied having it for his lunch said to it, “I know what you are”.

“You do?”, asked the bird, happily.

The fox nodded his head and, with a wicked grin, said, “You’re a fox of course. Like me”.

Then the fox told the little bird to follow him and he would take him to his fox burrow.

So the little bird followed the fox but, as it was following it, it noticed the fox’s bright red bushy tail and, looking at its own stubby tail feathers, asked the fox, “If I’m a fox then why don’t I have a long bushy tail like you?”.

The fox thought for a moment and then, grinning, replied, “That’s because you’re a young fox. Just a cub. You haven’t grown your tail yet”.

That seemed to make sense, thought the little bird, following the fox into the forest.

But then, after they had been walking a little further, the bird noticed the foxes bright red coat and, looking at its own brown feathers, asked, “If I’m a fox, why haven’t I got red fur like you?”.

This question had the fox puzzled at first but then he said, “Oh. You’re too young but when you get older, all your feathers will fall out and there’ll be red fur underneath. Just wait and see”.

The thought of having fur under his feathers seemed rather odd to the little bird but he had no reason to think that the fox was liar and so he kept on following the fox deeper into the woods.

But then, just as they were approaching the tree under which the fox’s burrow lay, the bird noticed the fox’s pointy nose and, examining his little beak, asked, “If I’m a fox then why have I got a beak instead of a pointy nose like you?”.

This time, however, the fox, seeing how close they were to his burrow, decided there was no need to answer any more of the little birds questions and, grabbing hold of the bird in one of its red furry paws said, “Ha! Ha! I lied to you. You’re not a fox at all”.

“I’m not?”, asked the bird, trembling with fear, “Then what am I?”.

The fox laughed wickedly.

“I’ll tell you what you are”, said the fox, opening its mouth wide, “You’re my lunch!”.

But, just at that moment, down from the trees swooped an enormous bird and letting out a loud shriek, it scared the fox so much that the fox dropped the bird and fled into its burrow.

“What are you?”, asked the little bird, startled.

“I’m an owl”, replied the mother owl, warmly, wrapping a protective wing around it, “Like you”.

Then the mother owl took the little baby owl back to her nest where it lived very happily.