“Eat this mealworm I caught for you! Are you getting enough water? Do you need more food? Blah! Blah! Blah!” I vented aloud to no one but the crisp spring air and sounds of leaves rustling in the wind. “You can’t just push me out after you’ve been so gentle for my whole childhood!”
I flew around my house that was no longer mine—was never mine—and surveyed the surrounding forest for a few minutes before I gave up and went elsewhere.
“Damn it, Mother! Can’t you be a little easier for me to hate?”
Truth be told, there were a number of great haunts around the old tree, but somehow, it felt as if I would not be satisfied just planting myself down in what was essentially Mother’s territory. I did not know what logic reasoned that I should go further on my own, but my heart resonated with it deeply; if you’re going to boot me out, then fine!
I’ll make it big on my own terms, I’ll live knowing I do not need to depend on you!
Have I finally become a man?
Because even though my heart felt lighter thinking about sticking it to Mother, somehow, somewhere, a feeling of despondency wriggled its way into my shoulders and weighed my wings down.
“I’ll definitely succeed on my own.”
“I just wish I was never forced to in the first place…”
Accepting that thought really helped soothe some of the pressure, as the latter relaxed down with a few stray tears I tried to ignore.
I had just made a landing on some distant part of the forest, many tens of trees away from Mother, good enough for me to find my own footing and make a name for myself.
“What did she say about this? Thirty rings, right?” I tried to recall her final tips to me. “Right! Thirty rings inside the whole tree!”
But, the question was what tree I should use?
All around me were a multitude of trees of various height and width. Obviously, bigger was better since I would have more space to live in. However, I also had to go about selecting one with a bit more consideration because a bigger tree meant more digging for it to be any good.
I decided to first stop flying to conserve some energy as I hobbled on the grass to go window shopping on some good wood.
“Hmm…”
The first one certainly fit the bill—nicely wide, it even had some bulges on its bark which meant it had a lot of sap; and thus, drinkable water—but that bulging was as much of a negative as it was a positive.
“Trees don’t usually bulge like that, so there might be some ants or termites infesting into its bark.”
Was I being too critical, and talking out my ass when I barely know the basics of nature? Yes.
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But I certainly did not want to be proven right and have to fight through an entire colony!
“Well, even if it is infested, I know at least I can come back here and nibble on some insects when I get hungry. Not too bad for a start!”
I move my sight to the trees situated a decent distance away from it.
What greeted me next was a sight for sore eyes. Miniature holes were burrowed into it and were connected to become tunnels. The tunnels got so bad I could almost envision them as maggots festering on the meat that was the tree’s wood. It was a sign of another insect problem, this time by a larger specimen: Woodworms.
“Is there any tree that doesn’t have insects?!”
Like, come on! I even looked for a tree far away from the one that might have had ants or termites in it!
But before I could stamp my two sets of four-pronged feet on the ground to heave my annoyance and move on, a drop of water hit me square on the bright red crown of feathers on my head.
And it grew.
Oh, did it grow.
First another droplet, then another, and another until a barrage of them stormed down on me and everything else in the forest.
As if the telltale sign of greyed-out clouds were not proof enough, I was caught in the middle of a rain.
BOO—OOOM!
Scratch that, a storm.
As I tried to make my way under some canopies to block out the pelting waters, a frightening occurrence afflicted me.
The rain beat upon the shrubbery on the ground, and…
…Twenty different ants started crawling up my feet and marched their way into my wings. They wiggled like strands of web caught in between my feathers and all the discomfort that brought.
“CHEEP! CHEEP! CHEEP! CHEEP! CHEEP!”
“GET OFF! GET OFF!!!!”
I would first like to formally request that my panicking be taken as a joke. I got over it, of course. Normally, I would be the one above them on the food chain and gobble them up, but somehow, they had mastered warfare by tickling the insides where my wings sprouted feathers.
It was a fluke on my part that let them trouble me so much.
Yes, it was!
“I’m cold…” After fighting off the twenty-count warband of six-legged men, I was faced with another problem more troublesome.
I was cold.
The thrashing from earlier ruffled my feathers and let so many water droplets splash directly on my skin.
And each pummel from them felt like a bolt of ice had been pressed against and pushed into holes all over my body. For every strike, I instinctively tensed up my shoulders as if I were trying to anticipate the next hit.
The frost agitated the aching in every ant bite I sustained fighting the swarm, and I could swear it made the venom pulse all the more terribly.
I fought past the shivers—past the involuntary trembles that spawned from my spine and shot down to my talon—and started using them to walk and gather the fallen nature beside me.
Seven round trips bore me twenty dried-up twigs that had broken off from the trees above and a pile of dull green shrubbery that was starting to crinkle and brown.
I brought them all together into one mass mulch and pressed my body into it, shielding myself from the majority of the pouring rain while I tried to ignore the chills that came with the few flashes of cold that seeped through.
My first day on my own, and I have not even found a tree to peck. What good would that say of my heritage as a Woodpecker?
I was cold.
I was shivering.
I would not have been if I only had a home to come back to.
But the storm will pass.
And I will be there for tomorrow, and tomorrow will await for me.
