Once upon a time, there were two birds.
One of the birds was really small and couldn’t fly. He often climbed out of the nest, jumped off the branches, and tried to fly. Sometimes he hurt himself when he fell, but he always climbed back up.
The other bird was bigger than the little bird. She could fly, but she never tried. 'Why do you keep trying to fly?' she would ask the little bird. 'You jump, and you jump, but you always fall. Doesn’t it hurt when you fall?'
The little bird said, 'One day I will fly! It’s my dream. I just have to keep trying.' Then he asked the other bird, 'Will you help me?'
The other bird shook her head. 'I don’t want to fly.'
'Why not?' asked the little bird. 'Your wings are big and strong, so you should be able to.'
“Flying is dangerous,” the other bird told him. “What if I fall? Then I would get hurt, and a monster would eat me. It’s safe in the nest, and I like being safe.”
The little bird was confused. He’d always wanted to fly, but he never could. The other bird could fly, but she never did. “That’s not fair,” he thought.
Once night it was very stormy out, but the little bird wanted to keep trying. He jumped off a branch and flapped his tiny wings, but he fell again. When he landed on the ground, he noticed all the rain. It rained so much that the little bird couldn’t get back to the nest. All the rain washed the little bird away. He called up to the other bird for help, but she was too scared of the rain. “It will soak my wings, and I will fall, too,” she thought.
Soon the little bird floated to a rock, and he managed to climb up. The other bird stayed in the nest, refusing to help him.
Suddenly a bolt of lightning hit the tree with the nest, and the tree toppled to the ground. The other bird had to jump out of the nest, and she landed in the water. It started to carry her away, too, and she couldn’t swim.
The little bird saw her drifting away, and even though she’d never helped him, he dove in to help her. He tried to pull her to a rock, but he was too small.
He saw a little branch up ahead and got an idea. He dove under the water, under the other bird, and flapped and kicked with all his might. He flapped and kicked so hard that he lifted her out of the water enough for her to grab the branch and escape. The little bird kept floating down the stream toward a cliff, but there was nowhere else to climb out.
Just before he fell down the cliff, another huge bird swooped over and picked him up. He flew to a tree and put him down.
The other bird flew up next to them. “Why did you help me?” she asked the little bird. “I didn’t help you.”
The little bird smiled at her. “I helped you because I wanted to,” he told her simply.
The other bird felt very guilty, and she apologized for never helping the little bird.
The new bird told the little bird that he’d seen what he’d done. “You are a very nice bird,” he told him. “You deserve wings that can make you fly.”
The big bird gave the little bird some new wings; big strong wings so he could fly. They were so strong that when he flapped them, it sounded like thunder. After that, whenever the birds heard thunder, they thought of the little bird. They were reminded to always help others, even if they did not help them. The little bird was very happy, thanking the big bird for making his dream come true.
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