Songbird: What it Means to be the Hero

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The wren lived a peaceful life. He had a handful of good friends and a loving family. Things weren’t always easy but, no matter what came their way, they knew they could face them together.

He wholeheartedly believed that, even when a mighty hawk disrupted the peace of his home.

“Come to me,” the hawk would say as he flew overhead. “To defy me is to defy your fate! Let the world know this: your end will come by my hand.”

The wren, no matter how small, knew that he had a fighting chance. But his friends were not as willing to join him, because they feared the hawk’s strength; his family had no power to offer, as bonds alone were not enough to fight off the hawk. So the wren was left alone, his fragments of resolve broken as he realized he had no one to stand beside him. He had no strength without the support of others.

In a dream, he found his answers. Two mighty cranes appeared to him then—one of majestic blues, the other of otherworldly reds.

The blue one explained, “You are our hero. With our power, you will be able to defeat this mighty hawk.”

“But I don’t have any allies,” the wren pointed out. He was defeated—the fact he’d stood by his whole life, shattered by the reality of a serious threat. “I can’t do this alone.”

“You may be right. This quest will be impossible on your own—the hawk is too mighty, his ambitions too high. But you are not alone.” The red one waved her wing, creating four figures made of smoke. “We will grant these four our powers as well. You will need to find them before you can face the hawk but, once you are all together, you will surely succeed.”

The wren awoke with a new resolve. He assured his family and friends that he would return—and come back with the friends who will help him defeat the hawk for good. His family was optimistic, however worried they were for his well being; his friends wished him luck, even if they didn’t seem to believe it.

He followed his instincts, as he was left alone to determine where his new allies would be found. First, he traveled north. A passing storm kept him from going far, but his impromptu stay at the small town did not disappoint him.

There, he met the dove.

He felt her presence long before she noticed his, so she was startled when he called, “Hey! Can you wait a moment? I want to ask you something.”

“Y-yes..?” She would tell him, later, how she never expected to be called on—how she’d expected to follow her mother’s trade, silent. To have someone acknowledge her was something of a distant dream.

“Do you know of the hawk?” the wren asked.

“He mysteriously appeared one day,” the dove recalled in response. “We haven’t been able to do a lot with him here. A few of us have tried to stop him, but…”

“Only certain people can,” he explained. “I’m one of those chosen—and so are you! Would you like to come with me? Save our homes?”

She hesitated, because before now, the thought had never crossed her mind. But, despite her fear, her resolve to help was stronger. “I will go with you,” she decided, “to the ends of the earth, if that’s what it takes.”

With one ally found and the storm passed, they headed east. And nesting within the largest tree in their lands was a little sparrow, guarded by a stag.

The wren followed his previous method, flying up to the nest and saying, “Hello. Have you seen the hawk around here? We’re trying to stop it and I think you can help us do that.”

“I’ve seen him,” the sparrow responded cautiously.

“But this little one is not doing anything,” the stag interrupted. “We’ve lost too many things to the hawk. We cannot lose more…”

“If you do nothing now, there’ll be nothing left,” the dove pointed out.

“The hawk can’t be defeated without all of us,” the wren explained. “We need the sparrow. We’ll be able to keep him safe.”

The stag shook his head. “None of that can be promised.”

“You should go,” the sparrow mumbled. “Rest at the base of the tree and head out tomorrow morning.”

The wren and the dove knew that they could do nothing, so they complied. She was worried about what would happen, but he was sure; they’d find a way to defeat the hawk. He felt a reassurance from the cranes as he slept and awoke to the sound of something approaching.

It was the sparrow, hushing him before he could alert anyone else about it.

“I’m glad you stayed,” the sparrow sighed. “I want to help you.”

The wren found he was no longer tired, since now this carried a bit more weight. “What about the stag? It seemed like he cared about you. You shouldn’t just abandon him.”

“I left a note. Either way, I know this is something I have to do. If you need me, then I’m going with you. Only more people will be put in danger if I don’t.”

So, the next morning, they told the dove what they had said. Together, the three of them headed west, where they felt the other two would be.

The sparrow spoke of his past, how the hawk had appeared near that mighty tree before he was known anywhere else. It was a tale of loss and caution—of what they couldn’t allow to happen again, and what they were certain they would stop from coming to pass. Where the stag had seen failure, they were determined to make it a distant memory. Together, they would prevent any further heartbreaks.

In the west, they were greeted by more sights and sounds than any of them had known. The sparrow’s tree had been lively, but it didn’t compare to this; this was an organized community, unlike the scattered ones all three were familiar with. At first, they weren’t sure where they were going—and, before they knew it, the peace of the place was ruined.

The hawk came to terrorize the town, and they hid because they knew they weren’t prepared to face him. There, however, they found their last two allies: an owl and an eagle.

The wren hadn’t sensed them among all of the chaos; rather, they came to him, proving to have some fragment of understanding.

“Are you the three that the cranes mentioned?” the owl asked. Both she and the eagle were bigger, older than them—but the wren was not intimidated. He felt a kinship between them.

“You know of them?” the wren returned.

“She’s told me she’s met with them,” the eagle hummed. “Can’t say I believe her. Spends too much of her time buried under books.”

For theirs was a story deeply related, though information the wren would not learn until later. The eagle traveled the world with his family; the owl had never left the confines of her parents’ archives. Their meeting was one by chance, more so than the three they now faced—but they haven’t left each other’s sides since.

“I’ve met with them, too!” the wren said. “You were the last two we needed to find in order to stop the hawk. Will you help us?”

The owl and eagle nodded in unison.

There they were—all five of them, together, as the cranes had wanted them to be. They devised a plan to face the hawk; they were sure of their victory as long as they were together. It seemed that their stand couldn’t have happened sooner, either, given that the hawk’s name had been spread all throughout the land. Something needed to be done and they knew they could do it.

But just as they were ready, so was the hawk. They were not the only ones preparing—and he was more than ready for them.

“This ends here!” the wren declared with all his new friends behind him. “You’ve got one chance to stop this! With the cranes’ protection, we will defeat you!”

The hawk laughed—it echoed all around them, bold and mocking. “Go on and try.”

“Something’s wrong,” the dove mumbled. “Very wrong…”

“But we can do it,” the wren tried. “We’re all together, we can—”

“No, you can’t. You’ve already lost.” The hawk expanded his wings, seeming to triple in size. As much as the five wanted to, they couldn’t move. They watched as he pulled out… something, giving a foreboding glow though it had no true shape of its own. “Just be good children and stand still…”

They tried to stand together, but they always got pulled apart. The sparrow, the eagle, and the owl got caught in the darkness. The dove nearly fell prey to it, too, but she took to the sky instead—away from the ground and the shadowy tendrils there. She pressured the wren to join her and together they flew. But their panicked flight drained their energy and, in time, they fell back down to the earth.

At least there seemed to be one good thing about their failure: the hawk had destroyed anyone and anything that may have remembered it. All hope seemed lost, like the ones that they left behind…