81호 하늘을 품은 땅 (원제 Flightless, 김 단, 영문 원고)

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* 김 단 양은 미국에 거주하는 계간 『니』 어린이 필자입니다. 원고량이 많아 영어 원문을 따로 올립니다. 

Flightless

A Story

Dawn Kim

Author’s Note

When I first thought of the character Soar, I was amazed at the idea of a bird with broken wings. As I went through with writing this story, I realized that some people might get the wrong message with Soar and her disability. Soar’s disability is part of her, but not all of her. Through all the changes and edits I needed to make, I wanted to make it clear to you, whoever reading this story, that even if you feel stuck and useless, or lonely and misunderstood, you’ll find that you have amazing wings, wings that will help you soar in your own way.

Characters

Soar is a bald eagle, but she actually doesn’t know how to fly. Or, she simply can’t fly. You see, she has crippled wings and can’t take to the air. Despite this, Soar is very intelligent and responsible—especially when compared to Topaz. Soar and Topaz are sisters; they love each other to no end, but they also drive each other crazy to no end. Readers will find Soar quite amazing, but she is still trying to prove her worth to others and, above all, to herself.

You will meet Topaz, Soar’s younger sister. They’re actually twins. Even though they love each other deeply, they couldn’t be more different. Soar is thoughtful, cautious, and scrawny for an eagle, while Topaz is headstrong and could lift a giant boulder to beat up a bunch of foxes just because they annoyed her. She is proficient in battle despite lacking a strategy. Having grown up in "Lake," where a combative atmosphere is the norm, Topaz has developed a rough personality, but this is actually due to her strong protective instincts. This is especially true when it comes to her older sister. Watching Topaz, you can't help but wonder: While her brute strength is certainly helpful, is it truly enough?

Falcon is the ruthless queen of "The Lake," ruling by manipulating the birds at her whim. Though she died young, she made her presence clear from the beginning. Having grown up with a heart of steel, Falcon became the dictator of "The Lake." Her seemingly endless reign came to an end one day. This may be welcome news to many, but who will lead "The Lake" in her absence? Now that she’s gone, will things be easier or harder?

A mysterious and highly skilled healer is a bird who has extensive knowledge of medical tools and the medicine itself. He or she will play a key role in unraveling the secrets of the characters as you continue reading this story.

1. From the Ground, Looking Up

The soft breeze made the feathers on my neck bristle, waking me up. I stood in my home, which was a hollow tree, and shoved my sister, Topaz, away, who’d been leaning on me when she slept. I love her; she’s my sister. But she can be so annoying, thick-headed, and so VERY stupid. But she’s strong, confident, and willing to fight a thousand birds for me, so she’s not THAT annoying.

I shook my wings, shaking the dead leaves off.

‘My dead, broken, useless wings,’ I thought, wincing.

You see, I was born like this. And surprisingly, I’m an eagle, a flightless, scrawny eagle, BUT still an eagle! Luckily, my sister can fly and is NOT scrawny. Guess what, to make things ironic, my name is LITERALLY Soar. You might be thinking, “Oh, that’s HORRIBLE! What did your parents do?” And my answer is, “What’s a parent?” REMINDER, I’m a bird! And birds do NOT have caring parents. The only thing my parents EVER did for me was claw my name into my egg and leave, like every other bird parent. And no, there are no orphanages; that’s against the leader of the Lake, Falcon’s rules. She says, “Pick two or more birds to live with, pick a piece of territory, and don’t you dare leave it unless going to a market or to a meeting I authorized.” And we do NOT mess with Falcon. And how could anyone change things? We’re just means of control to Falcon, especially me, with my broken wings. What could anyone do?

I stretched slowly, and climbed up the mushrooms growing in the tree, to reach the torn-off top.

‘The closest thing to flying,’ I thought, letting the wind blow on me. ‘I must look like a small hatchling desperately watching the adults,’ I thought, jumping back to wake up my sister.

“HEY, IDIOT, WAKE UP!” I cawed, turning her over.

“ARGH!” Topaz yelled, flapping me away.

“We need to go to the market today!” I reminded Topaz. “And don’t you DARE ask why. You’re the one who got yourself in a fight yesterday! We NEED to get you some medicine!” I lectured.

“FINE! JEEZ, I’m waking up!” Topaz retorted.

1 hour later of walking to the market

“FRESH FISH FOR SALE! AS FRESH AS THE WATER!” yelled a bird, with a pile of fish by their side.

“Don’t listen to him!” a sparrow yelled. “His fish were rotting yesterday! MY fish was caught 1 minute ago!” the sparrow countered as the first bird growled.

‘I have SUCH a headache! I thought Topaz’s snoring was loud, but this is deafening!’ I complained, my neck slouching.

After a while of ignoring every single deal offer, I actually heard something that piqued my interest.

“OH MY BIRD! Jay, you’re okay!” a robin exclaimed with joy, as she hugged the Blue Jay, who supposedly is named Jay.

“I KNOW! When I fell off that tree, I thought I was a goner. But when I woke up, I was here and saw a dark silhouette of a bird walking away. I think he healed me!” joyously chirped Jay.

“Woah, do you think it’s the bird from the rumor Rae told me?” the robin asked, shivering with excitement. “OH MY BIRD! It must be! The magical healer is REAL!” Jay responded, jumping up and down.

‘Magical healer? I’ve seen where Jay lives, and there, the trees are TALL, every single branch is meters in the air! If the magical healer can heal a fall from THAT height, the healer could do anything, even fixing my wings,’ I thought, filled with excitement.

I couldn’t stop myself; I robotically started walking to them. “Hey, Soar, what are you doing!” hissed Topaz, but I kept walking, as if Topaz was just a noise in the wind.

“Hey, um, not to eavesdrop, but did you say ‘magical healer’? Just curious,” I asked, trying to keep up a cool front, but I couldn’t stop myself from jittering with excitement.

“What? Oh, Soar! Sorry, couldn’t remember you for a second,” Jay tweeted, giving me a warm smile. “And sorry. We don’t know anything about the healer besides that they're magical and heal birds. But we don’t know where he or she lives,” the robin answered, giving me a pitiful glance at my wings.

“It’s fine!” I said, trying to make my wings less crazy.

“SOAR, YOU SON OF A SNAKE! YOU WERE THE ONE WHO INSISTED ON GOING TO THE CLINIC!” Topaz yelled, ruining EVERYTHING.

“I’m so sorry,” I apologized to Jay and the Robin, while bowing my head. “My knucklehead sister still hasn’t developed a brain,” I cawed as Topaz screeched. “I think one of my parents dropped her as an egg,” I whispered as Jay and the Robin chuckled.

I walked towards Topaz, waving goodbye to Jay and the Robin (wow, I STILL don’t know the Robin’s name), and Topaz complained and COMPLAINED all the way to one of the clinics and on the way back home. But I wasn’t really listening. I just couldn’t stop thinking about the healer. Like, what if I can FINALLY fly? What if I can FINALLY protect Topaz when things get dangerous... if I just meet this healer.

But the healer is a stranger. What if they hate eagles, and break my wings even more, if it’s even possible? And if I DO try to find the healer, what if I get scammed and get kidnapped instead? Plus, the healer is a rumor. Jay might’ve just landed on a bush, walked to the market without knowing due to a head injury, and the bird silhouette might’ve just been Jay having a hallucination from a head injury, too.

After I robotically walked back home with Topaz, I made my decision. Going to the healer, who might not even exist, is too dangerous. Given Falcon’s rules and all the dangerous possibilities, if I bring Topaz on the quest to find the healer, I’ll probably get her killed along with myself. I CAN’T risk Topaz’s safety, no matter what. At least, that’s what I thought back then.

The next day

“Are you sure? Are you ABSOLUTELY, EXTREMELY sure?” I asked the messenger, who was a pigeon.

“Ma’am, for the very last time, I’m sure. This message comes from the very beak of Falcon. I am very sure that she’s holding a meeting,” the messenger replied, seeming exhausted from my questions.

“Okay,” I said, trying to relax. “Sorry, I was being pretty paranoid.”

“It’s fine. Look, I get it, if you go across territory, Falcon will kill you,” the messenger replied, trying not to sound tired. “Well, guess I should go to the next nest now!” the messenger optimistically replied, beginning to flap away.

‘This is dangerous, and the walk is always tiring,’ I thought, beginning to yawn. Not being able to fly is one thing, but needing to walk everywhere, when you can see birds peacefully flying right above you, is torture. And the way the territory is shaped, really doesn’t help.

You see, all the territory of the lake is the perimeter of the lake. The upper half of the perimeter is where most of the birds live, the bottom half is where the clinics and markets are, and a little above the first half, is where all the meetings Falcon holds take place. And since I live right on the line between the first half and the second half, it’s a pretty long walk, especially when you need to avoid other birds’ territory. If I ever step on somebody else’s land, I would get into big trouble. So the walk to the meeting place is like a really long balance beam. But, of course, flying is different. If you fly, there’s no balance beam; it’s just a wide road in the sky, a pleasure I had never experienced and would never experience.

And as you can guess, telling my sister we’re going to need to walk on a long balance beam to go to one of the most stressful meetings of all time isn’t easy. But growing up with a gremlin like her taught me a couple tricks. Like, if I tell her we need to go to the market to go trading, I’ll make it easier by saying, “Hey, Topaz! Do you want to walk towards the market where we can beat a few baby foxes on the way!?” So, it isn’t THAT hard to stop her from whining. But I still can’t help but feel bad. Topaz can FLY, but she’s forced to walk on the balance beam with me, instead of flying on a wide, spacious road because both she and I know that I need her protection. Regardless, I have a lot more dangerous things to worry about, like the fact we’re going to a meeting that Falcon might execute someone in.

After 2 Hours of Walking

When we arrived at the meeting place, everybody stood as still and straight as soldiers. Falcon does NOT like undisciplined victims. And of course, Topaz and I assumed the position; nobody’s dying today. After five minutes of painfully standing like statues, Falcon finally arrived and stepped on her tree stump.

“ATTENTION!” bellowed Falcon, as everybody shivered in fear. “I am here to find out who tried to assassinate me!” Falcon informed, as a wave of silent gasps went through the crowd.

‘How?’ I thought with confusion. ‘Who would dare to try to attack Falcon? She’s built like a mountain, and is as strong as a bull,’ I thought, staring at Falcon’s strong stature. ‘Wait,’ I began, looking closely at Falcon. ‘Is that a dart on her neck?’ I wondered, staring closely. ‘That’s how someone attacked her! They poisoned her! It wasn’t an attempt. It was an actual assassination in progress!’ I realized. ‘But Falcon doesn’t want her victims to know how weak she is,’ I thought coldly.

After I had the realization, I said nothing. Falcon might be dying, but she can still kill me in two seconds. And I’m probably not the only one who realized this; all of us are just scared of Falcon. What used to be a peaceful place was bent and abused to be turned into whatever Falcon’s twisted mind wanted it to be. Falcon didn’t even grow up in the lake. She grew up in the mountains. And if Falcon lived there, then it must have been awful too.

I was so focused on my thoughts that I didn’t realize what Falcon was saying until it was too late.

“YOU!” Falcon screeched, looking at me. “I can see your guilt on your face! Nobody can trick me!” hollered Falcon as she went into a threatening position. “I’ll kill—,” Falcon started, as she fainted.

Silence engulfed all the birds, taking away their voices, only allowing us to think.

‘Are we free?’ I asked, eyes teary. ‘Can we finally live in peace?’ I wondered, leaning on Topaz, who was standing in shock.

After a while of silence, after I dreamed we’d live in peace, someone yelled, “It’s mine!” and ran towards the stump, and then another bird echoed the first bird and ran towards the stump too, and soon, almost every bird was fighting. I tried to escape the battle, but walking is much more difficult than just flying out of there. I saw Topaz looking at me. ’She’s scared,’ I figured.

“Topaz!” I called as Topaz’s glare hardened. “GO! Fly out of here, I’ll find my way home!” I ordered, giving her my ‘you better do this, or else you’re dead’ stare, as she reluctantly left. After seven failed attempts of escaping, I finally escaped and hid under a tree.

(To be continued)