Week 1 Story Telling: The Ostrich And The Albatross

There once was a great ostrich whose name was Charles. Charles had a very good friend that was an albatross by the name of Hector. Charles envied Hector’s ability to soar in the sky, and daydreamed about flying almost every day.

Charles the Ostrich.

Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

One day Charles wandered up to Hector, who was taking a nap and asked Hector to teach him how to fly. Hector, still drowsy from his mid-day nap yawned “Well I suppose I could try. You do have wings after all.” Charles flapped his wings and jumped up and down while flapping his wings in excitement and squealed “Oh thank you, thank you Hector!” Hector could tell this meant a lot to Charles and was determined to get him up in the air so they could fly together. Hector urged Charles to calm down so that he could give him proper instructions. Finally, with Charles still some-what fidgeting, Hector told Charles to observe him as he took flight. Hector jumped off the ground with his wings stretched wide and with a few powerful thrusts of his giant wings, Hector was flying in circles just a few feet above Charles.

Hector the Albatross.

Web Source: Wikimedia Commons 

“You have to allow your wings to catch the wind”, yelled Hector to an amazed Charles. “But your wings are so much bigger than mine, and my body is so heavy”, replied Charles as he attempted to take off with no luck. Hector knew that this could be a problem, but he was still determined to help his friend, so he flew back down to Charles and landed back on the ground with light thud. The two decided to call it a day so they could work on a solution to get Charles in the air. Many days passed with Charles only being able to stay in the air for a couple of seconds at a time, but each day Hector would take off and land so that Charles could observe how Hector flew and landed. Charles would try every day to fly like Hector but could never get his big body to stay off the ground for more than a few seconds. Each passing day made Charles more and more impatient. Charles was thinking to himself “Hector makes it look so easy, why can’t I fly like that?” One day Charles had the idea that if he took off from a higher place he would be able to catch enough wind under his wings to fly like Hector. Charles was so sure that his idea would work and wanted to surprise Hector, so he headed to a giant cliff to test his idea. Once he got up on the cliff, Charles jumped and violently flapped his wings, but was unable to keep his giant body in the air and met his end at the rocky ground below.

Authors Note: I used the fable of "The Tortoise And The Ducks" for my retelling. In this fable there is a tortoise that was very envious of all the creatures that could run quickly and fly about, while he was cursed with short legs and a heavy body that could barely get him around. The tortoise tells a pair of ducks of his woes and they decide to help him fly by taking him up by a stick that each of them held while the tortoise held on in the middle. The ducks told the tortoise to be quiet while he was on his flight or he would be sorry, but the tortoise was praised by a crow that said he must be the king of all tortoises and he began to accept the praise which made him lose his grip on the stick and fall to his death. I kept the theme of envy and wanting to be something other than what you are intact, but there was a twist with the old adage of "even good intentions can have grave consequences".  

Bibliography: This story is based on the fable "The Tortoise And The Ducks" in the Aesop for Children, by (anonymous), illustrated by Milo Winter (1919)