Sakura's New Friend

The early morning sun shone through the leaves, leaving speckled markings that reflected in twinkling bursts from the dew laden grass. Stepping outside, Sakura grinned and took a deep breath in, enjoying the fresh air. Beautiful. The perfect day for a walk in the woods.

Running her hand alongsise the bark of the trees, Sakura gasped when she laid eyes upon a single flower, growing alone in a patch of light. Effervescent. She spent far too long admiring the flower, an otherwise ordinary specimen, when the skittering of a woodland creature nearby caught her attention. Blinking, she giggled and stood up straight. Back to her walk. 

A skip and a hop through the damp brush, Sakura stopped at nearly every interesting flower, plant, and bug. What a neat beetle. Ooh, a lovely blooming vine! The leaves of this plant shimmer iridescence in the sunlight. Yowch! That one is thorny. Ah, a beautiful butterfly!

But then, at once, she stopped.

Sakura pursed her lips together, staring ahead at the hunched over form of feathers. A timid step forward, then another, Sakura did her best to remain silent. Alas, merely a moment later, a glob of goo from her wing dripped onto the ground, splashing at her feet and catching the attention of the bird with a startled squawk. She stopped, giving the creature a soft but nervous smile, though for the life of her she could not figure out why the bird had not yet flown away. A few more steps, and at once she understood. Twisted around its leg, a thick and relentless vine tethered the poor thing to the ground. Sakura knew she could not - would not - turn a blind eye. The feathers at the base of its neck puffed up, yet with its leg caught in the vine, all it could do was hiss as Sakura approached.

“Shhhh… It’s okay, little one.” Sakura kneeled, gingerly placing a hand on the body of the bird, flinching when it promptly turned and bit her. The bony beak easily pierced her gooey flesh, but without any real ability to feel pain (at least, not in this particular way), the attack did little to deter her. Instead, she took a moment to take in the sight before her. The bird's soft yet matted feathers trembled beneath her hand. The poor thing was terrified. She frowned, stroking the bird a few times to try (in vain) to calm it down. The bird was rather sizeable, but still small for its species, so likely rather young. She wondered briefly if it was still a child, and in which case if the mother was anywhere near. If that was the case, she had better work quickly. She didn't want her to get the wrong idea. Sakura turned to focus on the vine, carefully toying with it with her claw in an attempt to begin to loosen it. The plant was thick and took considerable force to wedge her claw underneath, and for a moment she worried she was being too rough for the poor bird's sake. Glancing up, she was surprised to see that the bird’s cawing slowly began to quiet, tentatively relaxing, and instead watched her with much interest.

Sticking her tongue out, Sakura at last got a grip on the vine and began the process of untangling it. A smile returned to her face as the vine became easier and easier to unravel, but the smile turned bitter as she saw the effect beneath. Though there was no skin on the bird's legs, the vine still left its mark, deforming the bones ever so slightly beneath its terrible grip. She has to wonder how long and how hard the bird had been struggling for. She was suddenly grateful that she had found the bird at the time she had. There wasn't much to do at this point for the bird itself, except for freeing it, so that is what she chose to focus on. No use worrying over something out of her control. Besides, if the bird was in fact young, perhaps its mother would help in any way she could. That made her feel better to think about.

Only a few more minutes passed, the bird having gone completely silent with only the occasional quiet squawk, before she was able to completely untangle the vine from its leg, freeing the bird entirely from its grasp. At once, it took flight, struggling a bit midair before it could find its rhythm again. The injured leg stuck out slightly, clearly in pain, but with the vine removed - and promptly torn out of the ground so as to not trap any more poor animals again - the bird gave Sakura one last squawk before it disappeared behind the trees. Sakura chose to interpret it as a thank you.