How To Be A Peacock

"How To Be A Peacock"

By: Miguel Carattini

Always upon all time, there was the forest. The forest was a grand place with strong, colorful trees that stood forever with no end. At night, their leaves would softly whisper songs in the wind and in the day they danced and waved with the breeze. The trees were not alone, for in the forest, all kinds of beautiful animals lived. Some lived in the ground and some lived in caves, but the most colorful of the animals lived in the trees. These were the birds and they were colorful and proud.

The birds sang such beautiful songs to each other and flashed their bright feathers in flamboyant dances to show off to the other birds. Sometimes these feather dances were to make friends and other times the feather dances were meant to keep away any animals that would try to be mean. Of all the birds in the forest, there was one bird who thought she was the most beautiful bird of them all was the Bohemian Waxwing, but everyone called her Bo for short.

Bo was very proud of her the colors on her feathers. She thought she was perfect, not too flashy and not too dull. Bo would spread her wings as she sat on the highest tree and flutter her yellow stripes to catch the attention of all the other birds. All of the other birds would come by her side and shake their feathers too as they all had a pretty bird party! But there was one bird who did not feel special and did not come to the parties because he felt that he was ugly. This bird was the peacock, and everyone called him Peekee for short. Sadly, almost all of the other birds made fun of Peekee because he was a large bird who could not fly. Sure, there were other birds who could not fly, like the Ostridge and the Penguin, but no one made fun of them, they only made fun of Peekee, because Peekee did not have any pretty feathers. Peekee kept to himself and his only friend was a porcupine named Porc. Porc was a big, fat porcupine with long, fat; pointy quills sticking out and pointing everywhere like a large pin cusion. He might be ugly and prickly, but he was Peekee's only friend, and they would spend the day walking and talking about anything and everything.
One day, after Peekee was teased terribly by a bunch of crows and hummingbirds, Porc was trying really hard to find a way to cheer Peekee up. That was when Porc came up with a grand idea.

"Peekee" said Porc, pausing by an ant hill and sniffing it with loud snorts, "I bet that you could be a better bird than all of those other birds in the forest combined, even that showoff Bo."

"Oh? How so Porc?" asked Peekee, raising one eyebrow in sudden curiosity.

"Well," mumbled Porc, chewing on a mouthful of ants and mud from the top of the anthill that he just took a bite out of before continuing, "You see how the birds lose feathers every now and then? I bet that if we could collect the prettiest feathers from all of the birds, you would be able to make your own feathers to show off to everyone."

Peekee's eyes shifted back and forth as his mind ran over the possible scenarios. They widened as a smile grew and he playfully slapped Porc on the snout, causing Porc to sneeze and spit out ants and mud out all over the place, and some of those ants were very happy to get away indeed. "That's a GREAT idea Porc!" exclaimed Peekee. "Let's get started right away."

Porc wiped his mouth and snout while he caught his breath and then nodded his head, "Okay, okay, but can I finish my..." Peekee suddenly handed Porc a handful of colorful feathers and Porc grabbed them, puzzled at how Peekee gathered so many feathers so quickly, but he merely shook his head and spent the rest of the day helping Peekee gather many feathers that had dropped from the birds and collected on the forest floor.

During the day, while Porc and Peekee roamed all over the forest, collecting feathers, Bo noticed them and quietly followed them from above to see what they were doing. After a while, many other birds noticed and also began following the feather collection. Peekee and Porc noticed the birds gathering and heard the familiar giggling and mumbling as everyone gathered to see the pile of feathers that was being collected. Peekee did his best ignore the gathering flock of birds, but it was useless as colorful Bo decided to fly down and land next to them, ruffling her feathers after she landed in an obvious attempt to show off as usual.
"What are you doing there Peekee?" asked Bo, with her inquisitive head tilted to the side as she examined the collection of feathers that were piled on the ground between Peekee and Porc.

"Nothing Bo." Said Peekee, silently hoping in his head that Bo would just disappear and not cause a scene, but Porc spoke up before Peekee could say anything.

"We're getting feathers, all of the feathers from all of the birds so that Peekee could become the prettiest bird of them all, even you Bo." Porc stood tall and proud next to his best buddy, Peekee, but Peekee was nervous and shy.

Bo became annoyed at Porc and said, snapping her beak at Porc as she spoke, "No one was talking to the non-bird." Bo was becoming aggressive but Porc was not afraid.

Porc turned around quickly and started hopping backwards at Bo, flashing his long, sharp quills right into Bo's beak. "Back up Bo, or you'll be a bird no mo!"

Bo dodged the quills and flew sideways, dodging Porc's quills easily. Once Bo moved away, Porc stopped hopping and just stood looking at Bo, making angry faces at the arrogant, flashy bird as a large crowd of birds gathered behind Bo to watch the show.
"Anyway" Bo continued, keeping a sideways eye on Porc as she spoke to Peekee. "You can't change ugly. What are you going to use, tree sap to glue on the feathers? It will never work, and you will always be an ugly, ground hugging Peacock. You'll have better luck trying to make yourself look like a Porcupine, or even a Platypus!" All of the gathered birds erupted in laughter and began teasing Peekee. Bo merely stood there with her prideful feathers puffed out and a large smile on her beak for a moment before silently flying up and away, over the trees.

Porc turned around and faced his formidable quills at the group of laughing birds and began his menacing backwards hop towards the group. "Don't make me poke you a hole like I did the Oriole" yelled Porc and the flock of birds stopped laughing and quickly scattered into the trees and out of sight.

"Yeah, I thought so you flock of silly willies!" Porc turned to Peekee and comforted him. "Look buddy, this is going to work, I know it! Let's just keep gathering feathers." He paused and looked at where the crowd of birds just stood, "Look here, I scared some really nice feathers off of these guys. These will do nicely."

"Yeah, I guess they will" said Peekee softly as he slowly picked up the freshly dropped feathers and added them to the pile. "She was right Porc, how am I ever going to get these feathers on? Using sap won't work because when it dries, it will become heavy and the ants will want to climb all over me to eat the sap...that will not do at all. No respectable bird wants ants crawling all over them."

"No LIVING bird wants ants crawling all over them" said Porc with a laugh. Peekee laughed too and felt a little bit better knowing that his crazy friend Porc was at his side. They both spent the rest of the day gathering feathers and took a break when night time came.
The very next morning, Peekee and Porc stood by the large pile of brightly colorful feathers and discussed different alternatives of sticking the feathers on. They discussed tree sap, but that would be messy and would attract bugs. They discussed using spider webs, but it would be messy and would catch bugs. They discussed letting Peekee get wet and allowing the feathers to stick to him, but that would be messy and he would dry up and all of the feathers would fall off too soon. They discussed using mud, but that is too messy and would dry up into a block of dirt. No matter what they discussed, nothing would work. So they both stood side by side, thinking hard and staring at the pile of pretty feathers.

Suddenly, Bo swooped down and landed next to Peekee in an attempt to try and scare Peekee. It sure worked because Peekee was so scared that he jumped high into the air and landed right on top of Porc.

"YEEOUCH!" screamed Peekee as he got a rear full of porcupine quills. Peekee jumped HIGH into the sky, full of porcupine quills and landed into the pile of feathers, disappearing from view as the pile of feathers swallowed Peekee. Bo laughed at what she just did and Porc turned around and was ready for a full backwards porcupine power quill charge, but they heard a sound come from the feather pile and they stopped suddenly at what they saw.

Peekee slowly emerged from the pile, trying to be careful because of all the quills that got stuck in him, but what he did not know is that most of the feathers got stuck onto the quills, and when he emerged with so many feathers stuck to the quills that were stuck on him...the entire forest stopped what they were doing.

"Ow, ow, ow, ouch!" said Peekee with every step. He stretched his wings and all of the quills spread tall and wide, displaying all of the beautiful, colorfully bright feathers that were stacked on the quills. Bo's beak dropped open and Porc stood up, staring at Peekee with the grandest smile a porcupine can possibly produce... and the forest held its collective breath.

The feathers on Peekee were astoundingly, beautifully arranged! Like an explosion of colors frozen in time, the quills spread out like an enormous fan of beauty and grace. What gave it an extra touch of elegance was the fact that Peekee was trying so hard to keep his balance because he was worried that he would fall over and hurt himself more. After a moment of balancing and adjusting to the pain, Peekee noticed that everything and everyone was suddenly quiet. He looked up and saw the big, silly smile on Porc's snout and how Bo's beak dropped in amazement. Porc took this moment to reach over, grab Bo's beak and slowly close it for her.
With great hesitation, Bo slowly and reverently said, "You. Are. Beautiful."

"I knew you could do it" exclaimed Porc, clapping. "I knew you would do it!"

Birds from all over began to land all around Peekee and soon almost every bird in the forest was tightly gathered in a huge crowd that encircled Peekee at a comfortable distance. There was silence and many of the birds looked to Bo, waiting to see what Bo would say, but she was only silent as she took time to fully appreciate what she was seeing before her.

Slowly and silently, Bo bowed before Peekee. In turn, every bird present did so as well. Peekee was a bit confused but was pleasantly surprised as he craned his neck from one side to another to see how the feathers spread out as he stretched his wings to alleviate the pain from the quills sticking into him. Peekee smiled and stretched even more. This made the crowd say "Ohh" and "Ahh."

"I apologize for being so mean to you. I never thought that a bird like you could possibly be so beautiful, and you have proven me wrong." Bo stood up straight and she addressed the crowd of gathered birds. "As of today, we shall never again look down upon any bird, for this is proof that all of us are beautiful, regardless of how different we are from each other. As of this day forward, the Peacock will be the most beautiful bird in the forest!" The celebration lasted for many days and nights.

After a few days, Porc asked Peekee, "So, how does it feel to be so beautiful and loved?"

Peekee laughed and replied, "It hurts so bad, but I am getting used to it."

Porc leaned in and whispered, "Yeah, it isn't easy being beautiful and loved. Just wait until you hug another peacock."

Peekee taught all of the other peacocks how to be beautiful, and peacocks everywhere became some of the most beautiful birds in the forest and the porcupine always remained the peacock's best friend.

The End