The Purple Bird

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful songbird with feathers of dark purple. When she sang, kingdoms gathered to hear. She was kind and gentle, and loved more then anything to fly through the air, and feel sunshine and moonlight on her back.
One day a monster heard her voice, and glimpsed her beauty. Hearing his own voice, and seeing his own reflection, he grew envious of the bird. So he captured her, and took her back to his castle where he kept her locked in a stone walled room, with barred windows, and caged, so she knew how trapped she would always be.
Everyday the monster would make the bird perform for him. And everyday out of fear, she did. She sang for him, and hoped somehow, her love and beauty would break the bars around her, or move the monster so that even he could find a goodness inside himself, and show her kindness. Day after day he treated her with hatred and jealousy. The bird would often ask the monster “If I displease you so, may you set me free, so I may be among the birds, and those I do not displease…among those that love me?” and the monster would answer “You do displease me. You colors offend me, your song is most horrid and I dislike everything about birds”. When the bird asked why she was kept if she was so unloved, he answered “Because no one loves monsters, therefore, no one shall ever love you”
She longed for escape, for the feel of the sunshine and moonlight on her back. Everyday she became more hopeless, as everyday after the bird sang for the monster, he would pluck out one feather from her wings. In this way, the bird learned the song of life she so loved meant losing flight and freedom. Everyday she became more and more afraid to sing. Soon she no longer longed for sunshine, or moonlight on her back. Soon, she no longer longed for her own song.
On the morning the purple bird had but two feathers left, one on each wing, the monster came in and told the bird to sing so he may pluck out the last two feathers. The bird knew this was her very last song, so she sang louder and with more love then she ever had before. As she sang her heart filled with memories of her freedom, and happiness. Her song grew louder and louder, and carried far out the window and over the vast land where it was heard again by all. The monster was displeased with her show of strength and opened the cage to pluck out the last two feathers before her song ended. When he opened the cage she tried desperately to fly with the two feathers she had left. They barely lifted her off the ground of the cage, but that did not stop her. The monster’s hand approached, but the bird continued singing, and never stopped trying to fly, one last time.
Then, there in the barred window, appeared all the birds of the forest. The ones who were always free, and who loved and missed the purple bird. They flew in the stone walled room, as the sun still rose, and gathered on either side of the purple bird. They lifted her up, with all the feathers of the kingdom. With their flight, she rose. The birds who missed and loved her took her quickly out the window, locking the monster in the stone walled room, with a broken birdcage on the floor for all the days of his life. The birds flew far away, all in song.
When they landed, each bird plucked out one feather from their wing, and gave it to the purple bird, so she again had wings. This time they were of all the colors of the kingdom. Every time she flew, she looked at her colorful wings and smiled…she knew for every monster that existed in the world, there would always be kingdoms of love waiting…to help her fly away.