The Snake and the Little Bird

In the depths of the ancient woodland there lived a scruffy, unassuming little bird. She loved to go about her day gathering twigs to help other creatures to build secure homes. Sometimes she would fly around the woods gathering litter and moving hazards to prevent others from coming to harm.

The little bird was a bit of a loner. She wasn’t interested in status or recognition. She did her best to stay away from the noisy animals who wanted to be noticed. She had learnt over the years that that sort of animals were usually the ones with the smallest hearts and she had exceptionally high standards when choosing who to spend her time with. Sometimes, though, she had to encounter these animals during her daily life and when she did, she tried her best to treat them warmly and with understanding. It must be terrible to need status and recognition, she thought. How tiring it must be to live like that.

Not far away, beneath some rocks by the river, lived a snake.

He watched the bird with unblinking, suspicious eyes. He felt threatened by her but could not really understand why. She had given him no cause to believe that she would do him harm, but he just couldn’t quite bring himself to accept her. “Everyone tells lies and is in it for themselves,” he said, because that was all he knew.

So, he began to search for faults.

Every morning, he would slither in the undergrowth looking for evidence that the bird had stolen a berry, or taken a feather, or said something untrue. Every time he heard her speak he searched for the hidden agenda. Every time he saw her moving twigs he convinced himself that she must be building something evil.

With every misunderstanding he hissed accusations.

“You are hiding those twigs from me.”

“You are plotting with the other animals to redirect the river.”

“You are taking more berries than you need because you are greedy.”

The bird felt sad about these claims. She had done nothing to deserve such accusations. She tried to defend herself calmly and politely, reminding herself that the snake was just acting in this way because he was insecure.

“I didn’t do those things,” she murmured.

“You didn’t say that in a loud enough voice,” hissed the snake. “If you were telling the truth you would have shouted it and your voice would not have sounded so shaky.”

“I didn’t want to make you look silly in front of the other animals,” explained the bird, “and my voice was shaky because your accusations have made me sad.”

“I noticed that you got up early yesterday. You were covering your tracks,” hissed the snake.

“I was just trying to start my work before the sun got too hot,” explained the bird.

The bird answered the accusations patiently to start with. She explained where she had taken every berry. She showed the snake which animal’s home she had taken each twig to. She provided a list of how she had spent her time and told him who to speak to if he wanted to check that she was telling the truth.

He wasn’t interested in checking the truth though because he knew deep down that he couldn’t prove any wrongdoing.

The other animals started to become uncertain. Surely if the snake was spending this much time on this, there must be some truth in it. And the little bird was looking really tired these days. Maybe that was the weight of the guilt she was carrying around.

Weeks passed and the little bird started dreading the sunrise. The joy was gone from her work now because instead of thinking about the animals she was trying to help she was distracted by trying to guess what the next accusation would be. She started working in different ways to try to avoid issues and to make sure that there was nothing she could be blamed for, but it was so much more effort working like that.

She started to dream about leaving the woods but was worried that if she did, the other animals would think the snake was right and that she had run away because she had done something wrong and did not want to face the consequences.

“But if I stay,” she whispered, “every day becomes a battle that I never chose.”

A wise old owl, who was awake all night and wise enough to see exactly what was going on, had a few words for her.

“You are living in a trap with no walls,” he hooted. “The trap is built from the belief that you need to answer every allegation. But you need to ask yourself whether they deserve your time, energy and words.”

“I’m not sure though,” muttered the little bird. “I care so much and I don’t want to fly away from those who need me.”

“There are many that need help,” said the owl, “and maybe, without all this you would have more energy to do it.”

A few days later the snake called another meeting. The animals gathered to listen dutifully as they always did. Some were there because they believed his ridiculous stories. Many were only there, though, because they knew they needed to keep on the right side of him.

“I have more evidence that the bird is up to no good,” he wheezed. He went on to describe how some acorns had been stolen from the squirrels’ stash and how an anonymous creature had informed him that she had been seen flying through the clearing with an acorn in her beak the day before.

The squirrel gasped. “That would explain everything!” he exclaimed. “How terrible that the bird would do that to my family. We thought she was a friend.”

Everyone looked at the little bird, waiting for how she was going to explain this one.

But she did not defend herself.

“Those of you who have spent time getting to know me understand who I am. They have watched my actions and come to their own conclusions rather than listening to a mindless story created by a snake who is focusing his time on the wrong things. I cannot spend any more time defending accusations that are untrue. My actions speak more loudly than my words ever will and those of you who genuinely care about me will see that.”

And off she flew. She went to another area of woodland where there were animals who had not received her help before.

Over time some of the animals from the ancient woodland set out to find her. They missed her generosity and support and their old home had become a bitter place. The snake, they said, had started to bully several other creatures and many were looking for new homes.As for the snake, the last I heard of him, he was sitting under his slimy rock, plotting revenge on his next victim and snacking on acorns.