Nestbound Bird

"The children will soon hatch, and Mommy has prepared everything." "Brocade and velvet line the bed, a red silk dreamcatcher keeps nightmares away." "The children will soon be born, and Mommy has practiced over and over." "Silver bells go jingle jangle, gentle whispers lull you to sleep."

…

Humming the lullaby over and over, the Mother Bird had waited far, far too long for the day her children would be born. She wished to dote upon them, granting them all the beautiful things in the world. With her mind made up, the Mother Bird spread her wings and left the nest. She journeyed around the world before her eggs hatched, gathering countless treasures.

She could see it clearly now: when her children are born, their tender faces would be illuminated by the shimmer of gold and silver filling the nest. That was the very best a mother could prepare for her children. The Mother Bird was certain of this. And she, too, would be the very best mother. Whenever she closed her eyes, her heart was filled with visions of nestling with her hatchlings in a nest woven with golden thread and red silk.

She dreamed of gently feeding them, watching them grow up healthy and hearty.

But such a scene would never come to pass. The Mother Bird, so full of anticipation, never got to become a mother. When she returned to the nest with a gem-studded mask in her beak, she was devastated to find only shattered eggshells. Her children were nowhere to be found.

Who stole my children!!! Broke their shells and stole them from their mother!!! It is said the shrill cries from the nest continued for three days and three nights without end.

From that day on, the Mother Bird ceased to exist. Only a bird-like creature wearing a mask with an expression neither smiling nor crying, the Nestbound Bird, remained there, guarding an eggshell with its cracks mended by red thread. Any living being in this world could be my stolen child, so I shall be the mother of any living being in this world. My stolen, lost children. Come back to me. Come back to this beautifully decorated nest.

Mommy promises no one will ever separate us again. Look at these Plumettes sewn from my bones, my feathers, my flesh. They will forever guard this nest. Come back. Please, call me Mommy.

Children who grew up in Hethereau have mostly heard this story. When lost, never heed the gentle and loving female voice calling your name from who knows where. If you answer that earnest call, you will be taken back to the Nestbound Bird's nest and raised as its child. If you listen to it and call it "Mommy," you will forget yourself forever, destined to become lost in the nest.

Who exactly stole her children? This question seems destined to remain unanswered, or perhaps the Mother Bird knew the answer all along… The Mother Bird, so blinded by decorating a comfortable nest for her children, neglected to actually care for and accompany them. The newly hatched chicks could not find their mother and, driven by hunger, had no choice but to leave the nest. Their whereabouts remain unknown. What does it matter if the truth is simple and clear? The Mother Bird no longer exists. Only the Nestbound Bird's earnest calls for her children continue to echo.