When you think of a bird, you think of their sweet little songs. The way they fly with such grace. The unique colors of their feathers.
You try to ignore the disturbing fact that they eat beetles and cockroaches and worms and things like that.
Actually, it's not so disturbing.
Unless you're a person trapped in a bird's body, like Zoey Rockshindle.
Zoey wandered around pittying herself. Yesturday had been terrible.
Today--not much better.
First, she was turned into a bird.
Then she was kicked out of her own home.
Now she was stuck outside in the cold missing her parents. she was really tired and upset.
But the hunger was the worst part of it all.
Her stomach grumbled like the sky on a stormy night. Her whole eghausted body was aching and empty. The feeling was unbearable.
Zoey spotted a worm out of the corner of her beady little eye, but then shook her head and turned away in disgust.
She was trying to get bugs off her mind, because lately they had been crawling quietly into her thoughts.
She knew why.
Because she was a hungry bird, and everyone knows what hungry birds do. They eat bugs! Bugs, bugs, bugs!
And the worst part about it was--bugs sounded delicous! she didn't wan't to admit it, but they did!
Zoey perched under an old oak tree and thought for a long time. Should she eat bugs? A little part of her was disgusted and afraid. Who would eat bugs? Not her!
But she knew how her father would put it.
"It's good to try new foods--if it makes you sick, you'll know not to eat it again, and if you don't try it, it'll bug the crap out of you later that you're such a wimp."
Finally the hunger overcame Zoey, and her instincts took over. Tilting her head, she scanned the ground in front of her until she spotted movement. It was an earthworm trying to find it's way through the grass. Peck, peck! After a few tries, Zoey got the hang of it and caught the poor worm. she swallowed it whole.
Wow! Zoey thought.
She ate a few more. Bugs weren't like anything she had eaten before! It wasn't about the taste--in fact, they tasted like nothing at all--but about the texture, and her stomach danced with pleasure as her hunger shriveled up and disappeared.
Within a few heavenly moments of feasting on insects, Zoey began to feel sleepy. She leaned up against the oak tree, but it was no bed. The bark was rough and scratchy.
So she strolled through the chilly park, until she found a tree with a hole at the bottom. She got some moss and grass to make
it cozy then snuggled inside and fell into a deep sleep.
