Bruny Youth Stories Prize

I woke to a lime-coloured haze. 
Blinking my weary eyes, I felt the soft decaying wood snugly beneath me. 
My sister and brother’s loud tweets of impatience had awoken me, as they were waiting for our morning meal. 
Scrambling towards them, I squeezed myself in between them as the three of us peeped out of the hollow’s entrance, chirping loudly with hunger. 
Mama came into view, her bright, emerald feathers blending into the eucalyptus leaves. The blossoms she brought smelled like a tasty, nourishing promise just out of reach. 
I squeezed further out, reaching my neck up to get the nectar first as Mama landed on a nearby branch. 
Leaning even more outside our nest, I felt my siblings’ weight shift. It was the weight that had held me in place, keeping me from tumbling forward.  
I saw mama’s bright, ochre eyes widen before I did exactly that, crying out as my little body flailed helplessly through the air, down to my certain death. 
Paralyzed with fear, I screamed for my Mama.  
The warmth of the nest had vanished, whilst a frozen pit replaced it in my stomach. My breathing sped up, and my little heart raced. 
Mama would save me… she could do anything. 
Leaves slapped at my back and branches ripped the rest of my grey fluff away, spitting me out of the  canopy into wide open space.  
I tumbled through the air, the leaf litter jumping up to meet my tiny, fragile body. But that’s when time slowed down.  
I felt the wind whipping through my feathers whilst I smelled the soft fragrance of eucalyptus for the last time. 
But when I saw the bright red underneath my wings – the same colour that puddled around my beak feathers – my instincts whispered to me from the back of my mind. 
Closing my eyes, I flipped so my belly was facing the earth and spread my shaking wings.  
Time stopped, and so did my fall. The wind shoved me upwards, forcing my body into a glide instead of plummeting to my death. 
My wings flapped once… twice… I rose higher into the air with wide eyes. Spotting a branch close enough, I mustered all my strength and flew to it, sitting down heavily as its soft, smooth bark comforted me.
My little chest heaved. My heart banged against my ribs. I had done it. I… flew. Looking upwards as hope spread through my feathers, the sun shone spotlights through the nearby canopy.  Hearing distant tweeting and whistling of my Swift Parrot family, I launched back into the air, my baby wings beating furiously. 

Mama… I thought with tears of exhaustion and relief flooding my eyes.  
I’m coming…
 

Winners of the Bruny Youth Story Prize will be announced at The Bruny Island Bird Festival on Sunday, the 22nd of March at 12 pm in the Adventure Bay hall. This prize is proudly brought to you by The Bruny Kids and Nature Project, led by Claire Boost and the Tasmanian Community Fund.