Soar

Heryshaf walked and walked and cried and cried and cried some more.

“What have I done?” he whimpered. “I've given up everything I've ever known. Where am I to go? What am I to do?”

Over the next few days he stumbled through fields, further and further from what he used to call home.

Day turned to night, then back to day again, and Heryshaf lost track of time.

After a while he calmed down and realised that all the worrying in the world wasn't getting him anywhere.

“The last day has gone forever,” he thought, “in a blur of tears and sobs.”

Not only did he not know where he was, but he could barely remember how he had got there.

Suddenly it felt as if he had just woken up, even though he was already walking around with open eyes.

The feeling stopped him.

He had felt it before.

At the river.

Looking into his reflection.

And that feeling fuelled a remembrance of his quest. He recalled why he had left the flock behind in the first place.

“I will find the secret of life,” he thought to himself.

“I will find the secret of life,” Heryshaf affirmed out loud.

Then he surprised himself by shouting at the top of his voice, as if in defiance of the surrounding hills:

“I will find the secret of life!”

The words echoed around the valley as if challenging him.

Secret of life…

of life…

life…

He listened as they died away.

There was silence in the glen.

Mist crawled down the mountain as the sun sank lower in the sky.

His train of thought was interrupted by the laugh of a great eagle, which had settled on a nearby tree.

“So sonny, you want to know what life's all about then?” it asked.

Heryshaf looked up nervously.

“What do you mean? How did you know?”

“Couldn't help overhearing. Great voice!” said the eagle sarcastically.

Heryshaf blushed.

“Well?” questioned the eagle.

“What?” asked Heryshaf, confused.

“If you want to know the secret of life, or anything else for that matter, you could do better by asking someone who has a wider perspective than you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” began the eagle, “if you wanted to know where the ocean was, would you do better to ask the ant or myself?”

“You've been to the ocean?” said Heryshaf in wonder.

“Yes, indeed I have. And flown across it to a distant land where the sun never shines.”

“The sun never shines there!”

“Never,” retorted the eagle confidently.

Anything said with confidence sounds like fact.

“So you must have seen many amazing things,” said Heryshaf. “Yet, if I may ask, Mr Eagle, have you found the secret of life?”

“My dear sheep,” preached the old eagle, “it is true that I, Aldwin the Eagle, have travelled widely and seen many wonderful things. I am sixty-eight years old, and the years have not passed without their lessons.

“Yet I learnt long ago that wheresoever I flew, whosoever I met and whatsoever I learned, there would always be a creature that had already observed these things and more.

“Every time I thought I knew it all, one of these creatures would remind me of just how little I did know.”

Heryshaf gazed at the great bird's wings.

“How wonderful it must be to have wings like yours and ride upon the waves of the wind. If I had wings like yours, I would fly around the world and certainly find the great secret of life.”

“Oh woolly one. Do not fool yourself,” squawked Aldwin the Eagle.

“The great secret of which you speak cannot be found in the deepest valley of the earth or upon its highest peak, for I have swooped and risen to all those places and, alas, to no avail.

“It is true the gift of wings has taken me places you can never hope to go. Every creature has its special gift. Look at you. You carry your own warmth and need not build shelter for yourself, as I need build a nest.

“The Good Lord has given us all different shapes in which to scour the earth in search of the great secret. So let not the form of a creature blind you.

“Envy was put into the heart of all the living to distract us from looking within.”

Heryshaf looked down at his wool.

He had never thought of it as a gift.

Then he looked back at Aldwin's wings.

They were still magnificent.

“Truly you are a majestic and wise old bird,” said Heryshaf. “So pray tell, in all the days of your life, what is the greatest thing you have ever learned?”

Aldwin thought for a moment.

Then answered:

“Know yourself.”

Heryshaf waited.

Aldwin said nothing more.

“That's it?”

The eagle smiled.

Then he spread his golden wings and launched himself into the evening sky.

As he rose, Aldwin squawked:

“Always remember, Heryshaf, no bird can fly too high on his own wings.”

Heryshaf watched as the glistening great bird disappeared into the clouds.

That night he sat beneath the stars and thought about the eagle's words.

Know yourself.

Heryshaf looked down at himself.

He wasn't entirely sure where to begin.