Ty took a moment to stare into the branches across the stream and saw a solitary female blue jay perched above. She was beautiful, Ty smiled, and in full breeding colours. He watched with fascination as the bird would swoop down to the forest floor, scoop up twigs in her beak, and flutter back up to assemble a nest in the tree.
Ty decided what he would do. He reached out with his power and concentrated. "Come here..." He whispered to the little jay bird. "Don't be scared of me. I'm not going to hurt you. Come land in my hand." He felt the warmth of his power flowing through him and held out his hand palm up. To his amazement, the jay bird fluttered off her branch, across the stream, and right into the palm of Ty's hand.
"It worked!" Ty whispered, staring in awe at the beautiful bird standing right in his hand. The jay bird looked up at him evenly, her dark animal eyes betraying nothing. "Hello, little lady." Ty said gently, stroking the bird's feathery back with a finger. "I'd like to give you a gift, if you'll let me." Again, he concentrated. "I know some birds are already smart. But I want you to get really smart. As intelligent as a human being. Can you do that for me?"
For a moment, the blue jay shuddered, her feathers bristling out and her body shivering. Then, Ty's control over her apparently broken, the bird let out a sweet chirp before taking to the air, flapping up into the sky and vanishing far off into the horizon.
Ty stared in heartbroken disbelief and sighed in despair. "I guess I can't do just anything. Oh well." He kicked the dirt, turned, and started home. Maybe it had just been temporary... and he had wasted it.
It was a long walk back.
* * *
Ty returned home to Mark and June's scolding. As punishment for his reckless abandoning of his chores, as Mark put it, Ty was made to clean the house top to bottom and then spend the rest of the afternoon pulling weeds. By the time evening faded to night, Ty was ordered to bed and wholly exhausted. Happy birthday, he thought to himself.
As he climbed into bed, something odd happened. There was a soft tapping on his bedroom window. As he was upstairs either somebody had climbed the side of their house, which was very unlikely, or something was outside. Curious, Ty climbed out of bed in his pajamas and raised the blinds.
His heart stopped and his eyes widened.
There, standing on the window sill outside, was a little female blue jay. She saw Ty, chirped, and hopped up and down a few times in delight before settling down.
"Oh my God!" Ty whispered, and quietly slid the window open. The bird hardly flinched and looked up at him patiently. "It's... it's you!" Ty laughed, amazed.
The jay did something incredible next. She nodded gently.
"It worked?" Ty asked her, practically trembling with excitement. "You changed? You became intelligent?"
The bird nodded up and down in quick succession, her joint excitement at the development apparent.
"Wow." Ty gasped. "So you changed. Was it slow? Fast? When you flew away did it happen? What did it feel like?"
The bird cocked her head and considered the boy's questions before raising her wing and making a cutting motion across her own throat. This confused Ty for a moment. "What are you trying to say, girl? Your neck?"
The jay shook her head no and then seemed to cough, only uttering a strained little squawk before making the cutting motion on her neck again.
"Ah!" Ty realized. "You can't speak, can you? You're trying to talk to me, aren't you? But you can only speak bird!"
The jay fluttered her wings happily, almost clapping, and nodded emphatically.
"Aw, poor girl. I gave you a human mind but not speech. What was I thinking? Do you want me to make you able to talk?"
The bird nodded again, quite definitively.
"Okay. Hold on." For the first time since what he had thought was a failure, he willed his power up. Felt it burning inside of him. "You'll instantly gain the ability to speak."
The jay looked up in shock and let out a final coughing chirp as she seemed to clear her throat. She whispered in a sweetly feminine voice now. "Hello?" Then he eyes widened and she laughed joyfully. "Oh, it worked! It worked! I can speak!" She stared back to Ty and he swore she was crying with joy. "Oh, thank you, sir! Thank you! This is wonderful! Thank you for your kind gifts!"
Ty stared at the little bird through the window screen and smiled. "Y-You're welcome." He blushed. There was an awkward silence for a moment and jay chirped happily outside the window.
"Again, I can't thank you enough for what you've given me." The jay said melodically, seeing Ty's humble expression. "I won't take any more of your time. You've already been so kind to me." She turned to stretch out her wings and fly away.
"W-Wait!" Ty finally said. "Would you like to come in? Say... talk for a bit?"
The little bird turned her head back and there was the hint of a smile in her dark animal eyes. "Oh, that would be wonderful!"
Ty gently slipped his bedroom screen out of the frame and allowed the little bird to walk through.