It has long been known that humans bestow their own names upon birds. The American Robin calls itself the Cheerily-Yeek, for instance. But they had long known of the human name for them, and sought to correct the misconception that their distant cousins the European Robins were their close kin. So the robins made sure to sing their name loudly, close to humans, so that they might be educated and call them by their proper appellation.
Instead, their song became so ubiquitous, so well known, that in the minds of many humans, they eclipsed their distant cousins and became the only robins in the world. This understandably, was a great disappointment to the European Robins, who as proud tyrant flycatchers did not enjoy sharing their name with any other.
Eventually, the robins–or is that the Cheerily-Yeek?–decided that they would grudgingly accept the name for humans only, out of gratefulness for the humans bearing with Soft Worms to the soil of their lands.
Even as it was that the first finches fell like gentle seeds from the cone of the World Pine, they were opened to temptation by the great False Sun. Shedding light but no warmth, forever leading birds astray, the False Sun promised much and always delivered…with terrible consequences.
Many an unwary finch was swept up in his machinations, for he desired to bring low all that the World Pine and its lover the True Sun had set about to create. In one case, among many, the results of such a poorly thought out bargain remain to this day.
A finch patriarch was once worried that he would not be able to safely raise a brood. He was beset by predators, and humans took ever more of the forests from him. So he appealed to the False Sun, asking for space for his family to grow.
The False Sun promised him virgin lands where he and his kin would be cared for like gods, fed and bathed by powers greater than they. Jumping at the opportunity, the patriarch agreed.
Soon after, he and his family were captured by humans and imprisoned. The humans took them to a strange land, and the patriarch was forced to watch his progeny taken from his flock and imprisoned. He returned to the False Sun and begged for salvation from this situation. The False Sun reminded the patriarch that he had been given everything he asked for – his progeny were not going hungry and they were colonizing new lands. That their food came from humans and the new lands were cages was incidental. But, upon hearing the patriarch’s plea, the False Sun agreed to see his people freed from bondage.
And so it was that one day, miraculously, all cages were opened and the finches flew free. It was a hard life, harder than it had been, but the patriarch was satisfied that this fulfilled the terms of his bargain. But soon, he noticed that contagion and disease were spreading among his kin, and that many were stricken blind or dying.
He returned to the False Sun, and was told that this was the price of his freedom. Since the children of the patriarch were in a new area, since there had been no other finches taken with them, his line was forever destined to be sickly, and the new diseases that his wild cousins had long since become immune to were now his to cherish.
Trust not the False Sun, fledglings. For even the best-intentioned bargain with it ends with only sorrow.
Excerpts From Nonexistent Books 