Once upon a time, at the very top of the tallest tree, there lived a bird like no other. Her name was Chi Chi, and she was the whitest, fluffiest, most dazzling bird you have ever seen — so white that butterflies sometimes landed on her by mistake, thinking she was a cloud!
One sunny morning, Mama and Papa Bird decided it was finally time.
"Today," announced Papa Bird, puffing out his chest, "we teach you to fly!"
"Really? Really, really?!" Chi Chi bounced up and down so hard the whole nest wobbled.
"Wings out. Knees bent," said Mama Bird, holding back a giggle. "And on the count of three — one... two... THREE!"
Flap, flap, flap! Chi Chi's wings wobbled and wibbled, and then — whoosh! — up she went, tumbling through the air like a fluffy pillow with a mind of its own. She looped. She spun. She very nearly bonked into a rather surprised squirrel. And then, giggling wildly, she landed — splat! — right back in the nest.
"I DID IT!" she shrieked. "Can I fly all by myself now? Pleeeease?"
Papa Bird chuckled and shook his head. "Not yet, little feather. The sky is much bigger than it looks from here. Always fly with Mama or me, until you know it well."
"Okaaay," said Chi Chi, in her most innocent voice.
(You already know what that voice means, don't you?)
That very evening, while Mama and Papa Bird dozed with their heads tucked under their wings, Chi Chi tiptoed — well, tip-flapped — right out of the nest. She swooped over meadows, raced a family of ducks, and giggled at her own reflection in a puddle. Then, quick as a wink, she zoomed home and burrowed under her wing before anyone woke up.
"That," she whispered to herself with a sneaky little smile, "was not so hard at all."
So the very next evening — you guessed it — off she went again. But this time, something stopped her mid-flap: stretched clear across the sky was the biggest, brightest, most vivid rainbow she had ever seen. Red! Orange! Yellow! Green! Blue! Violet! It shimmered like a bridge made of candy.
"Ooooh," breathed Chi Chi. And before she could stop herself, she was flapping straight toward it — higher, higher, HIGHER — until, with one happy "Wheee!", she landed smack in the middle of it.
Oh, it was glorious. She rolled in the red. She flopped in the orange. She did somersaults through the violet, laughing so hard her tummy hurt. She did not notice — not one little bit — that with every roll and flop, more and more colour was rubbing off onto her once-white feathers.
By the time she finally tried to fly home, Chi Chi was the most exhausted bird in the whole wide world. Her wings felt like two soggy noodles. "Just... one... little... nap," she yawned — and fell fast asleep, right there among the colours, as the sky turned dark around her.
Meanwhile, back at the nest, Mama and Papa Bird were pacing. And pacing. And pacing some more.
"Where IS she?" fretted Mama Bird, wringing her wingtips.
"I'll ask the owls!" said Papa Bird, and off he flew into the night, calling Chi Chi's name over every treetop.
Hours later, a strange, sleepy, ridiculously colourful bird wobbled onto their branch — red wings, an orange tail, one purple foot, and feathers speckled every colour you could imagine.
Mama Bird gasped and stepped in front of the nest. "Who — who are you?! And what have you done with our Chi Chi?!"
"Mama, it's ME!" Chi Chi cried.
"Our Chi Chi is white as snow, little stranger," said Papa Bird, his voice firm but wobbling with worry. "You are not our daughter."
"But Papa — I flew, and there was a rainbow, and I rolled right in it, and — MAMA, PLEASE, LOOK AT MY EYES, IT'S ME!" Chi Chi wailed, tears splashing down her rainbow cheeks.
No matter how hard she begged, her parents simply couldn't believe it. Heartbroken, Chi Chi flew off into the dark, sobbing so hard her whole body shook.
She landed with a soggy plop right beside the pond, where her best friend Tuku the Tortoise was fast asleep.
"Tuku! TUKU! Wake up!" she wailed.
Tuku poked his head out, slow and sleepy. "Mmm? Chi Chi... is that you? Are you a parrot now?"
"NO!" Chi Chi sobbed, and told him the whole disastrous story between hiccups.
Tuku listened patiently, nodding his old, wise head. When she finished, he gave her the calmest smile in the world. "Chi Chi, Chi Chi, Chi Chi. Don't you worry one bit. Slow and steady fixes everything. Meet me here at sunrise — and bring your bravest wings."
Chi Chi barely slept a wink. But when the sun peeked over the hills, there was Tuku, already waddling toward a soft, glowing bank of clouds drifting low over the meadow.
"These," Tuku announced grandly, "are the fluffiest, whitest, cleanest clouds in the entire sky. Fly through them, my friend. Go on. I dare you."
Chi Chi took a deep breath — and dove straight in.
Whoosh! Cool, soft, tickly mist wrapped all around her. And as she flew through, feather by feather by feather, the colours began to melt away like chalk in the rain — red, gone. Orange, gone. Yellow, green, blue, violet — all gone — until Chi Chi burst out the other side, whiter and brighter than she had ever been!
"TUKU, LOOK AT ME!" she shrieked, spinning in delighted circles.
"Told you so," said Tuku, looking rather smug for a tortoise. "Slow and steady."
Chi Chi zoomed home faster than she had ever flown in her whole life. And the moment she landed —
"CHI CHI!" Mama and Papa Bird shouted together, wrapping her in the tightest, warmest, wobbliest hug a little bird had ever had. "You're back! You're really, truly YOU again!"
"I'm so sorry," Chi Chi said, snuggling in close. "I flew off alone — twice! — even though you told me not to. I promise, I promise, from now on I'll always tell you where I'm going."
Mama Bird kissed the top of her fluffy white head. "The world is full of wonderful, marvellous, magical things to see, little one. But everything is more fun — and so much safer — when we see it together."
That night, tucked snugly beneath her mother's wing, Chi Chi grinned into the darkness.
"Mama?"
"Yes, my love?"
"Next time I see a rainbow... can we chase it together?"
Mama Bird laughed so hard the whole nest shook. "Now that," she said, "sounds like a perfect adventure."
And with a happy little yawn, Chi Chi closed her eyes, dreaming in every colour of the rainbow — and, best of all, dreaming in white.