March Story Post: The Bridge

Hustled in violet cages roughly, Mira was carried like a package in the dark and smelly bars with an unidentified stench. Recoiling from the smell, she strained her neck to peer behind her, only to gain two inches. Cooped up like a hen in a battery cage, she sighed and squinted at the phantoms. The metal cage suddenly jerked into the one right next to it and the victim in it screeched, and a  flash of feathers rained down around her. She realized some eagles that had been forced to give a feather to contribute to making the phantom sprouter like she had was in the same situation as she was.



The location slowly grew hotter and hotter as the surroundings grew slowly redder and sandier. Mira suddenly knew this place: Zios designed it himself...

Where was the supposed prison she was assigned? She glanced upwards, and the blue of the sky hung above for what seemed like a million miles. That, was of course, the design's purpose, to be able to gaze at the sky and want to bound and soar up there with no bounds. The magic of coral Canyons, of course.

Then she realized what the phantoms were doing.

Hustling one by one they lugged the caged birds pointing to a small isolated building on a ledge up on the top. Because birds can fly, they were the only ones that can get up, and if the birds themselves were trapped up somewhere no one else can reach, they reasoned, they were surely doomed. Mira gaped in horror as they neared the great rock bridge.

She could not notice that her feathers were turning gray and bland, and the soul that helped Mira keep her shape was dying. Tired as she was, slowly the life was failing and flickering like a weak light on a nearly gone candle.

A few Jammers nearby saw the commotion nearing. At first they thought it was a distant new animal that had come to Jamaa. Then they realized it was the phantoms; carrying cages of birds with them. In a rage they picked up weapons to fight, until they discovered the phantoms were armed, too. At that moment, one of the Jammers had an idea.


She was a bunny, and as one she enjoyed hopping. She scampered up the stone bridge of Coral Canyons that normally greeted visitors. Then she arranged all the animals to come and wait for the phantoms.


The phantoms finally came, jeering at their prisoners. They marched through the bridge's opening and then a cry of a small animal pierced the air. They did not care for it, but immediately regretted it. A shower of rocks met them while above a horde of animals hopped up and down in rage. The phantoms were thwarted at this response and then nearly escaped besides being pelted by huge boulders. The cages that held the eagles and Mira broke, and the free birds flapped what they could not in a long time, then took flight. The animals gasped at the amazing display, and shortly, eagles would come to Jamaa.

Even Mira, seeing the Jammers in what felt as an eternity, flushed, and her feathers started to regain a blue color once again. Out stretching her wings she was about to fly off to the Jammers when a rough blow from a fleeing phantoms took her out: and when she came to she was as trapped as she was before, this time without the companionship of the eagles. As frustrated as she was, today was not the day she would be set free, and it would be a long time if she ever did.

The bunny that commanded the animal attack was rewarded with diamonds and rares, which led to a legend that if you break down the bridge of Coral Canyons, the rewards would be the following. Today Jammers still follow this ancient tradition trying to break down a stone bridge, and if you do it hard enough, the eagles rescued from their prison would take flight once more.