One-winged Eagle

There was once a legend of an eagle that could soar above the clouds and into the thin layer of ozone. An eagle that could soar meters above the peaks of Everest and cruise with the fastest of planes. Not only could it achieve altitude, it could also achieve speed.

It's name was Horizon. Partly because it could visually touch the horizons of the evening and the breaking of the dawns.

But what truly made it a legend was neither speed nor altitude. It was it's disability.

It had only one wing.

It was born deformed. Unlike its siblings, he only had one small wing when it was born. The other side of the wing broke and dropped off as it hatched from its egg. It could not fly like the others, his mother thought. He will never be able to join us in our voyages and in our ventures, and it will die pretty soon.

It's mom realised that it had to take extra care of Horizon if it were to live longer than expected. The mom went out to look for the best and fattest of worms for him. Everytime she returned to the nest of hungry eaglets, Horizon was the first mouth that she will drop the worms into. She had to make sure that no competition existed among Horizon and the other siblings, if not that would mean that he will die from its disadvantage in stature and physique.

The little eaglets grew in no time, and as the eaglets became smarter they too became envious. Why was it that Horizon always got the best worms? They wonder. Is it fair that he gets fed first just because it only had one wing?

Like Joseph's brothers, they plotted to kill him.

One morning after the mother left the nest, the siblings pushed the sleeping Horizon off from the nest down the steep ravine. Their nest was on the highest rock that could never be reached by anybody. They were safe, as long as they remained in the nest, or unless they could fly.

Of which Horizon could do neither.

Horizon fell from an altitude of 5000 feet. He knew that he had little chance of survival.

4500 feet. Why do my siblings hate me so?

4000 feet. I'm going to die.. it's all God's fault that He only gave me one wing. Why is it so unfair on me?

3500 feet. I'm still to young to die. Must I die?

3000 feet. No, I'm not going to die. I'm going to live.. but how?

At this point, it wondered how it could survive. But at such velocity falling down, it had little choice. It only had one wing, and he knew well enough what a wing was meant for. He started flapping his wing. His wing grew a little, and though it was still small, its muscles were enough to keep him flying - only if it had both wings. Feathers were already developing on his wings. All he needed to do now was to keep flapping.

2500 feet. Flap flap flap.

2000 feet. Flap even harder.

1500 feet. With all his might, he flapped and flapped and flapped, knowing that if he fails, he'd only have seconds to survive.

1000 feet.

500 feet.

400 feet.

300 feet.

200 feet.

100 feet.

Plop.

Horizon fell into a little bush with soft branches. He sustained brusises and a few scratches. His body ached a little, but other than that he was fine.

I'm alive. It took him probably a few moments before that actually sank into him. Glad that he was alive, he started climbing up the steep ravine back to the nest.

All throughout the journey back to the nest, he thought to himself, is it so that I couldn't fly just because I only had one wing? Is it destiny that I will always be stuck in the nest, waiting for my mom to feed me? Is it fate that I should have one wing?

He heard some screeching coming from above. He looked up and saw a pack of eagles flying majestically in circles above the ravine. He observed them enviously and wished that he was one of them. He so wanted to fly like them and soar in the skies. He wanted to be that eagle that people from below will look up to and gaze in awe. He is an eagle, and with or without both wings, he was destined to fly.

That was his destiny, and through tears and pain, he will realise it.

From that day onwards, he would wait for his mom to fly off to look for food before he will stand by the edge of the nest and throw himself off into the ravine. Accelerating downwards at the free fall, he would flap and flap his only wing as hard as he could. It was tidious work. It was tiring. It was dangerous. Anytime if it had not enough wing power to break the fall, he could die.

But he never died. Morning after morning, as he repeated his routine of throwing himself off the cliff down into the ravine, landing into that same soft bush and climbing back up into the nest just in time for his breakfast, his wing grew stronger and stronger. He developed his wing muscle faster than any of his siblings who sat in the nest hoping that he would just throw himself off the nest and die down there to their dismay. His feathers became larger than any of the other siblings of his.

In no time to come, instead of plopping into the soft bush, he could suspend himself slightly above the bush before coming to a safe landing. Before he knew it, he was already flying in mid air, making its way upwards before it became to tired and decides to just land on the soft bush. Months later, it was already flying up back to the nest, meter by meter, inch by inch, painstakingly and effort-depleting.

After a year of throwing itself off the nest and landing on the soft bush, it finally stood on the edge of the nest, majestic with its only wing and beautiful feathers. Bending its legs, it leapt off the nest with great might and energy. Almost effortlessly, it flapped its only wing and flew off, away from the nest. Its siblings who were just learning how to fly looked in dismay and disbelief. There was their disabled sibling who was destined to die by the end of the year, and here he was flying way before they could even know how to flap their wings.

Looking down from above, he saw what many dreamed to see. He saw mountains and seas, he saw valleys and forests. He saw buuildings and scenaries that could never be seen from the ground. He saw the world. He saw it all.

Perhaps it wasn't his only wing that made him known throughout the animal kingdom. Perhaps it wasn't the fact that he soared above the clouds that gave him his name Horizon.

Perhaps, it was his determination of changing his fates, and soaring in the skies despite his disability, that made him known. Perhaps, it was his strength derived from challenging himself in the face of death, that helped him realise that no disability, no lost wing, no evil doings of others could deter him from achieving both altitude and speed.

At the end of the day, his destiny was to be more than just an eagle, his was to be a legend, where people will talk about how he flew bravely with only one wing, and in the process inspire many more people who had disabilities to continue to throw themselves out and off from their nests into the face of challenges, to flap with whatever little that they have, and learn how to fly.