Chapter 1

On the thick black electrical wire that stretched across two tall poles, the black kite chick perched in an alert manner, its brown eyes flicking around. Its light brown plumage and short stature may have marked it as a chick but they did not diminish the fierceness in its gaze at all.

Suddenly, another chick swooped in, whistling shrilly and circled above the wire once before settling gracefully onto it. But it descended, deliberately, it seemed, so near the chick already occupying it that their wings brushed.

The chick which had already been perching there, screeched loudly in protest while the bird which had forcefully invaded its private space preened its feather, unabashed.

Maybe getting irritated that it was being ignored, the chick opened its wings forcefully and then head-butted the bird which had entered its domain.

The push was strong enough that the chick which had been casually preening its feathers had to open its wings to maintain its balance as it hopped back awkwardly.

Squawking indignantly after regaining its balance, the chick strutted forward; wings open wide while the chick that had head-butted it moved in too with the same countenance.

The two erupted into a fierce bout of screeching and shrieking as they neared each other. Just as they were about to clash, there were two long whistles from two high-rise buildings which stood facing each other.

Immediately, the chicks broke apart and took flight. Each one flew towards one of the buildings where perched on the rooftops, awaiting them, was a fully-grown black kite each. It seemed like the two great birds regarded the other party for a moment before letting go of the walls and unfurling their wings to glide away.

“Wow,” muttered an eighteen-year-old boy who had been standing on the verandah of his house. His apartment was on the third floor. He had gazed upon the chicks without alerting them, as the wire they had perched on was only as high as the first floor. And the adult kites had paid him no heed at all.

“Kites are so cool,” He whispered to himself. It had just been the other day when his Uncle Anmol had told him that these birds he continuously referred to as “eagles” were in fact a different species called “kites” and could be identified by their forked tails.

And as the boy leaned out in hope of catching another glimpse of the birds of prey he so loved watching, his mother called from the kitchen, “Anshuman, you’ve had enough of a break. Go study now. Your exams are coming up.”

Smiling ruefully, Anshuman thought to himself, how funny. Bird or human, we both have to listen to our parents. We are all the same. Kids with guardians.

*****

Narrator: Now, that’s the end of the first part of the story an-

Friend 1: Nobody cares about your chatter. Let’s go back to the story.

Narrator: (Scowling) Stop interrupting. (Claps hands) Well, as I was going to say before a rude interruption, let me provide you with some facts which you are gonna need as you read forward.

Friend 1: Don’t you mean that you are telling them now because you are lazy and don’t want to try to figure out how to add those ideas subtly to the plot?

Narrator: Be that as it may (Waves off the sarcastic comment). Well, first of all, I really can’t keep referring to the chicks as, “The chick which did this” and “The chick which did that” and as I’m not sure that there is anyone who understands whether there are names in Kite Language, I’ll do the honour of conferring names to them because-

Friend 1: “-I am the author.” We all know that clichéd line. Step up the pace, already!

Narrator: (Sighs) The first chick which had been sitting peacefully will be called Feng and the bird which disturbed him will be known as Huang. And yes, Feng is male and Huang is female.

Friend 1: Do the names even have significance or are you just making them up, huh?

Narrator: Check the net if you wanna know. There’s a cool myth behind the names, is all I’ll tell you. Oh yeah. A fun fact about-

Friend 1: Enough!! We want the story, not your incessant chatter, birdbrain (drags narrator away).