The Enemy of All Parrots

The enemy of all parrots - their antithesis, of a sort - lurks in the dark corners of the world. He is not evil. He is not good. He merely - is.

He is not a friend of many things. The cat - no. He shuns her. The dog - no. He despises the dog. (Though with good reason.) The fish, the frogs - these he will tolerate, though with merely intermittent affection.

But it is the parrot who earned his undying hatred - and thereby, equal hatred earned from.

It was a terrible time. The rain poured down on the roof-top. The snow showered down the chimney, melting in the flames. The sun shone brightly, baking all who went out-of-doors. The land was neither hospitable to man nor beast. So it was that the Enemy - though not such yet - arrived at the house of the Parrot. He asked, and gained entry, and respite from the hostility of the clime. But with this he was not content - he ate of the parrot's food, and drank of her water, and even devoured those treats which were given her for her greatest feats.

The parrot was astonished at this behavior, and told him, "If you so abuse my hospitality further, I shall bite you!" - this of course being said in the parrot-tongue. But the Enemy (still not yet) knew only a trifling of that tongue, enough to gain entry, but not enough to understand the warning. He ate - and was bitten - and, agonized, driven from the house and into the terrible clime, found within himself hatred for the parrot, and, indeed, all parrots. So it was that he became the Enemy - and, through plotting and vile schemes laid against Parrotkind, did he earn equal enmity in turn.

The end has not yet come. Before total destruction of Parrot or Enemy, there is still some chance of peace - but only Parrot even looks toward it, and the Enemy of All Parrots considers it not at all.

That, perhaps, being the saddest result of all.