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Andreea-Florina Șerban, 28 years old, is participating in the 6th International Literary Creation Competition, from Bucharest, Romania. We are grateful for the participation and wish her success.
Elara and the Starbird
Elara was a young elephant with a heart that remembered - every kindness, goodbye, and song sung once and then lost to the wind. She lived beneath hills that looked like sleeping dragons in a forest brushed by lullabies only the stars could hear. Once, she heard a bird singing. The song stitched a thread through her heart. She never forgot it.
In the bright green forest, Elara’s heart felt a little heavy. She had lost her Grandpa Tree. And she had wandered away from the path where kindness grew.
One day, as rain made the forest weep, Elara met a Starbird named Sol, whose feathers shimmered like grey clouds before sunrise.
Sol didn’t ask Elara to smile. He just sat quietly beside her under the dripping leaves. And somehow, that was enough.
Sol had flown through storms. Unkind words had tousled his feathers. Elara, too, had heard shouting in her forest - smacks of thunder, and sting in the wind. The two sat by the river, making paper boats from leaves and laughter.
The forest had never taught Sol he was worthy. The winds had passed him by, and the nest he came from never sang his name tenderly. Elara longed to plant a kindness in him that might still take root.
One golden afternoon, they danced in the sunshine. Sol’s song felt like something she'd always known - like a lullaby in a language her heart understood, something like Suo Gân, soft and Welsh and warm. And when his wings fluttered near her for the first time, there were no fireworks or boom. Instead, Elara recognised the sound of an old melody returning home, the quiet click of a puzzle piece gently falling into place.
But Sol didn’t think he belonged in the sunshine. “My feathers are grey,” he said. “My wings are too tired. What if I can’t carry anyone without dropping them? You deserve someone golden. I’m just silver dust in the wind.”
Elara said, “But your dust makes stars.” Still, Sol flew away.
There were moments Sol looked at Elara from afar as if he wanted to stay. But then he would glance down at his tired wings, and something in his eyes would close, like a door he was too afraid to open.
Elara waited. She looked at the stars and whispered, “Come back.” But days passed. Seasons changed. And each time the wind brought a grey feather, Elara smiled. Sol was still out there. Still remembering.
Elara wandered far, over rivers and through meadows. She met other animals. Some were kind. Some were not. She began to teach them how to hold their sadness without fear.
One day, a small rabbit asked, “How do you stay brave?” And Elara replied, “Because once, someone believed in me when I couldn’t believe in myself.”
At night, she still looked up at the moon. She wondered if Sol saw the same one. Her heart had grown bigger, but a quiet place inside still hummed with his name. Sometimes she wrote little leaf-letters and let the wind carry them. Sometimes Sol sent feathers that landed at her feet. They never really stopped listening.
Elara knew now: Love doesn’t always end with together. Sometimes, it’s the quiet wind behind your wings when you feel like falling. And sometimes, it’s knowing that your story might one day find its way to the one you wrote it for. Love is the space between two hearts that still sing when apart.
And even if the Starbird never returns to perch on her branch, Elara knows: She loved with her whole heart. And that… is a beautiful thing. And maybe, one day, when the wind carries her story far enough, he will hear it… and know -
that she loved him all along, just the way he was, grey feathers and all. That he didn’t need to be golden, less tired, or change his colours to be worthy of dancing with her in the sunshine forever.
Oh, but how Elara wishes Starbird would return and understand that some love is not meant to be stored – it is meant to be shared, gently, with the one it was always for.