Pinion gave Langoustine a final, plaintive look, and then wandered away to find some friendlier bird to talk to. It went to the edge of the flock and looked around at the surrounding cages.

It had never liked the storks - they were hostile, so it wouldn't talk to them. It looked in the opposite direction.

Ah, the parakeets! They were small, friendly (at least, they always seemed to enjoy talking with the other flamingos. Pinion itself hadn't tried talking with them since it was a chick, at least not alone), and there were enough of them that a few birds always hung out near the fence.

It walked over and looked up in admiration at the little birds. Their green plumage was beautiful, especially when they opened their wings and Pinion got to see their blue wing-tips. So much prettier than the flamingos' bland, uniform pink. The parakeets perched together in groups of two and three, chattering to one another, eating together companionably, or preening each others' feathers.

A couple of these groups glanced in Pinion's direction - uneasily, it seemed.

Keen to be friendly, Pinion took one more step closer, opening its beak slightly in an avian smile.

That stopped the birds in their tracks. Some flew away or inched along their perches away from the fence to exclude themselves from any conversation, and a few watched Pinion.

"I hope you don't mind me bothering you," Pinion began politely. "Maybe I can sit here and chat with some of you?"

One of the more confident birds dipped its head towards Pinion, lifting its tail high as it looked down from its perch. "Why? You have a whole flock of your own kind."

That hurt Pinion more than it cared to admit, but it tried not to show it. "I do, but we're neighbours, aren't we?"

"Neighbours," the parakeet agreed. "Not flock-mates."

Pinion could already feel the conversation slipping away from it, and knew it was going to lose it even as it opened its beak again. "I've seen parakeets and flamingos talk before. Is it so bad for me to do the same?"

The parakeets who were still paying attention to this simply looked awkward. Two murmured to one another and then flew away, and that prompted several other small groups to follow. Soon all that was left was the one who had spoken directly to Pinion and two others who seemed to be staying to support it.

"Flamingo, don't take this the wrong way, but we're... uncomfortable with you."

Pinion took a moment to take this in. It was the most honest any bird had ever been with it before. It knew that other birds didn't like it but it had no idea why, and no other bird had ever told it. It took a deep breath and, before the parakeets could decide to fly away it asked, "Please can you tell me what you mean?"

"Oh coconuts," the parakeet cursed under its breath. Then it set its gaze evenly on Pinion. "Something surrounds you. We can't see it, we can only feel it. It's... bad. Evil."

That was it. That one word stopped Pinion in its tracks. It didn't know how to respond.

Evil?

It watched the parakeet in shock and disbelief as the bird seemed to lose its courage, inch away from Pinion, and nudged its friends with its shoulder so that they could leave together.

Ouch! Well, that was a turn-out for the books, wasn't it? Normally I would offer you a choice but in this situation, there's nothing else much that Pinion can do. Let's watch it be quiet and observe the other birds for a while.