In the vast jungle of Borneo, there lived a group of little bird friends. Among them was a bird named Jay, who was playful and daring.

One day, Jay told his friends, "Let's fly away from the jungle towards the mountains."

All his friends agreed. So, they flew high up in the clouds. They met lots of other birds on their way, and it was a very nice adventure... that is until they noticed a great hawk flying towards them.

Hawks are not friendly.

All the little birds were very scared. They began to fly away as fast as they could. Jay flew very fast too, but the hawk began to chase after him. The hawk reached Jay and grabbed him by his right wing. Jay screeched. He took great effort to wriggle himself out of the hawk's grip and retreated to the jungle.

When he arrived, all the other birds were already there, shuddering in fear and shock. But none of them were harmed by the hawk... except for Jay.

A friendly bird, Robyn, said, "Jay, your right wing is injured. You should tell your mother about it, so that she will take care of it."

Jay hesitated. "My mother has warned me not to fly towards the mountains. If she finds out that I have been disobedient, she will be angry."

Robyn asked, "But aren't you in pain?"

"Yes, I am in pain," Jay replied, "but I can bear it."

And so Jay went about his daily routine of searching for fruits. He had to fly a bit slower because of his injured wing. Jay couldn't fly as high as the other birds, so he settled on smaller trees and bushes and enjoyed his fruits.

A few days later, another bird, Wren, said, "Jay, I know the perfect remedy that will heal your wing!"

Jay was excited, because he was tired of having to fly around so slowly. So, he agreed to let Wren look at his injured wing. Wren began to wrap a cast tightly around Jay's wing.

Then Wren said, "There you go. How does it feel?"

Jay tried to raise his wing to fly, but he couldn't. The cast was very heavy. "I can't fly with this heavy cast," Jay complained.

Wren told him, "The cast may be heavy, but it will cure your injury."

Since Jay couldn't fly at all with the heavy cast, he couldn't reach the fruits... not even on the lower branches. He had to ask the other birds to bring fruits to him. Sometimes, the other birds forgot, and Jay grew hungry.

As time passed, Jay began to feel more pain in his wing than even before the cast was put on. His shoulders ached, and his whole body throbbed.

Finally, Jay decided to tell his mother. She immediately removed the cast. To their dismay, most of the feathers on Jay's wing had died and fallen off, and the wing looked very frail.

She rushed Jay to the family doctor, the clever bird Falco. He pointed out that the cast had done even more damage to the wing than the injury itself.

Falco treated Jay's wing using the correct remedy.

After some time, Jay recovered. The pain in his injured wing went away, and Jay began to fly again.

Jay learned a valuable lesson: Sometimes a remedy can be worse than the curse.

Lexile: 700-800
Words: 563
Genre: Fable
Read time: 3:40
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Written by: Judith Jude
Read by: Kelsey Painter
Illustration by: Anonymous