The child paced up and down the city blocks, exploring every back alley and nook & cranny, often trespassing in doing so. He searched intensely, tirelessly for that magnificent, mythical bird, the same one that dazzled in his imagination that he knew he’d seen a real-life glimpse of the day before. Without a shred of doubt, he knew the bird would truly exist if he fervently, wholeheartedly believed in its existence. From there, it would be a simple matter of tracking it down!
His periphery winked - a flash. A quicksilver river of red and blue shadow cast wide on the adjacent wall of a dead-end alley. He slowly, quietly turned the corner and there it was: unbelievable - impossibly beautiful - awesome, in the most fearsome sense of the word. Literally taken aback, the child missteps loudly and their eyes lock, each terrified by the sudden discovery. The bird, cornered, panicked. Screeching horribly and frantically leaping back & forth, the child didn't know what to do, immediately regretting willing it into existence. He shut his eyes, clasped his face tightly, and began to cry, hoping that if he cried loudly enough and for long enough, the bird, and the whole world for that matter, would just disappear. He opened his eyes, vision wet and blurry, blinking away tears - the bird he so desired to find was gone, nowhere to be seen.
He cautiously approached the end of the alley where the bird was thrashing about just moments ago and, on the ground, he noticed a peculiar shape. A feather: large, intricately, subtly patterned, almost holographic - light as air - impossibly shaped yet in a state of change, unlike anything he'd ever seen or could possibly imagine. The longer he looked the more he saw it as it really was, and this frightened him so completely that he dropped it as if snakebit. As it gently floated down - so soft, so light - the boy turned and ran and never thought of such things again.