Bird

The sand martin is a small swallow, only about 5 inches long. It has a brown back and a white front with a brown band on its breast. It has a black bill and brown legs. Honestly, it's a cute bird. During the summer, it can be found all over Europe and North America. During the winter, it goes to South America and Africa. It might be found in Japan, but it doesn't seem to live in the area of Japan that the girls lived in. So, it was strange when Yuri came over with one in her hands.

"What's that?" Risa asked, still in her sandbox.

"Bird," Yuri said.

"Pretty... Want to put him in my sand house?"

"Yes." Yuri put the bird at the entrance of the house.

The house was your standard suburban house. It had a triangle roof and a rectangular base. The door was well made and built to last the winters and harsh summers. However, there wasn't a door installed. The bird hopped into the house. Inside was your standard things. There was a living room with a couch and TV and coffee table. The TV didn't work as it was made out of sand. There was a sand dog sleeping on the rug of the living room. The bird has never seen anything like it. Dogs were usually much bigger. But here was a dog sleeping on its rug. This was the first time the bird had seen the dog not tower over the bird. The bird hopped to the kitchen. There was a stove, oven, fridge, and microwave. There was also a little window to peek into the living room at a moment's notice. The bird pecked at the fridge, but it wasn't able to open it as it didn't have a handle and the bird didn't have any hands. The bird went to the dining room. Nothing special there was a table with some chairs. There was a large meal of sand foods. There was sand turkey, sand cereal, sand eggs, and sand hamburgers. Despite being called a sand martin, the bird couldn't eat any of the foods presented to it. The bird went upstairs. It found a straight hallway of bedroom doors. There was the parents' room, the rebellious teenager's room, the little girl's room, and the room. The bird didn't know which room it liked the most, as it didn't have any real preference. They were all made of sand. They had similar heats and humidities. They all were the same to the bird. Of course, each room had its own quirks and weirdness, but it didn't have too much of a difference that the bird could detect. All of the rooms seemed good enough and that's all the bird really cared about in a room. The beds didn't make a difference. The beds were made for bird-sized humans, not bird-sized birds. As such the beds were too narrow for the bird, not even the parent's bed was big enough. It decided that it should explore the house a little more. The bird went downstairs again and found the bathroom. The toilet was completely clean and somehow quite shiny. The shower looked good and the sink was there. It left the bathroom and it found the door to the garage. In the garage, there were four girls, all of them playing an instrument. One had a keyboard. Another had a guitar. Another had a bass. The last one was on the drums. They were obviously playing too loud, but the bird couldn't hear it as these girls were frozen in time. Maybe it was for the best. These girls will never feel unhappiness. But they will feel no happiness either. They didn't really exist after all. They were made of sand.

"Hey, Risa, how does your sand castle work?" some voice said outside of the sand house.

The house started to collapse. The structure of the house was shaking and sand fell from the ceiling. Then the roof fell on the bird. The bird was stuck under the sand, and it heard the hands furiously start digging into the sand pile and it couldn't do anything. It couldn't see. It couldn't move. Nothing.

But then a hand came through and grabbed the bird. The bird was pulled out of the ground and it saw Yuri and her stonefaced face. The bird was relieved by the saving of its life.

"There was a bird in there?" Megumi asked, "Damn. Is he fine?"

"Female," yuri said.

"Oh, it's a girl then. Is she fine?"

The bird was fine, but being scared about being buried alive and being held by a human and surrounded by a bunch of strange humans, it wanted to fly away, which was understandable.

"The bird wants to leave," Kasumi said, pointing at the bird.

Yuri nodded and opened up her hand. The bird flew away. It left the girls staring at the evening sky. Doesn't the sky look weird? Does it always feel weird that the moon is in the sky despite it being day?