"I'm telling you, Moss, there's something wrong with her," Willow told the critternarian, who was petting Whistle. "I just got her a new cage because her old one was too small, for some reason, now the new cage is too small! Should I feed her less flower nectar?"

"Miss Duckweed, I assure you, Whistle's in perfect health," Milton replied. "She's probably just growing."

"But she's supposed to be the smallest songbird in the world," Willow pointed out.

"Perhaps, but I've never seen a bird this small," he said. Whistle was rather tiny. When Willow first got her, she barely fit into her palms. But now she could barely perch on the teen Troll's arm.

"I guess I could get her another cage until I can figure out what's really going on," Willow suggested. "But it should probably be ten times her size."

Willow ran out before Milton could say another word and headed straight to Lily's.

"Cuz, you home?!" she shouted. "I need you to go cage shopping with me!"

"Again?" Lily called out from inside. "What happened to the other one?"

"She got even bigger," Willow answered. "That Milton Moss guy thinks she's growing, but Thrushwhippers are supposed to be small."

"Willow, you've seen other songbirds," Lily pointed out, emerging from her pod. "They're all much bigger than Trolls. Just because something's smallest doesn't necessarily mean it's small."

The average Troll was about four inches tall, if you measure from their hair, and very few birds were smaller than them.

"I don't know," Willow admitted. "I just want to know what's going on."

"It'll be fine, calm down. Let's get her a cage."

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

That night, Willow surprised her pet bird with her new cage, that took up a large amount of space in her room.

"Here you go, Whistle!" she cheered. "If this isn't big enough, I don't know what is! Plus, it comes with a swing, slide, microwave oven, massage chair, record player, light-up mirror, and let's not forget the jacuzzi! Would you believe they only had one in stock?"

Whistle flew inside her new home to check it out. She turned on the record player to play some jazz music and settled into her nest.

"I knew you'd love it," Willow said, closing the door. "Goodnight, my little angel."

Later that night, Whistle waited until Willow was sound asleep, then slipped through the cage bars and headed out the window. She was planning to go for a night on the town. Little did she know there was something big heading straight into the village, flying into Willow's tree.

The large creature looked around the house and began knocking stuff over. Eventually, it reached Willow's room. It knocked over a dresser, Whistle's cage, and the crib of Crystal, Willow's baby sister. The teen Troll was too deep in sleep to hear Crystal's bawling, until the creature flipped her bed like a flapjack.

"Huh... Wha?" she muttered, before noticing what a big mess her room was. The creature was already gone, so she had no idea what caused it.

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"Okay, Gary, let's go over today's chore list," Branch said to his remote. "Gather some roots and herbs for medicine, clean out the air vents, find a gift for my best-friend-iversary with Poppy, take care of the tiny, orange bird, polish the... TINY, ORANGE BIRD?!"

Branch noticed Whistle standing right in front of his doorstep, singing at little ditty.

"Oh, it's just you," Branch said nervously. "Whistle, I kinda got a lot to do today, so do you mind flying off and staying as far away from me as possible?"

Whistle just tilted her tiny head.

"Fine," Branch continued. "But I have other ways to get rid of you."

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"It took me all night, but I cleaned the entire house before anyone could blame me," Willow announced. "I don't know why they always blame me, though. You ever get that, Whistle?"

Suddenly, Willow noticed the tiny bird wasn't in her cage. The black-haired Troll immediately began freaking out, jumped out her window and landed flat on her back.

"Owie!" she exclaimed. Poppy noticed and ran up to her.

"Willow, are you okay?" she asked, helping her up.

"Not really. I got Whistle a new cage, but I think it was too big, she snuck out of it last night."

"Don't worry, I'll help you find her," Poppy assured her. "You go look for her in Misty Meadows, I'll look in Troll Village."

"Okay, thank you so much," Willow replied, and headed into the forest. Suddenly, Poppy heard someone screaming. She made her way into the village and saw a large red and green bird breaking into pods and knocking stuff out of them.

"By all that is Trolly..." she muttered as the bird broke into another pod.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

"Here you go, a pink, chubby worm with your name on it," Branch said sweetly, holding a worm in front of Whistle's face. The small bird just stuck her tongue out and preened her feathers.

"What kind of bird doesn't eat worms?" the larger Troll asked himself. "Maybe I should focus more on her fears. Good thing I still have my costume from that play Poppy put me in."

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

Meanwhile, at Le petit gâteau café, Lily was putting the finishing touches on a fancy cake for the Goldenberrys' twentieth anniversary.

"It has to be perfectly symmetrical," she muttered while icing it. "There. Now I'll just get the topper."

While Lily bent down to take it out of a drawer, she failed to notice the large bird enter the cafe and knock over tables. It even knocked over the cake. Lily got back up and saw the bird head out before noticing the messed up cake.

"I think I added too much milk anyway," she muttered. She then noticed Poppy stepping inside the shop, rushing to her.

"Lily, you're alright!" she said, worried.

"I wish I could say the same about the Goldenberrys' cake," Lily pointed out. "What kind of bird was that?"

"I don't know, I've never seen it before," Poppy replied. "I just know it had long, green tail feathers."

"Not to mention, it wrecks businesses," Lily pointed out. "Just when you make arrangements to see an opera with your parents and boyfriend."

Poppy's eyes widened.

"I have an idea," she said.

"On how to get rid of the bird?"

"Sort of," Poppy answered. "It depends on what kind of bird we're looking at. Come on."

••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Poppy took Lily straight to a tree stump, which served as the home of former Party Crasher Archer Pastry, and knocked on the door. Archer answered, looking slightly disheveled.

"Ransacked by a bird?" Lily asked. Archer just nodded. "Been there."

"Archer, we need to know where you got Whistle from," Poppy said.

"Willow got Whistle from you?" Lily asked her boyfriend, who nodded.

"How did I find Whistle?" Archer asked himself. "I was in a jungle, I think it was called the Rave-Forest. The Party Crashers were doing... well, you know. I needed some time alone, so I wandered off. I found a tiny bird in a large hole in the dirt. She seemed lonely, so I thought she could use a friend. So, I took her with me."

"Willow told me Thrushwhippers are ground-nesters," Poppy muttered to herself.

"What does any of this have to do with that bird?" Archer asked. "He's still wrecking the village, by the way."

"It's not a he, it's a she," Lily realized. "The bird is Whistle's mother, which means Whistle is just a baby. That's why she keeps outgrowing her cages."

Suddenly, they heard Willow scream and she dropped right from the sky and landed flat on her back, right in front of Poppy.

"Are you an angel?" she said, attempting to sound seductive, but failed miserably.

"You okay, Willow?" Poppy asked, helping her up.

"I still can't find Whistle," she replied. "Not to mention, some jerk pushed me off a tree branch. Did you have any luck?"

"Sorry, Willow, but I've been so occupied with this giant bird attacking the village, it slipped my mind. But I'll help you find her now."

By pure coincidence, Archer and the ladies heard a familiar voice that was making himself sound like a dying cat.

"Found her," Lily said.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"That's right, I turned into a cat," Branch said, acting all smug. "Not so tough now, are ya?"

Whistle just flew up to his face and kissed him on the nose. Branch screamed and headed back into his bunker.

"Whistle, there you are!" Willow shouted, running toward her. "I've been so worried about you, I thought you abandoned me! If you wanted to visit Branch, you could've just said something."

"That thing is pure evil!" Branch claimed, stepping back out. "I'm probably going to need shots now!"

"Says the guy who tried to feed worms to a bird that only eats flower nectar," Willow pointed out, gesturing to the bowl of worms next to him. "Didn't you learn anything from the bird documentary tape I gave you?"

"I just assumed it was just one of your movies," Branch admitted.

"And now you've hurt my feelings," Willow said sarcastically, and returned her focus to Whistle. "It's okay, I'm not letting you leave me again."

"Actually, Will, there's something you should know," Poppy interrupted. "I don't know how to say it, but..."

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Troll Village was almost completely wrecked. Poppy, Branch, Willow, Lily, and Archer arrived right when the bird was about to mess with the last place she didn't ruin: Poppy's pod.

"You know what you have to do," Lily said to her young cousin. Willow nodded and whistled really loudly, catching the mother bird's attention.

The red bird approached the Troll and eyed her curiously. Suddenly, Whistle peeked out from Willow's black hair and twittered happily. The older bird cooed in delight as two other babies, one yellow and the other pink, emerged from behind their mother and greeted Whistle with cheeps and chirps.

"I can't believe they came all this way just to her," Archer said in amazement.

"Well, female Thrushwhippers are very devoted mothers and will travel to the ends of the Earth to find a lost baby," Willow pointed out.

After playing with her brother and sister, Whistle flew up to Willow.

"I knew what we had was too good to last," she admitted and hugged the baby bird. "I'm really gonna miss you."

"I'm not."

"Branch!" Poppy scolded. "Be a good friend to Willow."

"Fine," he groaned. "I'll miss you, too, orange demon."

Whistle tucked herself in between her mother's shoulders with her siblings. With that, Mama flew away from Troll Village and never returned.

"Think she'll remember me?" Willow asked her friends.

"I hope not," Branch mumbled.

"She will," Lily replied. "You're unforgettable."

"Come on, guys," Poppy said. "Let's fix Troll Village."

"Archer, why did you give Whistle to Willow?" Lily asked her boyfriend.

"I, uh... I lost a bet."

In case you were wondering, here is what some of my other characters look like...

Willow and Whistle.

Whistle's family.

Willow and Baby Crystal.

Until next time. 🌈