There was once a mighty eagle who flew high and proud in the sky. The entire world watched as that eagle soared above them, higher and higher. The eagle saw fighting in the world below and it swooped down and stopped the mighty battles from happening. After the battles were ended the eagle saw the damage it had inflicted with its great claws and was sorry, so it plucked out some of its own wing  feathers to help the other creatures rebuild their world. When it flew again it struggled a bit, but it gained the air and soon began soaring again. After a while the eagle began feeling strange pains, stabbing, sharp pains through his body. He looked at himself and saw feathers falling off of him, one by one. He realized he was losing altitude. When he got low enough he felt another sharp blow. Some of the creatures had started throwing sharp sticks at him as he came closer to the ground. The eagle let out a screech and landed, hard, but he stood up, not so easily defeated. He snapped at the creatures and raked them with his claws until they ran and hid in their holes once more. Staggering, he went to a stream to get a drink. He saw his reflection in the water and was shocked. Once the mightiest creature in the world he was now frail and weak, ripped open from the sharp sticks and the illness he was feeling. Parasites and worms moved just under his skin and he clawed at them with his talons, and bit at them with his beak, making himself bleed more. As he sat morosely by the water he heard a faint calling in the distance. He listened for a moment, hearing the calls beckoning to him. It was the voice of the obumbum bird calling him. He staggered over to where the bird was sitting on a branch, looking down at him. The bird smiled down reassuringly. "Don't fear, Great Eagle. I can fix all of your problems for you! Put your trust in me and I will make everything better!" The poor, beaten eagle looked up into the smiling face of the bird and nodded. "I certainly hope you can change the way I'm feeling right now. I don't know what happened to me! Everything seemed like it was perfect and suddenly I just began falling apart!" The obumbum bird nodded wisely, jumping down from his branch. "Well, let me take a look at you, Eagle." He circled the eagle slowly, nodding in deep thought. "Hmm.. Well, I see part of your problem- Those talons of yours, they are MUCH to sharp! You have hurt yourself with them!" Eagle looked down at his talons anxiously. "But, I've had these all my life, I cannot just get rid of them now! They are part of who I am!" The wise obumbum bird smiled and shook his head, speaking to eagle patronizingly, comforting him like a small child. "Of course, I would NEVER try to take your talons, Eagle! I have just the thing right here." He produced a file and began working on Eagle's talons, taking them away bit by bit until they were dull. "There! Now you cannot hurt yourself with those awful black talons anymore!" Eagle looked at his dull talons doubtfully. "Well.. I suppose, I DO still have them after all, but it still hasn't fixed my problem! The reason I was scratching at myself is all of these horrible things under my skin, Mr. obumbum bird! You haven't fixed my problem at all, only what I was using to try to protect myself from it! All these things are still tearing me apart from the inside!" The obumbum bird nodded again, thoughtfully. "Well, I can see you still have a problem. That is obvious, but I think its starting to get better, don't you?" Eagle looked into the stream doubtfully. He craned his neck looking himself over. Suddenly the obumbum bird clapped his wings. "OH! I know what the problem is! You still see the things under your skin! Here, let me fix that and it will be all better then!" The obumbum bird grabbed a blindfold and wrapped it around Eagle's head, making it so he couldn't see anything at all anymore. Eagle shivered at the sudden darkness, but still trusting the wise bird, said nothing, instead deciding to go along with things once more. 'There!" the bird said happily. "Now you can't see whats wrong anymore and you can't scratch at yourself, so everything must be better, right?" Eagle stood for a moment, the pain of the things wiggling under his skin making him shiver. He shook his head negatively. "No, I don't think so, Mr. obumbum bird. I still feel the pain and I think I'm getting weaker!" The obumbum bird sighed and shook his head sadly. "Eagle," He said solemnly, "I have done my absolute best to fix you. I have told you that you are getting better, I have dulled your talons so you cannot hurt yourself, I have binded your sight so you can't look at yourself and see your problems anymore..I only know of one more thing left to do to help you." Poor Eagle stood, shivering and weak. He didn't FEEL any better, in fact he was feeling worse, but the obumbum bird was so wise that he couldn't be wrong.. Finally he nodded in agreement. "Very well, my friend. You say you have helped me and I believe you. Please.. go ahead and do the final thing. I just want to feel better, I don't care what it takes." The obumbum bird grinned widely and nodded, taking a green vine off of a nearby tree. He wrapped eagle's beak tightly, so the once mighty bird could no longer speak. He stood back and surveyed his work critically, finally nodding. "There you go, Eagle. I have fixed all of your problems now, don't you agree?" Eagle tried to open his beak to tell the obumbum bird that he was still not feeling well, but he could no longer talk. The obumbum bird took the silence as agreement and smiled wider. "I am SO glad I could help you, Eagle! Now, go back and soar proudly in the skies once again!" He patted Eagle on the back and sent him on his way. Poor Eagle staggered off through the forest, now blind and defenseless, no longer even able to fly or speak to anyone. Eventually he sat down under a tree and thought for a while. "Well, I guess it IS true, I cannot see my wounds, so maybe they aren't there, and I can't tell anyone I'm hurting, so maybe I'm not feeling the pain I thought I was. When I try to scratch the places that still itch no more wounds form, so I MUST be all better then!" Making up his mind finally, Eagle staggered to his feet, swaying proudly through the forest. Eventually he found a clearing and spread his tattered wings to try to fly once again. He flapped his wings, but they were just to tattered to work properly anymore, he could not get into the air as effortlessly now. He flapped harder, his feet still on the ground. Frustrated he flapped as hard as he could, finally lifting a foot into the air before feeling his dull talons touch the earth once again. He heard happy clapping coming from a branch above him. He looked around, but he still could not see. Finally he heard the voice of the obumbum bird once again. "Se how well you are doing, Eagle? You were soaring proudly again, all thanks to me! Why, if you let me continue to treat you you are only going to get stronger! Soon you will be miles high again and all the world will stand in awe of you!" The obumbum bird looked around at the other branches and saw all the buzzards sitting there, looking down at poor Eagle on the ground. He winked at them and smiled. "Yes, VERY soon, Eagle. My skills have never failed yet!"