On a tropical island somewhere in the middle of the world, something weird is going on.
The island has hills of sand everywhere and on the east side near a darkwater sea hidden behind bushes and cactuses you will find a farm. What is so strange about a farm on an island? Farms are everywhere. Farms are used for breeding animals and on this farm they breed ostriches. That may be a little unusual but you can’t call that weird. Let me tell you what happened there.

One day, not so long ago, a crocodile hatched from his egg. His name was Croco.
Croco cracked the lid open, took a look around and saw a hundred ostriches. He was very happy to see that he had so many brothers and sisters. He said hello to all of them.
Croco crawled out of his egg and imediately stood on two feet just as he saw his brothers do using his crocodile tale for support. He wanted to fit in right away and so he did everything an ostrich does. He ate grass and seeds. He walked around up straight and he grew bigger just like everybody else did. Croco was being a very good ostrich. Everything was cool and okay.

But one day Croco discovered that he was not really the same as his brothers and sisters. Croco found out that there was a big difference between him and his hundred siblings. Croco could spell the most difficult words. He could count his sisters and read to his brothers. Croco could do all of that and much more but he was the only one. The other ostriches could do no such thing and croco started to take a closer look at them. There was Marie who did nothing but sleep. And there you had Harry who had a permanent case of the hic-cups. There was Fred who would tear out the feathers of anyone standing too close to him. And there was Jason who refused to walk and whose behind was flat from sitting. Croco looked and looked and looked around. He looked at his hundred brothers and sisters and noticed that there was not one of them exactly alike. And Croco decided that every single ostrich had something special. Something really unique and he stopped worrying about him being different. So he had more brains, so what. He was unique in his own special way.

So, when you go and visit this farm you will see hundreds of ostriches. Some will be sleeping, and some will just sit. One has the hic-cups, another one picks feathers off butts and somewhere in a corner under a tree you can find Croco. He will be the one reading a book.
© Elodie Heloise