Author's Note: This is something I wrote when I was 12, so don't expect it to be of my regular standard.

Chapter one: The Two Oddities

Daniel found himself alone in his room, examining a class photo, which had been taken when he was in grade six.

He was staring at a short boy with the curly brown hair and a pale complexion, who was sitting in the front row of the photo. The boy's body wasn't exactly the body of an athlete. He was not very muscular, neither was he as skilful as the other boys when it came to sport, because of this many people thought of him as a weakling.

Daniel wished that he could truthfully say that the weak boy in the photo wasn't him. But unfortunately, it was.

The Daniel in the photo was smiling, but the real Daniel didn't smile back, for he could see just how fake his smile was. If Daniel had got his way, he wouldn't have been smiling at all, because he felt no pleasure in standing next to his classmates.

They always made him feel neglected and disliked. He knew he didn't belong with the boys in the photo. They were all tough and muscular and seemed to be empty of all emotions. They were just heartless warriors who wanted nothing more than to prove their strength and earn the respect and love of all their gorgeous female classmates.

One such boy was Cameron. Cameron was the leader of the popular boys. The other boys always thought of him as a strong man and the girls found his body very attractive. Even the teachers thought of him as a model student. They, of course, didn't know about the kinds of things he did when she wasn't looking.

Cameron had earned his position as leader by hunting down people who, in his opinion, weren't worthy of his friendship, people such as Daniel.

Daniel was the only sheep in a pack of lions. This made him Cameron's main target. Cameron never turned down an opportunity to make fun of Daniel. He would tease him every time he showed how weak he was.

Daniel tore up the class photo and threw it in the bin. He hated just about everyone who was in it. He hated the pretty girls who were always staring at his skinny arms and whispering about him behind his back. He hated the other boys, especially Cameron, who laughed at him every time he made a mistake in P.E. classes. He hated his teacher who never seemed to notice how badly everyone else was treating him, but most of all he hated himself.

'How could I have allowed myself to become such a weakling,' he muttered to himself, 'I should have done something about my weak body. I should have hidden my emotions. I shouldn't have let them see how scared I was.' As he said this, a tear began to form in his eye.

He realised that things hadn't changed since he started high school. His new classmates treated him the same way his old classmates did. To Daniel they were the same people just with different names.

The only boy in Daniel's class, apart from himself, who had gone to Daniel's primary school, was Cameron.

This is just great, the only kid in the class, that I know from my primary school, is the one that never stops teasing me, Daniel thought, He's probably already given the other guys a list of everything that's wrong with me, that's if they haven't figured out what a weakling I am all by themselves.

Daniel sobbed, 'Why can't I stop crying?' he yelled, 'Why can't I be more like everyone else?'

-

On some distant island, another young oddity was slowing making his way along the beach. Unlike Daniel this oddity was not a human. He was a bird, but not just any bird. This bird was about a hundred times bigger than an ordinary bird and he could've carried a small human on his back, but it wasn't his size that made him an oddity. He lived on an island entirely populated by birds of his size. His largeness was considered normal.

What made him different was his colour. He had two different kinds of feathers, black feathers and white feathers. These feathers formed strips which made him look a bit like a zebra, so he was nicknamed the Zebra Bird.

The other birds of the island were all pure white and looked just like gigantic doves. So they called themselves the Dove Giants. Although they were so large they still looked peaceful and elegant. They thought that having feathers which were pure white meant that they had a pure heart. When it came to choosing a mate, the bird the ones with the whitest feathers were the most attractive.

So it's easy to see why the Zebra Bird was so unpopular. When the other Dove Giants looked at the Zebra Bird they thought of their distant cousins the Raven Giants. The Dove Giants despised those birds and believed that they were creatures of darkness.

-

The Dove Giants lived in a rather civilized manner. There home was a place called the Forest of Purity, located on a tropical in the middle of a vast ocean. They didn't live in nests like other birds, because unlike other birds the Dove Giants couldn't fly, although many of them claim to have seen Raven Giants soaring through the skies and don't understand why they can't join them.

Instead of living in the trees the Dove Giants used sticks to build little huts on the forest floor. The huts were arranged side by side, so that they formed some sort of town.

The Dove Giants often held meetings in a large clearing. During these meeting they would discus the future of their race with their leader, John the Pure.

They had decided to make him their leader because he had the whitest feathers. He believed that this made him superior to the other birds, especially the Zebra Bird. In fact, the Zebra Bird was the only bird who wasn't allowed to attend the meetings. So he didn't know, that while he was walking along the deserted beach, the other birds were deciding his fate.

-

At the meeting John the Pure was arguing with the Zebra Bird's parents. 'Your son is a danger to us all,' John yelled at them, 'He is clearly not one of us. What if the giant ravens have sent him to spy on us? We must get rid of him immediately.'

'But he's our son,' cried the Zebra Bird's mother Claire*, 'He has as much right to remain on our island as you do.'

'He can't possibly be your son,' argued John, 'He has the black feathers of those birds known as the Raven Giants. Maybe they swapped your baby with one of their own after he was born. I've heard that they possess an awful lot of dark magic. They could have preformed a swapping charm with ease.'

'That's rubbish,' screamed Jordan*, the Zebra Bird's father, 'Our son is defiantly a Dove Giant. We have no idea how he came to have those black strips.'

'I do,' muttered Claire, timidly, 'I must tell you the truth Jordan. The stripped bird is not your son.'

'What?' Jordan yelled out in shock. Expression of shock and surprise were appearing on the faces of every other bird at the meeting.

'A year ago I ran away and secretly mated with a Raven Giant,' Claire admitted, 'after I laid my egg we both decided that I must return to my home and mate with one of my own kind so that I could pretend that he was his child. We didn't want our son to not have a home. Now I realise that I have made a terrible mistake.'

'You sure have,' cried John, 'you mated with one of our dark cousins and for that you must die.'

'No,' yelled Jordan, 'we must stop hating the Raven Giants. They never did anything to us.'

'Shut your foolish beak!' bellowed John in anger.

Jordan turned to other Dove Giants, who had attended the meeting. 'Please, help me,' he begged, 'Claire is not our enemy and neither are the Raven Giants. They may be different, but they are still birds and if they do indeed possess dark magic, they haven't used it against us.'

'But they are planning to use it,' argued John, 'Don't listen to him my friends.'

'Please, don't let them kill Claire,' Jordan cried. The other birds did nothing.

The Dove Giants punished traitors by drowning them in the ocean. Two of John's servants forced Claire to walk down the beach into the water. She struggled to free her wings from the ropes, which tied them to her body. Although she could not have flown away, she still could have used her wings to scare the servants by waving them in their faces. Her legs were also tied together loosely. So that she could walk into the ocean, but not run away.

The servants pecked her every time she stopped, or tried to move away from the water that would soon engulf all three of them. Claire tried to stand still and fight the pain, but the servants weren't showing any mercy. The more she tried to resist them the harder they pecked.

Eventually the water was too deep for her to stand up in. The two servants followed her to their deaths. They would do anything to make sure the traitor was punished

Her son, the Zebra Bird, watched from the beach, as the last of Claire's feathers disappeared under the calm, crystal clear water. Very few creatures had ever accepted him. Claire had been one of them, but now she was gone.

I know it's kind of cliche, but tell me what you think anyway. Remember I was 12 when I wrote this so don't be too harsh.