Just then, a drop of cold, pure and crystal clear water fell on her, awakening her from the deep reverie. She felt cleansed and fresh. She slowly saw the other leaves also wake up to a beautiful morning, and was overjoyed at the thought of making new friends. Many aunt leaves called out to her, wishing her a good morning and many younger leaves were skeptical and even jealous about this new form of life. But things got off to a good start and Twiky soon became a strong favorite of many leaves. She grew in the loving care of her mother, without any care in the world. All she cared was for affection, and she got loads of that, what with so many aunts and uncles around.
Days went by, and Twiky got arrogant with all the care and affection showered upon her, and she refused to do her daily duties and preferred staying aloof from all other young leaves, wasting away the day in mundane things like dressing herself up too often. She even refused to show herself to the sun, worrying that she might end up being burnt by the sun and turn dark. One day, a few ants came searching for food and they saw a lush, green leaf next to Twiky's and started munching on it. The leaf called for Twiky to help, but to no avail as Twiky was busy pruning her leaf edges and she pretended not to hear. The leaf died a slow painful death, and all Twiky could think was of the chill creeping through her stem.
All the elders of the community were aghast by this incident, and reprimanded Twiky, only to find that their love and affection had taken her past all that level and she cared nought for them. One cloudy day, when Twiky was polishing her edges, a weird looking bird came, and its cry was unbearable to hear. It went round and round above the trees, making a screechy, weird and high pitch sound. Twiky was irritated by the bird and started calling out rude names to her. The other leaves tried shushing up Twiky, but to no avail. Twiky just went on and on till she had a sore throat, until a drizzle began to fall. Twiky always loved rains, because it kept her eternally clean and she could concentrate on something else like shaping her edges. The bird screeched even louder, as if it didn't like rains and went searching for cover. That was when the leaves came to know that the bird didn't like water. And they all went to sleep.
The next day was another beautiful day, with the golden sun waking Twiky up with its warm rays. That was when she first noticed the bird at close quarters. It was all scraggly, uncleaned and unwashed, with its feathers standing out at various angles. The bird gave an awful loud cry and took to the skies. Twiky, as usual, started calling out names. Then, Twiky noticed that the bird was closing upon her with an unnatural look in its fiery red eyes. The bird just swooped on Twiky and started trying to tear it off. For such a large bird, its beak was small and thin, and it couldn't do much. So, it stood on the branch where Twiky hung and started to tear Twiky off. Twiky shouted for help, with all her energy. She looked around only to see all her aunts friends cowering away from the bird.
Then, a drop of water fell on Twiky. She, surprised, looked up to find the skies clear. And then another drop fell, this time closer to the bird. Twiky, still surprised, tried looking all around to see if there was any help coming, but she couldn't see help coming. A few more drops fell upon her, startling her, and the bird too. Then, she saw a few green leaves floating down to the ground, surprising her even more, as this wasn't even winter. All of a sudden, many more drops fell on the bird and Twiky, and the bird was aghast at the water falling all over her. It was almost a full fledged drizzle and the bird almost gave up on Twiky, until a few more drops fell upon the bird, compelling her to fly away. A few more leaves fell.
Twiky, thankful for the drizzle, looked up to find that everything was almost barren. There were very less leaves hanging above her. And then she understood. All those water drops falling on her and the bird was sap falling from the leaves' stem, after the leaves broke themselves away from their stems.
