Hi there, I'm luisa! I'd love to win this adorable Mus Aves because I love the beautiful glittering gold on her, and her other colors are absolutely wonderful too, as they remind me of a glorious sunset.
I think the name Aurea fits this darling very nicely.
Aurea is the feminine form of the latin adjective aureo, which means golden.
It is also similar to the word aura, which means breeze or breath of air, which I find also describes her sunset-like colors.
As you probably guessed from the name, this cutie is female.
Aurea is quite curious and extremely smart. She loves hoarding glittering things of all kinds and keeps them in her nest. However, Aurea is horribly afraid of the dark and she also hates the cold.
Surely you've heard of the legend of King Midas? The greedy king who wished that everything he touched turned to gold? Of course, of course, but you haven't heard the complete story set. Let me show you another side to the old tale...
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It was late afternoon. Aurea stared longingly through the bars of her cage, her eyes sparkling sadly, slowly shuffling along the wooden cage floor. She was bored: nothing happened here, day after day, sitting in her minuscule cage. The king might glance at her quickly, praising himself for catching such an exotic creature, the servants might push a few seeds through the door, but no one was really interested in her. She could sing so beautifully, yet there was no one there to listen but the marble pillars and the empty halls.
Suddenly, the door slammed open at the other side of the large hall, and the king burst in, followed by his screeching daughter. Ugh, that spoiled child was the worst person here. She was only obsessed with jewels and fancy gowns and eating. Aurea was amazed that the servants could put up with her. If she had a little princess shouting at her like that the whole day, she would have left by now. The king, in his jeweled robes and glittering crown, now proudly pranced into the hall, his fingers waving in the air and his fancy shoes clicking on the floor. His daughter whined, "Touch the floor, daddy, hurry, hurry!"
The king grinned maniacally and bent down to tap the floor. A shimmering flowed out from his finger and flashed across the floor, which turned to gold. "The pillars, daddy, the pillars!" cried his daughter, so he touched the pillars, and they too turned to gold. "The table!" Flash, it turned to gold. "My dress!" Flash, it turned to gold. There was something horrible going on, and Aurea could sense it.
Then the princess turned, her gown spinning, and her eyes fell on Aurea. They widened and she whispered, "Daddy, make the bird thing golden." He didn't even hesitate, just stomped over to the cage and yanked open the door, creating another shimmering flash as it turned to gold. Aurea backed into the far corner, but it didn't even matter in the tiny cage. The king's fat hand filled it as he reached out to grab her, and a finger brushed her tail. Aurea's vision burred for a second and her body tingled, and then she couldn't move any more. She could see the king and his daughter laughing at her, but they didn't even bother to stay that long. Hurrying on to touch a vase of flowers and to watch them flash, they continued on their frenzy.
Aurea struggled to escape, but every part of her was golden, her heart, her lungs, her brain, so why was she not dead? She watched, horrified, as the two laughing figures disappeared outside. She knew they had animals out there, and she dreaded hearing the terrified neighing of a horse. And there it was, a frantic struggle, then silence except for the deep laughing of the king and the giggling of that stupid little girl. But then the giggling stopped, and she heard a moan, followed by a loud scream. What had happened, why had the princess stopped giggling.... then realization hit her, and she couldn't help but feel triumph glow in her. Serves them right, she thought.
The moaning continued, and she heard servants hurrying over to them, then backing away as they saw what she presumed to be the golden body of the princess. Then she heard the king run away somewhere, and her vision started to fade. Before she went unconscious, she hoped fervently hoped that the princess and her father had learned their lesson, and prayed that she wouldn't stay like this forever. Then everything went black.
The first thing she noticed when she woke up was that she could move. The curse must have been lifted, though she had no idea how. She stretched her stiff wings and got up, still a bit wobbly on her feet. Curiously, the door of her cage was hanging open, and it was also wooden again. Looking around and seeing the sun slowly setting outside, she realized that everything had apparently been returned to normal. She couldn't hear anyone nearby, so she quickly hopped out of cage and onto the table. She had only flown a couple times since she had been captured, but she felt how it came back to her naturally as she leaped off the table and glided across the room.
Suddenly she noticed that her tail and her beak felt a bit heavy, and her claws were much stiffer than usual. Looking down, she recognized that they were all still made of gold, and that the curse must not have been lifted completely after all. However, she had to get out while she still could, so she winged her way out of the palace and into the sky.
She was free at last, even though she had been forced to pay a price for it, and as she was about to fly over the outer palace walls and into the wide world, she spotted something glittering on the ground. Gold. The single word echoed in her head, and through she had just made a horrible experience with it, she couldn't bring herself to hate it. She flew down to see what it was, and spotted a thin, graceful golden chain with a small heart hanging at the end of it lying on the path. She snatched it up and fluttered up onto the wall with it to look at it closely. The chain sparkled in the sunlight, and Aurea immediately fell in love with it. Gently placing it around her neck and over her wing, she jumped off the wall and towards the setting sun.
