"The wall writhed and flexed, forming a huge, sharpened grin and blinking one large, glassy eye. Its voice reverberated off of itself.

'I am not fooled. You are no bird, though you walk on two legs.'

He shuddered, unable to speak. Words could not even be thought of, let alone uttered. A pale, trembling hand left him, moving slightly. Or maybe it didn't move at all.

The eye blinked again, the strange pupil expanding and contracting.

'You and yours - So ashamed of what you are, that you must pretend to be something else entirely! You are not birds, yet you try to cover yourselves in their likeness. Why?'

He could only stare."