The Whale Who Hoped For Wings

In the depths of the ocean, a lonely whale dreamt of love. In his waking moments, he watched with envy as the birds above him rode the wind, and he thought, "It must be so easy to find love when one has wings."
All day he would imagine himself soaring through the clouds, journeying to strange, exotic lands in search of his true love, all the while lamenting that the world was so wide and he had no wings to carry him across it.
As all creatures of desire intuitively know, the perimeters of imagination do no exceed those of the real world, and so he roamed the waters in search of his wings. When the blue diamonds of sunlight disappeared into evening's pockets, his repose was emptied into restlessness, until one night the lonely creatures desire swelled to such a point that two small, powerful wings unfolded on both sides of him, above his right and left fins.
In the morning, as dreams skittered away from the whale and he felt the strange tension of new muscles, he was surprised to learn that his hopes had been fulfilled. With some effort he found he could move his wings, and soon he was gliding just above the water.
As he was carried across the world, the sight of the man-made towers, some as intricate as the corals of the sea, filled him with awe. He was humbled by the canyons and mountains, and the wild animals excited him. The day wore away and the whale flew on. Soon, it was nightfall and the stars glittering in the sky reminded the whale of the nervous little fish in the ocean. He thought about the happy penguins shooting themselves into the water, of the seaweed waving sleepily to scuttling crabs, and after all, he missed home.
But when he returned to the water, the other animals were frightened of him. The jellyfish sprung away from the "giant winged beast," and even the twittering penguins fell silent in his presence. In whatever direction he moved he found solitude, for even the sharks avoided him. The poor animal could feel the sense of loneliness returning to him, and with it came sorrow, and he knew he could not stand it.
With the fury of his impending madness, he moved his wings and lifted himself into the clear midnight sky, letting his teardrops fall into the empty ocean below him. He cursed his wings and he cursed his own foolishness. For the wings of the heart were all he had needed to carry him through the world.