The Di Bird is the last of its kind. Di Birds were hunted to extinction for their magical feathers that were said to be able to heal you if you touched them. So now there is only one Di Bird left.

It is the guardian of a magical forest, the Di Forest.
It eats the magical fruit of the Di Tree.

There was a town near to the Di Forest and one windy morning a little boy called Kuti who had heard the stories about the Di Bird, came to the forest seeking help.

Kuti's grandfather who was the only family Kuti had left, was severely ill.

“Oh great Di Bird!” exclaimed Kuti, “I need your help. My grandfather has fallen ill. Please let me enter your forest oh great Di Bird.”

“No,” came the reply. “I am the last of the Di Birds and I cannot trust you.”
Please great Di Bird,” said Kuti, “I promise this is not a trick.”
“No, go back home,” said the Di Bird.

Kuti thought to himself, ‘I have an idea! I know the Di berries have been falling by the village. I will bring the berries to the Di Bird, then maybe he will let me into his Di Forest and heal my grandfather!’

The next morning Kuti took the berries to the Di bird.
"Oh great Di Bird, I have brought you a gift of Di berries. Please accept them!"

There was silence.

"I will," said the Di Bird, "but you will not be allowed in my Di Forest yet."

I will give you one challenge, and if you succeed, I will heal your grandfather. But if you fail, you must go home and never return.”
Kuti listened carefully.

“Your challenge is to find a rare creature called the Simgushi. It is very aggressive. You must find one of its scales and bring it back to me. You have until sundown to do this challenge.”

Kuti knew the Simgushi lived in one of the deepest, most unforgiving rivers in the world.
He also knew that it came out only to eat when it was hungry. The Simgushi could go for weeks at a time without food, and this is why it was so rare.

Five minutes later, Kuti set off. Lucky for him, just as he arrived at the river hè saw the Simgushi slinking out of the river.
Thanks to spending hours at the library studying the Simgushi language, Kuti knew how to talk to it.

“Please great Simgushi, may I have one of your scales? My grandfather has fallen ill and the Di Bird won’t heal him unless I bring him one of your scales.”

The Simgushi thought for a long time, and then said at last in a grumpy voice, “I will give you one of my scales young man, but you had better take it quickly before I change my mind.”
“Oh, thank you!” said Kuti as he picked up one scale.

He rushed back to the Di Bird, clutching the scale tightly. “Oh great Di Bird,” he said, “I have got the scale, please heal my grandfather now!”
“I keep to my word,” said the Di Bird, “I will heal your grandfather, bring him here to me."

“But great Di Bird, my grandfather is old and very sickly,” said Kuti, “he will not be able to walk here.”
But the Di Bird was gone.
'What will I do now?' thought Kuti to himself. 'I have to help my grandfather, but how will he get here?'

That night Kuti thought hard about his problem. At last he thought, ‘I guess I will have to steal a bicycle. I don’t want to, but that is the only thing I can possibly do!”
So he sneaked out and stole a delivery boy's bicycle.

The next morning Kuti set off riding as fast as he could with his grandfather on the handle bars. He got his grandfather to the Di Forest safely.
Oh how happy he was to see the Di Bird waiting for them!

The Di Bird healed Kuti’s grandfather, just as it had promised, and Kuti and his grandfather were very grateful to the Di Bird.
They visited it regularly and they always brought with them the Di berries that the Di Bird loved so much.