The Sky Company and The Big Brave Birds

One perched precariously balanced on the tip of a spear, and the others braved the recesses of unknown vegetation -- their only objective was to ride their home wind on their own terms. Tricked into servitude, they were always on the lookout for an escape route -- in life or in death. The leaves shivered in consternation at their recklessness, but they touched the leaves with their wingtips, soothing them to sleep, and flew headfirst into very,  very apparent danger.

Meanwhile, the sentinel on the spear fell asleep, sliding silently down the moonlit metal and hitting the ground with a squawk and a thud -- and then the leaves woke to the truth. But the flock had never stopped beating their wings even as their tears flowed for the fallen one, and one after another they threw themselves into new dangers: dying, finally, in honest sacrifice, much to the grief of many new tree-friends...

...until finally, at the very upper right of the picture frame, one little bird escaped.