Rhinos can fall in love

A young rhino was walking alone through the forest. A bird flying there saw him and asked why he was alone.
The Rhino replied:
-All rhinos are lonely.
The bird asked:
-Don't you have any friends?
The Rhino replied:
-What does 'friend' mean?
The bird said:
-A friend is someone who loves you and helps you.
The Rhino replied:
-But I don't need help.
The bird replied:
-But there must be something. For example, your back itches. There are lots of little bugs under its folds. Someone must help you scratch your back; help you get rid of them!
The rhino said:
- But I can’t be friends with anybody. My skin is thick, and my face is not pretty. Everybody calls me "thick-skinned."

The bird replied:
- My dear friend! The ability to love depends on a heart, not skin.
The rhino said:
- A heart? What is that? I have only skin and horns.
The bird replied:
- It's not possible. Everybody has a heart.
The Rhino asked:
- Where is it? Where? I can’t see it…
The bird replied:
- It’s because you don’t use it; that’s why you can’t see it. But I am sure you have a very tender heart under your thick skin.
The rhino said:
- No, my heart is not tender. I guess it must be thick one…
The bird said:
- No, no, your heart is very tender. Because instead of frightening a bird, pushing it, opening your wide and big mouth, and eating it, you are standing and talking to it.
The rhino asked then:
- And what does it mean?
The bird replied:
-What does it mean when a thick-skinned rhino has a tender heart? It means he can love, he can fall in love.
The Rhino asked:
- What does it all mean?
The bird replied:
- It means… Let me sit on your thick and beautiful back.
The Rhino answered nothing. Actually, he was trying to find a better phrase. But he thought it would be better to say the first one that came to his mind.
At that very moment, the bird was already sitting on the rhino's back and scratching it, freeing him with its graceful beak from insects under the folds. The rhino had a pleasant feeling, but he did not know the exact reason for it!
He asked:
-Is this what love is? That I like you to stay close to my back and keep me free of annoying insects?
The bird replied: 
-No, it's called a need. I help you, and you feel good because your need is met; that is, you experience a feeling of satisfaction. But love is much more important than this feeling.
The rhino did not understand what the bird was talking about. But thought that the bird was probably right.


Days, weeks, and months passed. The bird flew in every day and perched on the rhino's back, cleaning his back every day and finding tiny bugs in the folds of his skin, and the rhino loved it.
Once, the rhino asked the bird:
-Tell me, in your opinion, is this pleasant feeling that a rhino gets from a bird scratching his back and cleaning it from bugs enough for him?
The bird replied:
- No, it’s not enough.
The rhino said:
-That's right, not enough. Because I feel like I like something else. To be honest, I like looking at you more.


The bird took off, circled, took off again, and sang right in front of the rhino. The rhino stared and stared but couldn't get enough. He kept wanting to look at her.


He thought to himself:
-This scene is the most beautiful scene in the world, and this bird is the most beautiful bird in the world, and I am the happiest rhino in the world!
When he came to this conclusion, he suddenly felt something very tender fall out of his eye.
The rhino was frightened and cried out:
-My bird, my dear bird! I saw my heart! The very tender heart you spoke of! But it fell out of my eye, and what am I supposed to do now?!
The bird turned around and saw the rhino's tears. She flew up to him and, landing on his head, said the following:
-Don't be upset, my dear friend! You have so many such tender hearts.
The Rhino asked:
- Tell me, what does it mean when a rhino likes to look at a bird and while he's looking at it, his heart falls out of his eye?
The bird flew away and returned, replying:
-That means rhinos fall in love too!
The Rhino asked:
- What do you mean, they fall in love?
The bird replied:
-It's when someone's heart drips from their eyes.
The rhino again didn't understand what the bird was talking about.
But he wanted the bird to continue talking, to continue flying, so that he could look at her and have his heart drip from his eyes again. The Rhino thought that if his heart kept dripping like this, one day it would run out. At that moment, he suddenly smiled and said to himself:
-I never had a heart before, and now that the Bird has given me one, I won't be sorry to give my whole heart to her!
Every time the rhino watched the bird's beautiful flight in the sky, every time he talked to her and heard her singing, his heart began to pound loudly in his chest and his breath caught in his throat. And at that moment, tears, drop by drop, began to fall from his eyes. And then the Rhino understood what it meant to be in love. He finally believed that rhinos also have hearts and, most importantly, rhinos can also fall in love.
The rhino cried and cried, and he was happy because until the end of his life he could shed tears for the bird—that is, those very tender hearts—and remain in love with her until his very last breath...


The author: Erfan Nazarahari
Translation farsi/english: Gulfiya