The Bird with the Golden Beak: Fantasy

The bird with the golden beak sat inside a cage, and she thought it was the saddest thing she'd ever seen. "Its beak was too hard, you see," the vizier explained in a whisper in her ear. "It pecked and it hurt his highness. So he got a goldsmith and a butcher, and they sawed off the bird's beak and fashioned a soft gold one to replace it. The bird is not so hungry as it used to be, and it does not sing as loudly or fly as boldly, but when it pecks, it feels hardly like anything at all. But it rarely pecks." She slewed her eyes at the vizier. "I would have understood without the elaborate story." "Ah." The vizier smiled sadly. "But you see, the story is also true."

Inspiration: The previous freewriting about a room with a bird in it.
Story Potential: Medium.
Notes: Neat image, but nothing new here.