Chapter 15

The lizard breathed one last rattling breath before stopping its struggles for the final time. At which point the pair of chicks withdrew from their immobilising positions. Skah kept one paw with its claws firmly planted in the lizards flank, a sign of ownership.

Ghost meanwhile had sat back on her haunches watching realisation after realisation hit the younger chicks. It has hard for them she knew, but these were lessons that had to be learnt.

Skah had already thought about how he would teach the chicks the basics of the techniques. "Lolly you will hunt Larimar. Once you succeed in 'killing' her then you can swap. I want you to do what feels natural to start with and then we will provide help. But think about how we went about things. Also Flocke if you want you can help Lolly if she wants it". He kept to himself that he would instruct Ghost to disrupt the 'hunt' at key times.

"Now start" Skah commanded.

Larimar glanced at Flocke one more time before walking back over to them. "Alright...look at me, I'm a crawly lizard!" She started scampering around, trying to stay low but falling over quite a few times. She finally settled with walking at a normal pace and hissing like a reptile, getting pretty deep into character. "I hope a big griffin doesn't come and eat me."

Her mind kept drifting over to Flocke. He'll be okay. We'll find his mother. Maybe not mine, maybe not Lolly's, but we will find his mother. It was a foolish promise. She knew that they'd all agreed to leave behind their birth flock, for their parents were as good as dead if they weren't really gone. Lolly, Skah, and Ghost probably wouldn't approve. It's okay. They don't have to know about that, either.

After Flocke drank from the stream, (effectively getting rid of the bile and calming his stomach and nerves) he began thinking. He wasn't the deep thinker type- he preferred playing and forgetting his worries- but that didn't mean he couldn't think seriously.

His mother was dead. That much, he was sure of. The more he thought about it, the more his hope dwindled. It pained him to know that his mother, the very being responsible for his existence, would never be able to preen his feathers, or keep him warm at night. She'd never be able to teach him how to fly, or how to survive through life. She'd never sing to him ever again. He loved her voice. He missed it. He wanted to hear it. It comforted him, and made him feel safe. Because it hers.

Flocke looked at his wrinkly reflection. A blue chick- like Rourke- who was a size too small, too weak, too scared, and too alone. He had no mother, only other chicks who were just as alone as him. They were all lost and without a flock. Weren't they?

Looking back to his friends, Flocke saw Larimar crawling around and Lolly was stalking her. Probably continuing the hunting lesson. They looked content, playful and hopeful. They looked ready to survive. What was Flocke doing? Moping around because his mother was certainly dead? Flocke knew better. He knew he should perk back up, walk back over to the others, and continue living with them happily.

But he just couldn't. There was a hole in his chest, and he needed to find a way to fill it. The white feather, and Lolly's love and protection wasn't enough. He needed something to keep him connected to his mother. But there was nothing. He had nothing. He started thinking about the last few hours in his egg before chaos. His siblings chirping from their eggs, telling their mother they were close to hatching. Griffin mothers cooing to their chicks and cubs. His own mother singing...

Her songs. She always sang beautiful songs. Her last one had been wonderful, and the lyrics were still somehow fresh in Flocke's mind. He wanted to hear it again. So, without thinking, he began to sing.

Mado Kara Mieru,
kagayaku ume ichirin,
ichirin hodo no,
sono atatakasa.

Mado kara mieru,
mabushii me ni wa aoba,
yama hototogisu,
aa hatsugatsuo.

Mado kara mieru,
sawayaka akikaze no,
yama o mawaru ya,
ano kane no koe.

Yomei,
ikubaku ka aru?
koyoi hakanashi,
inochi mijikashi.

Mado kara mieru,
hieta yuki no ie ni,
nete iru to omou,
nete bakari nite.

Mado kara mieru,
tanoshi ichihatsu no,
ichirin shiroshi,
kono haru no kure.

His voice was surprisingly melodic, if not a little childish. It was as if he hadn't been sick within the last 24 hours. It felt right, and it made him whole. He started feeling happy again- a new wave of energy filling him. If he could sing like his mother, then he'd never have to forget her. She'd always be with him.

Happy with this new talent, Flocke turned around and bounded back over to his friends and joined Lolly in stalking Larimar. He fell right into place beside his bigger friend. All previous sadness was forgotten, and he knew he could have fun again. It was time to learn to hunt.

Lolly laughed at Larimar's act, but stopped once she saw the look on Skah's face. "OK, serious time." she said as she readied herself to hunt her friend. She paced back and forth until she found a prowl that felt right, then proceeded to creep up on Larimar, keeping out of her line of sight.

She fought the urge to look at them to see if she was doing well and focused on Larimar, imagining that she was a small, crawling lizard. She was careful about making noise and minded her movements, though since she was a chick she was still making some noise and sometimes moved too quickly. She crept up to Larimar until she was certain she was close enough, readied herself, then pounced.

Larimar tried to scamper out of the way, but she tripped over her oversized tail. Letting out a squeal, she fell to the ground with Lolly on top of her. The larger chick's weight squashed her against the ground. "Ooph!" It didn't hurt, but it put her in an awkward position with her wings spread and back legs pinned.

"Oh no, I'm going to be Lolly's dinner!" she shrieked playfully. She wiggled around beneath the brown griffin.

When she stopped laughing and squealing, a faint sound reached her ears. She perked up, her attention turning away from the hunt. Music...? A small, familiar voice sang a foreign song. She smiled, wishing she could join in, but the lyrics were all new to her. Where did Flocke learn that?

When Flocke reached the group, they were starting round two of "Hunting Larimar". Lolly was still the hunter, and Lar was still the lizard. They didn't seem to have noticed that Flocke had walked back up, so he decided, in a burst of playfulness, to sneak up on the "hunter".

It was easy really. Lolly was so focused on hunting Larry, that she didn't notice Flocke sneak up behind her. He knew Skah and Ghost probably saw him, but before they could say anything, he tackled Lolly. She was still too big for him to topple over, but he was small enough to perch on her back. There he balanced, atop her wings and back, as if he had just conquered climbing a mountain. With a playful cheer he said, "I win!", before bouncing off his high perch onto Larimar. (Whom he could tackle to ground.) He broke into a fit of giggles over his foolishness.

Lolly playfully nipped Larimar's neck. "And now you're dead and I'm going to eat you!" she giggled. "Did I do it right?" she called back to the other two chicks, before going still at Flocke's singing. She'd never heard a griffin make such sounds, and it soothed her somehow.

When Flocke stopped, she barely noticed as she'd let Larimar wriggle away. She readied to pounce her again and was about to leap her when she felt a chick jump on her wings. "Hey! You're not supposed to hunt the hunter!" she squeaked, but it was in good nature.

Larimar gave another shrill cry. She twisted around, grabbing his wing in her tiny claws to wrestle with. In her scatterbrained way, she forgot all about the practice hunt and invited him to play-fight with her. She rolled across the grass. "Not yet!" she screamed with childish glee. Her legs kicked around, trying to touch the ground where there was none.

Still laughing, Flocke grappled with Larimar. He attempted to get his wing out of her beak, but to no avail. Therefore, he did the next best thing: He grabbed her ear with his beak. He yanked hard enough to be annoying, but not enough to hurt his friend. He kept her pinned down for thirty seconds before her larger size got the best of him. Before he knew it, he was pinned down on his back.

"Lolly!" he cried happily. "Help!" He continued struggling against his foe, in the hope that his savior would, well, save him.

A broad grin spread across Larimar's face. She nipped at him, purposely missing. "Look, I caught a big eagle all by myself!" Flocke's squirming made her take a step back and release him for a moment. She looked up at Lolly. Larimar knew the brown chick was too big and strong for her to defeat, but, at that moment, she felt like a giant.