Chapter 20

With Lolly following him, Flocke went back to the stream. He looked both ways, before remembering that they had walked a little from the left. Walking down stream for a couple of minutes, he finally recognized the area. He walked away from the stream towards the trees before spotting something that was very familiar.

"Yuck!" he stuck out his tongue as he looked at his day old puke. A few flies were already circling it, ready to eat and lay their eggs in the putrid stuff. He quickly walked passed it, not wanting to remember how disgusting that had felt. Once he entered the tree line, he kept in a straight line. He wasn't exactly sure which way he had come from when running through, but was sure he'd figure it out eventually.

After walking for a few more minutes, he sat down to rest. This was a lot farther than he thought it would be. He looked down, starting to think he'd have to disappoint Lolly. Then he saw something. Tracks.

Flocke looked at his tiny clawed hand, then back at the print, then to his claw again. The grin spread so fast across his face, he may have broke it. He placed his claw inside the print, and all the points in his head connected.

"Lolly, look! My foot matched the print in the ground. If we follow where they came from, we'll find the tree!" Flocke felt so proud of himself. He may not be a hunter quite yet, but at least he was somewhat of a figure-it-outer.

Lolly beamed at Flocke. Though her tears still threatened to spill out, she was now so full of happiness that she could barely bear it. The tracks were sometimes hard to see, but it was easy to follow where they were pointing. She was about to ask how long they'd be tracking when a familiar glint caught her eye.

She bounded around the eggshell, amazed that it was unhurt and bursting with glee. "Oh thank you, thank you thank you Flocke!" she cried, flinging herself onto him and nuzzling him vigorously. She quickly got embarrassed and pulled away, giggling at her silly moment. She trotted up to the shell and tipped it onto her head, relieved she could keep it for at least a little longer yet.

"Alright, let's go back! I think we can follow our tracks back well enough, so we shouldn't get lost!"

Flocke's pride swelled. He felt accomplished for having achieved his goal of helping Lolly find her egg helmet. When she smothered him in her happiness, he ignored the fact that he could barely breath as he snuggled back affectionately.

"No problem!" he cheered with glee when they parted. Turning, he trotted back to the others. Instead of going ahead, he stayed at Lolly's side, content with walking next to his friend. Seeing the egg on Lolly's head made him happy, and he unconsciously pressed his wing with the white feather closer to his side. He could tell that was probably going to be a habit from here on out...

Lolly trotted back to the others beside Flocke, easily tracing their steps to find their way back. When she spotted Ghost and Skah she suddenly wondered what they'd say over her having an eggshell on her head. She decided to start planning an excuse while they were still asleep.

"Thanks for helping me again, Flocke. It means a lot to me." she smiled. "Hey, Larimar, look! We found it!"

Skah twitched in his sleep as he dreamt. He was reliving the few days that he had had with his mother before she had been killed. Boisterously jumping around learning everything that his mother taught him.

His mother. He remembered her as clear as if she was standing beside him, his alert chick mind had taken in all manner of details in perfect clarity from his earliest moments. He remembered his mother taking him into the forest around their nest showing him places and things. It was returning from one of these adventures when the humans had attacked. It was what had ultimately what had given his mother enough time to hide him amongst the rocks and other debris. She had told him to stay there until she returned. She had disappeared for a few moments before returning with an egg which she had slipped in beside him. The words she spoke then had remained with him throughout everything that had occurred from that moment forwards.

"You are the future Matoskah, you and that egg. Remember everything that I have taught you". She had turned then for the sounds of battle were growing louder and louder, the shrill cries of griffins in pain and the harsh shouts from the humans. Skah twitched even more violently in his sleep then.

Beside Skah, Ghost was also asleep, but she was not so deeply asleep that she could not feel Skah moving beside her. Skah's nightmare's had scared her at first, for he dreamed every night in the same way. But now she had gotten used to his nightmares. When Skah twitched so violently that he actually pushed her away from his side she just waited till he calmed and then squeezed herself even closer to him than before.

Skah moved again in his sleep, this time gently, his small body relaxing as deep sleep took a hold of him. For the first time in many nights he slept through to the morning with out waking.

Ghost woke first, a barely perceptible opening of her dark bronze eyes. They darted around the small clearing that they had slept in. She shifted her rear into a more comfortable position, her small movement enough to wake Skah. His eyes flew open and he bolted upright, front legs spread head down and ears back. Skah relaxed quickly when he realized what had woken him, sitting back on his haunches. "Morning Skah", Ghost purred quietly to him. "Morning" came back Skah's brusque response. Ghost rolled onto her back, exposing her soft underbelly, she rubbed her back on the ground before correcting herself and beginning to groom her fur.

Skah meanwhile had noticed the other chicks already awake and obviously already beginning the day. It was then that he noticed Lolly had something that looked suspiciously like an egg shell on her head. "Lolly, what are you doing?" he questioned, a hint of disdain in his voice.

Lolly felt as though someone had kicked her in the chest. Reeling, she tried to gather herself. "Remember your excuse...remember your reason..." she repeated in her mind, hoping to calm herself so she could focus.

"I...uh...This is a bit of my eggshell. It's useful for carrying water around sometimes, and I can wear it on my head. I know I can't keep it forever, but it's all I have to remind me of my mother." she blurted, not sounding as convincing as she'd hoped.

Larimar draped a wing over Lolly's back. "None of us got to meet our mommies," she told Skah. "We hatched after they all flew away." She thought back to the nesting sight. That was blood they'd seen all over the rocks. She was sure of it now. That bad feeling rose up inside of her again. Was she really just keeping herself in denial?

She felt slightly jealous when she looked at Flocke and Lolly. At least they had something from their family to take with them. I should have taken some of my eggshell, she thought. Or that teal egg. Oh, why was I stupid enough to eat that?! Regret filled her, but she pushed it aside. "Are you gonna show us anything cool today?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

Skah's first thought was to tell Lolly to throw the egg shell away and stop being such a baby. But then commonsense kicked in and he realised that a remark like that could turn the chicks against him, so instead he merely shrugged his shoulders.

"Sure we are going to do something really cool today", Skah replied in a manner that could be described as excited, for him anyway. "Lets show you how it feels to fly!"

Ghost perked up when Skah mentioned flying, she knew of course that he didn't really mean flying. "We're taking to the trees!" she exclaimed excitedly, having done this exercise with Skah several times already.

Lolly brightened at the change of subject, and the prospect of getting into the trees was exciting. She completely forgot about the look of disapproval Matoskah had given her a few moments prior.

"Traveling through the trees will mean we can cover a lot more ground! Plus there aren't as many of the bad creatures in the trees, at least as far as I know." Lolly said as she jumped with glee. "D'you think we could find a way to sleep in the trees, too? Ooh, and once you're in a tree, how do you get down?"

Ghost was happy to see Skah and Lolly put aside the eggshell dilemma, for she was excited to get into the trees again. "It's easy Lolly, all you have to do is jump around and use your claws to grip and wings to balance".

"There's a bit more to it than that", Skah interjected. "You need to be careful about where you choose to go, if the branch won't take your weight then you will fall".

"Follow me!" Ghost called as she bounded towards a tree that was conveniently leaning at an angle allowing then to run up its length and into the canopy. Skah took after Ghost but as she made her way up the tree he stopped at the bottom to wait for the others to catch up and give instruction if they needed it.