CHAPTER ONE: UNFAITHFUL

"When can I go take an egg?" Orni asked her father and mother. "I wanna go take an egg from a nest today. Can you go help me?"

"No, Orni, you're not ready yet. They'd catch and kill you," her mother replied.

"When will I be ready?" Ori asked.

"Not for some time, I mean a long time, several cold times," her father replied.

"Can you at least get me an egg to eat? Get me two if you can," Orni said.

"I will try."

Orni's father left while his wife and kids stayed at home. It was already dinner time and past sunset. Thus, their mother already tired and not fully alert, thus missing Orni as she snuck off to watch her father. Surely it couldn't hurt to watch how to take eggs from a nest and not get caught. It might even be helpful.

She soon found her father. He stealthily approached a nest, where the parents were nearby, but preoccupied grazing on leaves from a tree. The Threehorns wouldn't notice him if he was careful. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven eggs were grabbed, one by one, until her father had as many as he could carry. Orni was impressed, amazed that someone could take over half a dozen eggs with the parents so near, and make a clean getaway. She continued to follow her father, but was surprised when, instead of heading back toward their home, he went a different way. Orni wondered if he was going to steal more eggs, though she wondered how he could with both his hands so full already.

Her father didn't approach another next, however, but soon, after travelling for over 15 minutes, came to a female Egg Stealer, who seemed to have been waiting for him. She didn't appear startled upon his arrival and actually seemed happy.

Orni gasped as her father gave this female one of the eggs he had taken. Those were supposed to be for her and her family. Orni felt uneasy about all of this. Orni didn't know why her father was with this other female. Perhaps she was some friend of his. But something felt wrong about all of this all the same, though she didn't know what. She did, however, realize that, being gone so long, her mother might wake up and find her missing. For the moment, dismissing the issue of her father's odd detour, she quickly ran off home. Luckily, her family was still asleep when she got back and only just woke up as she arrived. "Orni, where were you?" her mother asked, yawning and stretching.

"I, er, needed to pee." she lied quickly.

"Ok. Next time wake me before you leave."

"Ok."

Despite her father only being about 20 minutes away, it was nearly an hour and a half after she had left her father that he got back. "I got an egg for each of us." he said, handing out an egg to each of his three children and one to his wife, keeping the fifth for himself.

"You were gone a while. Had trouble?" his wife asked.

"Yes, Threehorn chased me and I had to run for it. Luckily, I didn't drop any of the eggs." he said.

Orni wondered why her father was lying. The Threehorns hadn't noticed him at all and he had gotten seven eggs yet only had brought back five.

"I bet Threehorns could never catch you, because my daddy is the greatest runner in the world!" one of Orni's siblings said.

"That's why they didn't catch me," he laughed, patting his son on the head.

"Why did you stop to give an egg to this one woman?" Orni asked.

Her father turned pale. "What are you talikng about?"

"I saw you get seven eggs and you stopped and ate one with this one woman. I then left and came bakc home but you must have stayed there for a while."

"Orni, I thought you said you just left to go pee?" her mother asked. It was clear that she was alarmed by what her daughter was suggesting.

"I, er, wanted to watch dad catch eggs. He got seven of them and then went to this one woman and then they each ate an egg."

"She's making stuff up! I did no such thing! Don't tell lies! How dare you make up such a lie?! You are so grounded!" he snapped at his daughter.

"Why am I being grounded?" Orni asked. "You're the one telling lies. The Threehorns never saw you and you got the eggs pretty quickly."

SMACK! Her father hit her right in the face. "That'll teach you to tell lies about me like that! No supper for you!" he snapped, taking the egg, which she had been about to eat, away from his daughter. "Bed, now!"

However, his wife rounded on him. "Why would Orni make something like that up, Ornimimo? She's too young to think of things like that." she snapped.

"Well, ok, I did give it to an old friend of mine. Lost her mate recently and suffering on her own. I thought she could use an egg. And as for eating an extra one, why not, I'm the one who got the food tonight," he said defensively.

"According to Orni's story, you would have been at her place for quite a while after Orni got back. That's quite a long time for just giving her an egg."

"Ok, so we chatted some." he said, shaking with nervousness.

"Kids, leave the room while your father and I have a nice long chat." she said to her children. Orni and her brother and sister left the cave they were in and headed to another section. They, of course, could hear arguing, though they were too young to know what it meant. They were certainly alarmed when it turned to actual fighting with claws. Finally, Ornimimo had had enough. "If you won't trust me, then I'll leave!" he snapped.

"Fine, get your sorry tush out of here! And leave the kids with me! I'm sure you have more of your own anyway, now out before I kill you and feed your carcass to Sharpteeth," she snapped.

"Fine, Mimusa, have it your way. Try and support the kids all by yourself. You'll come crawling back to me!" he snapped.

"The Bright Circle will freeze over first!" she snapped, literally shoving him out of their cave. it was dark now and he ran off into the night, never to be seen by his wife or kids again.