Fleeting Feathers: One-Shot Edition!

The Flock's (Second) Christmas : Aris

| Set a year after the Start of Wings | Fleeting Feathers Book 1, this is NOT canon and should not be considered such |

In Owl's opinion, Christmas was overrated, but seeing Canary's face light up in joy was something she wouldn't pass up for the world. Unfortunately, the world had ended over a year and a half ago and there would be no Santa nor his elves. This would be the first Christmas Eagle had spent with the Flock.

Despite the world ending, Rivera Stronghold still celebrated Christmas, although due to the mindless horde of corpses just outside their gates, Christmas was different so to speak. First, Rivera Stronghold was near North Carolina which meant some species of Pine Tree grew, also meaning that the Christmas tree tradition would still hold up during the end of the world, who knew?

Unfortunately, ornaments were not at the forefront of any rational person's mind when it came to surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, meaning they had nothing to decorate the trees. But, luckily, Canary's school had the perfect solution: all students would be making their own ornaments with construction paper, glue, markers and glitter.

Gingerbread and most traditional foods were off the table, but with Owl, Falcon and the hunters around they could at least have some type of bird. There were very few turkeys in North Carolina, but there were plenty of Quail, Chicken and Ducks running around. And Rivera Stronghold had some of the largest farms in the nearest states, which meant there were commonly traders running around during this time of the year, trading for Potatoes, Corn, Tomatoes and more, hoping for it to line their tables during the festive season. Rivera Stronghold had many policies during the holiday season, but one of the most important was that citizens of Rivera Stronghold were allowed to get first pick of the harvest season, meaning the Flock had plenty for their own celebrations. (Owl didn't get the hype, but she wouldn't rain on anyone's parade, her and Eagle were content to watch them smile and reminisce and she knew her twin, Falcon, would try to understand. It would be worth it to see everyone else smile).

Upon entering the Flock's shared room (Nest, Canary insisted), Owl was greeted with a very small tree, barely a foot tall on the table they'd decided to call the "present table" where they'd put all their gifts. They'd gone with a smaller tree to make cleaning up easier because Owl refused to clean tree sap off everything, she wanted to rest when she got home, not clean. The little tree had a few paper ornaments hanging from it, with Canary's own drawings. Canary, despite being only eleven, was the best artist in her class and had drawn every member of the flock with their own ornament, except for Owl and Falcon, who shared one, just like they preferred it. In the corner of her eye, she could see Peafowl working on dinner, and based on the smell, Peafowl had gotten some of the quail Owl and the hunters had found earlier that day. It was the day before Christmas, at least, provided the calendar was still correct, which meant Peafowl would be going all out (deep in Owl's mind, memories about last years celebration stirred in her brain, when Peafowl and Buzzard had managed to find an old package of stale cookies and they had celebrated).

A trading group had come by the day before and Owl had traded a portion of her catch for a full box of hot chocolate mix, which she had gotten because of her own sweet tooth, that and for Falcon and Canary who adored chocolate and would be very excited for this gift.

The Flock's shared room was on the first floor of the secondary building, which had only fourteen people (The Flock, David and Annie and two other families), and like any room on the first floor, they had a small kitchen, a mini fridge (it was only big enough for their weekly allowance of meat and some vegetables and herbs), and had three attached rooms, and as such the members of the Flock doubled up (Owl and Falcon, Peafowl and Canary and finally Eagle and Buzzard).

While Owl may not enjoy the festive season, she knew her family like no one else, and knew it would mean the world to get them gifts, so if she used a few hours of her hunting time to find presents in a nearby mall? Well, she brought in more that day than anyone else so no one could complain. All her gifts had been wrapped in tin foil (wrapping paper was hard to find, since a Nightstalker had made its den in the mall and it had only left her alone because she'd covered herself in zombie blood, she was not willing to enter a Nightstalker den for wrapping paper), and she had sharpied everyone's name on their respective gifts. It wasn't the prettiest, and was definitely going to give her a migraine, but their smiles would be worth it.