Element Animals: Legends Rising

Memory V

Two weeks and six nights old

"Ma! Da! Look at this!" I cried gleefully, hopping around like an excited grasshopper. Which I was. Excited, I mean. I wasn't a grasshopper.

Ma and Da patiently flew towards me as I shifted impatiently on the branch I was perched on. "Yes, dear?" Ma asked, not unkindly.

I grinned, opening my wings to catch the rain. Ma frowned at me. "Dear, please don't do that. You will get wet, and you will probably catch a cold. And with your immunity, you might catch pneumonia and..." Her voice trailed off.

Da ruffled my meager feathers. "What she means, dear, is that it's time to go inside now. Because it's raining, you might get sick, and then--" He made a weird face and stuck out his tongue.

My eyes widened, and I stared at him, scared. "I'll die?!" I shrieked, flapping my wings in distress. I swiveled around and gingerly tried to hop back to the hollow. "Get me out of the rain! Get me out! Please!"

While I was flailing around and screeching like an injured cougar, Ma was glaring at Da. If looks could kill, he would've been slowly flayed alive. Ma came over to me. "No, dear, that's not what he meant. You won't die."

I stared up at her, hyperventilating. My wings were bunched next to my sides and I scrunched myself up, trying to make myself as small as possible to avoid the rain. "But--but--but he said so!" I wailed, peeking around Ma's feathers to see how far I was from the hollow.

Ma sighed, and glared at Da again. "See, dear, this is what happens when you play around! She's not old enough to understand your humor yet!" she hissed angrily.

I concerned myself with trying to get back to the hollow, hopping from one branch to another. Suddenly my talon slipped and, with a screech, I was falling. Then something jerked me and--I was being pulled up, staring into the distraught face of Da. Ma was crying as he flew me back to the hollow through the pouring rain, her tears almost rivaling the raindrops in their amount.

When I was safely inside the hollow again, Ma patting me dry with a bundle of dried lichen and moss she'd collected, Ma faced Da angrily. "Dear, you frighten Aval and she almost dies!" She turned to me, her breast heaving. "And you, dear, you don't listen to me and you almost die!" She turned to the entrance/exit of the hollow and stood guard in the middle of the entrance/exit. "No one leaves this hollow without my permission from now on!"

Da edged slowly towards Ma and tried to calm her. "Dear, don't you think you're being a bit unreasonable? I--"

"No excuses! And NO, I am not being unreasonable!" Ma shrieked, flailing her wings around. Her feathers looked like they were standing on end, and she bristled. "Listen, you two," she said, her voice suddenly dangerously calm, "I stand by what I said before. No one leaves this hollow without my permission. No one. Do you understand, Stone?"

Stars, I thought to myself. She is quite serious. Ma only used Da's name when he was in deep trouble, or when something life-threatening (my fall) had happened.

Da nodded meekly. "Of course, dear."

Ma seemed satisfied, and she sat down at the entrance/exit, a sigh of--exasperation? relief? tiredness? I didn't know--ruffling her feathers.

Da hopped over to me, pulling me close to him. "Listen, dear, Ma had a tiring night. She's very exhausted and needs to rest. A lot. Okay, dear?"

I bobbed my head.

Da smiled weakly at me. "That's great. Let's just fall asleep now."

I nodded, leaning against him, while staring at Ma. Her eyes found mine and she gave me a small smile. I hesitantly gave her a smile back, and her eyes seemed to say to me that she had finally calmed down. My smile had appeased her, and now her eyes closed.... Then opened hurriedly again.

I smiled to myself. Ma was tired, and I should let her rest. But obviously she wasn't going to rest if I was awake, so I had to convince myself to sleep....

I counted mice (it didn't work), imagined peaceful situations (still didn't work), and tried humming a lullaby to myself (the lullaby, "Glimmer, Glimmer, Light of Day," didn't work either). Soon I had just about given up hope of ever falling asleep.

I was like that. If I didn't want to go to sleep, I would, and if I tried...well, I would never be able to.

Finally, Da noted my restlessness and went over to Ma, whispering something in her ear hole. She agreed (not so reluctantly, I noticed) and hopped over to the nest, where she immediately hunched down and closed her eyelids, drifting off into sleep.

Da motioned for me to come to him. I hopped over to him, and he whispered, "Ma is very tired, like I said earlier. Very tired. So I've switched with her. Now, to help you go to sleep, I've come up with an idea...."

I peered at him curiously. What was this idea? I voiced my thoughts aloud. Da grinned and hopped out into the rain. I let out a small cry, but he immediately flew back up again. He smiled at me. "See? Don't worry, I'm here. And don't forget about Ma and how tired she is...."

I cringed and peeped, "Sorry!"

Da shook his head. "Don't, Aval. There is no need to be sorry." Then he went to a tree, plucked a sopping branch off, and tore off a few leaves. He tore the leaves into pieces and sent them swirling into the rain.

I was horrified. "Da! You're ripping up the leaves! After you tore the branch off a tree! You're hurting the forest!"

Da sighed. "Dear, it's only a twig, really. And the tree will grow it back. Now focus on this: Stare at the leaf pieces and imagine patterns as they go downwards. Imagine them as birds, flying, or raindrops themselves, but...just imagine them with something other than what they truly are."

I nodded, determined to try and go to sleep. "I'll try, Da."

Da smiled, and sent more leaf pieces swirling into the rain.

I stared at them, and suddenly, a pattern emerged:

A cloud, drifting in the breeze.

Lemmings, scurrying across the grass.

The stars, glinting quietly in the night.

The sunlight, glimmering on the horizon.

The lullaby came back to me:

Glimmer, glimmer, light of day.
How I wonder where you are,
On the horizon so light,
Like shoving away the night,
Glimmer, glimmer, light of day,
How I wonder where you are.