Hope is the Thing With Feathers

Chapter 1

"We're nocturnal animals," his father had once explained to him.

"Nocturnal?" Celeste had repeated, though her pronunciation, in her three-year-old voice, sounded more like another language.

"It means we do better at night," Fuzzle added.

"But many of the other animals are busy during the day, so even though we like the night, we have to learn how to stay awake at night," Orbit added.

It was true that Blathers often felt more drowsy as he grew older during the day, though his parents assured him there were ways to get around this as he grew older. For the time being, his energetic personality seemed to keep him awake. That and a few naps during the daylight hours.

As Blathers' vision came into view, he looked around the rooftop. His parents had hung blooming plants, which they liked to set on the patio furniture they had purchased. A small playground, complete with a slide and swingset, sat on the other side, near the square sandbox Blathers and his sister often liked to play in. Sometimes at night, the family would come up here to look at the stars, an activity which Celeste would often ask for more than Blathers.

"Let's go to the sandbox," Blathers said.

"I wanna go on slide," Celeste complained.

"Well, you go on the slide, then," Blathers told her as he made his way toward the sandbox, curious to know what his mother had meant when she said to observe it.

"But I can't climb!" Celeste complained, flapping her furry feathers and letting out a few childish tears.

Blathers let out a sigh, and doing his brotherly duties, he carried her up the steps and went down the slide with her a few times. She enjoyed this more than him, especially since all he could think about was that square sandbox to the right, but once Celeste had her fill of playground enjoyment, he set her one of the swings and told her to swing her legs slowly.

That should keep her busy, he thought as he scurried to the sandbox.

Upon first glance, it looked the same. The sand was still pale and warm to the touch, the pails and shovels were all in the same corner, and the green plastic around the sandbox seemed untouched.

"There's nothing here at all," Blathers murmured disappointedly, when a flash of gold caught his eye.

He stared for a few moments, then, he took one of his wings and wiped it across the patch of sand slowly, uncovering a sparkling gold coin. He gasped and held it with his feathers, admiring the way that the gold gleamed in the sunlight.

Since his parents had gotten the sandbox for him and his sister, they had only managed to build sand castles. Never before had he been able to unearth something so beautiful and pristine. He gently set the coin to the side and began digging. Sure enough, he began to unearth more coins, some gold, some silver, some a sparkling blue.

Blathers had never been so excited in his life sitting in the sandbox and digging to his heart's content as he listened to the squeak of Celeste swinging back and forth on. What was this desire to keep digging? What was this desire to search for treasure? Being a curious owl, he was always on the lookout for something new. He didn't know he could fill that desire through digging.

He had reached the end of the sandbox, Blathers realized. He did one last look, but there was nothing left to find. The pile of coins had been placed neatly outside the sandbox now, and Celeste was already starting to complain that her legs were tired.

Blathers helped Celeste down from the swing before he scooped the coins into his feathers and made the descent back down to their home. His parents had already eaten, and they stared at Blathers in surprise when he rushed to the table and dumped his newfound treasure on top of his father's half-eaten omelet.

"Look what I found!" he exclaimed.

"Look what you found, indeed!" his mother said.

"What that?" Celeste asked as Blathers laid out the coins individually.

"Look at all this money!" Blathers said. "I'm going to go buy something with it."

"Oh, well—" His father began.

"It's not money," his mother warned. "It's...ancient coins. Buried treasure!"

"Well, if it's treasure, isn't it money, then?" Blathers asked.

"It's something very old that you dug up," his mother explained.

"If you go digging, you might find old stuff anywhere," his father added.

"You mean if I dig...I can find more buried treasure?!" Blathers exclaimed. "Not just in the sandbox?"

"Yes!" his mother exclaimed.

"Well, no. Not just anywhere. You're going to get the boy arrested, Fuzzle," Orbit murmured, removing the rest of the coins from his omelet. "There's a field of study that some animals like to go into when they grow up. Archaeology and paleontology."

"Huh?" Blathers asked, not even attempting to pronounce the words his father had told him off his six-year-old tongue.

"Some animals are able to discover amazing things," his mother said. "Like dinosaur bones!"

"Dinosaurs?!" Blathers exclaimed. "What...what is this called again?"

"Archaeology," his father repeated.

"Maybe one day, you can be an archaeologist when you grow up," his mother suggested.

Blathers' eyes widened. Looking down at the coins, he felt a desire to run back up to the sandbox and search for more, even if he knew there were no more to be found. He grabbed a few coins in his hands and looked up excitedly before proclaiming, "I'm gonna be an arch---archy--" His mother was mouthing the words slowly to him. "I'm going to be an archaeologist when I grow up!"

His father took another bite of his omelet and grumbled to his wife, "Looks like we'll have to be buying some more plastic coins from the One Bell Store soon."