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Lavender (5 days after)

When my husband Major was last alive, there was sometimes when he'd actually teach me, when he wasn't realizing, about the powers of the world. He showed me love, compassion, courage, cooperation, survival, life and faith. Perhaps much of his words however came from his parents and their teachings. And his strength was something that couldn't be measured. Be strong Lavender, I'd think he'd say, Be strong. But I've been running ever since, running from my own world. Running from fear instead of embracing it. Just running to survive instead fighting to live. That's not what life was guaranteed to do, run and flee. It was given to us for a purpose. Sometimes, life can come out in unexpected ways. And for me, surprises are always available. So this time I couldn't run away, because life and another future opened up right in front of me.

"Eggs!" Hope gasped, "You laid your eggs!" I awoke startled from my sleep, only to stumble upon shimmering white eggs. My eggs. I gasped. I really did? Hope rushed away to her family from my new nest to wake her family

"Daddy! Daddy! Get up!" She cried, hopping on her parents. Cal groaned, sitting up, rubbing his eyes on each side of his large beak.

"What is it Hope?"

"Lavender's eggs are here!" She squealed. Cal smiled wildly, now fully alert, and flew over to where I sat.

"You did-" He stopped short, glancing at the huge eggs before him.

"Wow..." Then he breathed, "I.....don't know what to say, congrats!"

"Thanks," I grinned, washing my wings over each white spectacle. But then I frowned. Cal looked at me worrisome.

"What's with the face?" He questioned. I pointed down with my beak.

"Those two didn't make it," I swallowed. To my right, there was two eggs, white and gooey, but concave. Their shells broke when I laid them. They died before I could realize it.

"So that makes four still living..." Cal stated, "I guess that's fine."

"You guess?"

"Well 6 is better than 4," He sighed, "But 4 is better than none. You should be proud."

"I think Major should be the judge of that," I croaked, sadly touching one of the eggs, "If he was still here."

"I think he'll be with you everyday," Cal stated, "there's a saying that I learned once from a good friend, how death is only the beginning of their journey. How maybe, when we die, we're left to watch over our generations, or reincarnate into another adventurous mystery. Something like that."

"That's really....interesting but...I don't know if reincarnation is a thing."

"Yeah...." Cal shrugged pointing at me, "But you'll never know unless you see for yourself when we're older."

"We are older," I rolled my eyes.

"Er- older than what we are now," He corrected, gripping his claw wings, "Now, I should go fishing. It's probably morning, though we probably aren't able to tell, so we should go hunting for a bit-"

"Let me come!" I interrupted, "I....wanna do something for a change too. We don't really hunt around these parts, so perhaps you can teach me." Cal smiled with pleasure, then started flapping his wings in a stretch.

"Of course."