The Last Alive

Chapter 12: Nickie

The fire crackled in the cave. The sun was just rising. I was the only one awake. Fralinn was sleeping a few paces away. I wanted to get moving but I thought he deserved the sleep. We had flown up to the highest point in the mountain. It had taken all day yesterday plus half of the night.  I should be exhausted and snoring like Fralinn, but I couldn't sleep. I was afraid that the nightmares would come. I was worried about everyone without dreams of watching them get attacked. The dreams made it ten times worse. I had laid down and waited for Fralinn to fall asleep, which hadn't taken very long, and then slipped out and flown around outside the cave. At the first sign of light I had come back, not wanting Fralinn to wake up and find me gone. But not moving meant that my thoughts were allowed to run wild. If I heard a wolf howl I wondered if it was the group in trouble or the evil wolf men getting close. If a warm breeze came I was convinced the dragons had come and were going to kill us. Every nerve in my body was on edge. I kept willing Fralinn to wake up so that we could leave. The sooner we found the dragons the sooner we could return to the others.

Finally I couldn't just sit there anymore. I got up and found a stick. In the mud I wrote to Fralinn telling him I had just gone out to fly around and would be back soon. Then I jumped out of the cave.

Emediatlycold air surrounded me. My wings filled with it as it flew up. My target was the tallest and largest tree I had ever seen. It looked like it would take about ten of me to wrap all the way around the trunk and was towering over everything. It's leaves were as big as a throw pillow. As I got closer I say that there was some kind of nest at the very top. I headed straight towards it.

When I got to the nest I saw that it was huge. There were a few large feathers sticking out and right in the middle was an egg. I landed in the nest which I new would hold my weight. I walked slowly over to the egg. It was beautiful. The shell was a bronze color and reflected the light of the rising sun. I didn't want to disturb it. But the mere presence of the nest made me confused. If a bird this big lived here then I would've seen it by now. In fact, now that thought about it, I hadn't heard or seen any birds this high up the mountain. I looked at the egg and realized that it was abandoned. I couldn't leave it here but it looked heavy and we probably couldn't carry it with us.

I reached down and slid my hands underneath the egg. Bracing myself I tried to lift the egg and almost flipped out of the nest. The egg was a lot lighter than I thought it was. I couldn't help smiling. I would be able to keep it in my bag. I could save it.

I wrapped my arms around the egg, unfurled my wings, walked to the edge of the nest, and let myself fall forward. The air rushed over me and took my breath away. I laughed as I fell. Then my wings finally filled with air and I leveled back out. I had to beat my wings in order to get to the same level as the cave then it was a straight shot in.

As I got closer I slowed myself down so that I wouldn't fly straight into the fire. I landed on my feet about 5 feet inside the cave. Fralinn was still sleeping peacefully.

I went to the corner where I had my bag, took out a blamket, wrapped up the egg, and slipped it into my bag. As I was zipping it up I heard Fralinn yawn. I turned to see him sitting up and smiling sleepily at me.

"Morning beautiful," he got up and came over to me,"So what are you doing?"

I smiled and looked down as my face grew warm,"I'm packing. I went out flying this morning and found something."

"Oh really? What something did you find?"

I gently slipped the egg out of the bag and unrapped it. The fire made light dance across it's smooth surface.

Fralinn rubbed his eyes,"Is that an egg?"

I nodded,"I found in a nest. I havn't seen any birds this high, especially ones as big as the parents of this egg must have been."