Island Secret

Chapter 5: Fotia

Enjoy!!!!

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Astyr slowly bent down to the baby birds level.  Slowly and carefully, she extended her hand towards it and eventually touched its soft feathers.  The baby squawked for a minute, but then seemed to settle down; almost like a dog.  She smiled.  Astyr was happy that the bird didn't try to peck her hand off or anything.

After making sure the bird liked her, Astyr carefully placed her hand underneath its frail body and lifted the baby up.  She was amazed at the coloring of the bird.  It looked so much like fire. 

She then thought of her mom, who was Greek.  Thats where Astyr got her name.  It means Star in Greek.  She figured she would name this baby Fire in Greek.  After telling Luke to pull out his phone to Google translate it, since she was holding the bird, Astyr settled on Fotia.

She still wasn't sure if the bird was a boy or girl, but she thought Fotia sounded like a girls name, so she settled on that.

"Here."

Astyr snapped her head to the side, towards the voice. Luke was holding a shirt in his hand and trying to give it to Astyr. Something clicked in her head and she realized it was his shirt he was holding! Meaning Luke was standing there, shirtless, showing off his hot chest.

Astyr opened her mouth to respond but nothing came out. It wasn't like she hasn't seen him without a shirt before, it just surprised her. That's all. 'Snap out of it Astyr!' she thought to herself.

 "Like what you see?"

She stared at him for a second before blinking a couple of times. He was smirking wildly by this point.  She looked away before he could she her pink cheeks and didn't respond.

Then she was confused and turned back to look at Luke. "Why did you take off your shirt?"

"To give you something to wrap the bird in." He said like it was obvious.

"Oh," She snatched the shirt from Luke's grasp and wrapped Fotia loosely. She practically fit in Astyr palm since she was so small. Astyr mumbled a 'thanks' to Luke and stalked off to find Chase.

When Astyr finally found Chase, he was on the ground playing with twigs and trying to make a tepee. Astyr internally groaned.  That boy could pass off as a five year old!

Chase jumped off the ground and jogged over to Astyr and Luke, who was standing close behind her. "What's that?" he asked.

"This is Fotia." Astyr responded, holding out her hands to show Chase. Fotia was fast asleep and curled up in a ball, looking very content.

"He's so cute!"

"Fotia is a girl!" Astyr snapped back. She didn't mean to be so harsh and apologized to Chase immediately.

"It's fine," He shrugged it off. "So what are you doing with her?"

"Taking her home!"

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Half an hour later, Chase pulled the boat up as close to the shore as he could and anchored the boat. The trio had decided that everyone was tired and were done  hiking. So here they were, walking along the familiar beach, towards Astyr's house.

 Astyr was unbelievably nervous.  She had specifically promised her dad that she wouldn't bring back any wild animals.  She sighed.  Fotia wasn't technically a wild animal-as far as she knew.  Ok, yes she was.  Astyr said goodbye to Chase and he parted from her and Luke to head up to his house.