This happened on a
stormy day when Kaito was around 15 days old. The sun was on its way to set.
Kaito having started to hop, hopped out of her nest, looking back proudly at
her brother. "Do you wanna learn how to do this?" she asked her
brother. Tuto being rather timid, chose not to reply while was awestruck at his
sister who was elder to him by few hours. Kaito wanted to hop back to the nest
and persuade her brother to be brave and step out of their home, when a strong
wind shook the branches, dropping the nest instantly. At the same moment, Kaito
saw her brother crashing to the ground falling dead.
Kaito went chirping
and hopping desperately from one branch to the other with the winds blowing
against her face. She didn't know what to do or where to go. She was trying to
make out the new objects and things she laid her eyes on, cursing her fate and
unable to digest the fact that she has lost her brother. When she was wandering
thus, she spotted her nest perched on top of a branch. She was filled with
delight and quickly trotted towards it. She was sorry that she had left her
Tuto alone for so long. She looked into the nest crying "TUTO!” But she
did not find him. Instead, she found a broken egg and beside the broken pieces
was another egg that was complete and unbroken,
Kaito began to
grasp the truth. This was another nest. Just like theirs. "Another
nest." It was surrounded by fortwalls of thick leaves and twigs of the
tree which protected the nest from falling. However, the twigs have thrashed
and broke one of the 2 eggs. Kaito hopped into the nest and stood gazing at the
egg with tears trickling down her face. The leaves were fluttering tirelessly
around the nest, few of them grazing the egg. Kaito saw thin lines appearing on
the egg. Before she could act on it, she saw the lines widening and the egg
cracked or rather hatched open to show a tiny ball of skin.
Kaito's heart skipped
a beat. It was her Tuto. Yes. This is how he looked when she first saw him.
"Tuto" cried she. She got her Tuto back. She lay her tiny, just then
feathering wings on Tuto to protect him. "I am glad to see you Tuto. I
will never leave you alone." "I will not lose him again. Let mom
come. She will set everything right. Yes, mom always sets things right. When
Tuto had problem eating the worms and was losing his appetite, Did she not
bring us smaller worms and soft breadcrumbs? Did she not partly chew the worms
before giving them to us?" When she was thus lost in thoughts of her mom,
sleep overcame her.
When Kaito woke up,
she found her wings widespread with Tuto beneath them having a carefree sleep.
The sky was bright and the storm calmed down but left its signature everywhere.
All the trees around were maimed with broken branches and twigs. Kaito remained
rooted to the nest recollecting the previous night’s course of events when the
bitter fact hit her. “Mom hasn't returned and probably would not”. She wanted
to shed big fat drops of salty water but stopped as she heard a feeble chirp of
her tiny Tuto. "He must be hungry." She thought and caressed him with
her wings and stepped out of the nest to look for food.
She remembered how
her mom would bring thick, juicy and slimy worms for them to eat. But she
didn't know where to find them. She was looking on various branches of the tree
not leaving Tuto out of vicinity. Just when Kaito was thinking that she she was
done with the worst part of her life, she found a large white bird with a very
long beak swoop onto their branch. Before she knew what the monster was, she
found herself in the beak of the bird and her nest with Tuto clutched between
its claws. Kaito tried to wriggle free from the monster's beak. But had to stop
since it was hurting. Surprisingly, Kaito noticed that staying still wasn't
hurting her and it seemed to her that the beak was holding her tight enough to
prevent her from falling. Yet, careful enough to not cause her any discomfort.
It was the last time that Kaito wept in her life.
