Longer Short Story: NPC hawk chick

[Kazz]

I didn't understand how it happened. It was all fine, then better, just for a little, and then everything just became a nightmare.

First, it was just me, Alyeska [We all called him Ali], and our parents, who were always either resting or out of the nest. I'm not blaming them. They had to feed us, and I guess that wasn't an easy job, since we got only a little food. But it was enough, and we shared it with each other, even if we would always scramble to try to get it first. Ali was a lot faster than me, but I think, when I was hungry, he'd pretend to let me win, even if I'd screech and brag to him about it after. I never really knew it then. I guess I was littler and meaner and stupider, but that was ok, right? I was a little hawk. I was allowed to innocent like that, and he wasn't supposed to tell me that I wasn't, because he was my brother, and he loved me. I wish I'd realised it then. I wish I'd realised just how happy I was, and how comfortable we were in that scratchy little nest of sticks.

When our little sister showed up one morning, I and Ali were delighted. We were just happy to have another chick to race with, cuddle with when it got cold. That's what our life was. It was simple, and it had a certain rhythm. Our sister's rhythm wasn't right though. I and my brother noticed it really fast. Hers was less steady, but it flickered, and it seemed just to have this kind of emotion that neither of us, or our parents, could understand. None of us got it at the time, but I think we do now.

I and Ali have been talking about her rhythm when we go for our unseen flights around the valley. We weren't sure what to call it at first, actually, but it didn't take long for us to find out that she was one of the special ones. She could do things that we couldn't, and, what we could do, she could do better. Her voice was real, and when she chirped, the sounds could say more than just, "Mommy!" and "Daddy!" She could use sounds to say things that I and Ali, and all the other not special animals can only think to each other. Even the things we could do, she could do better. In the next few days, she'd gotten the food faster than both of us, and she never, ever shared. We were hungry, and we tried to tell her that, but it was like she didn't even know we were talking. It was like she could only hear her own sounds; the ones the not special animals couldn't make.

Mommy and Daddy couldn't do anything either. We told them that our sister was taking the food, and that we were hungry. First, they tried to tell her, they really did, but she didn't hear them either. No matter how much Mommy pleaded or Daddy yelled, all she heard must have been nothing. Then, Mommy and Daddy just looked at each other, whispered, and then shook their heads. After that, they'd drop the food on our side of the nest, and often right in front of us. Ali and I didn't know what was going on when it would suddenly be snatched away from under our talons, or even pulled from our beaks. Now, we understand that it was because she was one of the special ones. Maybe our parents understood it too, but didn't tell us because they thought we were too little to understand. Maybe if Mommy and Daddy could see us now, they would tell us everything. We already know, but we would listen anyway, just because we miss hearing their voices in our heads.

I think it was three days after she appeared, maybe four, when it got really, really bad. She missed a few times, but I didn't know what was going on. I knew she was taking all the food, and I know she didn't really understand me and Ali and Mommy and Daddy when we thought words to each other, but she was still our sister. I didn't know she would try to grab me. I should have moved, cried out for someone, or maybe I even should have just run from the nest. No, that wouldn't have been good. What if Ali hadn't followed? It doesn't matter now though. She got me. No matter how I struggled, or screamed to her, she didn't care or hear, and held me down effortlessly.

What came next was even worse. She began to strike out at Ali with her beak and her claws. I kept screaming to her, begging and demanding that she could stop, but again, she didn't hear it. I even saw just a hint of a grin in her stoic face, but maybe I'm just remembering her darker. Ali didn't jump either. I told him to. I threw the loudest screams I'd never thought into his head, but the only thing he told me was, over and over again, "I can't. I can't. I can't leave you alone here. I can't leave." It was complete horror, and, in the talons of our sister, I could no nothing to help him. I couldn't even try to attack her. It was like, whenever I tried, my claw or beak, whichever I was using, wouldn't let me. Our parents couldn't do it either. I cried to them too, pleading them to make it stop. I could see the hurt and pain in their own eyes, and they told me they couldn't. Now we understand. We're not one of the special ones, so we have rules, and the world wouldn't let us attack our sister to get me loose, even if I was trapped, and Ali was dying.

It didn't take long for him to be finished, but it felt like forever, and when I realised it, the word seemed to just stop. My brother was dead; my nest mate ever since I could remember, that would always be beside me, behind me, or ahead of me, laughing, was gone. And it was my sister's fault. I couldn't control the thick anger that consumed me. I wanted to hit our sister again and again, scream at her, and ask her why. Why had she killed my brother? Why didn't she understand us? Why didn't she understand that we were alive, just like she was? I couldn't control that thick, black, anger, but the world still did. It wouldn't let me hit her, and no matter how hard I screamed, and how coarse my thoughts became, she couldn't hear me.

It was when she began to tear into him did I learn where our parents got food. Now, I understand and accept that what we eat is the essence of death itself, but at the time, all I wanted was a bite of that flesh that used to be my beloved brother. It's terrible, I know, but please, understand that I hadn't eaten for days, and the sight of so much meat made my beak hang open in longing. Even then though, she wouldn't let go. She pressed me down as she ate, slept, and ate more, my face pinned against the rough sticks that made our nest. My parents kept coming in, filled with grief but bound by the same laws that wouldn't let me fight, and gingerly placing the scraps of meat from their hunts around my brother. I couldn't reach those either. Even when the bottom of the best was filled with meat, nearly rotten, she refused to drop me. I now understand that she didn't really think I was alive. Maybe that's what all the special ones thought. That would make sense, from what me and Ali have been seeing.

When there was nothing left either of us, she dropped me. I clawed at the food that was left, placed by our parents, but it smelled putrid. I couldn't eat that. The first hit took me by surprise, our- no, my sister's fist rammed against my side, sending me stumbling. I cried out, but she mustn’t have heard. When Daddy returned, I screamed his name, using words my sister could understand, "Daddy!" Still, she ignored me, continuing her relentless blows. "I'm sorry," I heard Daddy think to me, before I felt nothing, and then a rush of wind.

Suddenly, Ali was beside me. He wasn't fuzzy anymore, and the soft grey had become a clean, crisp white. I knew it was him though. I could see it in his spirit, and hear his familiar voice in my head.
"You're big, Ali, and white! Like snow!" I thought to him.
I could feel him smiling, but "So are you, Kiri. We're angels now."

And that's how we've been. We've flown silently, voicelessly, across the valley, watching the world, seeing and understanding how it worked, but never able to protect the not special animals that remained forever silent to the special ones.


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I'm not sure I'm completely happy with the ending, but I didn't want it to be too depressing.
Anyway, I'm loving writing random stories from the NPC points of views that we often don't think about. The routine described above is a popular way to begin raising a full-combat hawk, as massive amounts of food are required in order to sustain the stomach and water levels through unrelenting and persistent challenging of the parent.

[Falllen]

..Nghhhhh Y U MAKE IT SO SAD D: Now I understand what we do to NPC hawk chicks when we're raising hawk fffffff.
;A;

[StarWolf]

Woah... that was awesome. ._. Sad, too... now I feel bad for all the siblings my animals have killed. ;^;

[Swifty]

FFF sad, but very well written.

[SilentEcho]

I feel extremely guilty right now, that's a super sad story D: It's scary to think that I'm usually the older sister.

[Doylj]

I have been working on a story like this for a few days before i read this... weird

and i managed to get a full combat fox, hawk AND king snake without murdering my family...