Nest Year 7, 64th day
Feast!
Yesterday, five hatchlings joined the nest as adults, and we are all proud (and relieved!) for it. Many had thought none would make it; the cold winter meant fewer small animals to hunt, which meant both less food for us and more predator attacks on the nest. But, now that spring is here, our prospects are improving!
If the new-adults' ritual hunt is any indication, this year will be bountiful indeed! I can't remember a time when I ate so much, nor danced so long! Asha, my hunting apprentice, plays the tubes* like no one else in the nest: fast and furious one moment, calling forth the image of the chase, and all our legs pounding chaotically in the great hall; the next, the soft and contemplative evocation of the quiet woods, of rustling leaves and flowing water in the calm evenings of summer (a summer, I might add, that Asha has yet to know—but will!); then finally, the tense anticipation of lying in ambush, waiting to strike; and finally, Victory! Triumph!
At long last the winter is over and we are still alive!
* A series of pitched hollow tubes played somewhat like a xylophone.
