Cloak (YA Fantasy) by James Gough

Author:James Gough [Gough, James]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: WiDo Publishing
Published: 2011-10-03T15:00:00+00:00

19

Helpless

The beaming parents interlaced wing tips and held each other close as they watched a small crack appear in one of the large speckled eggs inside the incubator.

“Oh, isn’t it wonderful?” said Patty, the plump Irish midwife with the pointed nose and whiskers of a vole. “Quadruplets as a first time mother, Mrs. Knightly. You and Mr. Knightly must be bursting with pride. It won’t be long now,” she announced, twitching her whiskers.

The husband stared at the football-sized eggs and swallowed. He looked as nervous as Will felt standing next to Patty, holding a stack of pink and blue towels. Rizz was against the wall checking that the hatchling carts were set at precisely the right temperature. Manning sat on a stool next to a biowaste bin—she’d been put on egg shell duty.

A hole appeared in the first egg. The mother let out a little squeak of delight and kissed her hubby on the beak.

Will felt like he was intruding on a private moment. He tried to slip backward, but Patty grabbed him by the sleeve of the medical gown and pulled him back. “Now you stand right here and hand me those towels as soon as I say so. Got it?”

Will nodded and was surprised by a series of cracks. Two more eggs began to split. A second later, the first shell broke open and out flopped what looked like a normal pink baby with a tiny beak and little talons on his feet. The newborn cried softly and chirped, rolling over in the soft nest that supported the eggs. Will held out a blue towel.

“Oh, not yet. Just wait,” whispered Patty, the midwife. “Ah, there we go.”

The tiny baby leaned against the shell and pushed himself to his wobbly feet. After a moment of balancing, he took one step, then another. Mrs. Knightly stepped forward and Patty handed her one of Will’s blue towels just before the baby bird enchant climbed into her arms.

“Here come the rest,” motioned Patty. The scene was repeated three more times as the mother and father took turns catching the toddling newborns. Pictures were taken and the hatchlings were all placed in separate incubator carts to be examined by the medical staff.

When they were pronounced healthy, Manning cleaned up the shells and the two agents started to lead Will out of the hatching room.

“Just a minute, would you like to hold one?” Mrs. Knightly, who didn’t seem bothered by Will’s stink, held out a pink bundle of baby. Will carefully took her in his arms. The newborn peered into Will’s eyes and clipped her beak, then cooed and smiled. Will smiled back. “She’s beautiful.”

“Thank you.” Mrs. Knightly beamed, rocking two of the other babies in her feathered arms.

Will looked down. “Hi there, baby. Goochy, goochy, goo.”

The baby reached up and grabbed his glove with her tiny fingers. She scrunched up her face and shrieked, causing one of the light bulbs above the incubator to shatter. Like a chain reaction, the other three joined in.

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