Chapter 118: Eleven months later: Pepper

Betty stands above us on the stairs to watch as our son is born. It's been several hours since the egg began cracking. Tahr is beside me as we behold our miracle. At first, a small claw working against the shell is all we see. Our boy is chipping away at the egg from the inside. The small chirp like noise our son makes warms my heart. The hardest thing to do is to keep from tearing the outer shell away and pulling him against me.

Roxy and Acasia warned me of this. As always they were right. The process seems to take forever and this impatient mother is barely holding it together.

It's thirty minutes before our son lays inside only half of his egg and pushes the other half away. He's beautiful. I lean in and nuzzle him with my nose sending my warm breath over him. Tahr's rumble is sweet as he moves his own nose closer and sniffs our child to gather his scent.

The baby is silver. He spreads his small wings and I see just a hint of yellow on the underside. Our laughter fills the tower.