Chapter 10. The Awakening

The following night, Sarah was startled by a cracking sound. While dozing back to sleep, a loud snap jolted both her and Samuel awake. Their nest slid left, careened right, and then shook violently.

“We need to leave now!” screamed an alarmed Samuel.

“Wake everyone on the east branches! I’ll head to the west side!” cried Sarah.

As the two doves sped from branch to branch, the forceful shaking had already woken a number of doves, but most were too groggy to understand what was happening.

“We need to go!” shouted Sarah.

“What?” responded one of Sarah’s cousins, “I can’t just pick up and leave.”

“You can and you will!” Sarah commanded, startled by the force of her own words.

The entire tree rocked left, and a thick branch crashed onto a nest, trapping two birds and their chicks inside.

“Are you okay?” Samuel called.

“We can’t get out!” the birds squealed.

Samuel spotted a group of doves escaping from their nests and called out to them. “You two!” he said pointing to the other doves. “Get on that side of the branch. The rest of you, over there!”

Frazzled and shell-shocked at having to escape from their nest only to be called back to the tree, the doves just flew in place—frozen in mid-air.

“Now!” commanded Samuel. “On the count of three, you’re going to lift the branch and I’m going to pull them out. One, two...”

Just then, the tree rocked violently to the right and the nest began to slide. The branch that had trapped the family of doves inside was now the only thing holding the nest in place.

“Can your chicks fly yet?” shouted Samuel.

“No!” the parents responded. “We can’t carry them all! What are we going to do?”

Sarah arrived just in time to see the situation. The sound of wood splitting and branches snapping was growing louder.

“We can carry the nest!” she shouted as she signaled to a group of doves to join her. “You four lift the branch up, and you three get underneath. We’re going to catch the nest as it slides down and carry it on our backs to the ground!”

“What?” the other doves exclaimed in shock. “We can’t! We’ve never done that before!”

“Well, you’re going to do it now,” declared Samuel, smiling proudly at Sarah.

The tree violently jerked backward. The first group used the momentum to lift up the branch. The nest immediately slid down, and the family grasped their chicks. The tree leaned further away, and the nest seemed to magically level out in the air. The dove family had no idea what how it was working, but it was working! With Samuel and Sarah now joined by numerous other doves underneath, they gently lowered the nest to the ground. A moment later, an enormous crack erupted, and the doves’ beloved tree slammed into the creek below with a thunderous splash.

The doves huddled together at the base of their fallen tree. Wood chips littered the ground, and Samuel noticed a strange set of fresh footprints that led away from the scene.

Sarah sat down to regain her composure. Beyond the stress of losing her home, she had never taken charge in a crisis like this before and needed to catch her breath.

The rest of the doves remained quiet, staring in disbelief.

A short time later, the doves flew off to seek a safe place to rest. The parrots had been awakened by commotion and immediately took the doves in for the night. Ivy and Indy sat stunned as Samuel and Sarah recounted the night’s horrible events.

“Now it’s personal! We’re going to find out who did this,” vowed Indy.

Ivy looked at Samuel and Sarah with newfound respect. “You guys are heroes!” she proclaimed.

Both doves blushed.

“I will say,” conceded Sarah, “I felt a bit like Dorian out there, ordering others around and making things happen.”

“Yes,” chuckled Samuel, “you did a fine eagle impersonation. I never realized how useful a little decisiveness could be.”