Excerpt: Rare But Serious

Elsbeth and Jolly had been captured together many years earlier. They had only mated one season when they were taken, thrown into a cage, and forced to witness their offspring murdered. Sitting curled together on the floor of their prison, they watched as a man dressed in black overalls pulled their nest from the hollow in the tree. One egg fell to the ground. The impact caused a hairline crack around its circumference. The man’s partner, also wearing those black overalls with the orange glyph on the sleeve, picked up the cracked egg and dropped it into a jar of liquid.
Elsbeth burst into tears. Her baby would never emerge from its sheltered existence. She buried her head in Jolly’s chest as the other three eggs were lifted from the nest. Their captors took the tiny eggs and immersed them one by one into individual jars of formalin, a mix of formaldehyde and water used as a preservative. Then sealed them for transport. Each jar was placed in a foam compartment of a black case with the same orange glyph. Jolly wrapped his wings around Elsbeth and held her close. While she shook in fear and grief, his tension was built on rage. Held helpless, Jolly couldn’t stand up to these murderous men. He vowed that one day he would have his vengence. It would only be a matter of time.