A young snowy owlet peeked out of it's hollow in the pine tree. The owlet curiously tilted it's head at a Fox curled up next to a pile of white and black sticks. Who in their right mind would sleep out in the cold?

    The owlet's mother suddenly swooped down and landed in the hollow, a fat mouse in her beak. "Mum, how did you find a mouse?" The owlet asked, surprised that mice hadn't gone extinct yet.

    "I got lucky, my little star." The mother stripped the fur off of the mouse and tore out a piece of flesh. She dropped it on the ground. The owlet hungrily took the chunk into it's mouth and swallowed it. The mouse was the best thing he had eaten in his short life.

    "Mum, is the egg hatching?" The owlet tilted his head at a small owl egg. 

    "Not yet, Sun. But soon." The father flew into the hollow with Sun's older sister, Star. 

   "Eager for another sibling other than me, are you?" Star chuckled.

You might think that Sun is the main character of the story. But he is not. The little egg in the nest of moss and down? Inside that small egg is the hero.

   Suddenly, a crack, barely heard, went through the air. Sun hopped over to the egg excitedly. "Maybe I am eager to have another sibling, Star." The father hopped to the egg and gently started pecking at it. The mother did the same. Soon, a new owlet was in the hollow. And an old dream was a new hope when the family saw a fire on the ground.

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    The youngest owlet was staring at the thing she was named after. "Moon, come in, you don't want to fall asleep out there again." "Yes, Da." Moon stumbled over a stone as she hopped into the hollow. The father picked up the stone and put it back into a small hole in the hollow. 

   Moon hopped over to her nest when she saw all the moss and down she used as a nest was scattered. "Sun, did you mess up my nest again?" A white head popped up over another a nest. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." Sun lay back down and covered himself with moss. 

    As soon as Moon scraped her nest back together, a flash of white flew over and scattered it again. "Sun, stop that. Or else you'll spend the night outside." Sun sighed. "Yes, Mum." Moon almost fell asleep putting her nest back together. "Moon, sleep in my nest. I can put your nest back together." Moon looked behind her and saw a white owl with a lot of grey feathers. "Thank you, Star." Moon sleepily hopped to Star's nest and fell asleep.

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"Fire! It's a fire!" Moon woke up to howling. Only Sun was in the hollow with Moon. She got up and hopped to the edge of the hollow. There was a white fox with a deer. Then Moon saw the small fire. Moon tilted her head. She didn't know what Fire was, being only a few weeks old. Suddenly she was falling. Moon flapped her wings desperately, feeling herself fall faster and faster to the ground. Then she landed on a floor of feathers and down. But the feathers weren't white or grey.

    They weren't feathers at all.

    It was dark gray fur, and that fur only belonged to the wolves that were known for eating owls.

    While th family celebrated the Fire, a white head poked out of the hollow and waved a wing goodbye.  

  Moon knew how she fell.

   The owlet that had been eager for her to hatch four weeks ago.

   Sun had pushed her out of the hollow.