It was a dark and stormy night. A small boat was fighting against the waves, with nothing inside but a tiny egg with shimmering silver speckles and a quilt to keep it warm, but without much success.
Luckily, a large island was up ahead, and the waves made sure the boat would safely settle into the sands of the beach.

The following morning, Ross, a tiny, green pig with freckles, crawled out of a hollow log.
"Whew! That was a big one," he said to himself, referring to the storm the night before.
Ross was the first officer and assistant of King Mudbeard, leader of the pigs. Ross accidentally wandered off into the forest while helping with the reconstruction of Piggy Island. That was when it started to rain. Not wanting to catch cold, Ross hid inside the log and waited for the storm to pass. Now, despite the feeling he should head back, all he wanted was something to eat.
So, he searched everywhere for food. He tried tree bark: too bland, grass: too bitter, and bugs: too gross!
Once he reached the beach, Ross started looking for food there. He grabbed a seashell and tried eating that.... only to get his nose pinched by the hermit crab that lived in the shell.
"Please, can't I get just a little bite?" he moaned, lying on his back.
Then, Ross thought he saw something shiny. He looked to his right and saw a tiny sailboat, and inside was something he never thought he would see.
A sparkling egg.
For years, the pigs had been searching for eggs so they could dine on them. Just two weeks ago, King Mudbeard had found them. But the birds who were the rightful owners of the eggs took them back and destroyed the city in the process.
Now, Ross couldn't believe his eyes. There was an actual egg on Piggy Island! He ran to it and fell onto his knees.
"Thank you!" he cried out. Then, he picked up the egg, took a big sniff of it, and rushed back to the city.
Little did Ross know that the egg began to crack.

Ross returned to the city with the egg and began rubbing two sticks together over a plank of wood to build a fire. And because of what a beautiful day it was, he decided to eat outside.
Rookie mistake.
Ross gave up on the fire and decided to check on his precious egg, only to notice another pig running off with it.
"Hey!" he squealed, chasing the pig. "That's my lunch!"
"I didn't see your name on it!" the pig yelled back, crashing into two other pigs.
"Yo! What's the big..." the larger pig growled, but then noticed the egg, which cracked some more. But then, his buddy ran off with the egg.
The other three pigs chased him until he slipped and fell, dropping the egg... right in front of an entire crowd.

"Ross, explain this to me," ordered King Mudbeard, also known as Leonard, referring to the entire Piggy Island population fighting instead of working.
"All I wanted was some lunch," Ross replied, ashamed of the trouble he caused.
But then, all of a sudden, two tiny feet popped out from the egg and slammed against the belly of a pig that fell on his back. The egg did a loop in the air, much to the pigs' amazement, and landed in Ross' face.
"Help, it's got me!" he screamed, the egg attached to his face. "It's eating my nose!"
Leonard rolled his eyes and pulled the egg off Ross' face. Two orange feet and a beak with a red dot on the tip had already peeked out. Leonard cut into the egg with his fingernail, flicked off the top of the shell, and pulled out a tiny bird hatchling.
"Aww!" the crowd sighed. The hatchling was just so cute! She had fuzzy, silver feathers, two longer feathers that flicked to the side of her head, an adorable twinkle in her huge, brown eyes, black facial marks and a white stripe on her face that connected to the white patch of fuzz on her belly. She was an angel.
"Can we keep her, Leonard?" Ross begged.
The hatchling smiled at the enormous, bearded king pig. Leonard warmly smiled back at the baby and returned his gaze to his subjects.
"No," he finally answered, losing his smile and tossing the hatchling aside. "Now that that's over with... Get back to work!"
The piggy community continued to rebuild the city as Leonard returned to his castle... or what was left of it.

That evening, while everyone else was working, Ross decided to look for the hatchling. He just couldn't leave her alone in the cold. What if it started raining again?
He found her inside a box of TNT, sucking on a stick of dynamite. Realizing it wasn't food, she let go of it.
"Are you hungry?" Ross asked. The hatchling nodded.
"So am I."

Ross took the hatchling to the middle of the forest, where he was hoping to find some kind of food. Once again, he failed to do so.
"Sorry, birdie," he sighed. "I can't find anything to eat. I'm as bummed out as you are. Earlier, I was hoping to have a nice, crispy fried..."
Ross stopped talking when he saw the hatchling munching on some cherries.
"Where did you get those?" he asked her. She pointed up in a tree. Ross tried to climb it, but the branches were too far away. Then, he noticed that the hatchling was already up the tree. She picked the cherries, and he caught them with his mouth.
"Those were no omelets, but they were pretty good," Ross admitted. "We should bring them back with us."
The hatchling jumped for joy.

Back in the city, everyone was looking for Ross.
"If this is about the egg shenanigan, it was all your fault!" one pig yelled. "Just get out here!"
"There he is!" another pig shouted, spotting Ross emerging from the forest. "But what's he doing with that basket?"
Ross was holding a grass-woven basket filled with cherries. He walked through the crowd and approached Leonard with the fruit.
"Ross, what is this?" he asked, agitated about his assistant sneaking off.
"It's food!" Ross replied cheerfully. He held up the basket hoping Leonard would try some.
Leonard grabbed a cherry and popped it into his mouth. After letting the flavor explore his mouth, he nodded in approval.
"Where'd you get these?" he asked his partner.
"We found a tree that's packed with them," Ross replied.
"Who's 'we?'" Leonard asked, spitting out the pit.
The hatchling jumped out of the basket and babbled "Ta da!"
"She's really smart," Ross pointed out. "Watch."
The hatchling took some blades of grass and wove them together, the same way she made the basket.
"Impressive," Leonard admitted, smirking.
The hatchling fluttered her tiny wings and started to hover. Then she went higher and higher. Leonard held out his hand and she landed safely on his palm. The entire city watched.
"Alright," Leonard decided. "She can stay."
As the piggy population cheered, Leonard patted the hatchling's head as she crawled into his arms.
"You, my little silver friend," he chuckled, smirking, "can help me with my plans."
As Leonard held her in his arms, Silver the hatchling drifted off into a deep sleep.

Okay, here's what happened. I saw The Angry Birds Movie and I fell in love with it. Then I decided to play Angry Birds 2, and they both inspired me to write this. Hopefully you already watched the movie before reading this story. Leonard's real name being King Mudbeard, that's kind of a big spoiler.

Please leave a vote. Bye! 😘