Five chicks stand beside each other in front of the barn door, about to go out on their first outing, from the right stood Pinky, Index, Middle, Thumb, and Ring. Their mother Sasha, had name them after the five human fingers, saying they were meant to hold the world in their feathers. Thumb the oldest was three weeks old, he was curious of the outside world, but was told to wait till his siblings were all hatched, he sneaked out once, and encountered the barn dog ‘Roger’ who was friendly to him, but warned him of the dangers of strolling without the protection of his mother. He takes the first step outside urging his siblings to follow him, soon after their mother follows them and they seek shelter close to her, all of the chicks except Thumb. Sasha the mother hen clucks for them to follow her and their journey begins. Shortly after, Sasha finds their first food, a worm she dug up from the ground, and Index quickly gobbles up the worm, leaving the other three looking at the mother hen to provide more, she digs up more worms for them to eat. Meanwhile Thumb was still flabbergasted by his environment, from the grass, to the other animals like the squirrel as they ran across a tree. Index the fourth hatch informs their mother that Thumb wasn’t eating, and was a bit away from the flock. Sasha notices Thumb looking at the forest in the distance were he had seen the squirrels, she calls out to him and asks why he wasn’t eating, Thumb replies that he had had some ants early this morning and wasn’t hungry, he then follows up asking his mother if they could go into the forest, Sasha interposes, forbidding it, telling them that east after the forest lies a nest of hawks, and the forest was their hunting ground. Middle asks what a hawk is, and Sasha replies, that they are bunch of vicious birds, who would snatch them up for food if they ventured into the forest, the humans keep them away from the ranch’s open land with their guns, but even that isn’t enough sometimes. Index comments so they are like the worms to the hawk, which shock the siblings. After they all stay close to the mother hen, who lead them to a small pond, where they drink from, before heading back to the ranch, that night Thumb ponder about what their mother had told them, and wondered why the human protected them.

Two days pass and they go about their daily routine, a cockerel crocks in the early morning waking them all, Sasha makes a headcount, and they go out for food, while finding food she would comment that the humans normally would feed them, unless they traveled, which she assumes, but knows someone closes and opens the barn door every night and morning, after they sleep, and before they wake. All the lamenting couldn’t have prepared her for what was about to unfold this afternoon. The chicks were drinking from the pond, Thumb and Middle were trying to bait a fish to the surface, unsuccessfully, Middle the third hatch had an idea of throwing in some worms to see if the fish will take the bait, Thumb concurred and they started strolling to the worm site Sasha had dug up earlier near the pond, to see if any remained, they start pecking the site in search of worms, after a while Thumb brings out a worm in his beak, and smiles at Middle, who smiles back, suddenly a shadow cast over them, and almost immediately a talon grabs Middle, piercing into his tiny body, and pushing him into ground with force, he lets out a small cry, followed by silence and dead eyes. Thumbs stands in awe, as the fiery eyes of the bird that had killed his brother stared at him, it was the hawk, the creature of death his mother had talked about, the cries of his mother running towards him jolts him back to reality, as the hawk flies into the sky with Middle in its claws. Sasha reaches him, telling him to stay close, under her wings with his remaining sibling, he rushes under and she bring her wings low, sheltering them, Index informs him that their mother said they are caught in a death spiral, and tells him to take a peek above her wings, Thumbs looks up, and through a space between her feathers he sees multiple hawks circling in the sky above them, an image that inspired terror enough to make a chick shed feathers.

The hawks, half dozen of them fly in spirals above the mother hen who has sheltered its chicks, and was trying to guide them slowly to an enclosed area, one of the hawk flies down stabbing Sasha in the back with its talon, she screams flinging her wings in it direction, hitting it but not making any damage as it flies back into the sky, hawks kill by generally piercing it prey with its talon, dealing death blows, but the mother hen will not die easily to such stabs, and carrying her into flight could make for a dangerous crashing with the hawk, so the hawks decided to play a tactics of hit and run repeatedly till the mother hen tires or abandons her chick. Sasha was letting out repeated screams in a bid to call out the humans, and to keep her chicks in her position, she could run quickly to safety but the chick aren’t fast enough, and she needs to move steadily or she risks the chicks leaving her shelter, the hawks keep circling above, waiting for opportunity to strike. In the near distance, Sasha sees a hole, she peeks into her enclosed wings, and tells the chick that there is a hole in a wall diagonal to them, and they should keep walking diagonal with her, no matter what. She raises her head to continue their ever-steady walk, through the valley of shadow of death, when a hawk swoops down with precision, grabbing her wings and pulling her away from the chicks, before dropping her in the distance. The chicks now totally exposed with the their mother in the distance, already running towards them; the hawks swoop in for the kill, grabbing Index, and barely missing Thumb, because the hawks had collided into each other in the dive, Sasha reaches them attacking the hawk that had grabbed Index, and tells the remaining chicks to run.

Thumb, Ring, and Pinky race for the hole in the wall as their mother fights the hawk to free Index, feathers scatter in the air as this deadly commotion continue, and the remaining hawks chase the running chicks, Pinky is falling behind by a reasonably margin, and is about to fall prey to a hawk, when something hits the would be killer, cutting the hawks off, as they take flight to the skies. Thumb and the chicks keep running not turning back to the noise of growls and Sasha fighting the hawk. Thumb is the first to enter the hole to safety, followed by Ring, and then Index. Thumb, out of breath, turns seeing his siblings made it through, he catches his breath. Still shocked, he walks past his siblings, telling them to get farther away from the hole, which he approaches, peeking through it. His eyes immediately meet that of the dog, a black pit that glowed with a brown fiery ring in it. His eyes widen as he sees the dead hawk, clamped between Roger’s jaws. Rogers tosses the dead hawk in front of him, and runs towards his Mother, who was still fighting the hawk, preventing it from taking flight, with her beaks and digits, Roger clashes into them, separating them. The hawk takes flight, with Index still in its talon, but a loud noise pierces the air, sending the hawk falling to the ground, Index is released from its grasp, as she falls beside the hawk. Thumb notices Index not moving, and rushes out the hole towards her, he reaches calling out her name, he grabs her, and her blood sprays on him, as he come to the realization that she is dead, he cries at the top of his voice, when a human approaches them. The human picks up Index, inspecting her, and then looks down on Thumb, and says something he doesn’t understand, before walking away, towards Sasha, who was walking towards them with a limp, the human picks her up, and walks away with them, Thumb runs to follow them but is blocked by Rogers, Sasha in the arms of the human, tells him to take of his siblings and himself, that she will be back.

Thumb watches as the human takes them away, Rogers tells him to go back to hiding, since the hawks might come back, before following the human. Thumb stands there for what seemed like forever, till Pinky calls out to him, and he remembers his mothers’ word to take care of his siblings. He turns to her, and tells her they need to get back inside, she replies that Ring found a path through the wall that leads to the barn. They walk alongside towards the hole, and Pinky asks where their Mom, Index, and Middle were, without looking at her he quietly says he doesn’t know. They meet up with Ring inside the hole, and they head together to the barn, all drenched by the carnage that took place.

That night the chicks couldn’t sleep, even after Thumb told them their mother said she would come home, and that the humans took her to make her better, her and Index. In the early morning, the cockerel crows, awakening most of the barn animals, from the cows to the chickens and goats, Thumb had not slept through the night, but Pinky and Ring had fallen asleep sometime during the night, they wake up to the morning crow, Ring crying, Thumbs calms her, Pinky asks if they should do a headcount, Thumb replies no, and they were not leaving the barn today; there was death in the air that morning. Sometime later that morning, the siblings were hanging near the barn door, Ring had fallen asleep on Thumb’s feathers, who was watching some ants march, with Pinky, more than one human was seen for the first time, at that side of the barn, they were throwing away yams that had apparently gone bad, but the pigs were munching on them. Pinky suddenly tells Thumb to forgive her, stating it was her fault Sasha and Index were gone, before showing him her digits, which had an injury, Thumb concerned asks what happened, he gently moves Ring’s head to the ground, and goes to see the injury. Pinky continues, that it happened right before the hawks attacked, and was why Sasha couldn’t guide them any faster, if only she had been left behind, they would gotten to safety faster, this surprises Thumb, after a while he tells her not to cry, that it wasn’t her fault, Pinky asks him how, nearly in tears, sobbing, that if Sasha didn’t slow down for her, they would have made it faster to the hole, before the hawks became more aggressive. Thumb, remembers his mother’s last words to take care of his siblings, as she was bleeding from the human’s hands, he replies he believes that Sasha fought hard for them, and as long as she (Pinky) is alive, that is prove she fought a good fight, so she should wipe her tears, Pinky was drooling tears by now, Thumb wipes a tear from his eye, before hugging Pinky. He tells Pinky not to tell Ring about her digits, and he will find something to treat it, later. The human enters the barn, and approaches the siblings, dropping a bowl near them, before leaving, Thumb hesitates but goes first to check it out, he then calls the siblings, after finding out it was food, telling them it was for them. He tells them to eat that it was the food their mother had told them about, the siblings start pecking, after empting the bowl, they go back to their nest, staying there till the human came in the afternoon, giving them water, which they drank. When going back to their nest, Thumb notices a trail of ants, where they had had breakfast, he passes them, watching as they carried the crumbs from their bowl, in an orderly fashion. The siblings nest till late afternoon, when Ring asks if Sasha and Index are coming back today, Thumb says he doesn’t know, while Pinky says, the human might bring them with their lunch or dinner, Thumb concurs, and Ring says what if they are wrong, her stomach grumbles, causing a moment of silence, Thumbs breaks it, telling her she can go and eat the ants, at the place they ate breakfast, Ring replies she hope they aren’t wrong too, before matching out. Shortly after Ring comes back, saying the ants were no longer there. The rest of the afternoon pass, while the siblings chat about, from the Runaway ants, to Rogers the bard dog, and even Sasha fighting the Hawks. During the evening the human brings them food, they eat the food in silence that evening. After midnight, Thumb is still awake, he looks at Pinky and Ring, and they seem fast asleep, he sneaks out and head out the barn, Ring is awakened by a noise, observing him sneak out.

Outside, the full moon illuminates the night, Thumb heads towards the fence of the barn, when he hears a clattering noise behind him, which startles him, as he turns asking if anybody was there, after no reply, he continues towards the fence, till he encounters the barn dog ‘Roger’. Roger drops his bone, and greets Thumb, before asking what he was doing out this late, Thumb replies, he couldn’t sleep, and decided to go for a stroll, Roger scuffs, before continuing to chew the bone on his plate, Thumb watches the moon for what seemed like forever, and then abruptly he asks Roger if he knows what the humans did with his mother and sister, Roger stares at him, bone still in mouth, he doesn’t answer, continuing chewing, Thumbs says he is going to avenge his family, Roger passively asks what he plans on doing, “I will kill the Hawks”, Thumb answers, as the moon glisten in his eyes. Roger lets out a loud laugh, almost choking on the bone, he tells Thumb to go back inside and sleep, or is he that quick to forget the terror of the hawks, Thumb reaffirms that he is serious, the hawks took everything from him, and he will do the same to them, Roger notices the light in his eyes, he drops the bone, and tells Thumb, he asked what happened to his family, forgetting that his sister was dead the moment the hawk grabbed her, and his mother was severely injured while fighting them, so why does he delusion himself with the possibility of their safety. Thumb remembers the last image of his mother and sister, and is driven to tears, Roger chuckles, patting Thumb on the back, telling him there is nothing a prey can do against its predator. Thumb having never heard the words ‘prey’ and ‘predator’ is confused, he asks Roger what he means, and Roger replies, that when a living being is born, it is naturally placed in a particular sets of digits, and that determines their position on a ‘Hierarchy of Things’, Thumb is flabbergasted, he asks what ‘prey’ and ‘Hierarchy of Things’ are, and also what is a predator, saying he doesn’t fully understand. Roger looks at the moon, as he begins to reply, saying the Hierarchy of Things, is a phenomenon determined by an animal’s digit/paw/foot, that places it on a scale on what it eats…, and what eats it. He says he came to learn this, living with the humans. Thumb is even more curious, asking again what a prey was, Roger replies, that a prey is an animal that places low on the hierarchy, and it’s scaled more likely to be eaten, and that Thumb was an example, and the hawks where predators. He looks at Thumb, and says he is just like the hawks, a predator, even though a civil one. Thumb says Roger is nothing like the Hawks, Roger interposes, asking, if he does not remember that he had killed a hawk with relative ease, during their measly escape from the hawks. Thumb says their mother fought for their survival, and he shouldn’t refer to it as ‘measly’, Roger laughs, but softly now states Thumb was suddenly acting brave…, after he cowardly watched his mother fight alone, this irks Thumb, but he refrains his thought. He gets up, and Rogers asks if he is done watching the moon, Thumb says he is going to the forest to kill the hawks. Roger is a bit surprised, commenting that even after everything he has told Thumb, he still wants to face the hawks, he warns him that he will become food, because of the digits he was born with requires him to be a prey, but if he somehow survives he will like to hear of his exploits, that he is curious. Thumb walks away, without saying anything, properly vexed. Roger sits watching the moonlight, he takes a breath, before saying into the night, “whoever is there, show your face to the moonlight now…, or die”, and then glares at a dark corner, behind the house walls. Thumb continues down the fence, till he gets to the view of the field, separating the forest from the barn. He crosses the fence, muttering something angrily, he stands before the field, as his heart starts racing in fear, but he clenches his fist, and begins marching into the field.

Sasha had shown them how to tell the directions of the north, east, south, and west, based on the position of the sun, there was no sun to determine which direction Thumb would follow, but he knew the forest was directly ahead, from the position he was, at the fence. He wasn’t sure if he was still headed straight, but he was determined. Out of nowhere two small mouse run past him, and disappear among the grass, he realizes he could be easily ambushed among the grasses, and starts to pick up his pace, till he starts running panicked, he hears a sound chasing him, Thumb now more afraid, doesn’t stop to look back, and just keeps running, he sees a hole in the ground, and runs into it, breathing heavily, he looks outside the hole, and sees nothing but the full moon in the night sky, he decides to rest awhile in the hole, but slowly falls asleep.

Thumb jolts up from a nightmare, panting, before noticing he had been surrounded by glaring black eyes, he screams, but is suddenly slapped, as a squirrel tells him to be quiet, that he will wake the children, Thumb realizes he had been abducted by Squirrels, he asks them want they want with him, the squirrel says they should be asking him that, seeing as he crawl into their hole. Thumb remembers, it dawns on him that he could have been killed by a predator while sleeping, he lowers his head in sadness, and apologizes. He asks the squirrels to accommodate him till the morning, when he can safely go back to the barn. One of the squirrels disagrees, saying he might have been chased by a snake, and brought it to their hole, Thumb replies, he has never met a snake before, the squirrel that slapped him, asks what he was doing out there by himself, he explains to them. The squirrels are all in shock to what Thumb had just told them, one of them asks if he was crazy, that what did he hope to do against the hawks, Thumb grits his teeth, and clenches his fist in frustration, he asks if he can now stay for the night, the squirrels say they have to decide among themselves in private, they leave telling him to wait by the corner, some comment he was talking nonsense, that he must have been bitten by a snake, that’s why. Thumb stands in the corner, filled with despair and anger.

While the squirrels convened, a limping squirrel emerges from the dark towards Thumb, Thumb asks if they are done with their meeting, the squirrel replies, he isn’t among those deciding his stay, he introduces himself as Boldewn, he tells Thumb, that he has told them he wanted to kill the hawks, but not why, he then ask why a chick would want the hawks dead. Thumb is hesitant, but describes what the hawks had done to him, and what the barn dog had said about it. Boldewn nods, telling him he had given up his revenge, just after one night. Thumb tries to talk, but Boldewn just continues, saying it is for the best, since someone with his weak conviction, would have never been able to do anything, he tells Thumb he is heading out, but he should know he is very close to the hawk’s nest, Thumb is surprised. The limping squirrel walks upward the hole, disappearing into the moonlight. Another squirrel comes from inside the hole, offering Thumb a fruit, but doesn’t see him anywhere, it mutters “chick?”

Boldewn comes out the hole, under the moonlight, shortly followed by Thumb. Boldewn states the moon is said to hold the answer to all things, he turns to Thumb and asks what question does he have for the moon. Thumb stares at Boldewn, and asks what happened to his digit, noticing a stump where the left digit was, Boldewn smiles, saying the question he has for the moon is quite simply, Thumb says the question is for him, asking if the hawks took something from him too. Boldewn tells Thumb to follow him, that he will know the answer at the end, they walk silently through the field, as Thumb waits patiently for Boldewn to answer. They get to an impasse where Thumb says he wants an answer, Boldewn doesn’t answer and keeps walking, and Thumb gets frustrated, he raises his voice, asking the squirrel, where they were headed, Boldewn replies, asking him if he doesn’t not feel the “presence”, Thumb asks what he is talking about, and Boldewn says that he has to observe with his senses, in order to understand. He then asks Thumb a question, “what makes life finite”, Thumb understands the question sadly, replying that it is death. The squirrel disagrees, saying memory is what makes life finite, Thumb replies, asking what he means, Boldewn tells him to explain his answer first, and Thumb says it was just something his mother had told him about death, and after witnessing the fact himself, he believes it. Boldewn then says, that from the moment they are born, and memories start forming, they are on a clock till they die, Boldewn stops in front of a tall tree, and tells Thumb to stop, saying they have arrived, Thumb asks where, and Boldewn replies, they are at the edge of the forest, he tells Thumbs his mother isn’t wrong, but that sometimes ‘something’ happens afterward, whereby the memories they have made becomes connected to another of a specie, and continues till the process repeats, forming the condition he knows as life. But he knows even that is also temporary. Thumb replies, saying that it sounds complicated, and he doesn’t fully understand, Boldewn turns to him, and says, if memories are finite, it makes life is finite, if memories are to stay connected indefinitely, then an individual can escape death, and life can become everlasting. Thumb asks so memories have to become continuous, for life to transcend to eternal. Boldewn smiles, replying it is something like that, he tells Thumb, that he knows what the hawks are capable of, and even if he (Boldewn) is killed today, his memories will live on amongst his people, and even through Thumb himself, and he will live on that way. He then says that the hawk’s nest is close by, just two trees from where they stand, but he will be leaving him here, whether he chooses to face the hawks or go back to his barn, is up to him, but that if he goes into the forest, he should know death is a possibility, that he shouldn’t fear. A shiver runs down Thumbs spine, as he looks at the forest trees towering in front of him. Boldewn walks past him, saying that regardless of what happens, they are both motivated by their families, and that they have that in common. Thumb forces a smile, telling Boldewn, he’s nuts, and they are nothing alike. Boldewn scoffs, replying, that memories will keep death away, before walking down the path they had followed, leaving Thumb on his own. He ponders in front of the tree, and then whispers, “For Middle, Index, and mother”, entering the forest; for the rest of the night a cold breeze filled the air.

The cockerel crows, as the early morning sun rises, from behind the forest, waking Ring who was sleeping by the barn fence, under some grass, she gets up quickly and looks across the field, seeing nothing but grass, she shouts Thumb name, as her eyes becomes watery, and she mutters “why” under her breathe. After a while she hear rustling in the grass, follow by Thumb’s tiny figure emerging in distant, which makes her smile, she rushes into the field towards Thumb, and hugs him. Thumb asks her what she is doing out in the field, she frowns calling him a dummy, saying what does he think. Thumb says he is sorry, that he didn’t mean to make her worry, he then asks about Pinky. Ring says they should head back before Pinky starts looking for them, as she walks towards the barn, and Thumb follows, she asks what he went into the field for and he better start talking, but Thumb replies he will tell her everything when they get to Pinky, saying he experienced the most confusing and entertaining night of his life.

Pinky was waiting at the entrance of the barn, when they arrive, she states she was starting to get worried. They all then go and sit at the pig sty’s fence, watching the sunrise. Pinky asks where they had all been, Thumb says he headed out early morning and Ring followed him, Ring tells Thumb she saw him talking with the barn dog, and asks what it was about. Thumb unsurprised says they talked about what happened to them, saying that even though that Roger’s mentality was different, and he was confused about some things, he understood some of the things he meant. Ring then asks why he had entered the field, which Pinky is shocked to hear, but before she can say anything, Thumbs says he encountered a squirrel, and they talked about even more confusing/complicated things, but the squirrel helped him find his ‘courage’. Pinky asks why he would take such risk, that he could have been killed. Thumbs replies it was worth it, and he thinks he knows what to do now, he tells them they have to stick together and close to the humans, no matter what, and they would never have to fear losing anything, ever again. Pinky and Ring asks him how they would do that, to which Thumb says he doesn’t know for sure but they have to try. Pinky suddenly tells Ring how she had slowed them down because of her foot injury, Ring replies she already knew, to Pinky’s surprise. She says she was angry at first, but doesn’t blame her any longer. Thumb promises they would get through this, Ring tells him to not promise something he’s not sure of, but Thumb reaffirms he is sure, because they are in it together. A pig oinks at them to stop bonding, it then cracks a joke and they all laugh, a bit embarrassed.

Eleven weeks pass, and Ring had been moved by the humans into a fenced area, Pinky to further enclosed area inside a building only the humans had access to. Only Thumb was left at the barn, but he still saw and spoke to Ring every day, through the fence which was too small for their now larger body to fit through. They caught a glance of Pinky occasionally, when she was let outside from the enclosed area, by the humans, carried in a cage, she had a sadness about her eyes, which Ring talked to Thumb about, but Thumb trusted the humans absolutely and assured Ring she probably just misses them, and is being cared for by the humans. At the end of that week, Thumb stopped seeing Ring, the other animals across the fence said she had been taken away by the humans to join them in their occasional festive season. The next few days an anxious feeling filled Thumb, similar to what he felt in his childhood, but he quickly brushed it off anytime it arose, he then caught a glimpse of Pinky on her occasional outing, and for the first time noticed the sadness in her eyes were gone, replaced by a dark cold emptiness. And for the first time, doubt of the humans entered his mind, and he recalled a thought he had often pondered in his infancy, ‘why do the humans protect them’.

What is love? Love comes in many forms. We all interpret it in our own ways. The feeling of love doesn’t have an exact science, but somethings are common in all variations; like, want for respect and to be pleased. Every other thing rubs of those collective to become a blossoming flower(seasonally). When love is broken/betrayed, there is a feeling of anxiety, question, and anger. What happens when love is forcefully taken from you, by death, circumstances, all reason that elude you, but leaves an understanding, sometimes too hard to swallow. What happens when you could have stop it, or made it easier but you didn’t…what happens when you blame yourself…what happens when you want to get revenge? A little bit of sanity leaves the equation. - Ixora