Hatched in a Cap
Portrait of Galanok and second looker.
He hatched in a cap. His egg was caught in a cap. The cap's brim was clenched between his daddy’s teeth, who leaned over to catch the egg as it plopped out. They inspected the body. They licked their boy clean with their thick dry tongues. They didn’t notice at first, he looked like his siblings. His tail was coiled up, beneath him, his beak broke through the shell. He made the sound a nip makes. Everything was as it was supposed to be.
Years would pass before he stumbled upon this place. Years would pass before he fit into the cap. Years would pass before they realized his feet had no webbing. For years it would be whispered in his ears. Others would make direct eye contact before saying it, nodding gravely at him.
When he arrives in the rock pasture, the voices that have filled his lifetime reawaken in his mind, repeating and repeating the familiar phrase, “You are the one, Galanok.”