Lorilee

Lorilee
The Sightless One

Lorilee was born dead. When her nestmates began to hatch and struggle out of their eggs, hers remained still. During their struggle for freedom, one of her siblings toppled over onto their side and bumped her egg, causing it to collide with the stones surrounding the nest. The white shell cracked and out fell the tiny, lifeless body of Lorilee. Her parents were dismayed at what had happened, and her mother moved the small corpse outside so that it was away from her live babies.

Later that night, while the two proud parents slept curled protectively around their hatchlings, Lorilee's body began to twitch. Her tail curled around her body, and her sides began to move up and down as she took her first gasping breaths. The tiny Coatl's green eye flicked open, but still she saw nothing. Her wings flexed as they tried to acquaint themselves with the new life filling them, but only one of them seemed to work properly. The other barely responded the commands Lorilee's brain was giving it. Scared and freezing in the cold night air, surrounded by nothing but the broken remains of her egg. The blind hatchling called out for someone, anyone.

Her tiny squeaks woke her mother, who carefully pulled herself away from her family and stepped outside to investigate. Upon seeing the hatchling she thought was dead staring blankly at the wall in front of it whilst crying out for help, the old female's heart was torn. The strange life that now beat in the youngster's heart had come at the price of her eyes and flight capabilities, which would mean that she would have a hard time surviving in the place her family lived. At the same time, this tiny Coatl was the mother's daughter, and she couldn't bear the thought of wasting the miracle that gave her child life.

Gently, the older female scooped up Lorilee, whispering softly to her so as to quiet her distressed cries. Her mother carried her to the one place she hoped her daughter would be safe, begging the leader of a nearby clan to take her in. The distraught parent's pleading seemed to strike something in the dominant male's adopted daughter, a brilliant orange Fae, who convinced her father to take the blind, flightless baby into the clan. Lorilee knows she is different. She knows she didn't come into the world like her clanmates, and she knows she will never be able to live out a life like they do. The notion saddens her, but with the support of her mate, Brisban, she is able to push the thought aside and carry out her days as cheerfully as possible.