I didn’t remember inside the egg. Mama told me that I was always on her feet, until she left to get food. Then I was on Papa’s feet. The first thing I remembered is cold, right after I hatched. Then Mama shoving warm fish down my throat, fish she had kept for me until I was hatched. The first few weeks had been a huge blur-fluffing up, losing my down…and now here I was, standing on the edge of the glacier, ready to catch my own food. I wasn’t full-grown, not yet, but I was close, and Mama said she wasn’t going to feed me anymore. Shayla was standing next to me, looking eagerly over the sparkling waves.
“They say you’ll just naturally know how to swim, you know…you won’t have to like, drown or anything,” she said, finally looking in my direction. I snorted. “Random much, Shayla-la?” I said, using her nickname to calm myself. “I’m not scared.” I was lying, but when we started looking for a mate, I would appear brave. Plus I liked Shayla. Kind of…a lot.
Without warning, I was pushed into the water…