fireblaze

  Mabel sat on the carpet, fiddling with a key-chain that attached to her backpack.
  Waiting for class to start was boring, but the presence of her friends Taylor and Hazel more than made up for it.
  Tiredness lingering in her after having woken up early, Mabel rested her drowsy head on Hazel’s knee, snuggling into the hen’s brown feathers.
  She was only planning to relax for a minute, but Hazel’s lap was so soft and warm that Mabel’s eyes drifted closed and she let herself fall peacefully asleep, the room fading away around her except for Hazel’s rhythmic breathing.

  “Earth to Maple!”
  A cluck broke into Mabel’s sleep and she opened her eyes to see Taylor staring down at her.
  “Huh,” Mabel blinked sleep from her eyes, giving a grateful sigh as Hazel helped her sit up.
  “Class starts in two minutes,” Taylor tapped a wing-tip against her dark green watch.
  “Taylor, thank you,” Mabel got to her feet. She gave the sleek hen an affectionate nudge, grinning wearily, before heading over to her desk, “You saved me from certain embarrassment!”

  Vanilla opened her eyes.
  Beside her, her friend Mabel -who was at Vanilla’s house for a sleepover- was still peacefully asleep. She was pressed close to Vanilla’s side- her breathing steady and her face half-buried in Vanilla’s white feathers.
  Morning light was streaming through the blinds.
  Stretching, Vanilla sat up and slid off the bed.
  Eyes still closed, Mabel reached out a wing to grab at her friend. “Five more minutes,” the gray-brown hen muttered through her sleep.
  Vanilla lay down again and Mabel snuggled back in, her breathing returning to a steady and peaceful rhythm as she wrapped one wing around her friend.

  “Math is so hard,” Fireblaze complained with a sigh.
  “Yeah.” With a sympathetic huff, Taylor sat down on the bed beside her. “Don’t worry, though- I struggle with it, too.”
  Sitting atop a pillow near the two friends, Jilly seemed unconcerned about school troubles as she fiddled with a sock.
  “Long division is especially always hard,” Fireblaze muttered, “I wish we didn’t have to do it.”
  “It’s annoying,” Taylor agreed. She leaned back, crossing her legs. “I feel like it’s not really that essential to be good at division,” she scoffed, “I mean- technically I could just take four treats, give you the same amount, and give Jilly that one leftover that doesn’t have filling.”
  Fireblaze’s tail twitched with amusement.
  “Nah, I’m just kidding,” Taylor put a wing around Jilly, “I love you.”

Light’s Forgiveness

A man sat down on the lush grass of the sanctuary.
Light’s head lifts up in alarm. The small white hen had recognized him immediately.
This was her captor. This was her tormentor.
This was a worker from the terrible factory farm where Light used to live, and she remembered him painfully well.
He, among many others, had hurt her, scared her, neglected her, and treated her horribly while forcing her to lay eggs for the company.
He had forced her to live in darkness. In pain.
He had watched her lie helplessly on the cage floor as she panted and blood dripped from her wounds, and done nothing about it.
Light stiffened.
The man scooted closer.
She shrank back.
He reached out his hand.
She pulled away.
He murmured something quietly.
She looked at him. She contemplated.
There was something different about him.
The look on his face was no longer angry and cruel.
Instead his eyes were gentle and there was something else in their depths.
Regret.
She stepped closer to him. Maybe he had changed.
She hesitated.
Memories of the torture swept through her body -memories of the pain, the despair, the misery- threatening to sweep her off her feet.
She stared at the man again. Nothing could change reality, nothing could make her forget the past. He had still done those things. Him being less scary now didn’t take that away.
She remembered with a shiver how he had glared at her through the cage bars in response to her cries, causing her to shrink back in fear, pressing against the bars.
But that icy glare was now gone, and in its place was pain.
Light knew pain.
She knew it too well.
A forceful urge inside the hen told her to turn tail and run, but an even stronger urge overwhelmed it.
The urge to forgive.
She knew what despair felt like and she wanted to put this man out of it. She felt sorrow when she looked at him. She was free now, and no longer suffering, so why couldn’t she let go? She didn’t want to put someone into a position of helplessness and self-doubt- as had been done to her years ago. She knew Jesus said to show forgiveness.
And that was just what she was going to do.
She had gotten a chance at freedom, and in turn she would give this man a chance at being friends with chickens.
Taking a deep breath, she came closer to him.
He reached out to her slowly.
She outstretched her neck forward.
He gently stroked her white feathers.
Relaxing, Light rested her head on his lap and quietly clucked words of comfort even though she knew he wouldn’t understand.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. I’m not mad at you. I’m glad you changed your mind. And I hope others do, too.”
She lifted her head to look up at him.
“I forgive you.”