WC: 526
He continued downward again, and his confidence boosting a little he moved slightly faster. This was actually pretty fun. He wondered how it would be like to go up a mountain, he’d imagined it would take a lot more time than this did. He was more than halfway to the nest when Heath’s question rang in his ears. He stopped to answer him,
Getting there, about halfway, it won’t be long now!
He panted, it was a lot of hard work doing this, he was sure that muscles he hadn’t used in a while would be screaming by the time he got done with this. But he was here in the now and he was already halfway there, which excited him dearly, he moved his foot down and down and down. Just as he put his hind paw on his next foothold, he suddenly dipped, the hold wasn’t strong enough to bear any of his weight and it slipped off the cliff wall and he fell half a foot before he got his grip. His heart was racing and he was breathing hard, and now he was clinging for dear life to the wall. He wanted to make sure he had his bearings before he started to descend again, he looked down to see where the nest was and it was right nest to his foot, he let out a loud whoop of excitement he could smell victory now!
I’m almost there! Only a few more feet should do it, and I’ll head back up!
He cried up to Heath, then they would have a victory meal, he’d scrounge up something for his new friend, for all the help he gave him, he just hoped slipping up the slope wasn’t going to happen, if he slipped and fell this time he wouldn’t has as much slack, but that was beside the point now, he took a few more breaths and then headed back down and found himself face to face with a nest full of twigs feathers and a few other assortments. There in the nest were not three but FOUR eggs, wow, that was amazing, he’d definitely remember this day now, it was rare for a golden eagle to have more than two, and four was amazing, he’d definitely have to ensure the life of one of these poor babies, but which one. He looked at all the light grey speckled eggs, and decided to pick up the closest one. Taking a hand off of the side of the ledge he took one of the eggs ever so careful as to not touch any of the others and found the pouch he’d made just for this egg and snuggled it inside, and looked up, wow he’d gone a long way down.
I got it, I’m ready to go up!
He said and started ascending the cliff, it wasn’t as hard as it was going down blind, in fact it was almost as easy as going up when he’d first started the bird cage. Except it was slippery. Please don’t let me slip! He thought to himself as he moved up little by little.