We Finally See

"Come on guys. Let's get this over with already. I don't want to be in here with you guys longer than I have to." huffed Cyrus on his way to the barn.

"I don't really feel like doing this today either, but we promised mom that we'd finish up today. And nobody wants to be around your stinky pits anyway!" Hera said scrunching up her nose, dragging herself along behind her brother.

"Well maybe it'll be fun exploring in there! We haven't been in there in a long time." Anne Marie said with the biggest smile while she skipped along with her siblings.

Cyrus and Hera both rolled their eyes and said "Whatever!" in unison.

"If we finish fast enough, I could get back to Royale High and enter the fashion show. I need more diamonds to get some shoes I wanted." Hera said.

"Yeah and I don't want to miss the new Fortnite event, so chop!" Cyrus added as he pushed the withered and dried vines off of the handle and pulled the barn door open.

Anne Marie clasped her hands together, smiled and said, "I just remembered. There's a new pet coming out today, for one day only, on Adopt Me that I wanted. So, yeah, let's hurry up!" She then ran past Cyrus into the barn, tripping over an old rake and landing in a pile of hay. Both Cyrus and Hera burst out laughing at the sight of that.

Cyrus reached out his hand to help Anne Marie, but she pushed it away. "I don't need your help. And it's not funny!" she pouted, embarrassed. She then got up, brushed herself off and started to carefully walk around the barn.

"Suit yourself. I was just trying to help." Cyrus said carelessly.

"Yeah right." mumbled Anne Marie.

"Just come on, guys." Hera finally said. "Where do you want to get started?"

They started to look around at everything. There were lots of old worn out pieces of equipment like corn huskers, plow machines and mowers. Even the shears, rakes, brooms and shovels lying around were so rusted that if you hit them on the ground, they would probably crumble. Spiderwebs were hanging off of the old pulley system that creaked and swayed on the summer breeze. The early morning sunlight seeped into every crack and crevice throughout the walls and ceiling. And hay was in all the stalls. Everything in the barn and the barn itself had seen better days. Although it was no bigger than a two car garage, there was still a lot of work to do.

"Ugh! This is gonna take all day!" Hera exclaimed.

"So we better get started!" Anne Marie said excitedly. "I'll go up to the loft and start working there." She giggled as she ran to the ladder leading to the loft.

Cyrus wanted to object, knowing that the loft was the smallest area to work in, and therefore would be the easiest and quickest to finish. But before he could, Anne Marie was already up the ladder, and she turned around and stuck out her tongue at him.

"Just let her stay up there." Hera said to Cyrus without looking at him, putting on her gloves. "She's probably too weak to move this stuff down here anyway."

Cyrus snickered while put on his gloves and gabbed the rake they bought with them. "Yeah, you're probably right!" he said.

"Hey! I heard that!" Anne Marie whined.

"We know!" Hera and Cyrus said.

Anne Marie huffed and turned away again. She put on her gloves and started to clear the loft.

For a while, the siblings worked without speaking too much to each other. They didn't even bother to work together either. As they got rid of debris, the sounds of wood knocking together and metal items being dragged out and thrown on the garbage pile were only slightly muffled by the hay all over the floor.

After a while, Cyrus and Hera decided to take a rest. At the same time, Anne Marie was just about to finish clearing the shelves on the loft.

"I just need to clear off this top shelf and then I'm gonna take a break." she said to herself. The top shelf was too high for her to see anything on it, and she didn't want to blindly reach up there, so she got a step ladder to get a better view.

For the most part, Anne Marie saw what you would expect to see in an area that hasn't been used for a very long time, with some exposure to the weather. Dust, dirt, moss, feathers, bird poo and .... a pile of sticks? Neatly tucked in the corner?

"Hmm? What's that?" she said to herself.

Just as Anne Marie was about to move the step ladder over to get a closer look, a white and grey fuzzball popped up from the stick pile. It had big round eyes and the tiniest grayish beak that she had ever seen. They stared at each other for a while, blinking, trying to figure out what the other was. Suddenly, another fuzzy fluff popped up, and then one more, causing Anne Marie to jump a little.

They just stared at each other for a little while. They were so adorable that Anne Marie wanted Cyrus and Hera to see them. Growing up in a family of animal lovers, she knew her siblings would want to see them. Their love of animals also helped her in identifying the little cuties as Barn Owls. She didn't want to scare them, so she whisper yelled,

"Guys! GUYS! You gotta come see this!" she waved her arms and motioned for them to come up to her.

"What?!" Hera yelled as she looked up towards the loft.

"What are you saying?!" shouted Cyrus.

"SHHHHH! Stop yelling and come up here!" Anne Marie whisper yelled again.

Cyrus and Hera both shrugged and made their way up to the loft. Once they got up there, they were so confused and were trying to figure out what their sister was so excited about. Anne Marie stepped down off of the step ladder to allow Hera to go up and look. Cyrus was tall enough to see without it. Anne Marie was grinning from ear to ear as her brother and sister peered over the shelf to see the little surprises.

"Awwww!" Hera whisper yelled.

"Those are cool." Cyrus said in a low voice.

"I think so too. But what are we gonna do now?" Anne Marie asked.

"They're so cute! But we shouldn't touch them though." Hera said with sad smile.

"Yeah. The mama might come back soon. We should leave them alone now." Cyrus said. He then turned to Anne Marie and said, "Come on, let's go." But then he noticed that she was staring up towards the rafters near the roof where there was a big hole.

"What is it, lil sis?" he asked her with a puzzled expression.

"I think I found mama." she replied in a sad voice, pointing to a broken beam on the roof near the hole.

Cyrus and Hera followed the direction Anne Marie was pointing in and were both in shock at what they saw.

There she was. Mama Barn Owl pinned at the chest in the broken space of an old wooden beam, struggling for breath. She had what looked like a mouse in her beak. While working earlier, they all heard a loud crack when the beam broke but thought it was something outside. Now they all felt saddened as they watched Mama Barn Owl heaved her last breath, her eyes slowly closing as her head bowed and the mouse dropped to the floor.

Anne Marie and Hera quickly turned away and started to cry. Cyrus was about to go and remove Mama Barn Owl from the horrible predicament, but stopped dead in his tracks as Papa Barn Owl swooped down like a silent cloud, landing on the beam next to her. He let out a soft screech and then began to nudge Mama Barn Owl's head with his. During this time, the siblings had already moved off of the loft to be safe. (Papa may go into protect mode since the babies are still up there.) After a few failed attempts to wake her, Papa Barn Owl let out a much louder screech as if he realized she was gone. He then flew to the nest for a little while and then flew away.

"What's going to happen now?" Anne Marie asked Cyrus through her tears.

"I don't know. But we're gonna have to tell Mom about this." he told her.

"Yeah because he may not take care of the babies now because we were up there and Mama is gone." Hera said. She sniffled and continued, "I think that's enough for today. Let's go." And with that, they all went into the house.

When they all got in the house, their mom saw that all of her children had a big change in attitude from when they went to clean up the barn too now.

"Hey guys. What's going on? Were you picking at each other again?" Mom asked as they walked in and flopped on the couch. "And why are you crying girls?"

The siblings all sighed at once and then one by one explained a part of what happened in the barn. Anne Marie and Hera snuggled under Mom as she sat on the couch between them.

"Well, I think we should leave them alone for now because Papa may come back to take care of them." Mom said, looking at all of them. "If he doesn't, then we will figure something out, ok guys?" They all nodded. Mom continued, "Go get ready for dinner, then wash up and go get some rest. We'll check on them tomorrow."

Over the next couple days, the siblings routinely checked on the baby fuzzballs. Sadly there was no sign of Papa. Cyrus went to Mom and asked for some advice. Mom made some calls to wildlife services but no one would be available for a long time to come get the babies.

So Mom decided to let her children take care of the little ones and help them until they're strong enough to be released back into the wild. But there was one main condition, there was to be no fighting and each one had to help the other out. The children were reluctant but agreed in the end. They each took care of one of the babies. Cyrus named his Lulu, Hera named hers Remi and Anne Marie named hers Echo.

The siblings gradually worked together for the next seven and a half weeks and helped the babies grow to maturity. Their mother watched with pride at how well they got along and worked so well together. They even built an enclosure so that the little ones would have plenty of space to test out their wings.

"Make sure you give them plenty of water!" Hera would remind Cyrus and Anne Marie.

"I'm already doing that. You just make sure that the enclosure is clean, so they have space to run around." Cyrus told Hera.

"And I'll make sure that their food area is full everyday." Anne Marie added. "I don't want them to be hungry!"

Before long, the time had come to release Lulu, Remi and Echo. They went from cute little fuzzballs to majestic and beautiful fully grown Barn Owls. They were a mirror image of their parents. The siblings went into the enclosure with a special leather armband on their forearm and allowed each owl to climb onto it.

As they walked to the release point, everyone was a little teary-eyed for different reasons. The siblings worked diligently to make sure the little owls were healthy and safe and became friends with each other in the process. They were gonna miss the owls dearly.

The siblings realized they hadn't fought with each other once while they were taking care of the babies. They liked that and wanted to keep it that way. Not only that, they had also became much closer to each other as brother and sisters, and that made them happy. They finally understood why Mom allowed them to take care of the owls.

Mom was so proud of them for the good job they did as well. And it warmed her heart that they finally see what she wanted for them all this time, for them to get along with each other.

They walked up a hill to the edge of the forest then Cyrus, Hera and Anne Marie raised their arms signaling for the owls to fly. As they each took flight, the family stood there and watched them as they flew past the trees until they were out of sight.

Anne Marie buried her face into Mom's chest and said, "I'm gonna miss them!" in a muffled voice.

"Me too." Hera sniffled as Cyrus nodded and put his arm around he shoulder.

"I know guys." Mom said. "But I can't tell you how proud I am of you for doing such an excellent job. And you all get along so well now, I hope it stays that way. If it wasn't for you guys working together, I don't know what would have happened to those little fuzzballs." Everyone chuckled a little.

She then sighed, kissed each child on the forehead and gave them a hug said, "Let's go home." They all nodded, then headed home and lived harmoniously for the rest of their days.