Azure looked down at her three eggs. Pride filled her heart thinking of the little blue birds that would soon hatch. A crack appeared in one of the eggs. Soon a tiny yellow beak broke through the shell. "My first baby." She watched patiently as it climbed out and fluffed up its blue feathers. "I shall name you Skyler. You're the color of the sky."

Skyler sat in the nest next to his mama and both of them watch the second egg crack.

"My second baby." Azure smiled as the tiny blue bird broke through the shell and fluffed up its feathers. "You are blue too. I'll call you Crystal because you are as blue as ancient ice."

Crystal looked at her mama and then, before Azure could do anything else, Crystal jumped out of the nest and ran toward the pond.

Azure chirped and ran after her baby. Skyler didn't want to be without his mama so he ran after her.

The third egg lay in the nest alone. Two tiny cracks appeared in the shell and both of the baby bird's feet poked out. The tiny blue bird climbed out of the nest, not able to see, and followed the sound of his mama's chirps.

"There you are, Crystal! You stay in the nest with Skyler and the other egg until Mama says it's okay to leave." Azure took Crystal by the wing and they headed back to the nest. On the way they saw Skyler. "Skyler! What are you doing out of the nest? Did you leave the egg alone?" Azure took Skyler's wing and the three birds hurried back. Mama bird was horrified when she saw that the third egg was missing. "My egg! Where is it?" She looked at her babies. "You'll have to come with me to find the egg. Stick close to Mama."

They searched for hours but never found the egg. Finally Mama drew a picture of her egg and hammered it on a tree in the woods.

Herman, the owl, had just woken up. The sun was going down and he was feeling rather hungry. He spread his wings and flew around looking for a snake or a mouse. "What is that?" He swooped down and saw the egg. "An egg running around? How odd. That's not supposed to happen." Just then he saw the picture Mama bird had put on the tree. "Ah, so you're missing. Your mama must be worried sick." Herman picked up the egg, carried it in his wings and flew over to the oak tree to find Azure. She was sitting in her nest with the other two babies.

"My baby! You found my egg! Thank you, Herman." Azure took her egg and put it in the nest. Herman flew off to finish finding food for supper.

Azure curled her babies and the egg close to her and they all fell asleep. When she woke up in the morning, instead of an egg, there lay another tiny blue bird. It had big blue eyes and an orange beak. "My baby! You've hatched. I'm going to call you Gypsy because you like to wander."

Later that morning, Azure took her three babies to the pond and taught them to swim. She smiled, happy to have her family safe and close by.