I woke up to a familiar warmth enveloping my body.

A blanket of stillness and comfort, one that tucked my body in a shelter that promised unconditional safety. I tried to think of the last time I felt so cared for, and the image of a woman with a soft, round face came to my mind.

Her embrace as I cried about the wound on my knee. Her soothing voice as she told me it would be okay. Her comforting words that would take away my troubles and make it all right.

I hugged my body closer, willing myself to sink into the pleasant memory some more. Holding it so it would not let go.

It felt like hours later that I woke up again for the second time. The warmth has abated. It has turned muted, colder, holding only a remnant of its past.

So deeper, still, I burrowed. My legs and limbs waddling around in the dark to grab more of that lingering warmth, of that pleasant memory. I forced myself to turn inside, to jump into the lukewarm abyss of dreams.

Minutes later, I woke up to cold silence. To the stillness of stagnant air. My breaths came short and shallow, and I realized I was slowly choking. The cloak surrounding me has turned oppressive now, constricting, limiting my limbs and forcing my head down. With every second it grew stronger, robbing me of much needed air, threatening to snuff my life out.

I tried to stretch my legs, and realized that I couldn’t move them. I tested my arms, and realized they, too, were unresponsive. It was as if all my limbs were now bent out of shape, refusing to move the way they always had.

I am gasping for air now, half-choking, my lungs protesting for more. All around me was darkness, a thick curtain that denied all light, dark enough that I can’t even make up my ups and downs.

Fear flooded me. My head, the only thing I can control, started to move around. It didn’t take long before I hit something solid, a barrier mere centimeters in front of me.

I reeled back, the sudden jolt of minor pain through my body largely ignored as I felt - and heard - the sound of a crack.

I pulled my head back as far as my neck allowed it to. A second later, I was delivering headbutt after headbutts towards the wall in front of me, each impact accompanied by an increasingly louder crack.

It took me seconds that extended forever before my head finally broke through and I poked out of my captivity.

At the same time I gulped in air - my lungs jumping in joy - a truly cacophonous mixture of sounds assaulted my ears. I tried to pull my arms up - to cover my ear - before the same muted, dull response reminded me how they were still unresponsive.

I opened my eyes, only for my vision to be bathed by an intense and sharp ray of light. I closed them shut instantly, the pain triggering a cry of pain. The next moment, as I was trying to make sense of the stars in my vision, something hard and cold pressed into my mouth.

A soft, slimy, and wiggling object entered my mouth not soon after.

My instinctive reaction was to retch. To throw up whatever abominable creature that was forced down my mouth, the very same one that I could feel squirming down my body.

My throat, however, decided to greedily devour what was given instead. Like it was the most natural thing to do. In a few sharp contractions, the living being my captors forced down my throat was safely lodged inside my stomach.

A small part of my mind felt a pang of disgust, of distaste towards the meal my stomach had just received. By all means it should have been followed by nausea, which should have triggered a reaction that puked out the offending material. Except instead, what followed was a desire for more.

My stomach whined, and my body agreed. It wanted more of the slimy, wiggling thing, and it wanted one that tasted better than before. The desire forced out a high-pitched protest to be produced from my mouth.

To have my own body move without my own commands. To have it do and desire things that I was initially repulsed against. Desires that are slowly starting to feel natural.

Before I could even think about the transformation going through my body, another snake-like being was placed on my mouth.

The part of me that still felt resistance towards the thing forced my mouth to clamp shut. But I was too late, and I could feel the remaining half of it with my tongue. I wanted to push it out, but once again my body betrayed me. The thing slid down my throat, its inside spilling all over -

A savory sweetness that was so sharp and extreme, at the precipice of becoming overwhelming, replaced any notion of disgust and reluctance that I initially felt. It was a torrent of the most delicious sensation I’ve ever tasted, and it swept through my body as my taste buds reacted to it.

A shudder ran from the tips of my head to the edge of my feet. A voice of delight escaped my mouth.

It’s a noodle, I decided. A strand of the most well-cooked noodle that the world has ever made. Nothing else could even taste that good.

My mouth opened wide once again, and for once, I felt no desire to close it. Only anticipation of what was to come.

Another noodle strand was deposited in my mouth, and I quickly gobbled it up.

When it touched my throat, however, none of the same savoriness returned. It was nothing but a wet sliminess sliding down my throat.

In disgust, I threw it out.

Why was it so different? Was I given something different? No, the texture is the same.

Then it clicked in my head. The only thing that made it different is that I bit into the one before.

I craned my head down, towards where I’m sure I spat out the noodle. My eyes slowly opened, just a crack. I still remember the assault of light when I opened them fully, and I was careful to not go through the same thing again.

What my eyes saw first was the color yellow. Strands of hay were stacked together, creating soft ground around me. But even with my limited vision, I could see a single, cylindrical object wiggling around in the center of my vision.

My mouth moved to grab the noodle, while my neck extended to allow the movement. But my meal was farther than I expected, and in my excitement, I extended myself too far.

I heard a loud crack beneath my head before the world turned into a blur.

More cracks followed as I was tumbling down, whatever holding me in place breaking away.

I could see the hay beneath me getting bigger and bigger, and a few seconds later, my body landed… gently on the floor.

Huh. I expected more pain, really, considering how far away the ground looked before.

I sat upright, and looked back to see where I fell from.

A huge gaping hole remained on one side of a white oval container that was slightly larger than I am. The hole had pieces of it jutting out near its perimeter, clear evidence that something had broken out from inside. The remaining parts of the container were smooth and untouched.

No, that can’t be right.

If I was inside that oval container, how was I supposed to survive? I wouldn’t have even been able to breathe! There were no tubes or anything feeding oxygen inside of it.

Yet with every second I took to convince myself, I started to notice more and more things around me.

I was inside a building made out of dark brown wood. The walls behind the container were made out of it, at least, but when I looked up, I could only see darkness - the ceiling was too far away for me to make out.

But most importantly, I realized that there were other containers around me. A few of them had webbed cracks here and there, but a majority of them were smooth and untouched.

Only two others had a hole like mine, and popping out of them were the heads of baby birds. Their eyes were closed shut, but their beaks were opening and closing as they chirped loudly in protest.

A huge figure casted a shadow over me, and a second later the most gigantic bird I’ve ever seen in my life came to view.

Soft, white feathers as far as the eye can see. A black beak that curved at the end. Brown eyes with a piercing glare. Its whole body alone covered most of the light that was streaming in from outside, doubtlessly casting a shadow over my tiny body.

It was like looking up at a mountain.

The bird was holding a struggling worm on its beak. It stretched its neck and pressed it on one of the chick's beak, which instantly shut it closed.

A second later, the gluttonous kid opened it again and started chirping for more.

It was then that the giant bird swiveled around, its gaze meeting mine. It looked at me, then down to the ground, then back at me.

Its left wing fluttered open a bit, revealing the presence of forward-facing emerald claws on the joints of its wing. There are three of them in total that I can see, one by its shoulder near the neck, one by its wrist joint, and the last at its wingtips.

The monstrous bird flexed its wing, bringing the claws closer. Each of the claws, I realize, consisted of 4 nails that each were as large as the oval containers behind me. They all looked sharp enough to rend flesh and bones.

The claw stopped when it was at my eye level. Then it moved, displaying flexibility that should have not been possible.

A single nail was pointing down to the ground in front of me, the other three curling in.

My eyes instinctively followed the emerald gleam of the nail, only to realize what it was pointing at.

The noodle I spat out. The wiggling, slimy… worm.

For it was a worm. Nothing else but a worm would have those segments, would look that slimy, or would move around like that!

I felt the urge to retch well up inside me once again.

I looked away, meeting the brown eyes of the giant bird. I shook my head. No way.

It was then that I realized something.

Eyes that glared unblinkingly. The way she slightly craned her neck forward, looming over my body. The claws placed on her side. Like a mother showing disapproval over their child’s actions.

… Please don’t tell me she really thought of me as her child.

When I simply stared at the worm as it moved and shuffled around, the giant bird once again moved its wing, so that its claw was pointing at me. Then, it moved it slowly to the side, once again pointing at the moving worm.

Oh lord, she really thinks I’m her child.

I wave my arms around, in the universal sign of ‘no, you got it wrong, you giant monster bird, I’m not your child, and I’m definitely not eating a worm.’

But instead, what I saw was two pairs of featherless-wings flapping about beside me.

… huh.

My eyes widened, until I could see everything in front of me clearly. I could see a beak, where my mouth was before. Wings, where my arms should’ve been.

… Nah, no way.

I willed the wings to move, and they did, flapping around weakly. I opened my mouth, and the beak opened instead.

I’ve always considered myself to be good at running away from reality, but it seems that there’s no way out from this.

I’m a… bird?

More importantly, I’m the child of a giant bird.

A giant bird that has taken my sudden silence as a refusal to the meal she had given.

Her neck craned down even further, until her eyes were as close as they could get to mine. In that distance, I could fully appreciate how sharp the claws on her shoulder were.

It’s not that it tasted bad, okay, mother? I truly appreciate the meal you’ve found for me.

But it’s a worm, you know?! A worm!

Now that I know what they are, no matter how delicious they might be, there’s no way I’m going to eat them again.

No way!

Their wiggling, slimy body. The yellow pustule on their otherwise bright green body.

The savory, thick juice of their insides…

NO!

I whirled my head around, banishing the thoughts.

I’ve always hated insects, bugs, and those creepy-crawlies. Just the mere sight of them was enough to freeze me back when I was a…

A… not bird?

I fell into shocked silence as another realization hit me. What was I before?

I know I’m not a bird. I was something else. Something with… proper arms. And a mouth that isn’t a beak. With legs, too, probably. But the more I searched my memory, the more something seemed to prevent me from properly remembering that word.

Like a haze, it covered the memories I was seeking for, obstructing it from my attention. Everytime I pushed against it, it grew stronger, covering up more of my mind and memories, insisting that I was nothing but a bird.

Yet no matter how naturally I can move this body, and how proper it feels to have wings instead; even if I can’t put it into words, I know for sure. I am not a bird. I was something else. Someone… else.

I tried to scratch my head, only to realize that my stupid bird wings can’t even reach that high. This is the worst. If only I have human arms-

Sharp pain followed that thought. A visceral, bone-deep pain that cleaved through my mental faculties.

It slammed into my mind, multiple nails that pierced and drilled through my skull, all at once.

The pain blurred my vision, and turned my world upside down. All I could remember was chirping out screams as I furiously rubbed my head to the dried hay beneath me, wishing for the pain to die down.

It didn’t.

The hammering continued for what felt like hours, for what felt like forever. All I could remember was hearing something shuffle beside me, followed by somebody softly pulling me into their embrace.

I blanked out.

The next time I opened my eyes, it was to see the crescent moon in the night sky. A moon that was as blue as the sea, framed between the twinkling stars of the dark sky.

It was then that everything clicked. I could hear my own voice inside my head, one that whispered to me a truth. A truth that I’ve subconsciously refused to entertain.

I’m not on Earth.

I’m no longer… whatever it was, that primarily lived on Earth.

I’m somewhere else, and something else.

I felt a relief wash over me when I accepted that fact. Yeah. I’m a bird, nothing else, nothing more.

A bell chime softly played in my head. Words started to appear, forming two sentences that filled the center of my vision.

『Species: Infant Roc 』

『Name: N/A 』

Huh. Would you look at that?