'So cramped.'

During the past two days Corvus seemed to fuse with what would be his new body, and it was as though he had been forcefully maintained in a fetal position. Wanting to stretch his stiff neck he tried moving it, only to feel it push against the shell of his egg. Pushing with all his might he felt it give a little. and realized a crack had formed. He was still unable to see anything so he assumed the crack just wasn't letting a lot of light in. A short moment later, Corvus redoubled his earlier effort trying to burst forth from his egg. Aggravatingly, he barely managed to enlarge the crack before he needed to rest and recover.

As this process of pushing the shell and resting repeated, Corvus began to worry. 'I still can't see?' He knew that the crack in the eggs shell was wide enough for him to stick a limb out of, but his vision remained dark. 'No, don't let yourself panic.' giving another stretch, 'For all I know this could be completely normal.' His tattered memories didn't have any information about baby birds but he vaguely recalled some animals being born blind. 'For now, I'm just gonna hope that's the case here.'

It took Corvus quite a long time to force the crack large enough that he was able to slide his body out of the egg. As he did he felt something stuck to his stomach scrape off of his chest. He had been primarily jostling himself along with his feet, but as he was doing so he slipped on had fallen from his chest. His foot drove whatever it was that fell into a gap in the nest. Finally completely free of the egg Corvus let his body stretch out, only to become startled as the nest gave a small tremor as a large presence appeared behind him. Unable to see it was only when the presence seemed to remove something from the nest that Corvus calmed down. He reasoned out that this must be one of his parents. Exhausted from the rigors of hatching and feeling some sense of safety knowing his new parent was around Corvus let himself collapse and sleep.

Corvus' wasn't sure how long he slept. He could somewhat tell it was day, because he felt the sun's heat on his body but beyond that he couldn't tell much. He knew he wasn't alone in the nest as he had been nudged awake. It became clear it was another baby bird when a whiny chirping sound broke the silence. His stomach grumbling, Corvus wondered how to go about eating given him being so weak and blind. 'No way,' he thought when an idea struck him. Unwillingly Corvus lifted his head, adding his own whiny chirp to the other.

During the two days before he hatched Corvus made a list of several things he should try to do this time around. One of these was to learn more about his new species. As he had been a crow both times, it wasn't too large a leap in logic to assume he would keep coming back as one. He had obviously seen crows before, but whether it was because his memories now had the consistency of swiss cheese or not, he couldn't help but acknowledge how little he actually new about them. For that reason, he was quite shocked when he felt a rather large beak enter his open mouth, dropping something into his throat. His body responded causing a build up of saliva, which allowed him to easily swallow the small bit a food with a gulp.

While not horribly unpleasant Corvus had never eaten as a crow before. Evaluating the experience he eventually decided, 'This is going to take some getting used to.' Given his current situation it hadn't been that hard for him to conclude he would have to, as shortly after his first feeding his stomach felt empty again.

Ironically, he had grown quite used to being fed, beak to beak, by the end of the first day. After the sheer number of times he had gone through the process that day, it would have been more surprising if he hadn't adapted to it. The feedings had continued at regular intervals all throughout the day, only stopping when night fell. Corvus ended up taking longer to fall asleep than his siblings. Only a couple dozen seconds really but he was still awake when the two large beings he'd come to think of as his parents huddled around him and the others. The warmth and shelter they provided ushering him to bed.

Time passed quickly as this cycle of feeding and sleeping continued over several days. It was about a week after hatching when Corvus first opened his eyes. Being able to see was such a relief that he didn't even mind that in his current state he couldn't even see out of the nest. He was able to see his 'siblings', of which he had two. By sight alone Corvus couldn't tell whether they were male or female, but somehow he knew one was male and the other female.

None of them had much in the way of covering, just a bit of down here and there. Most of their skin was a dark ebony, but some of it was a pinkish color. 'We look like plucked chickens,' Corvus chuckled to himself before thinking, 'I suppose that makes sense though.' He had been quite astonished when he first laid eyes on his parents. It baffled him that all these small things kept on amazing him, but it was a weird experience to look up at a crow and think 'How huge.' It wasn't like they were all that large for crows, a fact he reasoned out after he stopped gawking. It was really the male bird missing a feather that made that clear to Corvus. Apparently this was the same the bird that he had dominated in his previous life. 'What does that make now? Ten, no, eleven things I need to make the old man pay for.'

Despite not being able to see much, Corvus was still glad to be able to see. His sedentary lifestyle was beginning to grate on him. Deciding to work on one of the simpler goals he set himself. Whenever he wasn't eating or sleeping Corvus would be bobbing his head making pecking motions at the edges of the nest. Corvus' previous experience indicated that crows just didn't have enough combat capabilities, which meant running into a predator would be deadly. He was hoping that he could improve his pecking strength and increase his penetrative potential.

Half a month later Corvus was big enough that he could see over the edge of the nest. It was apparently built on the edge of cliff face on an island or peninsula. It was impossible to be sure. Due to the presence of his father bird, or One Feather as Corvus had taken to thinking of him as, he figured that was reborn quite close to where he died. Of course it probably hadn't been all that long ago either. 'A couple years, maybe,' he theorized.

After another week and a half later a window appeared in front of Corvus.

Skill PromptSkill NamePeckingSkill DescriptionContinuous practice has made clear your desire to increase your pecking power, however as a crow no matter how much you go through the motions there is a limit to how strong you will become. This skill will provide no increase in the strength of your beaks blows but will help you know where and how to strike more effectively.Skill RankAmateurRank Progress0%Register Pecking?

'Ugh, what a disheartening message.' It was hard not to complain about being told you were never going to be strong enough to protect yourself. 'Knowing where to aim at though,' Corvus deliberated, 'That could be helpful.' He registered the skill. By now he and his siblings where actually quite large, now looking quite similar to the two older birds, except the feathers.The three young birds frequently jostled each other in the nest. Annoyed at being pushed, Corvus rotated his head intending to caw at his female siblings only to be distracted by a shimmer on her chest. Curious, but still quite annoyed, he tilted his head aiming his sight directly there. It was faint but right in the middle of her chest was an iridescent dot. Then it vanished. Something about it bugged him but since he could have just been seeing things he put it out of his mind still looking towards his female sibling.

She had some feathers with white tips because of which Corvus internally called her White Wings. Actually he'd given them all names, the male parent was still One Feather. he'd settled on 'Speckles' for his male sibling due to some white patches on his chest. He was being somewhat stubborn about the female parent, steadfastly refusing to think about her as mom, mother or ma, but she didn't really have anything distinctive about her. Eventually he settled on calling her Matty, short for Matriarch. It was a little ungracious of him but it was as close to mother her could force himself to go.

Dropping himself down, Corvus tried to rest. In the beginning, Insomniac had been quite mild in it's effects, but as he grew stronger it had gotten harder and harder to sleep. And as stated he never slept as long as he would have liked. It wasn't that he was groggy or anything like that, it was more that he had almost too much energy. There in the nest it was particularly painful because it wasn't like he could move around a bunch to exhaust himself.

Just then Matty and One Feather landed on the nest, both holding large bits of food in their beaks. He, White Wings, and Speckles began to crowd around opening their beaks to receive their food, only it never came. Instead their parents remained standing near the edge. White Wings and Speckles clawed their way up the ridge of the nest going up to the older birds to receive the food. Sure enough they had it dropped down their beaks like usual. Corvus had been a bit suspicious about this change but seeing that he decided Matty and One Feather had just wanted to make them move around.

Managing to claw his way onto the edge of the nest, Corvus observed as White Wings was almost chased of it's edge. 'Finally!' Corvus cheered as he basically raced of the edge of the nest. Rather than flapping his wings, he just kept them spread allowing himself to glide shakily down on to the ground. Excited and hopeful Corvus felt the need to check something, shouting 'Goals' in his head.

Inheritance Test GoalPrimary ConditionSurviveSub ConditionsTaskCompletionHatch100%Feed100%Fledge033%Communicate000%Mature006%????????????????000%???????????????000%????000%Total Completion030%Participant NameCorvusGoal StatusFailure

Deep inside Corvus couldn't help but feel quite relieved. For the most part he had been trying to ignore the various windows. However in order to get back home, or at least he hoped, he needed to complete these tasks. He hadn't know what it meant to fledge but it occurred to him the first time he tried to leave the nest that it might mean just that. Matty had been around when he tried so he hadn't even managed to crawl up to the edge before being shoved back in. He had considered trying again when neither she nor One Feather were around, ultimately he gave up on that idea though. 'Parents, no adults,' he recalled Zahid keeping his younger self outside, 'sometimes know more than they share.' So when the two older birds seemed to lure his siblings out, Corvus jumped at the chance. He would have congratulated himself for figuring out what fledge meant, but with it sitting at only thirty three percent doing so felt premature.

As he heard these cries, Corvus tilted his head looking above him. Gliding down in his direction was Speckles. Taking the hint, Corvus hopped himself out of the way. All three of them now on the ground their parents glided down to a patch of earth some distance away. Hopping further away they looked back breaking the relative silence, "Caw!"

Corvus didn't pay too much attention, instead reviewing his Skills window. He was honestly concerned by what he saw there. His flight skill was still suppressed. He hadn't really thought about it before trying to get out of the nest that first time. Now that he was out though, he felt incredibly vulnerable to predators knowing he couldn't fly away.

"Caw," he heard again. Turning towards the noise. Corvus saw the other four standing there there peering back. Matty cawed at him again. 'Seems I'm supposed to follow.' Deciding not to be stubborn Corvus hopped over fluttering his wings every other time to get a bit more distance. The two older birds led them other around the cliff to the north. It took until they moved past the other for their destination to come into view.

Off in the distance there was grass. The first grass Corvus had ever seen on Belys. He couldn't help but be excited, during his previous incarnation the only greenery he had seen had been some seaweed. As Matty and One Feather had been able to constantly feed them, he had put it out of his mind but one of his concerns was how barren this world seemed to be.

His parents trotted over to the grass, poking around and coming up with a few seeds. White Wings and Speckles followed them begging to be fed. Uncertain whether he would be able to, Corvus began poking his beak around the grass. Finding seeds rather quickly he tried picking them up only to fumble them. Corvus' next attempt went better, the seed dropping into his mouth and travelling down his throat with a gulp. At this both Matty and One Feather chirped. It was a sound quite different from their normal cawing. The first time he heard them do it Corvus couldn't help but be marvelled, quite certain he had never heard crows sing like that before.

Thinking that it was because he did something well, Corvus' let his ego swell a bit. Now that he could eat on his own he continued looking around for seeds, gobbling up any that he found. Full of himself he continued on sometimes watching amusedly as his siblings still let Matty feed them. One Feather who was just standing off to the side observing the surroundings suddenly shrieked, "Caaw!" at Corvus. Focused on gather his meal Corvus ignored it.

""Caaw!"" a more panicked shriek split forth.