Free Web NovelChapter 2: Okay mommy
"Don’t mess with me at the dead of night, brain," Jimmy said, "Things were going well for me for once. I don’t want to be a schizophrenic bird."
[You are not schizophrenic. You’ve been chosen to wield me, the Crow Evolution System, and evolve your body as you please.]
A flashy blue tab was laid out in front of him. It was almost like a hologram, except he felt as if the tab was burned into his pupils. He was not a fan, but at least the system’s voice was sweet, feminine, which he found soothing.
"Oh, so you answer?" He sighed as much as a bird could sigh, "Let me understand this... so I’m a crow, which makes sense, because of all the cawing these couple of days, and you want to help me evolve?"
Jimmy tried to stay focused, but his new brain could only do so much. Using his brain was counter-productive, as he quickly got burned out the more he used it. It was as if his humanity dripped away from him every time he spoke.
Nevertheless, he pressed on to the topic further, and asked, "What am I supposed to evolve into? A flamingo? I don’t want to be a flamingo. I don’t like their stupid, long legs."
[You don’t have to be a flamingo.]
[The paths of evolution you can choose are limitless, under the right circumstances!]
"Right, right," he nodded his tiny, mushy head, "Can you let me sleep? I’m just a baby crow. I don’t want to be a flamingo right now."
[You don’t have to be a flamingo...]
The system tried to reason with him, but despite its best efforts, she was dealing with a human, whose consciousness was stuffed into a newly hatched crow. Crows as a species were considered intelligent, but hatchlings didn’t have that privilege.
Jimmy simply fell asleep. He closed his eyes shut minutes after he opened them for the first time in this odd new life. He didn’t care to talk to the system anymore tonight.
[Yikes! His IQ is 54. That’s too low for a crow.]
[I wonder why I was sent to him of all crows...]
[Maybe he’ll be smarter as an adult?]
Regardless, the system turned its tabs off, and gave Jimmy some peace.
...
An hour past the morning sun, Jimmy woke up again.
Beyond his nest, he saw the sun, its rays ever illuminating!
"Too damn bright..." He grunted.
Jimmy had been curious to see light, true light. Or more specifically, he missed it. Having underdeveloped eyes throughout his first couple of days of existence had such an effect.
Finally, he saw what his new family looked like. If it wasn’t for the fact that he had been sleeping under his mother’s feathers, snug and warm, he wouldn’t have been able to tell her apart from his father. He could not see their heads, as they were sleeping the opposite way of him, but nevertheless, they looked absolutely the same to him.
However, he knew who his siblings were. He had three of them.
"Squeaky motherfuckers," he said, "Which one of you beat my ass yesterday? I want a rematch!"
Jimmy pecked at his siblings, looking for a fight, but they hadn’t woken up yet. They were comfortable.
With the attention span of a tiny crow, he stopped bugging them, and focused on the outside world instead. He tried to walk towards the edge of the nest, but he was too weak, so he rolled towards it, crawling, in a sense.
All the wrestling he did with his siblings helped him develop some strength. Even he could tell that he was too young to move around like this, but he used what was built to his advantage.
Reaching the edge of the four-foot wide nest after about five minutes of crawling, he met with a great barricade. It was the wall of the nearly bowl-shaped nest.
Jimmy had seen the wall countless times during his five minute sprintless sprint, but he had pushed forward anyway. He had figured that his spirit was indomitable, even against a wall far taller than him.
"Nope, can’t climb that." He gave up immediately.
Jimmy was just about to turn around, and crawl back towards his siblings, a senseless task overall, but this was when he noticed a hole in the nest. Then countless more.
Between countless branches, he could see the outside world. He saw a city made of stone.
The city was tens of feet below the nest. He and his family were high up above the common commotions of the outside world.
Apart from the city, he saw another crow, a huge one, flying above the stone buildings.
It glided through the winds with no effort. Its size, elegant, and powerful.
As he paid more attention to it, he noticed that the crow was carrying a dagger half as big as itself! He did not understand what was going on there, but this was a puzzle that he didn’t want to get into for the moment.
Instead, he focused on the city a bit more. He was almost sure he saw humans, but he couldn’t tell for sure. They were too far away.
"The city looks cool," he nodded. "All that stone looks too cold to land on, though. Pretty sure my feet would hurt too."
Jimmy lost interest, so he spent five more minutes crawling back to his family.
Once there, he got tired, so he fell asleep again.
He woke up two hours later.
[Are you ready to talk to me now?]
Jimmy had forgotten about the system entirely. His long-term memory was shorter than his age.
"I guess?" He yawned.
[I understand that you don’t like bright lights, so I’ll spare you the tabs. We’ll just talk like this instead, in your head.]
[Let me ask you. What do you prefer to be called?]
"My name is... Jimmy? Yes, Jimmy." He answered, "Call me Timmy."
[Jimmy or Timmy?]
"Jimmy," he answered, annoyed.
[Okay, Jimmy, let’s get things started.]
[First things first, I repeat that you don’t have to evolve into a flamingo. I agree that they have stupid legs, so let’s avoid such paths altogether.]
"Very good," he nodded, satisfied.
[In terms of evolution, the possibilities are endless! You can evolve your body countless times while still maintaining your origin as a crow, or you could choose different paths, and slowly evolve into a different species altogether.]
[The choice is yours, but first things first, you need to complete a few tasks in order to unlock the evolutionary paths.]
"Tasks?" He repeated, "I hate tasks! Did plenty of them at work. Horrible."
[You’re not at work right now, Jimmy. That aside, my tasks are more fun.]
"Fun?" He parroted.
[They fit your situation. They’re adapted based on your conditions. Do you want to hear them out?]
Jimmy nodded. The system continued.
[Task 1: Wrestle with each of your siblings, and win.]
[Task 2: Snap a branch, however small, with your claws.]
[Task 3: Convince your parents to give you more food compared to your siblings. Convince them twenty times.]
[Task 4: Flap your wings 300 times.]
[Task 5: Walk, all on your own.]
[After completing all of these tasks, you’ll receive 500 system points as a reward.]
"Those don’t sound so fun," his face curled as if he ate a lemon, disobedient, "You lied to me."
[I did not lie to you, Jimmy. These tasks are fun, and they’re meant to help you.]
"Nuh-uh!" He cawed, "I’m pretty sure you lied to me. I want to fight my siblings, yes, but I think all of them beat my ass yesterday."
[Oh... look at it this way, then. If you do the tasks I just told you about, you’ll be the strongest amongst your siblings. You’ll be able to... as you say, beat all of their asses soon enough.]
"Hmm..." he tried to stroke his chin, contemplating, but his wing didn’t quite bend that way. "Okay, then, that sounds good. You didn’t lie to me, so, I’ll do the tasks."
[Awesome! Don’t rush it, as these tasks are not exactly time sensitive, but remember to do all five tasks. It’s very important that you do them all.]
"Okay mommy," he nodded.
[I’m not your mother...]
