Assassin Crow Evolution

Chapter 3: Wiggling menace

Jimmy was biologically pre-set to lose his concentration, and forget about the recent tasks he was given. He forgot about a couple of them already, and there was nothing he could do about it.

However, since there were plenty of tasks for him to do, he was attentive enough to start doing at least one of them.

He flapped his wings a few times, and kept losing count along the way, but he knew that he had to keep flapping them. Thankfully the system kept count for him.

[Wing flaps: 12/300]

[Keep going, you’re doing great!]

"I’m tired already," he huffed out.

[Okay, take a break then.]

The system did not rush him, as she adjusted her plans accordingly.

However, one minute into the break he took, which almost turned into another nap, he saw that one of his siblings woke up.

"Motherfucker!" He raised his head up like an angry hen, "Fight me!"

His sibling did not understand, but it saw his caws as troublesome, so it started wiggling, and it pecked him.

"Oh, I’m gonna beat your ass!" He exclaimed, and pecked his sibling.

Seven back-and-forth pecks later, he got tired, and pushed his body towards his sibling, knocking them over.

The sibling gave up, and took another nap. No one was hurt during the melee, not even emotionally. Naps seemed more essential, and Jimmy was tempted to take one himself.

Nevertheless, he celebrated, "I win!"

[I guess that counts as wrestling. That’s good, you’re establishing dominance. You’re no runt.]

"Haha!" He continued to caw, "Who’s next?"

Jimmy was looking for another fight, but his other two siblings were still asleep. He didn’t see it fair to attack someone while they were sleeping, so he avoided it.

"Eh, I’m gonna take a nap too." He grunted.

[No. Let’s stay focused here, Jimmy, you’re off to a good start. Champions don’t nap forty times a day.]

"I guess?" He complied.

Jimmy kept flapping his wings, but he was nowhere close to finishing this particular task. Other than being tired, his shoulder-blades hurt too.

As he dozed off, he spotted a branch, amongst the many other branches that he hadn’t paid the faintest attention to earlier on.

"Hmm..." he pondered.

Clumsily placing his claw on a branch that was bigger than him, he squeezed on it, and tried to break it.

"Nope, I’m not ready." He sighed.

[No kidding. Try a smaller branch, Jimmy. Much smaller.]

Productivity was not his middle name. He was a baby, and he was trying his best. Such conditions reflected on his progress.

While he looked for the perfect branch to break, he accidentally cracked one of them with his bottom.

"Oh! Does that count?" He asked.

[No, you have to use your claws. I want you to strengthen your feet as much as possible.]

"Alright," he said.

Eventually, he broke a very tiny branch the moment his little claw grabbed on to it.

[Congratulations! You just completed task two!]

"Haha!" He cawed, "Yes!"

This time, he didn’t feel like taking a nap. His brief moment of success gave him a spike of energy, so he kept flapping his wings. He had this great need to push another task to completion, as the bundle of tasks seemed less like a headache now that he finished one of them.

Needless to say, he was causing a lot of commotion, so eventually, one of his parents woke up, and checked up on him.

"Caw?" A deep voice rang in front of him.

Jimmy met face to face with a crow several times his size. It was his father.

"Cool..." his beak opened wide.

This was the first time he saw his father’s head. His beak was like that of an eagle’s. Long, sharp, but with one more exception; the tip of his beak was rounded, like a hammer.

"My siblings don’t look like that," he said, "Their beaks are small, pathetic."

Jimmy kept babbling on, and his father looked at him, concerned, and at some point, he poked his mate awake.

Jimmy’s mother woke up, and grew equally confused by Jimmy’s energy.

"Are you hungry, little shell breaker?" she asked.

Jimmy did not understand, but he kept chirping. He was excited to see his parents.

Eventually, his father flew out, and came back minutes later, dropping some pre-chewed food in his mouth.

This was when Jimmy realized that he had been quite hungry. All of his recent movements, some necessary and some not, had tired him out excessively. He burned a lot of energy, and had to replenish it.

The food his father gave him wasn’t enough, and to communicate that he wanted more, he cawed at them.

"You’ll turn into a big boy, won’t you?" His father smiled, after fetching food for his son the second time.

Jimmy did not understand, but he was unintentionally progressing.

[Task 3: 2/20]

[You already ate twice more than your siblings did. Good job!]

"Oh? Thank you." He smiled.

Jimmy then finally took another nap. The food knocked him out.

...

Jimmy’s progress over the following week was slow, but somewhat consistent.

The system kept having to remind him about the tasks, which was what kept him consistent.

With an ego bigger than himself, he kept trying to fight his siblings during the first couple of days after the tasks were introduced.

This was counter-productive, because he kept attacking the same sibling, unable to tell them apart.

When he did learn to tell them apart a little bit, he lost every battle up until day four, when he outgrew his siblings by a few grams.

Just like that, he completed task one.

Flapping his wings now and then, he completed task four as well. His shoulders felt as tough as boulders, as if unbreakable, and yet they hurt too. They were sore.

Neither of the tasks were easy for him, but he tried his best to knock them off of his list. In no particular order.

On day seven, he was stuck with two tasks. He had to convince his parents to feed him over his siblings, three more times, and he also had to start walking, all on his own.

"Mommy, food!" He chirped.

"I fed you enough today," she answered, "You’re getting chubby."

Unlike in the beginning, he understood what his mother said. Most words, at least.

"I am not chubby!" he wiggled his feet, "I’m big!"

"Be quiet, child," his father said, "We’ll feed you later. Let me sleep."

"Okay," he sat down, and took a nap.

Jimmy was very eager to progress, but his father’s deep tone kicked out any strand of disobedience out of his head. At least, it did so for the moment.

After he woke up from his nap, he demanded food again, and then again. His parents saw him as a bottomless pit at this point. Despite his rebellious nature, they never saw him reject food. They were shocked by his appetite.

At the eighth after the tasks were first introduced, the system established another milestone. She sounded as happy as him too.

[Congratulations! You successfully completed task three!]

"Hell yeah!" He chirped happily. "Now, I only have to walk on my own, right?"

[Yes. That’s what the fifth task is about.]

[However, don’t rush it. You grew bigger than your siblings already, and you’re a little bit smarter now too, but walking is a whole different story. It requires far more than motivation. I didn’t even expect you to complete those four tasks so quickly, and I thought that it would take you a month to complete them all.]

[It’s fair to say that I miscalculated. You’re a tough little bird, but you’re nowhere ready to walk, so leave it for another day.]

"Nuh-uh!" He grunted.

Shortly after, he tried to walk.