Darkness. That is all I saw when I woke for the first time. I wasn’t scared, I knew this was normal, somehow. Instincts, I think? Yeah, that. I was curled up with my head between my legs for some reason. I tried to move into a more comfortable position, but something hard stopped me. I probed my surroundings by kicking out and moving my neck. I found I was surrounded by the hard thing; it was even to my sides. I sighed and tried to get as comfy as I could. It wasn’t time. I wasn’t ready… yet. My instincts told me that.

I didn’t know how long I was inside these walls. I spent most of the time contemplating what I was. I know I was young… not even born yet, technically. I had some kind of fluff all over my body, except for my legs. My legs were scaly and rough. I had three toes facing forward and one facing back. Each had a claw on the toe, but it wasn’t enough to break the walls. I could blink and move my eyes… not that it helped any. I found out I could scratch the walls with a sharp bit on nose-thing. I stopped after a few scratches, I still wasn’t ready. My instincts still told me to wait.

I was zoned out when my home moved. I moved with them and rolled onto my back. I was so surprised I let out a startled chip. I opened my eyes and tried to look around. What I saw stunned me. The walls were lit up. All around me the walls were lit from the outside. My instincts started to scream that now was the time. I thrashed and kicked at the walls. The walls resisted my kicks and feeble attacks. I felt something pick up my… home? Prison? Cradle. Yes, cradle is right. Either way, I was moving and not on my own. A cold chill ran down my spine. This was wrong. I shouldn’t be moving. Nothing should have found me. I wasn’t ready… but I had to be. I thrashed harder, not knowing why the walls resisted my attacks.

Just as I was winding up another kick, I felt my cradle fall. My empty stomach rose into my throat before being forced back in place when I hit something hard. I heard something crack behind me. Before I could twist around to find out what happened my cradle started to roll. Let me tell you, rolling while in a confined space isn’t fun. I was pushed against the wall. The walls around me flashed between light and darkness as I rolled. Thankfully I had nothing to throw up or being in this thing would be even more unpleasant.

“Urk.”

A sound escaped my nose-thing when my cradle suddenly stopped rolling. Unfortunately my world didn’t stop rolling. I was breathing hard. I didn’t know what happened, but whatever happened was not right. I needed to get out of this thing. I waited for my world to stop spinning and I remembered something. I had a bit on my nose-thing that scratched the walls! I wiggled around so I could lay on my side. This gave me a chance to look at what the cracking was. I was confused when I saw lines on the walls. They radiated from one point just in front of my face. It was pushed in slightly and held together by something on the inside. I tried to tip my head, but I bumped into the wall. I squirmed again to get closer to the cracks in the wall. I started to push the nose-thing bit into one of the cracks. A wave of fresh air forced its way into my cradle when the bit broke through the thing holding the cracks together. Desperately I started to thrash my nose-thing to cut more cracks. More and more, air and light entered my small cradle.

With a final push, the walls around me cracked and broke into pieces. I took a deep breath. Finally! I was out. I was… born; in one piece, thankfully. I greedily gulped down more air before I kicked my legs and flapped my arms. The walls around me broke apart. I stumbled away from the remains of my cradle. Looking back my former cradle, I realized the mottled brown ‘walls’ were actually a shell. An eggshell. I clacked my nose-thing in thought. Wait… ‘nose-thing’? I tried to focus on the thing sticking off of my head, but that only resulted in my eyes hurting. I lowered my head and scratched at the… beak? Yeah, now that I think about it, it’s called a beak. I lifted my head to inspect-

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Congratulations!

You have earned a feat:

Kismet Hatching

Survive through sheer dumb luck before you are even born.

Gain the luck stat. +5 LCK

“Skwark?!”

I scrambled back trying to get away from the blue thing that appeared before my beak. The thing followed me as I ran away. It always managed to be in front of me. Leave me alone! I tried to kick at it, but my claws simply phased through it. I skidded to a stop and burst into a run in the opposite direction. Try to keep up with-

My foot got caught on something and I went beak-first into the rough dirt. Owww… My eyes blinked open and that damned thing was still there. I hissed at it before giving up. It won… this time. I knew I would beat in the future. I tipped my head at the thought. In the future? What? I thrashed on the ground until I got my feet under me. I looked down at my dusty fluff… feathers? No, it’s still fluff for now. I raised all my fluff at once and looked like a fuzzy yellow ball with a beak. I then shook the life out of my body, releasing a cloud of dust from my fluff. That’s better. Clean fluff is good fluff.

Now that I cleaned myself somewhat, I took a look at the thing. It was a small light blue box in the center of my vision. I tipped my head as I read what was inside the box. Feat? What’s that?

Feat:

An accomplishment of greatness.

Oh. Okay. Wait! What do you mean ‘sheer dumb luck’? I kicked at the box but, as before, my claw went right through it. I can survive on my own, thank you very much! I grumbled as I continued reading. So I gained the luck stat… and plus 5 luck. What is a stat?

Stat:

A number representing one’s aptitude and growth in a certain area.

Huh… Aptitude and growth? Does that mean I can raise these ‘stats’? Hm. I clacked my beak and the blue box vanished. I scratched at the dirt as I thought about everything so far. I woke in darkness and was in there for who knows how long. Something tried to… do something to my egg. I rolled around for a bit before I stopped. Oh, and the something tried to break my egg… I think. After I hatched, a blue box appeared before me.

I looked around for the first time since I hatched. I found myself surrounded by large shrubs and weedy-looking plants. Above the shrubs were even taller trees. There was a mixture of white splotched ones and deep brown ones. The leaves were all green and though little sunlight made it down, I could still see. I kicked at the dirt again. It was strange there was no grass near my egg.

Something moved in the trees above me and I suddenly felt very exposed. I scrambled beneath one of the shrubs before anything could spot me. Thankfully, I did so just in time. A large thing pushed through the shrubbery across from me. It was more than five times my size and had really sharp teeth. It was covered in grey fur with black stripes. It had a large black patch across its eyes, which were staring at the remains of my egg. Its pointed nose sniffed the air as it scooted closer. Something inside me made me focus on the creature. Like, really hard.

-Used [Identify]

[Forest Raccoon] - Lvl. 7

Well… shit.