In an elaborate chamber, on a huge, very soft cushion hidden behind curtains of the finest spider's silk there was an egg.

An old woman with grey hair in a tight braid wrapped around her head and twitching antennas sat beside the egg, one hand gently placed on top of it to feel the little life inside. The green glow of her magic revealed a gentle smile in the dim light that penetrated the thin curtains.

Ever so carefully she took her hand off the egg and got up. Her light yellow dress, which consisted of one long piece of cloth, the ends crossed in front and held together behind her neck, was good cotton and had a certain elegance, just as her movements did. It was short and left her arms and wings free, only covering her legs to her knees, not hindering any movements if necessary. The muscles of her old arms still spoke of great strength, her steps were flowing and certain. Anyone who spared a glance would realize that this was no mere worker, no matter her age. Still, her expression was full of joy and gentleness, enough to let people doubt the earlier impression.

Her feet were silent on the soft carpet that let her bare feet sink in to her ankles. Quietly she opened the door.

Outside there was a young girl with expectant eyes trying to look calm and failing. She was almost trembling in excitement.

"It's almost time. Go and inform the minor queen Lysanne's chamber maid. But don't knock on her ladyship's door or you'll be in trouble again." The old woman whispered.

The little girl, dressed similar to the old woman, flew off at high speed to do as she was told while looking back repeatedly.

Clearly this particular little girl wanted to see the child hatch, but that was not meant to be.

The old woman returned to her previous place, sitting on the edge of the cushion with a hand on the egg while the baby moved around more and more, feebly pushing against the shell already.

Around twenty minutes later a beautiful woman, about half again as tall as the old worker guarding the egg, sneaked into the room. Her clothes, though just a nightshirt and cloak, were made of fine cloth in a vibrant red. She might have been regal or imposing, if it wasn't for the fact that she was biting her lips nervously and looked at the egg with enough insecurity to make it obvious that she had never had children before.

There were audible sounds coming from the egg now so the old worker looked at the young queen whose wings kept rising up as if she were about to fly away. "It's time to open the egg, with your permission?" She asked softly.

A single nod was the answer as the young queen's wings fluttered, her expression turning from nervous excitement to a happy impatience.

The old woman tapped the egg once and fine cracks appeared all over the shell. A quick movement took off the top part and the worker lifted the baby out gently.

Huge, bright black eyes opened, full of curiosity and intelligence, the long golden hair stuck to the child's body everywhere. An adorable sneeze freed the button nose of the fluids that were still left in the egg.

Carefully the old worker wrapped the sticky child in some linen before she gave it to the mother, who couldn't stop looking at the adorable and perfect face of her first child.

"Congratulations on the birth of your first son. May you have many more."

When she opened her eyes after what seemed to be a long time she saw first an old woman and then a beautiful woman who both seemed impossibly large. And yet she felt very safe. So safe...she wanted to stay that way forever.

The faces got further away then and her vision blurred. No, more correctly, the people looked up and started speaking to each other, leading her to the conclusion that either she was very short sighed in this new life or her eyes just hadn't finished developing yet.

Her skin felt itchy and moist, something was stuck to her too, which didn't feel very good. What would she do if she were a real baby? Well, it felt bad so probably cry. But she didn't want to make her new family unhappy when they were clearly overjoyed about her borth, so she simply started making noises and squirming to the best of her ability, which wasn't much yet.

Still, it seemed to work as she was taken through curtains and what she assumed to be a room judging by the light red and gold colors she could vaguely recognize around her. A door opened, she was carried to a shallow basin and set down in comfortably warm water.

What stuck to her turned out to be, surprisingly, golden hair, long enough to cover her whole body.

Or, which she found out as soon as the hair was out of the way, his whole body.

She was quite obviously male.

Oh well. Judging by the fact that she could move her limbs and nothing seemed to displease her mother and the old woman she was obviously healthy and cute enough to make them happy, which was far better than her old life and the looks of pity she was used to after she had to start using a wheelchair.

Truly, just having another chance at life was more than good enough. That and this life, apart from her being male, seemed to promise care and comfort, clean air and a family, no matter how strange it might become.

Gentle, large hands dressed him in a fine silk dress - the same style as everybody else was wearing though he couldn't see clearly enough to notice yet. His hair was washed with shampoo that made it smell faintly of fresh green grass, combed and braided in a complicated pattern.

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He kept still, watching the people, now a whole group, to the best of his ability, waiting for what would happen next.

That, apparently, was being left alone with the old woman while all the other people who had arrived earlier left along with his mother. A little strange, true, but according to history class nobles often left their children to nurses. And even if he was part animal - though he hadn't been able to find out what kind yet, apart from the fact that he knew he had hatched - some things apparently didn't change.

Large hands placed him down on a soft carpet that reached up to his chest when he tried crawling, but was so silky soft it didn't hinder him. It had to be either magic or a kind of fabric he had never heard of before because even lambs' fur would have had knots and made going through it difficult. Thanks to it he didn't hurt his knees or little hands as he tried out his new body.

When he'd had the choice he hadn't chosen physical or social things for his new life, not even his exact race. No, he had put everything into intelligence and other basics for magic potential and chosen the random package for everything else. What would looks or muscles or birth or gender matter if he was smarter, learned more quickly, had better control of himself and infinite growth potential in magic?

Alas, he had apparently been blessed with more than that.

Smiling happily he crawled from one end of the room to the other, even tried to get up - which, unfortunately, didn't work very well and had the old woman lift him up and set him down on all fours again. Even if he had fallen, with this carpet he wouldn't have hurt himself though, not even a scratch was likely.

He explored the room, which, at floor level, only held the huge cushion that was a bit like a water bed but much softer, the carpet and rounded edges at the walls where the carpet reached up as far as he could see with his undeveloped eyes. The silk curtains inside the room just reached the floor, hanging all around the large but low cushion he now assumed to be his bed. If he rolled down from it it wasn't high enough for him to get hurt even if it hadn't been for the special carpet.

The doors leading out, one to the outside and lots of green, probably a garden, one the bath and the third, he assumed, probably a hallway or maybe his mother's room, all had a step he couldn't climb up because it was too high for him, softened as at least the bottoms walls were. Judging by the color it was also possible that the whole walls and even the ceiling were covered in the wonderful soft carpet.

After a lot of crawling and tinking his head was starting to hurt and his muscles were so tired he just slumped down. A growling in his stomach told him that in his curiosity he hadn't had anything to eat yet in this life either. That was strange. He knew he had hatched, so maybe his kind didn't need to be fed so soon after birth, unlike human children. His body was strong enough to crawl already, so he was obviously a bit different from humans from the beginning.

As he lay there the gentle hands of the old woman lifted him up and brought him to the large cushion. Then she disappeared for a bit, making him slightly impatient, before the low voice was picked up by his ears and moments later he sat in the woman's lap. A bottle with something tasty found his lips and he drank eagerly. To soon it was empty, but even though his stomach wasn't completely full he wasn't hungry anymore. Instead, sleepiness overcame him and he started to drift off on his own.

He woke to the gentle sounds of a flute, comfortably bedded on the large cushion. He wasn't covered by a blanket, but it was warm enough for that to be unnecessary.

Straining his eyes he found his sight much better than the day before, but still blurry. It was enough to see the girl with the flute, delicate antennae on her head moving with the music. He, too, had those, he realized.

Curious, he crawled closer to the girl and then lay where, watching her as he listened for a long while.

Finally the song ended and the girl's eyes opened. A little startled she noticed him and said something he couldn't understand. He just smiled at her and started motioning towards the flute. In his previous life he/she had had one as well, as a child, but this girl could play much better.

And so time passed. He listened to the girl play flute, crawled around, tried walking with the old woman's help, waited for his wings to grow and picked up words here and there. A week after he had first been born he recieved his first toy. A very cute bee doll. But since he was essentially almost a teenager he showed not much interest. One of his first words, flute, the word that brought the girl that always played happily, left a much bigger impression. And after seven more days there was a small silver flute, a delicate and pretty thing, given to him by a gently smiling mother.

Since there was little else to do apart from learning the language, trying to walk and hoping for his wings to grow already he practices playing his flute for hours. The girl taught him how to play and helped him learn songs by playing them for him again and again, until he could play with her.

His mother had him play for her and other very tall women once and called him a genius afterwards, but he didn't care about it much. Music had caught his passion unexpectedly and completely.