First off, Thank you very much, Skull_Mech, for your review. About the similarity with other reincarnation stories, I honestly don’t know if this will be like them or not since I haven’t read that many (only re:monster and every reincarnation story on the site :P ) but the way I’m planning for the story to play out, it will be unique for me at least, yet, at the same time it might seem familiar to every reincarnation story you've read so far in one way or another. Also, I very much like my grammar, in fact, I’m a bit of a grammar nazy (the same can’t be said for my punctuation skills) so, if somebody finds any mistakes PLEASE TELL ME!!!!
As for the mothers POV, it is part of the main story so you guys will just have to wait for it.
That’s all and enjoy the chapter :D !!!!!!!!!!!!
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I had slept the rest of the night and woke up the next day. After waking up, I found mother waiting for me to go bring food with her. Though reluctant from yesterday’s ‘incident’, I went anyway after knowing that she waited for me. On our way there, I maneuvered around the trees like yesterday. My skill definitely showed its effect, it was far easier to move through the air and between the trees like this. We arrived to the place of the insects faster than yesterday
“Remember, little one, it is easier to peck bigger insects than the smaller ones. Try not to use your body magic to conserve your mana for training” Mother advised.
“Alright, mother” I agreed, I would rather not have any more insect blood on my face like yesterday. Approaching a cockroach-looking insect that looked extremely red, I pecked normally without the aid of magic. I tried to aim at a vulnerable spot on its body to make easier for me to kill eat.
My aim was horrible and I kept hitting its scales. It even tried running away after I missed the first time, so, I tried aiming for its legs and head. It took me a while but I managed to get a leg and the rest came after. Every time it got too far away I would fly and dive after it. Thankfully, it couldn’t fly yet or it would have been a real pain to hunt down. After I was done with it, I turned to look for more pray, only to find mother had already finished.
“Will you be able to bring that with you?” She looked slightly worried.
Now that I looked at that roach, it was too big to hold with my tiny talons. Having taken the time to hunt it, I wasn’t about to just leave it. So, flipped it over using my talons and pierced them into its soft belly part. I flapped my wings to see if I could fly with this thing on my legs. Surprisingly, it wasn’t heavy to the point of me being unable to carry it. It felt heavy enough for me to carry it back to the nest before tiring out.
“Yes, I’ll manage” I smiled.
I couldn’t calculate the distance very well between here and the nest but if I had to guess, it would be about a mile give or take 200 meters. The margin for error here is rather big, hence my previous statement.
It took a while to get back, especially since I asked for some rest stops. The trip back was harder than I thought it would be. My wings were sore and my legs felt like they were about to fall off the rest of my body. My siblings were already awake by the time we got back. My sister that reprimanded my brother yesterday looked at us worriedly and suddenly I heard a childish, yet lovely, female voice in my head.
“Big brother, why were you so late?” she asked.
I couldn’t grasp what just happened. Apparently, my sister just talked… But… Big brother?... I mean, I know I’m the biggest in our group but she just called me… Big brother… Eheheheh. As I laughed to myself with a dreamy look in my eyes and silly smile on my face, my sister snapped me out of it, as she approached me, visibly more worried than before.
“Big brother, are you ok?”
“Eheh…huh…oh… Y-yes, I’m fine, sis?” only now, did I remember she was talking. “Anyway, since when can you talk, sis?”
“Hehe, mother taught us yesterday” she smugly replied.
I turned to mother and asked “how come they only started talking now, mother?”
“It was only a matter of teaching them how to voice out their own intents, instead of just acting upon them. After all, birds aren’t used to communicating with their words. You were special, it seems”
After mother said that, I realized that my siblings were always chirping, yet, I couldn’t hear any words before. Unlike how me and mother would hear each other’s words when chirping.
The rest of my siblings were merrily eating while we were talking but my sister was still making sure I was okay. Feeling weird from all the worry that she was showing me, I tried to tell her to go eat before the food is over.
“I won’t eat without big brother” she said as she seemed to puff her bird cheeks, threatening to cry if I refused.
“O-ok, let’s eat” I hesitantly said.
As we were eating, my thoughts wandered to my siblings and my past life. I was an only child and didn’t have any friends, even as a child. Never having enjoyed a childhood, teenage years, or adulthood, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that my past life was empty. It isn’t like I was bullied or anything, it’s just that nobody tried approaching me and me, them. But looking at this happy bird family of mine, I had this most wonderful feeling rise within my heart.
This life is, indeed, a gift, I will do my best to treasure it. They say that you don’t know the value of something until you lose it but in my present state, knowing that I already lost a useless life and gained a meaningful one, I’d rather die than lose it.
“Big brother, I want to hunt with you and mother, tomorrow” came another childish voice that contained a hint of raucousness in it. That was my brother that head butted me, yesterday.
“Umm… Why don’t you ask mother?” I asked, I didn’t know if I should call him little brother or just brother. In fact, we still didn’t have names. I haven’t heard about names from mother, in this world. So I tried not to ask her directly. Looking at her while she was eating with us, I asked.
“Mother, is there a way for us to differentiate between one another?”
I didn’t notice but I appeared to have interrupted my brother’s discussion with her.
She looked at me and replied “Yes, every creature has a name that differentiates them from everybody else” then she looked at my brother and replied to him “As for you, my dear, you can come whenever you want” she replied while smiling lightly.
“Yes! Thank you, mother” my brother energetically replied.
“So, about those names… do we get one?” I asked.
“Not yet” she chuckled “You will get your names before you leave this forest, little one”
“But why?” this didn’t make sense to me.
“Don’t be hasty, little one. All will be revealed, in time” she said rather sternly. It was new, for me, to see her strict side, especially since we were only talking about names. I was rather taken aback but recovered quickly and replied in understanding.
“Okay, mother, I’ll wait” I said with tinge of sadness in my voice since I was yelled at. I wouldn’t normally react like that because of something as petty as a stern reply but I guess I got used to her loving side. Thankfully, I got over it quickly.
“Now, children, it’s time for today’s lesson in wind magic” mother said to all of us.
“You’ll join us to, little one, having a deeper understanding of the wind will increase your potential in utilizing it with magic” she advised.
“Oh… Ok” I replied perplexedly.
I was still thinking about how to call my siblings for now, so, I decided to give them a name for each of their personalities. Since my brother, who was talking to me earlier, was energetic and rather aggressive, I decided to call him hothead. While my sister was a worrywart, I decided to call her worryhead. My other brother’s always cheerful and tends to laugh a lot, so I’ll call him cheerhead. My other sister had this cool atmosphere around her, so I’ll call her coolhead.
“Yes!” hothead exclaimed.
“Ok, mother” worryhead said.
“Yay” said cheerhead.
“Hmph” was all coolhead said as she walked to mother.
That day was all about wind, science and magic wise. We learned about air, air pressure, tornado formations and storms. Though my siblings were still level one in [Mana Control] mother still taught us a lot about wind magic. After 2 or 3 hours, mother instructed my siblings in how to break through to level 2 in [Mana Control] and taught me more about body magic.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Body magic was actually just a cool way to put it, because it felt like I was in biology class. She talked about the digestive system, nervous system, urinary system, enzymes, different functions of muscles, bones and blood. Though she talked about each one briefly for me to get the general idea about them, she made sure to describe everything in detail to help me imagine it. I didn’t think I would be able to remember anything she said but everything she told seemed to literally stick in my head, involuntarily.
From the way she put, when I get at a high enough level in [Body Magic] I will be able to control every aspect of my body, be it emotions, muscles, organs, bones or blood. As exciting as it sounded to me, I was very dejected because every level of [Body Magic] required me to study more of my body’s biology to increase my proficiency and unlock more sub-skills. We finished the lesson when my siblings advanced to [Mana Control lv2]. After that, mother guided them on how to imbue wind with their mana.
Imbuing wind wouldn’t take much time to any bird since all birds have a natural affinity with wind magic, coupled with the added effect of my siblings’ newly gained knowledge. They didn’t take more than two minutes to gain the [Wind Magic lv1] skill. Though, worryhead finished in less than a minute which showed that her affinity was greater than us, according to mother. Particularly, since we should be at about the same level of knowledge in wind magic.
Off course, I was supposed to have a better level of knowledge due to my past life. However, studying wasn’t exactly my best aspect and I practically forgot most of what I learned in school about science, at least. So, I didn’t have that big of an advantage when it came to wind but my body magic was easy since I’ve practically seen muscles, bones and veins everywhere on the internet and real life when I was eating meat. But advancing in it required a deeper understanding that I didn’t have yet.
As a congratulatory gift, mother taught all of us a wind magic sub-skill. It was a sub-skill that could increase our flight speed and movement speed in general called [Jet Stream]. The way it worked was by coating ourselves in our imbued wind, then narrowing this wind in front of our bodies like a blade cutting through the air and the wind generated by our momentum, whether using our wings to fly or our feet to run, would push us forward faster and faster.
We all got excited to try it, and we kept doing laps around the nest while mother gave us pointers. Our speed increased bit by bit and if one listened closely it would sound as if a blade was cutting through the air repeatedly.
[Wind Magic] sub-skill gained [Jet Stream]
“Hey, guys, catch me if you can” said hothead after he got the skill. He turned and flew away from the nest a little bit leaving the sound of a blade cutting the wind in his wake.
“Oh no, you don’t… Haha” said cheerhead as he flew after him.
“Brothers, don’t go too far” said worryhead as she also chased after them.
“Hmph” said coolhead as she also flew after them.
“We won’t get far, mother” I cheerfully said as I followed after them.
“Have fun!” mother cried.
It was time to show my [Maneuvering] skill in action. I flew with unimaginable speed for such a small bird as myself. All of us were like blades cutting through the air. I gained the advantage since they had to slow down to evade the tree branches while I would twist and turn my body.
I neared coolhead and touched her head with my talon “Got you” I smirked at her as I was about to fly past her. But she suddenly caught my tail feather with her talons and said “No, you didn’t” she sounded childish but no one could deny the elegance in her voice. It was the first time I heard her talk and her voice in my head was rather mesmerizing, one didn’t have to think too much to know that she would break many boy’s hearts in the future.
She pulled me back to slow me down and put her legs on my head as my body was perpendicular to the ground. Jumping off my head increased her momentum and decreased mine. She looked back at me at actually put her tongue out in mockery.
I wasn’t about to lose here so I flipped my body and flapped my wings in her direction very hard. Deciding to cheat a little, I used [Body Strengthening] with [Jet Stream] for an added effect on speed.
As I was about to catch up to her, I found worryhead beside us with trees acting as the distance between us.
“Hey, sis, little sister got injured while flying but she doesn’t want to stop” I lied through my teeth. However, the desired effect was achieved.
“What?!” she cried
“What? No, I didn’t” coolhead said but it was too late.
“Sister, stop this instant” in a blink, worryhead passed the trees and stopped in front of coolhead. Her wind affinity was really showing its effect.
As they slowed down, I past them with a smug look on my face and heard them arguing in the background. My brothers were a bit in front but I caught up quickly, using my skills.
“Caught you” cheerhead said, as he had already caught hothead before me.
“No fair” he said, slowing down.
I couldn’t slowdown in time so before I crashed into them I yelled “watch out!!”
“Huh”
“Huh”
They both turned back to look but it was already too late.
“Omph”
“Ahh”
“Ow”
We fell on a branch softly, thankfully.
“Hah…Hah…Hah… Sorry, guys” I was completely out of breath.
“No worries, big bro” said hothead.
“Yeah, it’s alright… Haha” laughed cheerhead. We all sat there and laughed for a bit until our sisters came.
“Are you guys alright?” asked worryhead.
“Yeah, we are fine” we all said.
“Big brother, are your eyes ok?” asked worryhead out of the blue.
I would have thought she was joking but her voice and expression didn’t seem like it. “Yeah, they are fine” I said as a matter of fact.
“But sister wasn’t injured at all” she said
Wait, she still believes me? Scrunching my non-existent eyebrows, I was about to ask her but coolhead replied before me.
“He lied to slow us down, sis” she said looking at me with a hint of disdain.
“What? Are you mad?” I said “I’m not the one that pulled your tail feather, that really hurt, you know?” I tried to fake being hurt and seemed to convince worryhead but coolhead was having none of it.
“Wanna fight” she screamed as if she suddenly did a one eighty personality change.
As she got closer to me, her rage froze me to my core and my originally smiling expression froze on my face so I hurriedly said “W-wait, sorry… sorry, sis”
“Help me!” I whispered to the boys. But cheerhead was already on his back laughing while the usually aggressive hothead kept shaking his head profusely.
“U-umm… Catch me if you can” I said as I flew back to the nest with even more speed than before.
“Get back here” screamed coolhead behind me, her current expression was anything but cool.
“Wait, sister, I’m sure big brother didn’t mean it” said worryhead as she also flew after us. With hothead flying silently behind her and cheerhead’s laughter echoing in our heads.
The forest that night was filled with the sound of blades cutting the wind and the rustling of the leaves. We all returned to the nest tired from chasing each other. Coolhead had already returned to her usual demeanor after she managed to get my face in tree midflight. Thankfully, I had realized it in time so I used [Body Hardening] at the last minute. It still hurt like hell but it was better that having my skull break in half.
We slept soundly in our mothers care. Today was definitely the most satisfying day of my lives.
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I hope you liked this ‘playful’ chapter. I know this isn’t the kind of action that is in most stories on RRL but I would really like your opinions on how well it was written and what I could do to make it better. Don’t expect much of those scenes though since real action will begin soon.
Thanks for reading!!!! :D