Second Cub and Third Cub Hatch

Once the chick had food, he was too busy to chirp.

Although he had just hatched, the chick was big and had an astonishing appetite. He ate nearly half his own body weight in meat.

Tao Qiu fed him for quite a while before the chick stopped opening his beak for more. He turned his head, settled into a comfortable position, and soon lay still, probably asleep.

Eating and sleeping, sleeping and eating, just like a human baby.

Watching a chick sleep, especially his own child, was a new experience for Tao Qiu. Even after the chick fell asleep, Tao Qiu kept holding the nest, never taking his eyes off him. He practically wanted to count every feather on him.

More than an hour later, the chick woke up and began tilting his head back and opening his beak for food again.

Tao Qiu had been through this stage himself, so he knew a few things about their kind of bird, such as their straight intestines, in the biological sense.

It was less of an issue for adult birds, but chicks were small, making this trait much more obvious.

So before feeding him, Tao Qiu moved the chick out of the nest. Sure enough, a few minutes after being fed the little pieces of meat as before, the chick stuck up his butt and pooped.

Luckily, Tao Qiu had moved him beforehand, or the feather nest he had gone to the trouble of making would have been soiled.

He put the chick back in the nest, cleaned up the poop, and lay down in the grass nest again, looking after the chick while continuing to incubate the remaining two eggs.

The rest of the day was basically a repeat of the same steps: feeding, watching the chick, incubating the eggs...

The little chick got hungry quickly and needed feeding every hour or two. He didn't yet understand what it meant to be patient and simply followed his instincts. If he didn't get food, he chirped and squawked, the noise like demonic music piercing the ears.

Tao Qiu was woken several times in the middle of the night. He sighed as he stroked the chick. "Sweetheart, you could apply for a job as an alarm clock someday."

The chick said nothing and kept swallowing the minced meat.

After a broken night's sleep, Tao Qiu made it to dawn looking haggard and listless, yawning nonstop.

His self-healing ability could only heal physical injuries. It couldn't do anything for his mind.

The one consolation for Tao Qiu was that once the chick's down dried, he looked fluffy, taking his cuteness to another level.

His looks had successfully washed away his old father's grievances.

To reward himself for his hard work, Tao Qiu ripened two wild fruit plants. As it happened, the chick was due for a feeding when Tao Qiu ate, so he shared a little with him.

It was quite a lot—a whole three berries!

Tao Qiu stuffed a full handful of fruit into his mouth and swallowed it with relish before saying to the chick with mock seriousness, "You're a child. You can't digest too much, unlike me. I'm an adult, so I have to eat lots and lots to get full."

Chapter 14: Second Cub and Third Cub Hatch

Three days after Eldest Cub was born, the second egg cracked open in the early hours of the morning.

Tao Qiu had good night vision and wouldn't accidentally feed meat into a chick's eye. So when Eldest Cub's cries woke him, he deftly fed him until he was full. Then he looked down and saw that one of the two remaining eggs had a ring of cracks pecked around its shell.

Tao Qiu was wide awake now. He watched the egg intently, waiting for the chick to hatch, in case something went wrong and he couldn't intervene in time, resulting in tragedy.

Second Cub took a little longer to hatch than Eldest Cub, but she seemed stronger. Eldest Cub had crawled out of his shell, whereas Second Cub gave a kick with both feet and sent the shell flying aside.

Second Cub's move was both cute and a little comical, and Tao Qiu couldn't help laughing aloud.

Perhaps sensing her old father's laughter at her expense, Second Cub began squawking at the top of her lungs only minutes after being placed in her new little feather nest. She was even noisier than Eldest Cub, giving Tao Qiu no chance for peace or rest.

Fortunately, Tao Qiu was an experienced hand by now and quickly plugged Second Cub's little beak with meat.

Thankfully, Eldest Cub and Second Cub got hungry at nearly the same time. Otherwise, Tao Qiu figured his head would explode from listening to them take turns making a racket.

Afraid he might mistake what he saw at night, Tao Qiu waited until the next day to check Second Cub's sex. She was a girl.

His daughter took after him, white all over. Once her fine down dried, she looked like a snow mochi when curled up. Tao Qiu was so smitten that he kept having the wicked thought of stuffing her into his mouth and chewing her up.

After raising the two chicks for a few days, Tao Qiu noticed a clear difference between them.

Aside from eating, drinking, and relieving himself, Eldest Cub barely moved. His eyes weren't open yet, and he only chirped when he was hungry, so Tao Qiu couldn't tell whether he was really asleep or just dozing whenever he lay still.

Rather than a chick, he was more like a little turtle as steady as a mountain.

Second Cub was different. Aside from instinctively eating, drinking, and relieving herself like Eldest Cub, she spent most of the day asleep, but whenever she was awake, she couldn't sit still at all.

Even though she couldn't see yet, she would always stretch out her little beak and claws to investigate her nest.

If she didn't encounter "danger," she would move forward. If she did, she would frantically retreat, trembling with fright, her little body shaking as though she might shed all her down.

But before long, she would recover her courage and continue exploring in an unknown direction.

Tao Qiu found it entertaining and liked to watch her adventures when he had nothing else to do. Now and then, he would mischievously give his daughter a sudden fright, touching her or putting something in front of her.

At first, Second Cub fell for his tricks, but later she probably realized that these "dangers" couldn't cause her fatal harm. Being fed and accompanied by Tao Qiu had also made her familiar with his scent and presence. After that, she turned into a bold bird, casting aside her former caution and exploring everywhere without restraint.

Now it was Tao Qiu's turn to get ruffled. Second Cub flailed around everywhere, and he was afraid she might really bump into something or fall and hurt herself. Lately, he spent far more time watching her than Eldest Cub.

Whenever anything looked like it might hurt Second Cub, Tao Qiu nipped it in the bud.

As a result, Second Cub grew even more unrestrained. Her eyes weren't even open yet, and she already seemed eager to flap her wings and fly.

Tao Qiu had to patrol his territory and hunt, so he couldn't watch Second Cub all the time. He could only go out while she slept. Afraid she would cause trouble if she woke up, he deliberately arranged stones into a cage, lined the middle with a feather nest, and put Second Cub inside.

He rushed out and rushed back. Even Fleet of Time couldn't keep up with Tao Qiu.

Tao Qiu, exhausted in body and mind to the point of numbness: "..."

No wonder people said they raised children to provide for them in old age. He wasn't even old yet, and his children were already going to work him into an early grave.

While the old father and little sister went back and forth making a fuss, Eldest Cub remained as still as a mountain, completely unaffected.

Probably only the sky falling would move him even a little.

Six days later, Eldest Cub opened his eyes in Tao Qiu's palm. They were green like Tao Qiu's, only a shade darker.

The first thing he saw was Tao Qiu's face. After adjusting to his newfound ability to see, Eldest Cub nuzzled Tao Qiu's hand affectionately and gave him a soft chirp.

Over the past few days, he had long since engraved Tao Qiu's scent in his mind. Now that he had finally seen his birth father's face, he unconsciously made him his whole world.

Tao Qiu stroked Eldest Cub's little head, a smile on his lips, though he was somewhat worried.

He was happy that Eldest Cub was growing up healthy, but another worry had arisen in his heart. So many days had passed, yet the last egg still showed no sign of hatching.

When he checked it against the sunlight, there was hardly any movement from the dark mass inside, and Tao Qiu gradually began to panic.

This egg was probably going to follow the same path as his brothers and sisters who had never hatched.

Although he had prepared himself beforehand, telling himself that life and death were up to fate, Tao Qiu still felt an uncontrollable sadness now, especially after seeing Eldest Cub and Second Cub hatch.

The thought that Third Cub was also such a vibrant life, yet might never make it into the world, weighed heavily on his heart.

Perhaps sensing Tao Qiu's poor mood, even the naughtiest Second Cub had been much more subdued these past two days. Eldest Cub noticed that their father was constantly watching the egg and realized how important it was to Tao Qiu. He often nuzzled the shell gently, as though encouraging the little chick inside.

That day, Tao Qiu went hunting. As soon as he returned to the cave entrance, he heard two birds chirping inside. They sounded agitated.

Eldest Cub had always been steady. If even he was in a panic, it had to be something serious.

Tao Qiu tossed his prey aside, took human form, and rushed inside.

In the cave, Second Cub, whose eyes still hadn't opened, was shrieking anxiously inside the stone "cage" Tao Qiu had made especially for her. She kept flapping her wings as though trying to fly out.

In the large nest holding the third egg, one corner of the little blanket covering it for warmth had been lifted. It looked like Eldest Cub had done it.

Eldest Cub circled the unhatched egg, calling toward Second Cub from time to time, both answering and soothing her.

The chicks were too young to express exactly what they meant, and Tao Qiu could only make out the gist.

Tao Qiu ran over. Seeing him return, Eldest Cub hurriedly fell silent and lowered his head to touch the egg, indicating that something was wrong with it.

Tao Qiu crouched down and examined it closely. He found a small hole pecked in the shell, the chick's air hole. Beside it was a crack in the shell that he recognized well: the chick had pecked it to get out.

The last chick wasn't dead, and was even about to hatch!

Unfortunately, Tao Qiu had only been happy for a few seconds before reality threw cold water on him. He noticed that the egg was unusually quiet, with no sound of the chick struggling to peck its way out. It hadn't been like this when Eldest Cub and Second Cub hatched.

Some chicks didn't develop properly inside the egg. Even if they forced themselves to peck at the shell, they could still lose their strength and die partway through.

Eldest Cub and Second Cub were so panicked that they must have noticed what was happening, and it had probably been going on for some time.

Tao Qiu held the egg to his ear and listened carefully. He didn't know whether it was an illusion, but he seemed to hear a heartbeat, though it was very faint.

The chick was still alive, but on the brink of death.

Without much hesitation, Tao Qiu reached out and began peeling away the shell, hoping to help the chick hatch this way.