Chapter 1 Hatching

(A/N: The story really starts in chapter one. The prologue just establishes the main character and explains her circumstances. If you are not interested feel free to skip it and go to the first chapter. Though as the author I recommend reading it. Also the prologue is very dark. You have been warned.)

When Evelyn awoke, the first thing she noticed was that everything was dark.

She tried to move but her entire body seemed to be restrained. And no matter how hard she tried nothing would budge.

'Ugh, what happened, where am I.'

The instance after she thought this, her last memory resurfaced, and she instinctively tried to reach towards her throat which suddenly burst into searing pain.

The last thing she remembered was having her throat sliced, and the lingering feeling from that immeasurable pain seemed to have followed her like a phantom.

However, after a few moments the pain was gone, as she realized there was no injury to her throat, and she in fact did not feel any pain at all.

'What is going on, I could have sworn that bastard killed me? Did I maybe start to hallucinate, and he had actually moved me somewhere else? '

Evelyn continued to struggle, but it was all for naught as her body was still restricted and nothing she did seemed to work.

'Argh, where the hell has that bastard put me? Was chaining me to the ceiling not good enough? He had to put me in an incredibly cramped, wet, and warm box. Wait, why is it warm and wet?'

After calming down a bit, she started to focus on her body. Really trying to get a feel for her situation.

Once she had finished expanding her senses and understanding the condition of her body. She realized that something was very wrong. Not only was she restrained, but she could not feel her hands and her feet felt like they were missing some parts.

Feeling that something was terribly wrong Evelyn began to panic shaking violently trying to free herself from what she perceived to be the next act of torture her captor was subjecting her to.

Eventually though when she had exhausted herself, she tried calming back down to understand what was going on.

'Was burning, cutting, and beating us not enough? Now he has cut off my hands and mutilated my feet. Us?... Mason! God where is my brother? I thought I saw him get killed as well, but if I am still alive, maybe that was also a hallucination?'

Evelyn tried with renewed vigor to look around and find her brother, but her head was firmly locked in place and the only thing she could perceive was darkness.

She tried desperately to call out, but even her mouth could not move, and she was unable to make a sound of any kind.

'This is bad! Has he just decided to leave me to die of thirst, did he bury me or something?'

'No, if I was buried underground with how confined things are, I would probably have suffocated already.'

Soon Evelyn realized the futility of her situation, and simply resigned herself. She had already figured she would die when she was first kidnapped. In fact, she had already thought she had died, so giving up again was not too hard for her now that she knew there was no way out.

However, instead of dying slowly she seemed to be getting stronger as time went on. She could feel her muscles growing and her bones strengthening.

It was all so weird to her, she wondered how she could be having a growth spurt without eating or drinking anything, and because she had already finished growing a little after she turned fifteen.

Evelyn sat in this state of perpetual darkness and restraint, getting stronger and stronger for what seemed like days when she finally felt her confines give a little.

At first it was just the smallest amount of extra room but soon she began forcing her way out moving her body wildly.

She could hear and feel that whatever was confining her was cracking, even if she could still not see it.

She continues to thrash about. Finding that using her head was the most effective since her arms and legs were still not reacting very well.

Soon she heard a loud cracking sound, and with one more massive headbutt broke out of whatever confined her.

'Ha I am free.'

No longer held in whatever prison she had been placed in; Evelyn tried to look around at her surroundings.

However, all she could see were tuffs of fluff in front of her eyes. She tried to shake her head and move it from side to side to knock the fluff off, but it seemed to move with her and all of her efforts proved to be for naught.

'Great did he glue some cotton balls in front of my eyes or something. I guess I will just have to try to feel my way around.'

Evelyn then tried to move forward, but immediately fell over onto her face.

She started flailing around trying to get back up but to no avail.

'Come on work legs and arms. Ugh why are they so short and useless all of a sudden. It is like I have chicken legs of something.'

Yet in the moment after that thought, Evelyn abruptly stopped moving. She finally realized what was wrong. She was not missing her hands, she never had any, and her legs really were like those of a chicken.

'No no no no! This is not happening, there is no way I am some type of bird now!'

Evelyn tried as hard as she could to deny it, she figured this was a dream, or maybe she was on some psychedelic drugs. Anything other than what was reality.

Unfortunately, she could only stay in denial for so long, because she soon felt something pushing against her, followed by a "hoot hoot".

Hearing this she knew that everything she had experienced was reality.

She tried calling out with her voice, but all that came out we a few cute squeaks, that confirmed her fears. She had been reborn as an owl.

'This is shit, an owl, I could have at least been a crocodile or a lion or something else really big and powerful.'

However, as she thought about it more Evelyn came to grips wither new life and even figured it was not so bad.

'I guess it could have been worse, I could have ended up as an ant or some other insect.' She thought while imaging plenty of animals that would have been worse.

After collecting herself for a few minutes, Evelyn eventually tried all manner of things she had seen in games or read about in novels

Yet as much as she tried, no sort of system or message appeared to guide her in her new life. She was once again having to start from scratch, albeit with her memories intact.

When she had finally given up on trying to activate some sort of system or cheat ability, she wobbly tried to stand up again, but once more face planted into the soft nest.

'Curse my stupidly oversized head. Why do owls have to have such unbalanced bodies as soon as they are born.' Evelyn thought annoyed by her current situation.

At this point she had become tired and decided to give up for now. She knew it was only a matter of time before she would be able to move around.

After laying there for what seemed like hours, Evelyn heard what sounded like another creature landing down in the nest.

She wondered why she did not hear anything until it was that close, but then she remembered that owls had incredibly quiet wings.

She then heard another round of hooting, but this time instead of just one owl hooting there were two.

Evelyn figured that her knew father must have come back to the nest and her mood immediately soured.

Just thinking of the word father had made her remember all of the terrible things her own had done to her. And if it was not for her brother, she figured she would have written the entire male population off as scum.

Of course, Evelyn deep down knew that her new owl dad was unlikely to abuse her, since maliciously beating children was a predominately human trait.

However, just the mere thought of her past father made her angry. And after what had happened the last time she trusted someone, she was not going to open up to anyone or thing readily.

Soon though Evelyn felt a large beak pressing against hers, and she could immediately feel that there was something in the other beak.

After a few moments she recognized the feel of what was being pressed against her, it was raw meat.

Evelyn reflexively recoiled in disgust trying to move her new beak away from the raw meat. Much to the dismay of her mother that was trying to feed her.

Nevertheless, after Evelyn had moved her head away from the raw meat, she felt an instinctual hunger in her stomach that was hard to resist.

She then heard her mother or who she assumed to be her mother, let out some angry hoots before forcefully pulling Evelyn over and shoving the meat into her beak.

Evelyn wanted to spit the meat out, but her new owl body had other ideas.

Before she realized it, she had already eaten all of the meat given to her, marking the end of her first meal as an owl and the beginning of her new existence.