Work Text:
Crawling out of an egg wasn't Shen Yuan's idea of fun.
Sure, it was interesting, but it wasn't fun. He felt sticky and wobbly where he stood, covered in some slimy substance he couldn't even see. Birds were squeaking all around him, high-pitched and annoying, he himself felt his chest rumble with complaints.
He's upset and wants a bath, he's never felt so dirty in his life. Not like his doctors(or parents or just anyone who knew poor, weak A-Yuan) would ever let him be covered in unidentified substances; he doesn't need an infection on top of all his other medical issues.
He wobbled forward, and his body felt weird(very descriptive of him, of course).
It's smaller, and where are his hands? He's gently shoved back, and he remembers he has eyes, he should really use them. He blinks sticky goo from his eyelids, and then suddenly, he wants to cry just as badly as the other birds, or his siblings, should he say.
...
His mind stupidly blanks out, even as his heart pounds and begs to get his shit together.
He vaguely notes the ground rattling, his body lifting off the ground and slamming right back onto it like a bumpy road before there's a majestic creature staring into his beady eyes. ‘Mom’, his new body trembles, burning with the need for safety; he's plastered against her before he can blink twice.
It's sticky---It's safe---. He's uncomfortable with the wall of goo separating them, he puts his last memories in a body with a torso in a box and throws it behind a locked door (He doesn't think he'll forget the anguish that settled in his chest as he felt his heart slow) just as she picks him up.
Her beak feels like it should be sharp. Instead, it's kind of blunt even as she scrubs him red, when had he been thrown in a lake? It's cold! Throw him a blanket!!
He stares at the crystal clear lake, watching his feathers quiver and shake. He likes the way his feathers turn pinkish or gradually blue, finds he feels awkward looking so different from his siblings with white feathers around.
He's lifted out of the river and put on the tail(?)of his mother.