A Difficult Meal, a Hard Truth, and a Discovery

After a quick tour of the small farm, Rikko already knew almost everything about what was there. He couldn't help but notice that the main building, the farmers' house, was very rustic and somewhat different from the movies he had seen.

As they returned through the hole in the fence, he noticed a group of chickens gathered in a corner. They were the chickens that had been arguing earlier with Gelda in the center, who seemed to be saying something in a low voice. Rikko didn't like this attitude, but what kind of plans could chickens have?

Better keep an eye on them for a while. - He thought.

But at the moment the most important thing for him was to fill his belly, which had started to rumble minutes before.

“Er... Dad? When are we going to eat?”

“That's right! I'm sorry, I got so excited to show you around that I forgot you hadn't eaten anything yet. But without further ado. Let's get started.”

Since he was so hungry, Rikko hadn't stopped to think about what kind of food chickens ate. Not that he couldn't imagine, after all, it's common sense - at least to him - that chickens eat corn or feed. It could also be leftovers, but he would find a way to choose and avoid eating something rotten.

“To find food, first of all you need to use your paws to scratch the ground. You have to use your claws and scratch the earth hard, like this. - Kel turned the ground vigorously, little by little bringing up black earth around him.

Seeing those movements, something occurred to Rikko's mind. He remembered something about what chickens did for food, and seeing Kel turning the earth only served to make him apprehensive about what was to come. His fears were realized with the last scratch.

“Ah, there they are, very fat and long, a great feast by the way. Help yourself, my son.”

Earthworms. Dirty with earth on the outside and full of earth on the inside. A nice handful of them, wriggling exposed to the sunlight, desperately trying to get back to where they came from. Rikko felt his stomach - or gizzard, who knows - turn.

“Urgh. Dad... do I really have to eat this? It looks so... disgusting.”

“Disgusting? But you haven't even tried it, my son! Come on, give them a few pecks to kill them and then eat them. Just watch!”

Kel pecks three times, making one of the worms stop moving, catches it with his beak and swallows it with pleasure. Rikko was left to just contemplate the disgusting sight.

“Mmm, delicious. See? Now it's your turn.”

Rikko looked at her father, looked at the worms and looked back at his father. She felt his head spin and his throat went dry. As if they noticed his reaction, the worms moved even more as if in defiance. His desperation had reached its limit.

“I-I... I... Mommy, help me- MOMMY???”

He tried to ask his mother, who was nearby, for help, but he couldn't hold back his scream. Kohko, who had been following the two of them a few steps behind, had discovered a group of cockroaches hidden under a board on the floor and was swallowing them as if he were tasting the best of delicacies.

“Oh, dear! Leave some for me!” - Kel hurried to his wife, grabbing two cockroaches with shiny shells at once. With their meal done, they turned their attention to a small chick with its food still on its plate.

“Excuse me, my son, did you want some cockroaches? But you haven't even eaten your worms yet. Hurry, eat them before they hide!” - Kel showed concern.

But Rikko had his own problems at that moment. To eat or not to eat? Logically he didn't want to, but the apprehensive look on his parents' faces was causing him overwhelming pressure at that moment. There was no other choice, it was all or nothing.

If I eat it all at once, I might not even be able to taste it. - He thought hopefully.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and swallowed them like spaghetti until there was nothing left of them. Or almost nothing, since a small piece was moving vigorously in the corner of his beak. He forced a smile and a look of pride in himself. He vomited it all up and then passed out.

“Son, wake up! Are you okay?”

When Rikko woke up minutes after fainting, his parents looked at him with concern. Some chickens came to see what happened, curious. With great difficulty, Rikko managed to get up. He felt terrible, but he got up.

“Son, what happened to you?” - Kel asked softly. Kohko was next to him crying, but she seemed relieved.”

“I just got dizzy, I think it was the hot Sun.”

“Oh, so it was... what is Sun? Why did it do this to you?” - Kel didn't seem to understand what he was saying.

“HUH? Oh, that thing up there!” - He pointed with his wing.

“The Eye of Fire? Yeah, it could be. It's really hot today. Are you feeling better?”

“A little. Sorry, Daddy, I wasted the worms.”

“It’s okay, Mommy and I ate everything after you passed out.

Rikko preferred to pretend he hadn't heard that, there was nothing else to throw up.

“Daddy, is there anything else to eat? Something that doesn't move?” - He thought it best to specify just in case.

“Hmm, I'm going to take you to eat yellow dots. And drink water too. Come on.”

He walked next to his father as best he could, reaching a kind of feeder that was a few meters away from the chicken coop. He prayed that those yellow dots weren't something else disgusting. She wouldn't be able to handle it.

“Here they are. Yellow dots. Can you eat these?”

Corn. A large amount of chopped corn kernels had just been placed there by someone. If there was corn to eat, why the hell did you take me to eat worms? - He felt like cursing Kel, but when he remembered that he was a bird, he accepted that this was how they dealt with food. But he couldn’t help but think for a moment that he would make nuggets with it if he had the chance.

“I think so, I’ll try.”

As expected, the kernels were hard and dry, but just the fact that they weren’t something disgusting like insects and worms was already “better than nothing” according to Rikko. He ate as best he could, alternating with water from the waterer so as not to get stuck.

“I did it, Daddy! It was so tasty.” - He lied.

“What a relief! Come on, now I’m going to teach you how to bathe in sand.”

If corn was something offered to them every day, the feeding problem would be solved at least for now. And bathing in sand is a habit that birds do to get rid of parasites, Rikko – or rather, Ricardo – learned about it through books when he was trying to win over a librarian girl.

“UAAAAAHHH!!!”

Rikko couldn't resist the fright. A huge centipede - at least in relation to its current size - came running from under the waterer towards him, but Goppa appeared out of nowhere killing and devouring it right there.

“Hum, I've been keeping an eye on that rascal for three days, I finally caught it. Thanks for attracting it, Little One.” - He thanked as the last pairs of legs disappeared into his beak.

“Err, ugh, you're welcome.”

“He's weird, isn't he?”

“Yes, very weird.”

“A tasty meal like that and he doesn't even try to peck, what a waste.”

“Poor Kohko, your last son is useless...”

A chattering among the chickens began behind Rikko. Goppa went to scold them, but it seems he will be the main attraction of the henhouse for a long time. In the distance, Gelda and her friends once again watched everything from afar with sharp eyes, and this did not leave him with a good feeling.

For the rest of the morning, things seemed a little calmer for Rikko. He learned to bathe himself with sand. To flap his wings to gain momentum and climb up on the perches so that when he could no longer sleep under Kohko. The afternoon passed and night fell, making him fall asleep peacefully under his new mother.

Tomorrow will be a new day in this new life of mine.

The next day, for the first time, he had visual contact with the owners of the farm. It was the farmer's wife. She was a lady of just over forty years old, plump and with huge breasts, long hair braided at neck level and covered by a green bandana. Her face was ugly, frowning and tanned by the sun.

This one is definitely not my type. - He thought.

But her clothes were what caught Rikko's attention the most. They didn't look much like the farm girl clothes you see in movies. They resembled the clothes of RPG characters. He had played video games when he was younger and he knew this because he dated a gamer girl and ended up playing several of them again for about four months, so he knows the basics of these things.

“Son, that's one of the owners here. Don't ever cause them any trouble, or you'll be the one who'll have trouble with them.” - Kel warned.

The woman was washing clothes in the stream and hanging them on a wooden clothesline to dry. It was then that the farmer came out of the house. He was similar in age to his wife, tall and slender with a face as grim as hers. Clothes of a similar pattern, with patches here and there. He picked up a bucket, filled it with corn, and then walked towards the chicken coop. He saw Kohko and Kel coming towards the feeder with Rikko right behind.

“Humpf! Finally one! For now they've escaped the pot, but it's only a matter of time.” - He commented with his hands on his hips, before heading towards the cows carrying a bucket and a heavy bale of hay on his back.

Rikko couldn't understand a single word the farmer had said. Having watched several foreign films, it was clear that the language was unfamiliar to him and that it was not like anything he had ever heard. He began to suspect where he was, but he needed more information and doubted that the chickens could have what he needed to know. He would start wandering around on his own to find out.

After a while, the farmer returned with a basket in his hands. He was collecting the eggs from the nests through the hatches of the henhouse, but when it was Kohko's turn, he simply looked at the empty nest with contempt.

“We'll see tomorrow.” - He slammed the fence gate and went home.

Four days passed and the farmer did the same thing. He looked at the nest and looked at Rikko. Even without understanding what he was saying, Rikko began to imagine what was happening.

The farmer expected Kohko to lay more eggs, and her continued negative response could mean that she was getting old and unproductive, and the same could be said of Kel.

They would go to the pot and that wouldn't take long, which worried Rikko. He was attached to the two and was grateful to them, he wouldn't allow this misfortune to happen. But how? What could a little chick do to prevent the death of its parents?

I still don't know what I can do, or if I can, but I'll find a way to repay them for what they do for me. You can wait.

Late in the afternoon, an idea occurred to him. He could steal eggs from other hens during the night by rolling under Kohko. If he did this often enough, he could fool the farmers into thinking that Kohko had started producing again, postponing his fate. He would do it that very night.

Late at night, all the chickens were already asleep. Rikko slowly crawled out from under Kohko and went to search the other nests. He had to do this with the utmost caution, or he would wake the chickens and his plan would go down the drain. One by one, he peered into the nests, but to his dismay, he found no eggs.

Damn, do they only lay eggs at dawn?

He had already given up hope when he noticed something. It was an egg! It had been left aside by a hen completely absorbed in her sleep. This was his chance. He was slowly rolling the egg across the floor towards his mother’s nest when a light caught his eye from a crack in the wood. He stopped his work for a moment to look through the crack, and the surprise almost made him fall.

WHAT THE FUCKING HELL IS THIS?

Outside, in the dark night sky, two moons floated in the sea of ​​stars. One was more or less the same color as the one he knew, but a little bigger. The other was a slightly pinkish hue and smaller. This discovery left him astonished. He looked again to be sure.

Two moons? What the hell is this place? Am I really in another world? I don't understand anything anymore! Damn it!

After a few minutes of thinking, he came to the conclusion that… there was no conclusion. He still needed to help his new parents, so finding out where he was would have to wait for another opportunity. He rolled the egg again and when he reached the nest, he slowly placed it under Kohko, who didn't feel anything. His mission was accomplished, at least for that moment.

Not far away, someone was watching his movements. It was Kakke, the first hen to celebrate the birth of her son with Kohko. She closed his half-open eye and went back to sleep.