Colorful Cuckoo

393 AC - As I watch the cuckoo's egg crack and hatch, I think to myself how it's a bit like what happened to Papa. I was dumped on his doorstep one day, totally out of the blue. If he'd had other children, I would have monopolized his attention to the detriment of my hypothetical brothers and sisters. Although I don't think I would have gone as far as kicking them out of the house. But who knows… Hypothetically, they could have been so unbearable to live with that I had no other choice! Anyway… That's not what I'm here for. The egg breaks, and a beak emerges uncertainly from the shell. I came here to categorize the endemic species of the various Quadrants, and I had my work cut out for me!

When you look at the archipelago's islands, you can see a similar phenomenon across all the ecosystems: a slow succession of species. One would replace another, like a giant game of musical chairs. But the process was happening much faster here than in the Katkera, probably because of the drifting atolls and the Tumult tides, which were having a major impact on the living conditions on the surface of the islands… The pieces of broken shell fall away, and a head pushes through the gap. The chick doesn't yet have the colorful plumage of the adult cuckoos, just a few grayish feathers to help it blend into its environment. Suddenly, the sky darkens. I look up, puzzled. It's as if the clouds had changed color. As if something had blocked the sun's rays…

RIN