Chapter 54: Seems Like It’s a Bird That Can’t Fly

“We should give it a name, shouldn’t we?”

“Meow!”

“Will you help me think of one too, Milk?”

“Meow!”

Milk nodded enthusiastically, as if to say, Leave it to me!

“Alright… then, how about Hiyoko?”

“Meow…”

Milk’s voice sounded weak and unenthusiastic.

“Not really a fan, huh? Well, then, how about Piyo Piyo?”

“…Meow!”

A slightly better response, though still tentative.

“Hmm… let’s try one more. How about Pippi?”

“Meow-meow-meow!”

Ah, that seems to have hit the mark. Pippi, small yet surprisingly spirited, began running around in wide, excited circles, her little body vibrating with energy.

“Alright, Pippi it is. Though… I guess we’ll see if you actually like it. …Huh? Where did you go?”

Somehow, she had disappeared from sight.

I wandered toward the far end of the old neighbor’s vegetable patch, and there she was, diligently poking her beak into the soil, searching for worms.

“How’s it going?”

“Pii pii!”

This time, she had managed to pick up something that looked like a grub in her tiny beak. Even though she was just born, she was already quite the eater.

“From today onward, you’re Pippi. Got it?”

“Pii?”

She didn’t seem to fully understand, but since she didn’t protest, I guessed it was fine.

And so, just like that, our little family grew by one more.

A few days later, after my sister returned from her three day assignment, chaos and delight arrived in equal measure.

“Pii pii!”

“Whoa!? What’s this yellow fluffball?”

“It’s not a fluffball, it’s a bird, a bird!”

“Pii pii!”

“Wait… it’s a bird? Oh! You’re right! It’s got eyes and a beak! And… if I look closely, legs too!”

Just as Sena said, Pippi was so round and fluffy that she hardly resembled a bird at all. When she was first born, her wet feathers made her look a bit slimmer, but now, fully dried, she had become nearly spherical. Her soft, downy plumage was so thick that her little eyes and beak almost disappeared into it.

She was supposed to be a bird, yet I doubted she could fly. Well, even chicks similar to her often couldn’t.

“Onii-chan, are you getting another pet?”

“Yep. This is Pippi, so take good care of her from now on.”

“Pii pii!”

“She’s so cute! Fluffy fluffy!”

Pippi seemed to be friendly by nature, allowing Sena to hold her without any fuss.

“She’s really big too! Could she be a magical creature like Milk?”

“Probably.”

“Then she might grow as huge as Milk, huh?”

“Maybe so.”

“Pii?”

…And just as Sena had predicted, Pippi began growing at an astonishing pace.

She had an insatiable appetite. At first, she focused on the insects in the vegetable patch, but that soon became insufficient. Now, she preferred the meat and fish we harvested, devouring it with remarkable gusto.

Within a week, her height had surpassed my waist, and her width had expanded so much that from afar, she looked like a giant, rolling fluffball.

“Meow!”

“Pii pii!”

Milk and Pippi were playing a chase game in the secondary vegetable patch. Pippi chased diligently after the fleeing Milk, yet the distance between them barely seemed to shrink.

And wow… they were both fast! I could barely follow their movements with my eyes.

Eventually, Milk slowed down, allowing Pippi to catch up.

“Pii pii pii!”

Delighted at finally reaching her, Pippi ran toward me with a triumphant hop, as if to say, See what I did! I suspected Milk had let her catch up on purpose.

“Milk’s really being a good older sister, huh?”

I had worried a bit, given that they were both magical creatures. A cat and a bird… under the wrong circumstances, who knew what could happen? But seeing them now, all was well.

By the way, Pippi, like Milk, was female. I didn’t know if it was coincidence or if magical eggs just happened to produce only females.

“Caw! Caw! Caw!”

A shadow flitted across the sky. A crow.

The hated bird that had once troubled me had been beaten back many times by golems, and it no longer dared to visit the primary vegetable patch. But the secondary patch was new, and occasionally, one would appear.

The garden was mostly hidden from view, yet when a crow flew overhead, it sometimes accidentally drifted into the visible space above the patch.

Of course, the golems immediately responded, chasing it away.

“――――”

“Caw! Caw!”

As expected, the vigilant golems arrived swiftly, and the crow panicked, retreating into the sky.

“Pii…”

“Hmm? Pippi, are you curious about that black bird? That’s a crow.”

Pippi had been watching the fleeing crow intently. Perhaps she felt drawn to it because it was, after all, another bird.

“….”

“Pippi?”

For some reason, she leaned forward slightly, wearing a strangely serious expression. I was about to wonder at her odd behavior when suddenly—

“Piiiiiiii!”

“Whoa?!”

She cried out loudly and sprinted forward, startling me.

It seemed this was her run-up. Stretching her wings as she ran, Pippi thrust off the ground and leapt powerfully into the air.

“Pipipipii!”

Her wings flapped furiously, scattering the air with a loud whap whap whap, and for a brief, heart-stopping moment, she was airborne.

“Whoa! Amazing! Pippi can fly!”

…Or so I thought. Soon, her altitude began to drop rapidly.

“Pii!?”

Despite her desperate efforts, gravity won, and she landed on the ground with a soft thump.

But one failure wasn’t enough to discourage her. Pippi kept practicing, over and over, attempting to soar into the sky.

Perhaps seeing the crow had inspired her to try for herself.

“Pii…”

Yet no matter how many times she tried, she couldn’t quite manage it.

“Meow.”

“…Pii.”

Milk comforted her gently.

The likely reason she couldn’t fly was obvious: her body was far too round and heavy, and her wings too small to lift her.

Hmm… maybe Pippi simply belonged to a species that was never meant to fly after all…