Chapter 4: The Cloudscape Misadventure

Riding the bird’s back was just as nauseating as I’d feared.
I swallowed hard, forcing down the churning in my stomach, and clamped my mouth shut.
As my spinning vision steadied, I finally had a moment to look around.

“Where… am I?”
To my shock, I was standing on clouds.
For a moment, I wondered if I’d passed out on the bird’s back and this was all a dream.
I cautiously bent down to touch the fluffy-looking clouds. Contrary to expectation, they felt rough, like straw, not soft at all.

“Well… if these were real clouds, I wouldn’t be standing on them.”
Testing further, I tugged at the surface. Surprisingly, a white, thread-like clump pulled free with little resistance. A snapping sound followed, and when I opened my hand, it floated away on the breeze.

“Huh… this is way beyond what I expected…”
This must be the dimension the Thunderbird manages.
My task was to find ingredients here for new menu items.
I’d planned to just pluck a flower or pick a fruit if I couldn’t find anything specific.
But in this endless expanse of fake clouds?
Not a single blade of green grass in sight. I let out a sigh in this strange land.

Was the Thunderbird dumping the whole ingredient-hunting job on me because there’s nothing plant-like here?
Feeling lost, I leaned against a massive, smooth white rock, worrying about what to do next.

“Couldn’t it have dropped me somewhere with better prospects? This barren place…”
Crack, snap.
I was grumbling, hoping the Thunderbird might hear, when an odd sound came from behind.

“What was that?”
Startled, I jumped away from the rock.
From a distance, what I’d thought was a rock looked strangely familiar.

‘White, smooth, and round… an egg? A giant egg?’
No matter how much I rubbed my eyes, it was clear: the “rock” was an egg twice my height. The cracking sound I’d heard was the shell splintering, fractures spreading rapidly downward as it began to break open.

“No way… it didn’t crack because I leaned on it, right?”
If it did, I was in deep trouble.
Eggs hold life, so they’re meant to be handled with care.
I’d come as a guest in the Thunderbird’s dimension, and already I’d caused a massive disaster. Shame washed over me.

‘It can’t break just from a little lean…’

“If it’s so fragile it breaks from that, shouldn’t it be stored somewhere safer? What do I do now? Call the Thunderbird? I should just tell the truth…”
If the Thunderbird found out, it might punish me. A god’s punishment, no less!
After all the information and Causality it gave me, this felt like repaying kindness with betrayal.

Crack, crunch.
While I berated myself, the eggshell kept steadily breaking apart.
Thud!
Finally, with a loud crash, the topmost chunk of shell fell away.

Staring at the sticky membrane clinging to the shell, I wondered if I should try reattaching it. But before I could act, the shell finished shattering, fragments cascading down.

“I’m screwed…”
Bracing for disaster, I instinctively shut my eyes.

“Pwee!”
Amid the sound of breaking shells, a high-pitched chirp stood out.

“Pwee! Fluff-fluff!”
Now it sounded like a dog shaking itself.
Something warm and wet splashed my cheek, and I opened my eyes in a panic.
On the pile of broken shells sat a massive, plump creature.

What in the world is that?

“Pwee.”
It was round and full, like a ball of rolled-up fur.
White, fluffy fuzz, resembling dandelion seeds, puffed up as if charged with static.
Two glossy black eyes and a sharp yellow beak, barely visible, poked out from the fur.
The strange creature opened its beak again to announce itself.

“Pwee.”
No matter how I looked at it…

“A pig-bird?”
The name fit perfectly. I couldn’t think of any other way to describe it.
At the sound of my voice, its shiny eyes rolled toward me.

“Pwee.”
The chirp was like a newborn chick’s.
Thankfully, it seemed I wasn’t the reason the egg broke.
It must’ve been time for it to hatch.

“The more I look, the cuter it seems…”

“Pwee.”

“But if a baby bird is this big, how huge is the mother?”
Wait—if there’s an egg here, this place might be a nest.
What if the mother bird, gone for a moment, returned and found me with her chick?
A documentary about birds fiercely attacking to protect their nests flashed through my mind.
Then I pictured a bird several times larger than this chick, eyes blazing, charging at me. A chill ran down my spine. I’m done for.

I backed away slowly, putting distance between me and the giant chick.
I’d bolt as soon as I found an escape route.

“Pwee.”
But as I moved, the chick, which had been sitting on the eggshells like a cushion, began to waddle upright. Short legs, buried in its fur, stretched out, lifting its massive body.

“Uh-oh…”
Flapping tiny wings that clearly weren’t meant for flying, it started…
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
…running toward me with short, quick steps.

“Wait! I’m not food!”
Its frantic wing-flapping and wide-open beak looked ready to swallow me whole.

‘Of course it’s hungry—it just hatched!’
Gripped by survival instinct, I turned and sprinted, eyes fixed ahead.

“No!”

“Pwee-pwee-pwee!”
The chick’s frenzied chirps chased me from behind.
But its massive size slowed it down, and I quickly gained distance.

Far ahead, the barren cloudscape gave way to towering structures.
I ran until my breath burned and the chirps faded, then ducked behind a wall that appeared just in time.

“Pwee-pwee!”
After a while, the persistent chick passed by, failing to spot me, and disappeared.

“Phew…”
I thought I was safe for a moment.

“Who’s there?”
A cold blade pressed against my neck, and a voice, dripping with hostility, came from behind.

“How dare you trespass here!”

“Intruder! An intruder in the sanctuary!”
In an instant, the area erupted into chaos, and I was surrounded.

Ironically… my captors were all birds. Talking birds, like the Thunderbird.
Each wore a black robe and wielded threatening weapons in their wings.

“Wait! I’m not an intruder!”
I was an invited guest!

“With that grotesque appearance, you’re clearly a pest gnawing at the Sky Tree!”

“No wings, no beak, no feathers—such a hideous sight!”

“It’s so ghastly, it’ll haunt my dreams!”
The birds surrounding me seemed intent on wounding me with words rather than weapons.

To me, these talking birds were the weirder sight.
But looking around, it was birds everywhere. In a place full of birds, a lone human would seem odd.

Does “never seen before” mean there are no humans here?

“Everyone, calm down… I’m just…”

“Disaster! The sacred egg enshrined in the sanctuary is gone!”
Of all times…

“What? You vile intruder! Where did you hide the sacred egg?”

“How could I move something that huge? It walked off on its own two legs…”

“This pest knows about the egg! Seize them! I’ll interrogate them myself until they confess!”

“Why interrogate? I can explain everything without that! Hold on! Ugh…!”
The birds didn’t give me a chance to explain. They threw a sack over my head and bound me tightly.
Then they dragged me off somewhere.

“Keep yapping, and we’ll gag you!”
Bang!
Kicked in the rear, I was hauled into a prison resembling an arched birdcage.
Perched atop a high pillar, escape would mean a deadly fall.

Below, countless birds strutted about aggressively.

“Those bird-brained idiots… If they’d just think, they’d know I couldn’t do anything to that giant egg. There’s shell fragments everywhere!”
I was fuming, but I didn’t want a gag, so I lowered my voice.

My goodwill toward birds, boosted by the Thunderbird, plummeted to rock bottom.
At this rate, forget finding ingredients for new menu items—I might die here.

After enduring despair and loneliness for so long, I’d finally found a clue to get home. To die here, like this?
No way. I’m going home.

“Might as well give up on ingredients and get back to the shop.”
The Thunderbird should’ve noticed by now that something’s gone wrong.
I desperately prayed for it to rescue me. It’s a god, right? It should hear prayers.

But after waiting, nothing happened.

“Thunderbird? Hello? Wait… how do I even get back? How do I contact the Thunderbird?”
A sinking feeling hit me, like all the blood drained from my body.

The Thunderbird had dropped me here without explaining how to return or contact it.
It was just another bird-brain after all.

“Ugh…”
I felt wronged.
As a dimensional stray, I should’ve thought harder before visiting another dimension.
But if offered again, I probably wouldn’t refuse.

“We caught a suspicious figure lurking near the sanctuary!”

“Lock them up with the pest.”
Clang!
The cage door opened, and someone was roughly thrown in.

“Tch, easy does it.”
It was a pitch-black bird, like a crow.

“Ugh! They messed up my feathers! I haven’t even stolen anything yet, and they’re this brutal today?”
Grumbling for a while, it finally noticed me and widened its eyes.

“Hey, buddy, what landed you here? I’ve never seen a wingless bird before. What kind of awful crime leaves you featherless and looking like that? No beak either. Can you even talk?”
Its tone was surprisingly folksy.

“I was framed.”

“Framed? For what, to end up in the Sky Prison?”

“What about you? Why’re you here?”

“Ugh, if I’d known the sanctuary was this chaotic, I wouldn’t have come near. I was just trying to peel some gold leaf off the temple, as usual, and got caught. Haven’t even peeled it yet, and they’re this harsh!”
Peeling gold leaf? At least this bird’s got a rap sheet, so it’s less unjust.

“Rumor has it the sacred egg from the sanctuary was stolen. Never thought there’d be a thief bold enough for that. What’d they plan to do with it? They’re lucky if they don’t get divine punishment.”
A master thief… My head throbbed.

“Sorry, but… could you tell me about the sacred egg?”
At my question, the crow stared at me, clamping its beak shut as if I’d asked something outrageous.

“I know it’s a weird question, but I’ve got my reasons.”
Talking more would only raise suspicion, so I shut up.

“Well, I’ll be bored stuck here anyway… The sacred egg, see, is an egg bestowed by the heavens, destined to hatch the sacred bird.”
Bestowed by the heavens? The Thunderbird didn’t lay it, did it?

“So all the birds of the world await the sacred bird, who can commune with the gods and use divine power to save struggling birds.”
It sounded like a fantasy saintess, just with birds.

“Originally, a great hero who saved the world from a demon king was supposed to care for the chick until it fully matured…”
This sounds familiar. Like a princess-raising game.

“But recently, the hero passed away from avian flu, leaving the egg unattended. That’s when a thief stole it.”
I pictured the plump chick, its eyes and beak buried in fur.
A pig-bird, round enough to roll like a ball.
A shoddily made plush toy of a bird… was that the sacred bird?

“So, buddy, what got you here?”

“I…”
That’s when I heard it.
Far below the Sky Prison, where birds swarmed, a faint but unmistakable sound reached my ears.

“Pwee!”
A high-pitched, sharp chirp. It was definitely that pig-bird!

“The sacred bird has returned safely!”

“Wooo!”
But the cheer that followed drowned it out.