Chapter 2

“Adele!”

The girl sprang to her feet at the sound of a screech and mopped.

She was so tired that she rested to  straightened her legs for a while.

“Are you still mopping?! I’d have been  faster than you!”

A fierce-looking aunt opened the kitchen door roughly, holding buckets in both hands.

“When you’re done mopping, pick out everything here! If you don’t finish it before lunch, there’s no lunch today!”1

Adele was tired of work and has not yet finished mopping the kitchen floor.

She kept the egg in the hole of the oak tree until early this morning.

The egg, which had been shaking little by little all night, cracked very slightly at dawn.

She knew it was about to hatched and  ready to be born, but she couldn’t be there any more when she has this amount of work to do

It was clear that her aunt would come to find her if she didn’t go back home before dawn, then the egg would have been caught.

As soon as she changed her wet clothes, she left the large egg hidden  and started working at home.

Fetching water from the well, preparing breakfast, feeding chickens and ducks, then carrying hay to feed the cattle at the ranch into the cart, then returning home and mopping.

The cows had hay and the rest of the family had breakfast, but Adele had not yet sat down at the table.

This is how it is every day, and now she doesn’t want to sit at the table and have breakfast with other family members.

Adele, who had moped the floor when her aunt left the kitchen, slightly checked what was in the bucket.

“Ah…”

It was different kinds of beans that filled the two buckets.

Beans are mixed with hay and used as cattle food.

Among the beans in the bucket, the round-shaped ones are selected separately for people to eat, and the crushed and shabby beans are given to the cattle.

It’ll take three hours to pick out all of these.

“Ha…”

Adele sighed.

But it was clear that if she didn’t finish this, she’d be out of the house in the evening.

Adele, who washed her hands, put a bucket on the table and began to pick out the beans.

Her fingers were picking beans, but her mind was on the oak tree.

‘Did the baby bird hatched by now?’

When she crawled out of the tree just before dawn, the egg was gradually cracking.

Is it fully awake now?

If it woke up from the egg, how would I dry the wet wings?

When a duck is born, a mother duck dries its wet wings. But the egg in the hole in the oak tree has no mother bird.

‘It must be a big bird, right?’

She had a lot of questions swirling in her head.

“Will it be like an eagle? Or a hawk…”

She’ve never seen an eagle but have seen a hawk before.

The hawk is huge, but the eagle is bigger.

If the eagle really comes out, wouldn’t it bite her?

When in the orphanage, the eagle in the main fairy tale book had a large sharp beak.

It must hurt a lot if it peck at me.

‘What if it wake up and there’s no one there and start to cry?’

Adele was worried about the eggs and forgot that she skipped breakfast.

“……..”

Adele glanced at the wall clock.

There are still about two hours left before lunchtime.

She’ve finished preparing lunch.

It doesn’t take much time to set the table for lunch.

But the problem is these beans in the bucket.

She was sure she won’t let her have lunch. If she don’t pick out all the beans, her aunt was really…

Adele, who bit her lips tightly and was lost in thought, sprang to her feet.

Then he hurried up to the second floor and ran down with some towels in a basket.

They were towels to dry baby birds’ wet wings.

Adele ran out of the house towards the oak tree after putting the bag of narrow rice in the basket in the feeding basket that she had left beside the chicken coop.

‘I’ll be right back….’

If she doesn’t finish picking all the beans, she’ll be scolded.

I can skip lunch.

Her aunt would be across the stream at the cotton farm house by now.

Her aunt’s routine is to go there in the morning and chat with the woman there over tea.

‘Quickly, before my aunt comes back.’

Adele, who made up her mind, ran, shaking her basket.

Her golden hair glistened in the blinding sunshine pouring from the blue sky.

The clothes she wore were ragged, but her beautiful hair were fluttering softly.

***

“Ah…”

Adele, who was crawling into a hole in the bottom of the oak tree, stopped there with a startling surprise.

As she worried, the egg was already broken.

The scattering of broken eggshells first caught Adele’s eyes.

But that was not what surprised Adele.

At the center of the broken eggshell, a small boy sat in place of the baby bird Adele had imagined.

Four or five?

The child, who looked about that size, sat in the midst of a broken eggshell and stared at Adele.

‘Don’t tell me…’

That child, not the baby bird, born from the egg?

No, wait. Can a human be born from an egg?

Wet, moist hair, soft-looking skin purple eyes shining like jewels Huh? Purple?

‘The colour of his eyes…..How is it purple?!’

Adele has never seen a purple-colored eye in her life.

Blue eyes, green eyes, brown eyes, black eyes, purple eyes?

“Wings…”

Besides that little thing on the child’s back is definitely wings.

It’s small and featherless, but that’s a clear wing.

It looks like a bat’s wing.

Bats that live in caves have different wings than chickens and ducks.

A wing made of stiff leather, not of feathers.

However, the wings on the child’s back were just like the wings of a bat.

A child with wings on his back with purple eyes.7

Adele was surprised and couldn’t shut her mouth and looked at the child.

‘He was born from an egg…’

Adele wouldn’t have believed that that child was born from an egg if it wasn’t for the wings of his back.

But those wings, and the purple eyes she’ve never seen before. Broken eggs. She can’t help but believe them.

That child was born from the egg she had covered with a blanket and held tightly in her arms from last night until dawn.

“Oh, hello?”

Can you understand what I’m saying?

Adele approached the child carefully and greeted him.

The child tilted his head with a strange twinkle in his purple eyes.6

The child’s skin was so fair that it was indescribably clear.

His eyelashes were very long and his lips were pretty red like strawberry juice.

‘I’m sure you won’t eat chicken or duck food…’

The narrow rice in the basket must be smiling.4

So what should I feed the winged child who woke up from the egg?

Not a bird, not a human, but because it looks the closest to a human being, so milk?

‘Should I go home and get some milk?’

Fortunately, there is a lot of milk. Because her uncle is running a dairy farm.

Adele also milks cows every morning.

“Hello.”

Adele greeted the child again.

It was then.

“Hello?”

The child opened the red lips and greeted them.

The voice was dainty and cute.

“Hello.”

The child greeted again.

“Hello?”1

Adele noticed when the child said hello again. Now the child did not say hello, but imitated her words.

Adele said something easy and simple to confirm whether he really imitated it her.

“Who are you?”

“Who are you?”

Sure enough, the child mimicked.

The child, who was mimicking the words with his purple eyes twinkling and a bright expression, was so cute that Adele covered her mouth with her hands and laughed.

“Cute…”1

“Cute?”

The child stared at Adele and copied the words.

“It must be cold.”

Looking at the child’s hair, which is still a little wet, Adele took out a towel from the basket and covered it over the child’s head.

Then covered the child’s naked body with a blanket lying around beside him.

The child who had just woken up from the egg, of course, was not wearing anything.

“Come on, let’s do this.”

“Let’s do this.”

Long words might be difficult, but the child only copied the last words.

“I’ll be your mother for the time being.”

“Time being.”

What the hell is this child?

Why was he born from an egg?

What are these wings?

She’ve never seen or heard of anything like this in a fairy tale book.

If she let the adults know, it’ll definitely be a disaster.

A greedy uncle and aunt might sell this amazing child to the circus.

But she can’t keep the child in this tree hole.

I can’t stay here with you.1

If the child starts walking and goes out of the hole at will and catches people’s eyes, he’ll be caught for that wing.

“I wish I could understand what you’re saying, not what I’m saying. So here’s where you’re going to stay and I’m telling you not to go out….”

“What, don’t..out there…”

What the child mimicked was only the four-ninth word.

It was so cute to follow along with her red lips that Adele hugged the child wrapped in a blanket.

“I’m Adele. Adele.”

“Adele.”

“Yes, Adele.”

“Adele.”

“Since you have wings, let’s call you Sigmund.”

Sigmund is the name of the warrior who rode a winged horse and defeated the monster.

Of course, it’s not a real person, but just the name of a great warrior in a storybook.

Adele thought that the child did not ride a horse with wings, but that he had wings on his body, so called him Sigmund.

The name looked very good on him after she thought so.

“You’re Sigmund.”

“Sigmund.”

The child sweet lips parted, saying his own name.

“Sigmund.”

“Yes. You’re Sigmund, I’m Adele.”

“Sigmund, Adele.”5

On a spring day, the child said his name several times, smiling like a violet flower on the hill.

As if he like it very much.

***

“You Lazybones, Adele!”

Adele rushed to of the kitchen on the voice of her aunt, who shouted without fail.

Her aunt and two cousins, who went out to a grocery store in the village, were entering after opening the door.

The uncle’s hands, coming in after them, were full of goods from the grocery store.

“What the hell happened to dinner preparation?! I told you to get ready to eat as soon as you got back, didn’t I?”

“I’m done preparing the meal, Aunt.”

Adele smiled broadly, showing that she had lined up all the dishes and decorated the basket of flowers in the middle of the table.

“Hmph!”

The aunt, who did not like Adele’s smile, entered her room with a frown.

“I’ll serve the soup so you can eat it now!”

Shouting brightly, Adele began to put the soup in a bowl. Of course, there was no way that the two cousins would help.