? The Caged Bird ? [Rebooted Reader Insert]

It's a pretty slow day today...

Thought a particular curly haired teen as he walked along the shoreline of his beach home, the water just barely lapping at his feet. His hands were stuffed in the pockets of his bubblegum pink letterman jacket, which barely covered the black t-shirt with the titular yellow star brandished on the chest.

For as he remembered, there wasn't this much down time during the days of his childhood. Any form of peace that was managed was cut short by something happening, which was a very frequent occurrence. Never a dull moment, to put it lightly, but most of these events weren't fondly remembered.

But even with all of this newfound peaceful quiet...

He was... admittedly at a loss of what to do.

Even if he's grateful to have it now, he was no longer a child; so he wasn't fully sure of how to spend his newly obtained free time.

Maybe I'll pass time by watching TV... he thought, tilting his head back to peer at the sky. But there wasn't anything he specifically wanted to watch.

He's long since grown out of "Crying Breakfast Friends" and he could only watch "Under The Knife" re-runs so many times. Not to mention that he's played through all the video games and board games he's owned. And stuffed animals were out of the question. And with Connie busy in college prep and the other Gems getting the newer residents of Little Homeworld settled in, he was pretty much alone for the day.

He let out an almost defeated sigh. "Maybe I'll stop by Funland or--"

He let his gaze drop to the ground, and paused at something shiny in the sand catching his eye.

"Huh?" He speedwalked towards the shine, and was surprised to find what looked like a large (color) egg washed ashore.

"What...?" He crouched down, to get a look at the large object, running his fingers delicately over the smooth surface.

It was around the size of pearl's gem- maybe an inch or two larger- and very warm to the touch. Also like her gem; it was oval shaped and very smooth and shiny. The only difference was it was speckled in flecks of (color), which almost looked like scales. He looked it over a bit, both intrigued but confused.

He looked around briefly, before gently scooping it up into. His hands, which was surprisingly warm and heavy in his grip. Without thinking, he brought the egg upto his ear, only to let out a startled gasp at hearing a very faint but steady beat within it.

He took it away from his ear quickly, to look at it with wide eyes. Whatever was in this egg was still alive! But if that was the case... where could it have come from?

He glanced around again, this time more vainly as he searched for at least a clue of origin, but didn't seem to find anything out of the ordinary. No nest, no parent...

He looked back down at the egg, confused and concerned. What bird did this even belong to?

He looked down at his shiny find, his brow furrowed in thought.

In the back of his mind, he knew what he was doing was a bad idea. Touching an unidentified egg is one thing, but there was no doubt that moving it was a foolish move, lest the parent returns... but an odd instinct in him told him that he couldn't just leave it out here in the open. It may fall into the wrong hands, or worst get broken. He should at least look after it until the parent does show up, or at least until he figures out where it came from.

Question was, how could anyone lose something like this?

With one last glance around to ensure he was alone, he slowly stood back up and turned back to his house, cradling the egg in close to his chest to preserve its warmth. At the same time, he was staring at it pensively at it, trying to recognize where he's seen this.

"I think I know someone who'll know you..."
~~~~~~~~~~

"There... and... there!"

Carefully, he set the egg down into a small hand basket he'd found, wrapping it in a soft blanket he had warmed up from the dryer. After which, he switches on a desk lamp, to which he sets it under, completing his makeshift incubator.

"Okay..." he pulls out his phone to check the time. "She should be here any minute..."

He turned his back to the egg, unaware of its subtle movements it made.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don't normally start books this way because it's difficult, but if I started out through the usual second person perspective, you wouldn't know what your egg would look like.