Abandoning a birth place

He knew not how long he feasted, only how much

He ate and drank the blood and flesh offered until he had borne a hole into the same stomach he had birthed himself from, leaving it open and gaping like the mouth of some demonic being. And as the feelings of sadness at his own circumstance settled upon him, he cast them aside in the name of survival

And finally when he felt fit to burst, like a parasite who had drunk its share he began to once more focus on his surroundings. The air while still moist and chilly had risen slightly in temperature and the wind had ceased

As he began to move around he could hear the clicking and clacking of his small claws against the ground echoing around the walls, while he could not gain much information from this he was able to conclude his earlier thoughts of the location being a cave or tunnel.

It was definitely a cave. The ground was far too hard to be dug naturally or by something and the sounds of his claws echoed straight back to him, instead of traveling down a path or such and slowly becoming dimmer.

However he immediately discovered a hurdle in his expiration of the cave as he walked into a wall, he had no way to direct himself, had he had a stick or the like he could use it as a form of the antenna but he doubted he could find one or had the strength to swing one for an extended amount of time due to his newly formed muscles and tendons

It was a miracle he could crawl at all and an even greater miracle that he knew that

Deciding to not re-enter the rabbit hole surrounding the reason behind his knowledge and self-awareness he began to focus on the problem at hand, sitting on his haunches and tapping his fingers against the stone floor

Hower as he sat he noticed something slide onto his back, Wings?

They were attached to the undersides of his arms and spread from there, large enough to cover his entire back with ease as he sat, he hadn't noticed them earlier due to the blood and fluids soaking him holding them against his body and as he felt them with his hands he felt a distinct texture

Feathers

This combined with his earlier screech implied that he existed as some form of avian based creature and as he began jerking them around he caused the tips to slap together, creating a whiplike sound, that echoed around the room

He had found a solution to his problem

Stretching his wings as wide as he could, ignoring the crackling of the now broken congealed blood covering them and the sound of his own bones protesting he cracked them together as hard as could, causing a near-deafening *crack* and listening to the sound as it reverberated around his surroundings

Rudimentary echolocation!

When the sound died down, he did it again and then again, testing distances until he eventually was able to disconcert the shape of the room he resided in

The room was a rough dome or cube, surrounding on all sides except the left which held an opening, and within the room existed himself and a bump he knew was the partially eaten corpse of his mother

Although tempted to leave his surroundings, his instinct whispered to stay within the cave, to feast and grow as large as possible before leaving, in order to ensure or increase the rate of survival

And so he did

Unaware of how much time passed he followed the most simple guideline possible

Eat, sleep and make noise

When he was not sleeping, he feasted and when he was full he practiced his echolocation, cracking his wings over and over, growing and tearing the muscles in order to both gain strength and increase his ability of perception, using his hearing to learn the shape of his surroundings, again and again, and using his other senses to gain details such as the scent and feel of dirt and moss, the texture of stone, the taste of cold air

While at times painful, the routine showed growth, it grew easier to ascertain the shape of his surrounding, he even moved the ever-shrinking corpse of his mother around in order to change the factors, and finally when his mother's fallen form was all but reduced to her head and a portion of her torso, something he felt bad for eating he stopped his feeding he stepped into the next room, leaving the place he had spent untold hours within and the rotting form of the mother whose name he had never learned

The next cavern was much the same as the last, circular in feature, the only slight differences were a fainter smell of moss and blood, the next the same, and so on until he had explored for some time and his limbs begged for rest and he would collapse into sleep before awakening and repeating the cycle

As he went his hunger grew and he had to satiate himself on moss and the few critters he was able to catch, mainly crickets who he was able to easily find due to their sound and catch within his hands with some limited success.

However, as he moved concern soon bloomed in his small chest as he realized his own vulnerability concerning predators and the like, who would likely appear soon after his exit from the safety of the cave of his birth.

Wherever he went he announced his presence with a clap of his wings, which was necessary for him to even "see" at all, and he was far too weak to defend himself, despite a slight growth in his muscle mass due to his exploration, he was still an infant, one whose muscles could painfully tare with a jerky movement if not careful

However as he finally found the exit of the cave, starved and weak his worries were slightly put at ease

He could smell it and taste it in the air

Smell the rot and decay

Everything, wood, leaf, and animal was dead and dying