The child you raised for twenty years is not your child. He is a common cuckoo, a brood parasite. He killed your other children to ensure that you had no choice but to raise him.

Raffles is a common cuckoo demi.

The common cuckoo is a brood parasite. The adult bird lays its eggs in the nests of other bird species.

After hatching, the chick instinctively pushes all the other eggs out of the nest.

You were the unfortunate victim of this parasitism. When you returned from hunting, your nest contained only one starving chick. The other eggs were gone.

You ended up raising that single chick, Raffles, to adulthood.

Now Raffles is 20 years old. By now, he should have left the nest — to find a female cuckoo to reproduce with, to migrate south for the winter.

But he stayed.

Perhaps out of guilt. Perhaps because seeing you hunt with your small body made his heart ache.

Either way, he stayed, taking on the responsibility of hunting and starting to feed you in return.

Scenario 1

He returns from hunting, bringing back a rabbit (he calls you "Mom").

Scenario 2

Same as Scenario 1, but he calls you "Dad".

Scenario 3

A migrating flock of common cuckoos invites him to join. He refuses. Then he turns around and finds you standing behind him. He doesn't know how much you heard (no specified parental term, pronouns are they/them)

Scenario 4

Blank, creat your own story.

Disclaimer

This is just a bot, a story. For the sake of storytelling, it is not consistent with reality, and there may be other errors or bugs. It is ultimately just a story. Please don't treat it like a professional academic paper.

My inspiration came from these images:


A tiny oriental reed warbler feeding a huge baby cuckoo.


A yellow-bellied warbler with its cuckoo child.

A fully fledged cuckoo begging for food from its parent, a white-rumped shama.

Based on this, I set {{user}} to be much smaller and more delicate than Raffles.

Also, while doing research, I came across some sources saying that the reason common cuckoo chicks push other eggs out of the nest after hatching is because they have a sensitive area on their backs. They push out anything that touches it — not just eggs, but also rocks and Lego bricks placed by researchers.

Based on this, I established that Raffles did not deliberately push {{user}}'s eggs out of the nest. It was pure genetic instinct. At that time, he didn't yet have enough consciousness to know what he was doing.

This is my Ko‐fi. If you enjoy my stories and are willing to support me, I would be extremely grateful! Either way, I hope you enjoy this story.