Ol' Flint the Crow

Flint's Tale pt. 2

...I overheard rumors of civil unrest among the inhabitance of Dermid. The king and queen spoke of rabble-rousers that sought to overthrow them. Tabitha and I didn't think much of it as we ate our dinner, but the signs were there. All the nobility feared that the common folk were preparing an attack. Whether this was true or not, it didn't matter to me in the slightest. Tabitha was the only person that I cared about.

When I first noticed the gallows being built in the town square, I was attempting to read a book all by myself. My feet were dangling out of the window I was seated on. Glancing outside, I saw soldiers assembling a scaffold with a noose hanging in the center. A sack of wheat was tied to the rope to test its durability. From my earlier adventures with Edvrick, I knew exactly what this contraption was intended for. They were preparing to kill the commoners they deemed traitors to the royal family.

"What are you looking at Flint?" Tabitha asked when she saw me upon the windowsill.

"Nothing!" I lied so she would not realize the horrors about to take place outside. "I ain't-! I am not looking at anything!"

Smiling at the fact that my speech was slowly becoming better, Tabitha did not pressure me into revealing anything else. I sighed in relief and shut the curtains to block out the dreaded gallows. She was still an innocent child, and I needed to shield her away from this. But how long could I keep this a secret from her?

It proved not much once the king and queen brought their daughter to the execution. I was perched on her shoulder and didn't figure out what her parents were doing until we were already there. As they made their way up top of the observation deck, they explained to the girl what she was about to witness.

Her father said, "You see Tabitha, your mother and I are under obligation to protect our subjects against anyone who seeks to lead them astray. That is why sometimes we must do things that may seem... wrong."

The king pointed down below. A young man, no older than twenty years of age, was being forced up to the gallows. Soldiers tied his neck firmly to the noose as they shackled the man's hands behind his back. He was just on the verge of tears as he looked up at the royal family to beg for mercy.

"What did he do?" Tabitha asked as her hands griped the handles of her chair.

Growling under her breath, the queen hissed, "He is a deceitful propagandist who desires nothing more than to confuse our subjects. He is spreading vicious lies about us!"

Tabitha's voice wavered as she muttered, "But does he really deserve to die?"

"Yes my sweet," her parents whispered as the general of their army, named Kathrine, stood next to the dreaded lever.

I scanned the crowd as they watched in fear at the sight of their own about to be hung by the neck. One of them might have been his mother. He could have a brother or sister who were too afraid to plead for his life. How could this be happening? The man was still so young and hadn't even begun to start a family of his own.

I didn't know what to do. If I uttered one word in an attempt to stop this madness Tabitha's parents might have sent me away from her. I could not have that! I wouldn't be taken away from her! I swallowed roughly as the two rulers signaled for the lever to be pulled.

With one foul snap echoing throughout the plaza, the Dermid citizens gasped as the man breathed his final breath on earth. I felt Tabitha's body flinch as the rope buckled under the corpse's weight. The girl had seen something that no one her age should be allowed to witness.

Tabitha's father put his hand on her arm right next to me. I felt the urge to puncture the damn noble's eye out, but I clenched my teeth instead. Hatred for Tabitha's parents rolled through my body. Why did they do this to her? To my dear girl!