Ol' Flint the Crow

Flint's Second Tale pt. 3

The mad screams and howls from the animals, scurrying around the burning room, caused me to begin barking orders. "Shut ya mouths. Get everyone out of the cages, NOW!!!"

A little reluctant to do so, the animals unlocked, pecked at, and beat their limbs against the cells to free the remaining prisoners.

Meanwhile, Edvrick rotated his hands at the flames crawling closer to us. Using his ability to control the wind he attempted lead the fire away from the piles of dry hay and wood chips, scattered around the hut. Unfortunately, this only caused the blaze to scatter and climb up the side of a bookcase.

Just barely able to leap away as the flames tickled my tail feathers, I cursed wildly at Edvrick who immediately stopped his hopeless effort.

"No use!" he moaned as he yanked a bear cub away from the burning bookshelf. "My powers cannot help us!"

I rudely exclaimed, "Ya think?!"

Thankfully, my animal brethren were making good progress with the second row as they proceeded opening the cages on third. Being quite tall, Edvrick lifted the ferret up to reach the locks. The skittish creature fumbled with the steel key as he unlocked the doors. One, two three... Four locks open.

"Put your backs into it!" I squawked while a one-winged stork and I pulled sickly animals from the open cages.

Five, six, seven... The eight cell on the third row clicked letting loose a three-legged hound dog. Nine, ten-

Seeing hot embers raining down, I lifted my beak to see the wooden roof turning a dark brown color as the fire ate away at it.

"Hurry it up!" I screamed.

With the eleventh door open, the animals scaled the cages to the last row above as the flames caused even the bravest animals to yap in fright.

The high-pitch screams of a bungling-eyed mouse caused me to dart my eyes to the front door to see what had startled the rodent. That's when a cold shiver ran up and down my back at the sight of the flames covering our only escape route.

"Sylph?" I bellowed while swinging my wings at the door. "Hay, Sylph!"

Twisting his head at me, Edvrick's pale face seemed almost fearful at what I showed him.

Running up to him, I screamed at the top of my lungs saying, "What now?! What do we do?! We're gonna be trapped in here!"

Edvrick breathed heavily as I saw him standing perfectly still as he pondered. Suddenly, he bent down and waved to the animals, beckoning them to climb on his back.

He quickly turned to me and bellowed, "Finish the last row! There's going to be a lot more fire in a moment!"

Before I could ask him what he was planning, Edvrick, with the frighten animals clinging onto him, thrust a leg forward and lowed his face. Letting out an exhale, he suddenly bounded up the stairs and out the door in half a second as a cyclone of wind and fire followed him outside.

Too my relief, this gust had caused the flames closest to us to be sucked away, giving us more room to move. We were doing rather well now. There were only a few more cages to open.

Unfortunately, our brief comfort was cut short once another gale, this time headed towards us, shot a bucket full of sparks at our feet. Edvrick had returned with a blistering fire on his heels. Mildly singed, but not at all hurt, Edvrick brushed off the pieces of flint and ashes as he gathered another group of animals to transport outside.