Ol' Flint the Crow

Flint's Second Tale pt. 4

"Flint!!!" Someone called out to me as if from a restless dream. "Flint! Wake up! Don't die on me, my friend!"

As my slothful eyes slowly creaked open, I came face to face with a human! I swung my arms wildly around for a moment but stopped once I realized that it was the Sylph, beaming down at me. Exhaling in relief, I brushed the dried flakes of blood off my face.

In my ear, I heard the annoying chatter of excited animals yammering and running around the forest. In spite of my mild irritation at the noise, I sighed, relieved to be out of the smoldering wizard's hut which was still burning in the distance.

The ground was soaked with river water that I later learned Edvrick had use to keep the flames from spreading throughout the forest. I rolled over a few times clean myself off a bit from the caked on blood and ashes covering my body.

"I'm guessin' we won, huh?" I muttered unenthusiastically. " Yay, hurray for us... ugh!"

Edvrick's voice faltered, he gleamed at me like a parent who had just found its lost hatchling. "I thought I lost you!"

He immediately grabbed my head and brought it to his chest, cuddling in me tightly. This action smeared his elegant robes with the remaining red filth and black soot on me.

"Hey!" I yelled. "I ain't a hugger. Get off Sylph! Err... Edvrick..."

Proudly lifting one of his thin eyebrows as he relished the fact that I had finally uttered his name, Edvrick loosened his hold on me and said, "Are you hurt? Nothing's broken, right?!"

As Edvrick persistent to paw at me, in search for an injury, I gnashed my beak. "I'm fine! Stop dotin' over me. I ain't yar one-day-old chick!"

"Sorry... I-I was just so worried about you. You shouldn't have run off! You scared me half to death!"

My eyes shot out of their sockets as I remembered what had happened.

"Blue!!!" I yelled and instantly stood erect.

Swiveling my head all around for the blue jay, my face froze up as I saw the ferret hunched over the lifeless bird. The ferret had me worried for a second; I thought his animal urges for meat had gotten the better of him. Instead, the animal had a grave expression as he proceeded to cover Blue with a dried up leaf.

My breath wavered, and my feet swayed as a bitter wind blew against me. With slow irregular steps, I walked towards Blue as her body refused to move in spite of my frantic pleads.

"Blue..." I muttered. "Wake up, Blue..."

The ferret looked at me with his partially singed whiskers shivering nervously. I could hear a distinct uneasiness in the way he yapped as he explained the cold truth that Blue was dead.

He told me in his squeaky voice that when I was being operated on, I was running out of blood. In a last ditch effort to kept me alive, the old wizard had grabbed the first bird he could find, which unluckily was Blue, and transferred her blood into me.

After I awoke from the surgery, the ferret and the other animals didn't have the heart to tell me what actually happened to the blue jay even when I was taken away to be sold. Apologizing at every other word, the ferret's pointy nose quaked as he finished his sad tale.

I would have cried out in agony and curse the wizard for what he had done. However, my body was just too tired to react in that way. Also, you must understand, Eleanora, that I was quite use to death since the wizard thought of us as nothing more than ingredients for spell crafting.