Ol' Flint the Crow

Flint's Second Tale pt. 5 / Taking Notes

The sun was almost setting, shrouding all of us into the dank darkness of the coming night. Shivering from the sudden cold wind wrapping around us, my beak twitched nervously as the sound of footsteps approached... haunting footsteps, pattering nearer and nearer. A lone figure, enveloped in the layers of the deepening darkness, marched to us as his leather boots snapped the twigs he treaded upon.

Squinting, my eyes soon adjusted, giving me a clearer view of the stranger's shocking clothes he wore. His leather pants were made of brown and white cowhide. The red dyed shirt around his heaving chest was woven of young lamb's wool. Wrapped around his shoulders hung a jacket made from the pelt of poor foxes that he sewed together like one of the wizard's more grotesque experiments. Darting my twitching eyes at the stranger's head, I saw the fur of a beaver made into a horrid hat that still had its tail, swinging right and left as if to mock me.

This creature was human, a hunter to be more precise. With a bear trap jingling at his side, and a bow hung behind his back, he lumbered towards us. His head, and beaver hat, jerked back at the sight of his catch, not expecting such a successful bounty of critters he had collected.

"Ho!" he chuckled merrily. "What luck! The missus is gonna love this. Must be ten, at least!"

As the human walked towards me, I desperately looked around in search of my weapon that had slipped away from me. The spear was only three feet away, but with the weight of the steel rod crushing against my frail leg, it might as well had been three miles. No matter how far I stretched out my small wings, I could not reach it. The man's slithery fingers coiled around my body while I struggled.

Releasing me from the trap, the hunter's cold hand clamped firmly on me as I blurted out, "Get away from me, ya damn human filth!!!"

With his eyeballs about to leap from their sockets in shock, the human gawked at me as his stubby fingers loosed their grip. The hunter pulled me close enough to his face that my beak almost touched the tip of his fat nose which was shivering in curiosity.

"Lords!" he bellowed. "I don't believe it! Did you just speak?"

I didn't answer him; I was too busy jabbing my bill into his left nostril.

Hollering as he desperately tried to yank me off of his bleeding nose, the hunter, in a frenzy, leaped around the forest like mad.

"'et off! 'et off!" the man screamed while yanking me by the neck, nearly snapping it.

Releasing my hold on the hunter, I was chucked away as he dropped to his knees in agony. I tumbled on the ground for a bit, rolling over to my weapon. Clenching the spear in my wings, I thrust it forward as I balanced on my right leg with my left lifted up to keep the weight off of the new injury I had suffered from the trap. There was a lump growing out of my ankle, and my toes were puffy and red where a sharp pain was beginning to sprout up, causing me to wince terribly. Thankfully my stretched out neck ached since this distracted me from the stinging of my leg.

With my weapon poised in the direction of the man, clenching his bloody nose, I snarled at him in my most animalistic manner.

To my surprise, the hunter stared at me in shock, almost like he was partially afraid of what I was capable of. After all, I was a talking animal who just slit his nose open and was now pointing a spear like it was second nature to me. My wings were still covered with blood and the remaining flint flakes sparkled off of me like I was bewitched with a horrible curse. Anything was possible in his opinion. I puffed out my chest, haughtily.

Gaining some of his anger back, he exclaimed, "Why would you do that?! S-stupid damn animal! I-I'll pay you back... make you into a soup for that!"