Ol' Flint the Crow

Forgiveness

Softly humming the last few bars of his song, Samuel gentle swayed the shivering bird in his arms. There, alone together, the two of them remained for what seemed like hours. Flint kept whimpering at the sound of Samuel's angelic voice, but the crow did not ask him to stop. Instead, the animal clasped his wings tighter around the minstrel's neck and buried his beak deeper into the human's warm skin.

"T-that's actually a rather nice song..." Flint sniffled at the end. "Even if it sounds rather depressing, it-it makes me feel happy for some reason. P-please sing it for me again..."

Gazing into the bird's twinkling eye, Samuel nodded his head and did just that. Flint began to slowly drift off to sleep, quivering against the minstrel's chest where the necklace that the blue elf, Elanora, had given to him hung. The jewelry was cool to the touch and soothed the bird's aching head.

After he finished, Samuel scanned the area with the help of the meager light the flickering torch gave off. He looked back at Flint and gently shook him awake.

"We should find Miss Bleak," Samuel said with a tenuous shudder.

Awakening with a start, Flint bit his tongue and remorsefully wept, "How can I even look at her in the eye, Mr. Samuel?! What I did! The horrible thing I did to her! She'll never forgive me. Why should she forgive someone like me?!"

"If she truly loves you," Samuel responded weakly, "which I know she does, she will."

Flint scoffed. "After all the things I told her with the elves?! Hypocrite! I-I thought I was free of my hate for other species. But in essence, I committed genocide! NO!!! I can't go back to her! I have no right to ever see her again. No! She'll never forgive me."

As quick as a whip, Samuel sighed in mournful bitterness, "Doesn't matter."

Flint lifted up his beak and gaped at the flute player with a mortified expression. His wings wrapped tighter over the back of Samuel's neck, half begging that Samuel was not being honest with him.

"If asking for forgiveness just for the sake of receiving mercy for the wrongs you've done is all you want, then you're not thinking of the one you hurt," Samuel shoulder's drooped at his own words which opened an old wound that he had tried desperately to hide deep in his heart. "Miss Bleak will have to make up her mind on her own. And it's up to her if she is willing to forgive. You can't make her accept your apology, Flint. Regrettably, that's not how forgiveness works. I wish it was. But it's not..."

"You hurt someone, Mr. Samuel?" Flint gazed up and marveled at the human.

With a nod of his head, Samuel pressed his lips together until they turned a milky white hue. "I did! And only now do I know how selfish I was." Samuel cleared his stuffy nose, and moaned, "It's not easy to apologize and accept nothing in return. Nevertheless, you're a much braver creature than I could ever hope to be, Flint. Let's go back to Bleak. Whatever her decision turns out to be, you can only do your part. The rest is her choice alone. Be brave!"

"I-I don't think I'm that brave," Flint moaned as his wings slowly lost strength. Unclasping himself from Samuel, the crow trudged away from the human and stretched out his back. "But I'll go through with it. I-I can't let her go without speaking to her... one last time."

Unsure himself what would happen, Samuel hoisted himself off the dirt, yanked the torch from the ground, and stood by the crow's side. With a nervous smile, the minstrel gestured Flint along. In turn, the bird took a gasp of air and marched through the tunnel with his head held high, but his tail flickered about unruly. The sounds of the human and animal's footsteps echoed in unison as they traipsed together.

~~~

They found Miss Bleak in the fresh morning air of Burrowed Canyon packing the travel sacks while she bickered with herself and mumbled curses. She limped around the small stream as the pain in her leg throbbed. On her neck, a recently wrapped bandaged was there to stop the bleeding, but the white cloth was red as the mouth of a lion from the steady flow of blood.