Ol' Flint the Crow

A New Mission

Samuel, sick to his stomach, puckered his lips and shook his head in frustration at the deathly sight.

"You didn't have to do that," he scolded the bird. "You didn't have to kill them!"

Scrunching up his beak, Flint flung his wing at the dead lambs rotting on the ground and shouted, "They didn't have to do this! Or does a life of an animal mean less to you than a human's? Gods! Can you believe this Miss Bleak?"

However, the bartender could not look Flint in the eye. Her head sank forward as she sucked her bottom lip glumly.

Seeing how much his friend was affected by his coldhearted actions, Flint scratched his cheek and mumbled a curse. He shot another look at Samuel and sighed, "What's done is done. I apologize for not having your moral agency, Mr. Samuel. However, these priest brought pain to others. It is only fair that they should pay for their misdeeds. Right?"

When the minstrel remained silent, Flint tapped at his eyepatch and added abruptly, "An eye for an eye as it were. At least they didn't suffer for as long as they made these animals suffer."

"Little monster!" shouted the farmer, suddenly, once he finally built up the courage to stand up and face the talking beast. "You killed priest of the Gok. Y-you'll pay for this. I'll call the sheriffs! They'll see to it that you're hanged!"

Huffing in aggravation, Flint retorted, "It doesn't end well for sheriffs when they deal with me!"

"Beastly creature!" the farmer continued his tirade against the bird, "You cannot flee from the Gok. No matter where you run, the gods will find you and bring you to justice for you sins."

"You know you're really starting to get on my last nerve!" Taking out his rapier, Flint charged forward intending to teach the farmer a lesson in front of his family.

Thankfully, Bleak grabbed Flint by the wing and said, "That's enough, Flint!"

The bird's eye glowed in rage so brightly that Samuel quaked out of fear that Flint might harm the bartender once again like he did before in the wolf den. Bleak's bandage was still wrapped around her neck, and her leg limped a bit every time she over exerted herself on their marches.

However, the crow's anger cooled at the sight of Bleak. With a groan, Flint sheathed his rapier. He swung his wing over his shoulder and softly stroked his friend's hand as if he were doing this to quench the fiery anger burning inside of him.

Glaring at the farming family in disgust, Flint hollered at them, "Get lost!"

Immediately, the farmer's wife, staring at the bird in fright, seized her husband and daughter's arms and dragged them away into their home. She shut the door with a bang, leaving the travelers outside to do as they pleased. But her husband peered from out of the front window to stare at them with his distraught eyes.

Scratching himself with his beak, Flint mumbled livid curses directed at the farmer in the house. Then the bird blew his nostrils out and darted his gaze away to turned his attention at the more pressing matter. Namely, the animals still trapped in their cages.

With Samuel and Bleak's help, Flint released the creatures which scurried away happily through the countryside. Although Samuel nervously gazed at them in concern for where they would go, he grinned in delight that he could give these animals chance to taste freedom. The minstrel laughed aloud as he saw a squirrel skipping across the field, doing summersaults for joy. Perhaps the brutal bloodshed was worth it... Maybe.

At that moment, Flint had just then recognized the tree frog that was still hiding behind the pushcart. It peeked one of its red eyes from behind the legs of the cart and looked at the crow in bafflement, recalling a previous time that she had seen the bird somewhere before.