Ol' Flint the Crow

The God Of Trickery and Mischief

Flint buried his head into his chest and cried, "P-Please! Not again. Don't talk to me! Why must you torment me?!"

"But your so fun to mess with, birdy!" the voice giddily squealed out. "Oh, Flint. How I've missed you! It's been ages since I visited you last. But you must forgive me for that. There are so many others to play with. Don't worry though. I'd never forget to come back to you, my favorite tragic hero." Taking a moment to think, the intruder finally said, "Hmm... And it looks like there's much I've missed since the last time. No more wolves to attack you... You killed them, mercilessly, I see. Your mercenary friends are all dead... Tabitha killed them. And that little princess is still after you. Boy, how much she hates you! How come? You only left her to suffer a slow agonizing death at the hands of a mad peasant... Why didn't you go back and try to save her, Flint? Though you did not leave her on good terms, (she would like nothing better for you to suffer just as much as she did) leaving her to be tortured with her people was pretty heartless, even I must say!"

Flint shook his head and moaned, "No no!"

"You've made a mess of her life, Flint. Weren't you supposed to be her friend? Ho ho! If you could have only seen what Todd did to her in that dark prison. You would have wept. Wept! Haha! Now there's something that I want to see. How'z about it? Listen!"

Another voice, frail, young and feminine, rang out through the valley and punctured the three travelers with its dreadful pleads. "W-why are you doing this to us?! Leave Gregory alone, you peasant!"

"Keep goin'!" a second voice, heartless and male, seemed to shout at his comrades. He then spoke back to the girl vehemently. "Laughin' wench. Yah want some? 'cause I sure aim ta give ya your fair share of what ya deserve soon enough."

The girl cried, "My mother was right! You townsfolk are barbarians!"

"I'll show ya a barbarian!" the man's voice rang out.

There was a terrible cry that spewed out from the girl.

Meanwhile the man, who Samuel assumed to be Todd from Flint's account, said, "This is retribution for what ya've done ta us. And ya rank can't save ya now! I'm in charge. Ya 'ill suffer a much crueler fate than what my son had to go through! I'll make it nice and slow! Then I'll be satisfied!"

"No! Please! F-Flint! Where are you?!"

When he heard his name being called, Flint, who had been cowering the ground with his wings covering his ears, raised his head up and called out, "Tabitha! My sweet girl! Forgive me! I didn't know! I swear I didn't know this was going to happen to you!"

"But it did happen, Flint," the mysterious stranger's voice returned to normal. "And, oh boy, how much that girl suffered! She still suffered long after you left her to die. It was like music. Glorious!"

Seeing her friend wallowing in pain on the ground, Bleak whipped her crossbow out and prepared an arrow for whatever was speaking to them.

"No!" the bird could scarcely bring himself to speak to the barmaid. "This is an enemy too powerful for you or me to handle. Leave! Flee from here. Take Samuel to the creek and go. This th-thing will not show you any mercy!"

However, Bleak was not listening and instead stood in front of her friend as a shield against the invisible adversary. "Show yourself, coward! Fight someone who can attack back."

"So, the fat one wants to do battle?" laughed the voice. "Ha! Miss Bleak, isn't it?"

The barmaid shuttered at the sound of her name being spoken by a complete stranger. To her knowledge, she had never met this entity before. Yet it seemed to know her.