"Your right", Crow said. He glanced at the petrified man kneeling in front of him, his calls of loyalty and justice long forgotten in the face of Crow's icy wrath.
"Tear his tongue out and have it sent immediately to Raven" he ordered the two guards who stood either side of his prisoner. "Yes Sir" they barked synchronically.
"Wait! No! Please don't". The frightened Scotsman begged as the guard on his right moved off to the medieval torture instruments that Crow kept hung on the walls of his audience chamber for occasions such as these.
Crow sighed exaggeratedly and rolled his bright blue eyes. "Oh go on then. Tell us why we shouldn't rip your tongue out and feed you to my most loyal subjects" he said in a deadpan tone. "No offense" he added to his men with a quirk of his thin lips.
"None taken Sir".
"I'm scared", the young man whimpered, sweat running down his ashen face. Crow pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling his irritation levels rising rapidly. "Mother Nature give me strength", he groaned. "Your scared. Did you really think, oh ha! This is hilarious" he chortled, "did you really think that if you acted like a coward that I would, what? Have sympathy? Offer you a job? Or even", he paused for dramatic effect then after a few beats hissed, "let. You. Go. Hubert when you've removed his tongue do me a favour and remove his eyes and punishment for his impudence".
"Yes Sir".
"No no no! Please Crowman, I mean , Sir, please I can help you. I've got information you'll want to know"! he wailed.
Crow snorted. "I think I've had enough of your help already, and as for information, I already have it via the same method that your dear Master uses on his poor unsuspecting victim's". He let out a dark chuckle of sardonic amusement as his prisoner's mouth opened in horror. "Now open wide. This ,won't hurt ,a bit".
The guard who had been standing over Crow's prisoner, not bothering to keep up the pretence that nothing less than the darkest of natural magic was holding the frozen teenager in place now grabbed hold of his bottom jaw and pulled it as far down as it could go.
Crow settled back on his beautifully carved wooden throne with a hum of satisfaction, feeling as content as he would if he would if he was sitting back to watch his favourite film with a large box of chocolates and a glass of vintage wine. He glanced up at the large crow perched above him, admiring the way that the light pouring from the circular window above them brought out the magnificent shades of purple and green in it's feathers. "Mother could not have made a more beautiful being" he murmured softly, "do my orders have your approval"?
"Caw"!
"Good. Begin" he commanded Hubert.
The teenager's shrieks of pain were music to his ears and nourishment to his crow coloured soul. When they were replaced by pathetic childish whimpering Crow smiled, allowing himself to admire the beauty of the young man's removed eyeballs and sunset red tongue. "Argh"!
"SHUT UP"! Crow roared, shooting up from his velvet cushioned throne as if it had burned him. The teen flinched, cowering and shuddering at the feet of the animal guardian as blood dripped out of his mouth. The crow fluttered off his perch and landed gently on his Master's right shoulder, the brush of it's feathers against his cheek soothing Crow's ferocious anger. Crow let out a huff of air, closing his ice like eyes as his boiling rage slowly cooled off. Then he let out a smile that on anyone else's face would have looked kindly and sympathetic but on his looked terrifying and unnatural.
"Now now, don't fret, don't fret young mortal", Crow crooned, crouching in front of the young man and wiping away the snot, sweat, blood and tears still trailing down his mutilated face with his baby blue pocket handkerchief . "You have done your brethren and my brother, your Master great service. Your loss is their gain, don't you see? If your Master truly cares about his people then my gifts, your eyes and your tongue will show him that Crowman does not tolerate spies of any kind and also has people who will not be swayed".
"Sir".
"Yes what is it" Crow barked impatiently at his men.
"Should we...."
"send this man's eyes and tongue to Raven like I ordered you to before I eviscerate you both, yes you should". The two guards grabbed what they needed and scuttled off under Crow's freezing glare. "Oh Mother Nature, I really do need to employ some more independent thinkers, I mean they have excellent character but as you probably know already their not exactly mental giants. Ah well, where was I? Oh yes". He grabbed the teen's shoulders and pulled his into his shadow passage to the dungeon.
Hopping out of the passage at the other end Crow dragged his prisoner out and pulled him towards the large stone circle set in the centre of the room, behind which there was a 30 feet drop.
"Where are you taking me"? The teen burbled through ruined lips. Crow didn't answer but looked upwards at the brilliantly blue sky which was slowly being blotted out by hundreds of hungry crows. "Patience. Your dinner's almost ready".
"Wha....." the boy let out a strangled yelp as Crow slit his throat with an ornate dagger with such ferocity that he nearly decapitated him before viciously kicking him in the tailbone, sending the young man hurtling over the stone wall, down to the pit below.
"Bon voyage" Crow yelled down the pit before he hastily moved himself out of clipping distance as the hungry crows soared downwards to their meal 30 feet below. "Thanks" the crow on his shoulder called as he flew off to join his fellows in their meal. "Your welcome Tun, and bon appetite to you all".
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