Crowman Cont

Just as Crow had suspected the news wasn't good. Zoo's all across Europe were being destroyed by rampaging animals, not necessarily a bad thing in Crow's mind but innocent lives were being lost as all the animals, from the largest elephant to the smallest bird revealed their true intelligence and took down any human within sight.

All formerly domesticated animals were showing off their wild side to a terrifying degree: cats and small dogs were starting fires, causing floods, biting and scratching their owners while larger dogs tore their owners apart. Gerbils, hamsters mice, rats and rabbits nibbled through power cables, snakes bit choked and devoured, parrots, chickens and macaws screeched down ears, destroyed lights and ornaments and ruined faces, cows charged, horses kicked, pigs ran off, fish and turtles killed themselves and tortoise wondered what the hell was going on. And why were they doing this? Because they were taking revenge on the humans for centuries of slavery, slaughter and cruelty.

"And that's not the worst of it", one of the crows declared, "the insects! The midgets, the fleas, the bees, the wasps, urgh, their being a right pain in the tail. Mirror and her charges haven't taken much interest, too busy showing off their beautiful wings. Lady and her charges are on the same wavelength. Buzzer and his charges are being their usual pesky selves and the ants are biting every piece of human flesh they can wrap their tiny mouths around. Honestly, if the humans hadn't given us crows such as bad name I might feel sorry for them" the crow grumbled, flapping her wings in agitation.

"Then the world would end" Sergei smiled as he degusted his hat. "I thought it already was ending" she replied with a tilt of her head. "Oh oh, tell em' about Common Fox and Goldfinger" a younger crow squeaked. Crow raised his eyebrows. "Why don't you tell me Galahad?" The young crow looked down at the duvet, shuffling his yellow feet nervously. "Um,well, Goldfinger, you know, the magpie Guardian and Common Fox, their working together. When I saw them it looked like they'd gone on a hunting spree and cause of all the gold n' stuff that Goldfinger and his charges have gotten hold of Goldfinger's now styling himself as The Golden Dragon."

Crow let out a spew of curses in Japenese. 'This is wonderful' he thought bitterly, 'just wonderful, exactly what we need. Two of nature's most cunning and selfish working together and causing all kinds of damage to human's and animals alike.'

"MASTER!" Two black blurs exploded through the open window in a flurry of feathers which crashed onto the bed and would have slid straight off if Sergei hadn't caught them. "Ox..oxygen!" the male of the pair gasped, desperately trying to catch his breath. "Give him to me Sergei" Crow commanded. The gasping male crow was placed very gently into Crow's cupped hands and Crow raised them until they were almost beak to mouth, then Crow blew a stream of air into the crow's open beak, giving him the breath that he so desperately needed.

"There, better now?" Crow asked in an unusually kind tone.

"Yes thank you. Whew, never have I travelled so far and back again so quickly. I went to the Scottish Highlands to find Raven. If there is any other person besides you who can fix this mess it'll be him. He's trying to do things diplomatically but for once his silver tongue doesn't seem to be working."

"How marvellous, though for some strange reason I'm not surprised. Raven has never been able to understand emotions, even his own. What news do you bring Irodia ?"

"Bad."

"Is there any other kind" Crow smirked sardonically.

"Oh shush and let me give you my report chertenok. I took a muder of crows down to Africa and along with finding plenty of blood, death and destruction I also found that Leal has now styled himself as koning van die voogle which means King of the Guardians in Africaans. He is now sending out advise to the other animal guardians regarding how to cause mass destruction and is, I believe, gathering an army of predators to protect him."

Crow scowled, his black mood growing even blacker at the thought of the lion Guardian having an army and the damage he could cause with it. Brains Leal might not have but he certainly made up for it with brawn and recklessness. But next to him Sergei started shaking with laughter. "What's so funny?" Crow demanded, a little concerned that his best friend may have finally lost his mind. "Ahaha! I wonder what your Uncle Creator thinks of Leal's new name" Sergei sniggered, his hat sliding over his eyes. Crow chuckled, he could definitely see what was so funny about that. "Well he probably prefers it to Leal. It must be such an ego bruiser to find out that the tribes people of Africa have been worshipping your nephew instead of yourself. Oh I would have loved to have been there when Uncle got smacked in the face with that revelation ha!"

By this point many of the crow's were also laughing but Tun was not one of them. "My Master what are we going to do?"

Crow looked down at him. "Go to Scotland of course and speak to Raven."

"Woah woah woah, you ain't going to Scotland in your condition mister!" Sergei protested. Crow huffed and began to propel himself towards the right hand side of the bed, a task that was easier said than done as his arms and feet still felt like they'd been sat on by a Titan. Nether the less as his bare feet touched the vanished oak floor Crow turned to Sergei and said, "what condition? I'm fine, look at me" then he stood up and promptly flopped back onto the bed as his legs gave out underneath him. "Okay, I'm not fine" he admitted a little ruefully, "but I still need to get to Sotland. Raven and I may be the only ones who can save the humans."

"Okay" Sergei replied as he reached over and hauled Crow back up into a sitting position, "okay, tell one of your crows to go to Seamus and Leon and order them to ready the dirigible and I'll get you dressed and packed. Oh and I'm coming with you, don't you dare try to stop me."

"Wouldn't dream of it" Crow groaned, wincing as his stomach gave an earth quake like rumble. "Well you heard the man" he sighed at the nearest crow's who immediately took off. "And get me some food while your at it" Crow called after them. "Tun, Irodia, Crowley, you and your murders are coming with us. The rest of you do the packing."

"Yes Master".

Published 4th February 2017