Crowman Cont

Please note that when I say dirigible I mean 'The Mummy Returns' dirigible.

The journey to Scotland was unsurprisingly eventful. The countries that they flew over were ruins of their former magnificent, (or not) selves as animals wreaked war on the human's who quickly found that weapons and protective gear were useless in the face of clever clawed hands and small insects hell bent on getting inside clothes.

The skies were little better. Birds and insects of every shape, size and colour zoomed through the skies, and after watching a group of very determined geese carrying army and fire ants on their backs take down a jumbo jet over Calais, Crow was very thankful for the mosquito nets around the dirigible as well as the murder of crows that had formed a lethal curtain around the balloon.

"Master", one of the crows called. Crow groaned and rolled over on his makeshift bed to face the bird. "What is it?" he moaned, feeling rather sorry for himself. "My apologies Master but Screech and his gulls are going to pass us in a few moments. Tun and Irodia want to know what you plan to do."

"Oh fabulous" Crow huffed. He sat up and leant up against one of the straw walls of the dirigible basket feeling highly miffed. It was just his luck of course that during the one time he was unable to create a shadow passage from Vianden to the Scottish Highlands he came across the vicious seagull Guardian, who would do anything to hurt Crow and his charges.

'Although', Crow mused, 'this could be an excellent opportunity to get rid of him and some of his irritating charges'.

"Let Screech and his cronies approach, I'll deal with them" he grinned madly. "WHAT!?" the three humans yelped.

"Master are you sure?" the crow asked hesitantly as he flapped away from his commander's glare. "Perfectly", Crow smiled with eyes like icicles, "now fly up and tell Tun and Irodia to watch the sea for my signal to fly up.

"Yes Master."

"Now then gentlemen. I plan to murder Screech and if any of you prevent me in any way from killing him you will spend the rest of your very long lives regretting it, even yiu Sergei". The Portagean gulped fearfully, causing a tinge of rare regret to stir in Crow's belly. "Seamus, Leon, watch the sea. When it starts to become abnormally rough get us as high as you can as quickly as possible. And make sure that neither Screech or his cronies get even a hint that they're in danger."

"Understood Sir", Leon replied obediently before reaching up to prepare for their upcoming spurt up into the clouds. But his partner didn't seem quite so keen to follow his master's instructions. "Is there something wrong" Crow asked the red headed Irishman as he gingerly stood up. "Well Sir, beggin' your pardon but would you mind tellin' us what your plan is" he asked boldly.

"Certainly. I plan to interrogate Screech regarding what he knows about the current situation then crush him with a wave. Oh and Sergei hang onto your hat, I know you'd hate to lose it."

Having finished expressing himself Crow peered through the mosquito net behind him to look down at the choppy grey sea below. All the animal guardians had an intimate connection with the elements: they could sense every roll and roar of water, every flicker of fire, every groan and rumble of the earth beneath their feet, every sigh and scream of the air, and those who had studied the deep ancient magic of the world could use their connection to the elements to manipulate them to their advantage.

Crow shut his eyes and allowed his mind to drift, bobbing and rolling around like a boat in the space that was his connection to the elements until his connection to water opened up. Fierce waves and large raindrops slammed into his mind, threatening to drown it but Crow stubbornly pushed back until he had gained control of the unpredictable element.

Then came the tricky part, manipulating the water so that it followed his desires and destroyed Screech and his cronies and didn't cause the apocalypse. "Little waves in the British Channel, build up pressure" he told the water then he opened his eyes to see Screech and a cohort of seagulls flying towards him.

Published 5th February 2017