When he awoke, everything was the same. He was still trapped within an enclosed box, but this time, he was on the ground rather than the tree. He had fallen. The god-creature still stood on the air, only its outline visible.

His assessment was at the forefront of his mind, as well, and he was distinctly disappointed to learn that his intelligence still said 'abnormal'. He was distinctly unhappy, however, when he learned that everything else had decreased. Everything aside from his senses was rated as 'subpar', and the reason was obvious.

The other crows had gone through the same thing, and now, his strength, durability and senses, which were all average, would be considered sub-par amongst his species.

Had he made a mistake? He wasn't quite sure. Even now, he knew that his thoughts had become more complex and quicker. He was able to understand the new sounds much faster, too. It was useful, but would it have been better to improve his senses or strength?

There was no point thinking about it. The decision had been made, and it wouldn't be changed. He sent his assessment away and gazed at the god-creature, trying to figure out a way to communicate, but also wondering if it would take offense. He was so far beneath it that he imagined it would be like a worm asking him questions; he would've just eaten it and moved on.

After a few minutes, he grew impatient and pulled the trigger, cawing at the god-creature. He put quite a bit of effort into making sure it was as nice and non-threatening as possible, and almost fell over from relief when the god-creature simply responded with a series of sounds and didn't kill him.

He had sounds to decipher, though, so he couldn’t pass out from relief. He shuffled his wings in excitement and got started. After a few minutes, he was finished, and had been given instructions on how to ascend even farther.

Animals had little marbles in their bodies called ‘cores’. They were condensed ‘essence’, which was what caused him and the Earth to ascend. When he concentrated, he could feel it his chest, too. He had to absorb these essence cores to get stronger. It was simple, but he didn’t imagine it would be easy. Based on the god-creature’s assessment of him, he was very weak.

A thought was pushed to the forefront of his mind once more, and it was a simple one. Did he want to leave? He answered without hesitation, and instantly found himself standing on the ground, right at the base of the tree where his nest was. The city was unnaturally loud, and that was saying something. He didn't bother to decipher these sounds, as they were rather simple, violent and unimportant to him. He was quite surprised to see that the human's metal-and-stone trees had all fallen apart, though, and more were falling apart even now.

He flapped his wings and tried to take off, and quickly found out why the human's nests had fallen apart. He only managed to fly a foot off the ground before he plummeted back to the ground.

He felt heavier, and had inkling as to why. The knowledge that had been forced into his mind about Earth had been quite extensive, and it seemed that gravity had grown stronger. It wasn't much, but any amount was a lot when it came to flying.

He got ready to take off once more; this time more prepared for the increased weight, and managed to fly high enough to land on the branch where his nest was- or, rather, had been.

He cawed in distress when he found that his nest had fallen apart, but got over it quickly. He looked around for something to eat. He wanted to regain his ability to fly for long distances soon.

His eyes quickly landed on a great opportunity. The spider had fallen from its web due to the increased gravity, and the tiny fly that was wrapped up in a cocoon was ripe for the taking. It was quite a bit larger than it had been before. He was momentarily surprised to find that he could remember the fly perfectly and compare their sizes, likely due to how smart he was now, but quickly recovered from his elation and hopped a few branches over to the web. The spider was nowhere to be found, and he reached out and snapped the huge fly up.

Almost immediately, he returned back to the branch where his home had been. He wasn't as hungry, and he had definitely felt the miniscule core of the fly go down his throat, but nothing had happened. Was the fly too weak? Had he done something wrong?

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

He re-deciphered the god-creature's crash course and realized his mistake. When he concentrated on the sound for 'absorb', his understanding of the word deepened, and he realized that he would need to let it digest in his stomach for a while before it would take effect. He could also crush it in his beak, and the process would be instant, but more inefficient.

He doubted that the tiny fly's core would matter much, though. His core was larger than the fly itself had been, so the tiny core probably wouldn't make any difference.

He looked around for something else to eat. The ground of the park's forest was swarming with bugs, which had all left him alone while he was down there, thankfully, but almost all of them were bigger and scarier than they had been before. He would need to eat them regardless, of course, but he got caught up watching them.

There were hundreds of the things, tearing one another apart and quickly gulping down cores. They were in a frenzy to grow stronger. It was interesting to watch so many of them fight each other at once, but he quickly refocused and glided down as best he could with the increased gravity.

He snapped up the bugs with ease, leaving only the beetles alone. They were the only individual bugs he had to worry about, and it wasn’t even because they were particularly dangerous; it just wasn’t worth the effort of cracking their exoskeletons. He had to avoid the areas where ant nests were slaughtering the nearby bugs, but otherwise was having a great time.

It was great being a clever bird. He could fly for short distances and easily avoided anything dangerous to him, and after an hour, he had snapped up so many bugs that he felt like he was about to explode.

'This subpar,' He thought, using his tiny dictionary of words to their fullest. He hadn't thought of where he'd go now that he was full. He needed a safe place to digest his gains, but there was no such place anymore.

He flew up into a branch and stayed observant as he rested. His wings and legs were pretty tired after all the hopping and flying he had had to do under increased gravity, and it was a struggle to remain alert with so many things to think about.

He wondered what to change his name to. His dictionary of sounds had increased massively, and 'animal' was simply too vague for him. He started listing them all off in his head, 'Subpar, Earth, absorb, ascension, core, strength, agility, intelligence, abnorm-‘

His thoughts suddenly sped up, and he looked around in confusion, just in time to see a blur coming towards him. His mind froze as a blinding pain radiated from his left wing.

A bird, a bit bigger than himself, had been flying despite the increased gravity and had dove down, punching him with a curled-up set of talons. How had it even been flying so proficiently with the increased gravity? How was he still alive? That thing had been moving so fast that it should've crushed every hollow bone in his body.

As he tumbled toward the ground, his thinking accelerated even further. He had survived because his incompetent assailant had barely skimmed his body, and while it hurt like hell and had torn off a chunk of feathers and even cut him despite it being blunt force, he wasn't going to die immediately.

He finished this thought just as he struck the ground, and quickly got up, looking around for the falcon. It was already in the air again and looking at him menacingly.

He spread his wings, ignoring the searing pain in his shoulders as he flapped his wings and took off towards the city, where the rest of his flock was supposed to be. He hopped and flew for short distances as fast as he could. The falcon pursued him for a while, moving significantly faster than him for a variety of reasons. Falcons were already faster than crows, and he was already injured. Worse, the falcon had probably enhanced its ability to fly, or else it wouldn't have been able to move nearly as fast as it was under the slightly-increased gravity.

Soon, it dove for him once more, and his thinking sped up again. He was on the ground, in the middle of trying to get back into the air again, and he could tell that the falcon was aiming for where he'd be in a moment rather than where he was currently. There didn't seem to be a way to avoid the falcon completely, and so he didn't.

He twisted, and the falcon struck his injured wing. Bones snapped, and a feeling of pain on a scale he had never felt before struck him, but he didn't stop. He pecked at the falcon's eyes and grabbed its legs in his talons, and forced it to the ground. The falcon was surprisingly light, which might have explained why it was able to fly so well, and he managed it easily.

With the falcon beneath him, he pushed, putting every bit of strength and weight into it, and felt a few bones of the falcon's bones snap. He kept pecking at the falcon's eyes, but it managed to preserve its other eye. It didn't matter, because soon, he felt the falcon go limp.

He looked around for any other predators for a brief moment before tearing the falcon's core from its chest. Rather than swallow it whole and absorb it efficiently, he acted off instinct and crushed it in his beak.

A simple question that he had already seen once before; what aspect of himself did he want to ascend?