A coarse grey hand grabbed me, snatching my body off the windowsill. I squawked in indignation, biting and scratching at the hand. I draw blood but the grip on me is determined, I am not released.
The creature holding me had a hard, stony face, but calm eyes. It stroked my head, cooing at me softly. Even now it seemed insincere. The creature whispered something in a language I did not understand.
I was carried across a room, and the hand released me, leaving me in a blackened cage inside a small chalk ring. I try to focus on the symbols but it's for naught. I am not in control of my body. I made a final attempt to escape, turning quickly and leaping at the creature, beating my wings into its face. The creature did not react to the attack, merely pushing me back inside, closing the cage’s door, and whispering softly in its strange language.
It moved to the edge of the ring, winding its hand in circles, their voice getting louder. The edges of the ring turned red. A sudden pressure in my head, a presence. Darkness stole over me.
-Break-
Warith awoke, heart hammering in his chest. He shook himself out, ruffling his feathers. He waited for the memories to fade, then propped himself up. He was safe, there was no danger.
As far as Warith could tell, the creature was not normal. He’d never seen another in the two years since he’d become an animage, and he had never been able to find them, after it had released him into the wild. Why had it done that? Warith shook his head, these thoughts wouldn’t help, he needed to distract himself.
Warith took flight, leaving the barn he’d had made his bed for the night, flying over the sparse trees of the countryside, and into the warm air of the city. The warm air was pleasing on a fundamental level, but it also allowed him an easy flight to one his common perches. To his annoyance, another crow was there. Warith landed a bit away and sent a mental greeting. [Hello?]
The crow turned its head in Warith’s direction. [Hi!] it replied warmly.
Ah, Urma. They were annoying, but Warith found them more palatable than most birds in the flock. Urma hopped closer to Warith, [You weren’t at the roost. Did you get caught in the storm last night?]
[I did.] Warith said, not elaborating.
[Leader Tirion asked where you were. But as long as you’re safe, its fine.]
Urma hopped up, then took flight. Not having anything better to do, Warith followed. Most crows liked to flock together, for safety and socializing. Animage crows did the same, though Warith was something of an exception. He had no problem being on his own, even at night. Being around other crows in the flock was a tiring experience for him.
[Where did you sleep last night?], Urma asked Warith, as they flew over the still wet city, its citizens starting to wake up and go about their business. It seemed they wouldn’t be going to the tower, but that was fine.
[In one of the barns in the nearby countryside.]
[Was it far?]
[Yes.]
[Ah, which one?]
[I don’t know.]
[Oh. Did you hear about the cat?]
[What?] Warith asked sharply. Urma was being a pest.
[There’s a wild animage near the barns, a cat. It's been killing anything that goes near its home. I was wondering if you saw it.]
[Oh.] Warith said, unnerved he might have been close to getting killed. He only did a quick check of the barn before sleeping, if he had been unlucky, that cat might have killed him. If it existed, certain members of the flock preferred to gossip, or mess with him for fun.
[Well, I didn’t see them. I guess I got lucky. Maybe they didn’t hear or see me in the rain.]
[Maybe. You should be more careful in future though, try to get back to the tower before night next time alright?]
More careful? [The rain came hard in the middle of the day, and I was already in the countryside. What was I supposed to do?]
[You could have come back earlier; you always like to stay out late. You’re almost always the last to come back before we roost, what are you doing?]
[I stay out late because I hunt better at night.]
[But you don’t talk to anyone in the flock when you get back.]
Warith could tell this conversation wasn’t going to go anywhere productive. He’d had this talk with other members of the flock, even Tirion.
Warith sent a strong sigh over the mental link, then cut it. There was a shocked silence from Urma, suddenly losing a mental link between animages was rude. Warith ignored his probes attempting to reopen it.
Urma swooped low suddenly, then landed on a thatch rooftop. They were pointedly not looking at Warith. Really? Warith landed on a nearby rooftop overlooking a street, waiting for Urma to finish his sulking. Warith knew if he let them stew long enough, they’d be ready to talk again.
Warith didn’t like talking to the others in his flock, they were so insistent on him spending time with the flock. They made him want to ignore them out of spite. Warith had tried to explain he preferred being alone at times, but his complaints were always ignored.
Then again, Urma seemed most understanding to his plight, and gave him space when he asked for it. Perhaps Warith had been hasty to cut the link on him. When Urma was ready, Warith would open the link again, and try to ignore this argument.
Then again, Urma and Tirion seemed understanding about his plight, they gave him space when he asked for it, most times. Perhaps Warith had been hasty to cut the link on him. When Urma was ready, Warith would open the link again, and pretend this argument hadn’t happened.
While he waited, Warith watched the street below. People were moving clearly towards the market, their grey leathery skin off setting their cheerful attitude. Warith always felt there was something weird about these people, like they weren’t normal, but perhaps he wasn’t used to them.
A cat darted out of an alley, blood covering its mouth. Odd. Warith squawked at Urma, trying to get his attention. Urma didn’t open the mental link, still sulking. Warith flew into the alley anyway. Urma wouldn’t leave him, so he would have help if there was danger.
Warith turned his attention to the cat, licking its paws and rubbing at its face. Warith tried to sense its link but found nothing. Just a regular cat then. It ran off.
Warith swung into the alley and saw a bloody sight. A crow’s body lacerated and torn up. Guts spilled out, with bits missing from where the cat had eaten. Stark black feathers lay around the body, on top of pooling blood.
They were a young bird from his flock, though not one he knew. Urma joined him, cawing in surprise, he opened the link with a mental shout.
[They're dead! Poor Lis, he was only two months old.]
[A pity] Warith replied, though his grief was faked. He barely knew this crow, and despite their gruesome fate, wasn’t upset. He hoped Urma couldn't tell.
Urma bristled, [How did this happen?] There was an undercurrent of rage to the voice.
[I saw a cat come out of the alley earlier, but they were a regular cat. Not an Animage.] Warith added. He didn’t want Urma stirring the flock into a rage against the cats of the city, he might be expected to join in, and wasn’t in a mood to fight.
[Lis is just dead then? What am I supposed to tell his parents?]
That he died? [The truth.] Warith said.
Urma opened their mouth to say something, but stopped. He nodded. It was a person’s gesture, not a crows. The minds of animages had always confused Warith. They were essentially a person’s mind in the body of an animal, with the ability to cast spells. But which mind was dominant? True, they would occasionally use human expressions, but otherwise acted like animals.
Were they a person’s mind in the body of an animal, or an animal with people level intelligence? It was commonly agreed amongst the flock that it was the latter. But if they were animals, why the occasional human gesture? Why the nods, the attempts at shrugs? Why was no one else weirded out by this?
Warith was about to open the link to ask about this when he remembered where he was. Oh right, dead crow. Look sad. Warith mimicked Urma’s lowered head.
He waited a moment, then said [Its best we leave, try and find...Lis’ parents.] Warith was starting to feel uncomfortable. There was a pressure and itch on him he couldn’t shake off.
[Are you sure it was a cat?] Urma asked, hopping closer to the body.
[What? Yes. I know what a cat looks like.]
[It wasn’t the cat who did his.]
[I know what I saw, there was blood around its mouth.]
[Cats like to skin their prey, but only Lis’ guts are out, from a long tear. And there are other cuts, like they were about to be torn to shreds. And why leave the head intact, and tear it off the body?]
[Can we talk about this once we get into the air? Something’s wrong.] Warith spread his wings, preparing to take flight.
A shadow passed over them. Warith looked up, a large bird with a flat face was flying over them, looking down on them with beady eyes. An owl, Warith recognized. It flapped its wings, a sphere of opaque liquid suddenly manifested in the sky, falling towards Warith.
Warith hopped backward, avoiding the sphere. The liquid splashed, hitting Warith’s outspread wings. The substance hardened as it made contact, giving off a noxious smell as it dried. Warith shivered in disgust and flapped his wings, trying to shake it off and take flight. He couldn’t shake the substance off, rising only a meter off the ground. He couldn’t fly.
Warith sent a mental warning to Urma, [We’re under attack. I can’t fly. They’re cutting off our escape.]
Urma was outside the splash radius, and immediately gathered a large orb of mana in front of him. He could be annoying as fuck, but Urma was still a competent Animage. Urma had honed a basic spell to mastery through weeks of practice, unlike Warith who only knew two spells. Urma flapped his wings, and the orb of raw mana shot off towards the owl, knocking it out of the sky, dead.
[Can you cast?] Urma asked, an air splitting shriek sounded somewhere above them, followed by two more.
[Maybe?] Warith said. As a bird Animage, he needed to flap his wings to properly direct a spell, with his wings stuck as they were, halfway outstretched, he would have imperfect control at best.
[Best not to risk it then. Get out of here, I’ll fend them off.] Urma said.
Warith nodded and began hopping towards the alley’s exit. It was embarasing to take orders from Urma
Warith only knew two spells, he was new to magic after-all, but he knew them well and thought himself competent. To be taken out so early in battle, and to have to rely on Urma for help, it was disheartening. At least Urma was trustworthy though, Warith admitted.
As he reached the exit, another owl swooped down, it had been waiting for him. Its claws reached for his exposed chest, eager to rip into him.
Warith tested his magic, he could feel his mana, and began shaping it into a sphere in front of him. He imagined it being hot, burning, and added this sensation to the mana sphere. The sphere was invisible, but Warith could sense it.
Warith tried to flap his wings. He couldn't flap them, but the movement was enough for the magic. The orb of pure heat struck the owl, Warith saw the life leave its eyes as it crashed into him. The claws struck him, cutting at his chest, but without a mind to close them, they couldn’t kill. Warith freed himself, more shrieks sounded above him, answered by Urma’s warning caws and magic.
This was an ambush, and a large one it seemed, but for what purpose? Were the owls hunting them specifically, or was this something bigger? There was a truce between the bird animages of the city, the crows, pigeons and owls, to not hunt each other’s species and to only eat prey from outside the city. Why were the owls breaking the truce now? Questions for later, Warith thought as he left the alley.
Urma fought with the owls, dodging between their swooping attacks, and more impressively, their magic. Warith glanced up, one of the owls flapped their wings and a wave of blue fire approached Urma. Urma closed his wings, going into a dive, dodging the fire, then flapped his wings, the force pushing him into the air, and fired a kinetic shot at the owl below him.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
This earned oohs from the watching crowd. It was known there were animals who could use magic, and even that there were some in the city, but no one had ever expected to witness a fight between them. This was a conscious effort on the part of animages, as they didn’t want to be forced out of the city for being dangerous, something more likely to happen if it was known Animages were capable of human thought.
Warith focused on the street again, Urma was skilled but he couldn’t last forever on his own, Warith needed to get the use of his wings back, and then both of them could try to figure out what was going on.
Warith spotted a gutter, still pouring with water, and dashed towards it. He washed himself, the adhesive on his wings softened and fell off, using his beak to peel off whatever was left with his beak. He used the sounds of the crowd to gauge how the fight was going, cleaning quickly when they seemed excited.
Warith finally got the last of the gunk off, shaking out the water on from his non-absorbent feathers. He spread his wings, preparing to join the fight when a crack like a gunshot broke the air. People gasped and turned towards the direction of the sound, West.
Warith’s blood went cold, the tower was to the west. He’d thought this might just be an attack on him, but perhaps this was something bigger, an attack on the Crow’s turf. This was a declaration of war.
While Warith was distracted, something slammed to the ground in front of him, throwing up a small cloud of dust. Warith’s head snapped toward them, a large fathered wall was in front of him, filling his vision. Warith looked up and saw the beady black eyes of an Owl in front of him. He was reflected in the yellow of its eyes, looking so small.
Warith backed up as the dust began to clear, focusing on the chest and lower body of the owl, already gathering a hot mana ball, then he saw Urma’s body crushed beneath the owl’s talons. His mana faltered, his spell dissipating without his concentration.
Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfu- FOCUS. Deal with whatever these emotions are later, focus on surviving now. Deal with the threat in front of you – a familiar slamming sound came from behind – and to your back.
Warith forced his emotions down, he reached for his mana and found it ready. The heat spell he had learned was an advanced version of a simple spell he learned weeks ago, although the method to use it was the same.
Warith started gathering a small ball of kinetic mana in front of him. The owl in front of him took a step forward, claws scraping against the ground. Warith saw its eyes widen as he jumped backwards. He flapped his wings with as much force as he could, sending the sphere hurtling toward the owl, as the counter force flung Warith backward. He watched as the sphere took the owl straight in the face, crushing it instantly. Warith hit the owl behind him.
They fell backwards, the owl whipping its talons uselessly in the air, but biting at Warith’s back and neck with its hooked beak. Warith tore himself free, losing some skin and feathers in the deal, rolling off the owl. It started to get up, Warith gathered a hot ball of mana, shot at the owl, killing it, then using the sudden up draft to take to the air.
An owl swooped in from above, Warith gathered a kinetic ball, it followed his body as he flew. He swung into a nearby building, the owl leaning in to catching him when he struck it. Warith launched the ball at the wall, the counter force pushing him away from I and the owl. Warith didn’t look back to check if the owl has crashed, he focused on flying west and avoiding the ire of any owls nearby.
He flew quickly over the city, thankful there no owls were tailing him. As he flew, Warith saw small gathering of owls around the city, they were attacking crows that around the city, like him and Urma.
Fuck. Warith could tolerate Urma more than the other birds in the flock, he’d always been kind and understanding to Warith when he was in a bad mood. Urma did this with every crow. Warith wasn't special, but just having someone besides Tirion who would see he needed time to himself and let him be was relieving. Warith couldn’t be sure right now, but he thought he might miss Urma later.
Warith approached the tower, it was pure chaos. Situated on the outskirts of the city, no people were nearby or awake to see the unfolding battle. Owls and crows clashed openly, fighting each in the air and on the ground.
There was a giant hole in the side of the tower, and rubble clustered below it with broken sticks and pieces of cloth from destroyed nests. Warith couldn’t make out how many bodies there were, but the ground was covered with more dead crows than owls.
This was wrong. The tower was meant to be safe. Somewhere Warith could relax and not fear being hunted. Tirion had made that clear when he brought Warith in, a lone crow without a flock. Seeing the tower like this hurt, being broken down even further as the fight went on, more than Urma’s death somehow.
He wanted to stop flying, to close his wings and hit the ground hard and accept whatever come next. But part of him didn’t want to die, either the human mind or crow instincts prevented him. Warith wanted to act, but he didn’t know what to do.
Calm down, he told himself. Think. What do you want right now, more than anything else in the world? To be safe. Where was safe? Not the tower, and after today the city would be full of enemy owls, plus whatever animages who thought they could take any weakened crows. The barn? No there was the cat, and it was still too close to the city, Warith could be spotted and hunted down. Beyond the city then.
No. No fuck that. When he thought about it, Warith was suffering the same problem he always was, no one wanted to leave him alone. These owls wanted to kill him and other crows for some reason, didn’t matter. Warith wanted safety, normalcy, and if the only way he could get this was by killing owls, he would take that chance or die trying.
Warith heard another crack, part of the tower seemed to burst, stone flying away from it as another hole was created in its side. He didn’t know any crows capable of producing that kind of force, so it was an owl. If he took down the owl before it could destroy the rest of the tower, and if he survived, then he would have somewhere to rest.
Warith steeled himself and flew into the tower. He kept a mana ball close to him, in case of danger. He was proven right when he flew into the hole and was nearly crushed by a giant mana ball. He turned, flapped his wings, and the force of the kinetic shot pushed him back and out of harm's way.
Warith landed on the ground and observed. Three crows were fighting off a massive owl. Warith recognized one of them as Leader Tirion, who represented the flock when diplomacy was needed, and took care of most of the flock’s needs. He’d been the one who claimed this tower as a safe haven for crows and protected it as he did now. It was good they were still alive, without them the flock would be in chaos, that would be annoying to deal with.
The three crows were cawing and sending streaks of damaging magic at the owl, who was unfazed – glowing faintly with a blue light. The leader gathered a large ball of magic, red, roiling and dangerous looking, while the other two crows distracted the owl, it was hard for Warith to get a look at them now.
The leader flapped their wings and the sphere shot off towards the owl. The two crows never stopped their attacks, even as the sphere burned their wings as it got closer.
The sphere made contact, the two crows were burned up on impact, leaving two charred corpses.
The owl was unharmed, a faint blue sheen covering them. A shield spell? It shouldn’t be strong enough to deflect an attack like that. Tirion stared at the shielded owl in shock, his efforts had been for nothing.
The owl was different to others of its kind. Its talons were made of some black metal, each talon had deadly looking green tips. It was wearing a cap that covered its head but not its eyes. Two metal pins stuck out of the cap, tipped with a red stone. Their eyes were fully dilated, despite the brightness of the morning. Everything about this owl just seemed wrong. Warith couldn’t imagine an Animage making these kinds of alterations to itself. The owl suddenly turned its head to look straight at Warith.
Oh fuck this. [Sir.] Warith sent through the link. The leader crow snapped out of their shocked state.
[Warith?]
[Yes, could you tell me-]
[I’m going to distract it. My last attack did nothing so I’m trying something new. Hit this bastard with all you got and don’t stop even if you have to kill me.]
The leader cut the link and charged at the owl. It took Warith a second to get his bearings, he didn’t want to kill the leader, that would ruin everything, but he gathered a mana ball still. Whatever kept Tirion alive.
Tirion charged the owl, who lifted themselves up and extended their talons at Tirion. When he got close, Tirion shot a mana ball at the owl, forcing it backwards. Because of the shield it did no damage. The counter force pushed Tirion backwards, he flipped in midair, shot a mana ball behind him, and looped back around towards the owl.
The owl started shooting back with violet streaks. He must have been trying to overwhelm their shield spell. If Tirion couldn’t do that with his mana ball, when he was one of the best mages in the flock, Warith had no chance. Warith let his mana ball dissipate then started gathering a heat sphere. It was better than the nothing he would accomplish with the mana ball.
Warith waited until there was pause in the fighting. Tirion shot a spear of ice, the owl dodged and went in for a swing with its talons, the leader dodged backwards and fired another icicle spear, this time making contact. The ice wasn’t sharp, so it only brained the bird and it was too close to do that with enough force, but it accomplished what Warith needed. The leader was out of the danger zone. If they were still alive by the end of this, then Warith could hopefully fade into the background for the situation to resolve itself.
Warith fired his heat sphere at the owl.
The owl didn’t move out of the way, or glow with the blue shine of a shield spell. Instead it extended its talons towards the king. Three green streams shot out of the tips and toward the leader. It happened too fast to dodge, the streams latching on to the leader and pulling their body forward and into the owl’s grasp.
The owl locked their talons around the leader, causing them to squeak in pain. The owl turned and shoved the leader right into the path of he shot. Warith watched in horror as the sphere hit the leader, their body blackening almost instantly and hissing with heat. Their body hit the ground with a whumpf.
A thousand memories flashed in Warith’s head. A thousand kind words, a thousand self-less gesture, one above all, a thousand words never said that could have made things better between them, a dozen changes to show appreciation. All of these overwhelmed by an overwhelming urge to run.
Warith was alone with the owl, the killer.
The owl made no sudden moves, now calm where it had been raging. It studied him. Warith’s heart hammered madly, could he make it to one of the holes and escape? Escape where idiot? Nowhere’s -
Something scraped against Warith’s mind, like nails on chalkboard. Warith realized what was happening and immediately cut the mental link, he didn’t want to hear whatever bragging or threats the owl was going to give him.
More scratches against his mind, the owl was determined to talk with him for whatever reason. Then, one scrape cut deeper than the others.
When Warith thought of a mental link, he imagined it like holding hands. Two beings holding hands was a gesture of communication, that you were willing to talk with someone. Cutting the link was like taking your hand away and refusing to let the other person take it again, to deny them the chance to be close and talk with you. Simplistic but it made sense, Warith thought.
Warith felt like the owl had just shoved their hand through his chest and grasped hold of his spine.
{Hello} The voice in Warith’s head was strained, fuzzy, and familiar. He immediately tried to cut the link, but it refused to close. The killer kept talking.
Don’t try that again} The voice said.
Something stretched inside his mind, and he lost the ability to close the link. They’ve dug their hands into my chest and made the hole wider, he thought.
[How are you doing this?] Warith asked. His mental voice was magnitudes calmer than he actually felt.
The owl tilted their head, as though confused. {Should I not be able to do this?}
[No. Its unnatural.]
{Ah, well I must seem unnatural so that makes sense. I’ll jot that down.} The owl didn’t move for a second, Warith didn’t sense any thoughts.
{Right, that’s done. I know you, don’t I?} Their voice was cordial.
[What? No. I don’t think so.] The voice was familiar, but Warith couldn’t place it. Either way, Warith needed to keep them talking, if he did, another crow might come and save.
[How are you unnatural again?]
{Well, the talons and the cap and the most obvious. To be honest, I should have just left the talons as they were. Turns out I didn’t need that bit of intimidation to get the owls on my side. I told them I could give them the chance to attack the crows and they fell in line. Didn’t have to control them or anything]
Warith was thrown by a lot of that information. This was an attack on the crows, the entire flock. He’s talking about the owls as though they’re a different party, like he doesn’t belong to them. Control?
[What’s the cap for?] Warith asked, it was the only thing they hadn’t explained.
The owl lifted their talon, Warith hunched down ready to spring away, but they just pointed at the cap. {The antenna allows me to control the body remotely, but the real trick is the device inside the cap, it lets me override the owl’s mana with my own.}
Was this even an owl he was talking to. [...Who are you?] Warith asked.
{Don’t you remember me? It’s only been two years.}
Two years…! [It’s you.]
{Ah, you do remember.} They said in that soothing voice. The creature. {Although you still don’t know my name, that’s not important. How have you been since I let you go? I imagine your new powers are hard to adjust to.}
[I, I’m fine. But what is this.]
{You’ll have to be clearer}
[This! Having those owls attack me, you suddenly being in this owl’s body, when you aren’t an animage. Why are you attacking the crow’s? What’s the point of this, why are you fucking with me?]
{Calm down} Warith felt an intense pain, he squawked in terror, until the pain stopped and was quiet.
{Those owls attacked you because they hate your kind. I ordered them to not let any crows already outside the tower join the fight. I will admit I’m happy they didn’t stop you though.}
[Why]
[Because now I get to meet you again and see how my experiment developed. I’m in this body because it's the next step in my experiments to control an animage. This test run is going a lot better than yours did.}
[I’m an experiment.]
[Yes! I was having trouble connecting to the minds of animages. I knew they existed from previous tests, but I made no progress. So, I decided if I can’t use an already existing animage, I’ll create my own and control that one, and use it to talk with others. So are you able to talk with other animages now?}
[...Yes.] Warith answered, figuring it was better to keep talking and wait for help, even if he knew it wasn’t going to end well.
[But why did you choose me?]
{I had the idea for creating my own animage late at night, then I saw a crow on my balcony and thought “How convenient.”}
[Oh. How exactly did you create me.?]
{I used my own mind for a framework and inserted that into your own bird mind. This was very late at night, and I wasn’t thinking straight. I didn’t expect it to work but it did anyway. That was lucky.}
[Wait, so my experiment was successful? Then why did you let me go?]
{Because you were freaking me out. I did some experiments after you were created to see if you could think right or at all, and your answers were too similar to one’s I would have made. Using my own mind as the framework led to personality bleed. You were more like me than I was comfortable with, so I let you go. For what its worth, I regret that. I should have kept you longer to monitor your development.}
Warith was reeling, this was too much. Too much change to what he thought he was. He knew he wasn’t normal, never was, but to be like this freak scientist. Ugh.
On the plus side, it kind of answered Warith’s question on whether animages were more human or animal. That was nice. One good thing amongst all the shit today.
[But why? What has this accomplished other than you messing with my life?]
{So I can help my king. I was experimenting on animages to know if they could be used them for military purposes. Either as reconnaissance or as hidden mages and assassins. This is a test run on how effective an invasion of a place through animages could be. The crows had a defensive position that made for good testing situation. And it would give us a foot hold for a greater invasion. They were unlucky} Warith could feel the shameless shrug in the words.
So, this creature and his king were planning on attacking the city. Who were they? Dumb question. Obviously, they were one of the city’s enemies. Who they were didn’t matter right now, all that mattered was how Warith could get out of this situation and return to normalcy?
{I have a proposition for you} The owl/creature said. {Come back with me. I can get you safely away from here, you’ll live the rest of your life in luxury, after I do some more experiments on you. I couldn’t get the materials I needed to create another animage, so you’re the best chance I’ve got. What do you say?}
Warith considered. Technically it was the best option. Out of danger, and if they had enough resources to organize this, they must be wealthy, it was likely they could give Warith the promised luxury. The sheer panic of the situation almost made Warith say yes immediately, but he stopped himself.
He looked at the owl, trying hard not to think about it as the creature(person?) he was talking to. Warith held no love for owls, even before now they had been bastards who liked to mess with crows and Warith. They did it because they thought they were better than the crows.
The sad being before him couldn’t think at all. There wasn’t a trace of any personality other than the creature’s. How long did it take the creature to decide to make them like this, how long would Warith last?
Also, Urma and Tirion had been cool.
[I’ll take that offer.] Warith lied.
The creature nodded, the slight pause it took before the action creeping Warith out, then started walking past him.
Their shield glowed brighter at times, brightest right before it blocked an attack, but dimmer immediately afterwards. They must use a great amount of mana right before they’re attacked to strengthen the shield, then they have to wait for it to replenish. So Warith just needed them to have them run out so they couldn’t support the shield spell.
Warith leapt unto the owl’s back and gathered a sphere of heat. The creature tried to buck them off but Warith tightened his grip on the owl’s feathers. The owl glowed with the blue sheen bright like Warith had expected and started flapping its wings taking to the sky.
Warith ignored that, focusing his mana into the sphere, keeping it going. It didn’t remain stationary, it traveled through the air with him as the owl took off. The shield spell was flaring all, but getting dimmer as it fended off the worst of the heat from the sphere.
The creature began screaming in Warith’s mind, panicked. It ordered him to stop, but he would not.
The shield spell dimmed further, the owl started to shriek, the creature’s mental voice became pained. It dove to the ground, the sphere pressing against its back, the wings beginning to blacken and burn.
They raised their wings, lifting back up into the sky, with their back against the tower. They flew so close to it Warith scraped against the stones painfully. He did not stop his attack though.
The owl was pushing so hard against the stone, when it came to the hole it had flown out of, it flew back through it and fell on its back. This crushed Warith against its back and the floor, but also pushed the heat sphere against and inside the body of the owl.
There was a great rending screech from the owl and the creature, the mental link straining to contain its volume.
Warith released his sphere, fighting his way out from under the owl’s burnt corpse.
Warith took a second to gather his thoughts, then turned and started pecking at the owl’s corpse. Yep, definitely dead.
The battle outside had gone quiet. Warith poked his head out from over the owl and saw the owls and crows weren’t fighting each other. Those that weren’t on the ground hovered in place, flapping their wings. They weren’t looking in his direction. Warith hopped away from the corpse of the owl, not wanting to deal with the attention of being its killer.
The death scream of the owl must have scared them, Warith thought. Some of the birds present turned to look at where it had come from, and saw the body of the creature’s owl, burned to a crisp. There was more silence, then one of the crows let out a violent caw, attacking an owl.
Alone, they couldn’t have done much, but the rest of the crows recovered faster than their opponents and started fighting back against their invaders. Although there weren’t many, the sudden death of their leader sent the owl’s into panic. They couldn’t coordinate fats enough to continue their winning momentum.
The owls were chased away from the tower, they flew away in multiple directions. Some to the cities, some to the countryside, others didn’t know where they were going, fleeing to what they hoped would be safely.
They can fly all they like, Warith thought. He knew after the mourning period, or perhaps during it, there would be cries for blood, for revenge amongst the crows. The owls wouldn’t be allowed to rest in the city, they had broken the truce and would be hunted down, to the best of the crow's ability.
Warith was going to do his best to stay out of that. He would slink into the background, there was more work to be done. Whatever that creature and their king were, he doubted this would stop their plans. They wanted the city, for conquest or something else he didn’t know.
But they had threatened his safety and killed two crows he...cared for. So long as they lived, they were a threat to him. Warith swore to hunt them down, do whatever it took to stop them. He would show them the price of threatening his safety.