The young vulture was currently on the boundary of the two separate terrains. Looking over his shoulder back at the dusty desert he holds no contempt for it but remembers the past year of repeating his scavenging. Turning back to look forward into the new future he gains a new burst of energy and moves with a quick step. The old vultures are slow but methodical while the young are quick and reckless. He sprints forward hoping to find something shiny and hide it before someone sees him.
Running and passing the terrain the young vulture notices the sand begins to disappear more and more and tall grass and dirt begins to replace it all. Bushes begin to appear and so do twigs and trees. He goes deeper and deeper until the beautiful nature scenery begins to become littered with bodies. Just one every ten steps or so but they become closer and closer together as the young vulture goes deeper and begins to find piles as well.
Most of these bodies are rusted, naked, or torn to shreds. Bodies torn apart from war. Many have stab wounds, sliced off limbs or in some cases heads, and few have gouged wounds likely from something fast penetrating them and leaving a hole.
Most people would gag from the smell alone of rotting corpses and the deep smell of blood mixing with iron and rust, but not vultures. They grow excited at the beginning of a hunt for even the smallest of loot. And like all other vultures the young grow fierce. he begins to seemingly dive into piles hoping there is hidden loot no one dared to dig for. His arms quickly become soaked in blood and slimy from the innards of dead soldiers. Pulling whatever his hands grab and hoping for the best and he dislodges bodies and removes them from the pile. He works for 30 minutes before he can see the ground below these bodies and he spots a glint with his eyes.
He grows excited and reaches for it quickly and yanks it hard enough to tear it from the corpse.
With a sickening crack of bones dislodging from the body and rotten muscle falling off the corpse releases the grip on the shiny. The young vulture is excited to receive his first prize.
Taking a close look at the shiny he notices how small it actually is. The metal is paper thin itself and is about three or four inches in length. On one end it has a leather grip and on the other the paper thin side comes to a sharp point. It is such a small shiny but to this young vulture who finally found something for his own to keep he can't help but get excited. He grabs the leather and raises his acquired tool into the sky like it will slay the gods.
"Young one, will you ever learn?" Said an old vulture. If there was space for a wrinkle he had one there. He stood no more then five feet tall and had a hunch like he wore a backpack, had long white hair that reached his shoulders, and a cane to keep him upright while walking. His voice creaked like walking on a wood floor. "You should keep your rewards hidden unless you want to be robbed again"
The young vulture was quickly reminded of his own revelation recently and quickly hid the weapon on his person. "Good job. You found something and may be able to keep it if you quickly scurry from here. The names are looking for you since you almost always have something they want. Remember, if you find something don't celebrate until the job is done. Until you are paid for what you find."
The young vulture paid close attention to the words of the old vulture and quickly left the location where he found the shiny and went to move somewhere else.
Running through the battlefield and seeing how the bodies were stacked the young vulture could tell he was located deep into the field and possibly right where the battle took place. There were hundreds of dead, rotten, and robbed corpses. He began doing what he does best.
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Scavenging.
He always found something when scavenging. It was almost like he was born to do it sometimes. He would almost never leave empty handed but sadly there was always a name following him and stealing his scavenges. He never knew what it was that he would find but only that it was shiny. Like the skinny metal he found. It looked stupid but it was shiny so of course he would get something for it.
He found a body that was mostly intact but nothing on him was shiny so the young vulture almost ran right past him but something caught his eye. It was soft metal! It wasn't shiny but it seemed interesting. The soft metal was almost hidden by the pouch it was in but the young vulture is smart and saw it with his vulture eyes. It was like a soft metal made into a pocket. He tried to open it but it seemed sealed shut. remembering the skinny shiny he got earlier he pulled it out and inserted it into the metal like it was a key and tore it open. Whenever he opened the metal he found more flimsy metal inside. He noticed it was folded so he gently unfolded the weak and soft metal so to not rip it apart.
On the metal was a bunch of black lines that made no sense to young vulture. Who would right on metal? It makes no sense. He couldn't even understand the metal.
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To whomever reads this,
Our nation is in deep danger so we are sending a battalion to the nearest ally nation to request for assistance. We have no clue who our enemies are. All we know is that they are demon incarnates.
Please show mercy upon us and assist us in our endeavors and help our people.
May god help us all.
From, The King of Alon
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Weak metal made no sense to the young vulture but maybe the old vultures would know. So the young vulture used his good thinking to hide the letter and show an old vulture the next time he could. He also took the corpses pouch since he would no longer need it.
Today was going to be a great day
Was
"Vulture, what the hell do you have there?" A named asked the young vulture.
"A Bag!" The young vulture replied with excitement. "It can store things instead of carrying them with my hands.
"And who said you could have that? Hand it over." The man began to reach for the bag but the young vulture didn't want to give in so he stepped away. The names wasn't taking that treatment to he stepped in and punched the young vulture in the face.
Expecting the hit the young vulture jumped back but tripped over a corpse and fell to the ground. Trying to preserve himself he unstrapped the bag and threw it at the named man. "Take it, I don't want it anymore."
The named man caught the bag but still felt he suffered indignation so he kicked the young vulture on the ground a few times to make up for it. Making sure to hear a crack before feeling satisfied. Then walking away while shuffling through the bags contents noticing that it was empty. Not caring about anything else he left the young vulture for the day.
'I kept the shiny? I kept the shiny! It is mine. And the weak metal too! They belong to me now!'
The young vulture jumped to his feet ignoring the pain he felt and celebrated his victory to himself. He was now the proud owner to a shiny.
Today truly was a good day.
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"So the young vulture got a stupid letter opener?" The kid was let down the morning after when they continued the story. He was expecting some amazing find but it was a common object for offices.
"Yes, but to the young vulture it was a start to his journey. It was the first object he successfully kept away from a named." The old man was proud of this part of the story and the triumph over the named human. "That is but the beginning of the boulder falling for this young vulture. He began to get better and better as the days went by. Every day he would escape the named to find something shiny and simply give the named a dummy item. It was his trick. Find two items and simply act to keep one until giving it away. The young vulture was evolving and all of the old vultures saw it. Simply smiling as they watched him trick the dumb named."
"So what was written on the letter?" The kid's next question stumped the old man.
"I don't know." Pausing, the kid waited for more of an answer but got nothing.
"No one knew what was on the letter because the vulture couldn't read it."