~A Murder Of Crows~

Cody awoke and looked around, something was amiss, the warm sun filtered through the ivy that draped over the entrance to their den, that was normal, the heat of his mother’s body was beside him, that was normal, so what was it? He stood up, careful not to disturb his mother’s sleep, and crept outside, to see what Father had brought back for morning. He was the first there, that was not normal, he was always last place, in everything, meals, races, and play fights. He was the runt, and always had to prove himself. Only Foalan made him feel wanted, she made him happy and like he belonged somewhere. He smiled at the thought of her. He wanted nothing more than to be respected, which he obviously was not, as Lyn and Hugo had gone somewhere without him, again. Lyn and Hugo have gone! He thought.

“Father?” He asked. “Where are Lyn and Hugo?” Father's gaze turned dark with worry.

“Were they not with you in the Burrow?” He asked. Cody shook his head. Father raced to the den, his white tipped tail disappearing from view and when he came out Mother was with him. They searched the Hollow and around Nyko and Alpine’s Burrow, leaving Cody to think beside the pond, where could they be? The Hollow wasn’t that big, and Cody knew all the hiding places, didn’t he? Before he could go further with this thought, a bright orange ball crashed into him knocking him off his paws.

“Oops, Sorry!” It said, and he got to his paws with a start and looked at what had hit him. It was Foalan.

“Hi!” she said as she bounced to her paws with an excited squeal.

“Hello!” Cody said back. He smiled at her, her enthusiasm made him feel better about himself.

“What should we do today, Cody?” she asked and then added in confusion, “where are Lyn and Hugo?”

“Well, that's just the thing, I'm not sure.” he said.

“Ooh! A game! I bet they're playing hide and seek with us!” she said as she bounced around in a circle. “Let's go find them!” was the last he heard of her before she ran away and sniffed around the ferns and dried grass, trying to find his brother and sister. Cody looked up at the spur of rock where Nyko normally lay, watching disapprovingly around the Hollow. She wasn’t there now, which made him feel better, he didn’t like Nyko that much. Cody padded swiftly over to Foalan, who was now making her way up the sloped hill, sniffing every small bit of grass all the way up to the thorn barrier on the sloping side of the Hollow, he had never seen her this still, she was always bouncing around and joking.

“Cody!” she gasped dramatically, forgetting her stillness. “Lyn and Hugo are in the woods!”

Hugo and Lyn in the woods! He echoed oh, Foalan, please don't suggest we go in there to find them, Mother would be upset! As if she could read his thoughts she said, “We should go in there and find them!”

Cody didn’t want to seem scared or hurt her feelings by telling her what a horrible idea that was, so he said this instead; “Why? Shouldn’t we just tell my mother and father where they went?”

Foalan shook her head. “No! we should go in there and get them ourselves! Then they can’t single us out any more ‘cause we saved them.” she said with her chest sticking out with pride and her nose in the air. She said this all very fast as if it was the most simple thing ever and hardly needed to be explained. “Hmm.” he said. Was this a good idea? But oh, not being singled out would be so nice! He had to earn their respect somehow, maybe it was time to stop hiding and to be proud and enthusiastic like Foalan.

“Okay,” he said, “let's go.” They crept out into the forest. It was dark and scary to Cody, but Foalan was bouncing around and sniffing at all the new plants and standing tall on her paws, while Cody was slowly creeping along, his white belly touching the ground. After following his father's hunting path for some time, his legs grew tired and the sun was halfway across the sky, even Foalan seemed too slow. Very little light shone through the thick foliage, making it seem like night, even though it was still late afternoon and he knew little of where he was going, and jumped at every little sound, he wasn’t sure he liked it outside the Hollow.

“We’ve been out here all day.” whined Cody after what seemed like hours of walking.

“We’ll get there soon.” Foalan reassured him.

“Where are we even going?” Cody asked but Foalan wasn’t listening, she was looking up through the canopy, and Cody saw it too.

Streaks of pink and orange bled across the evening sky, the sun was sinking over the tree tops and soon the air was cold and the forest was dark.

They stood huddled together as the sun sank lower and lower, encasing the forest in shadows.

There was a rustling in the undergrowth and a few coyotes crept onto the path. Cody and Foalan huddled closer into the shadows, their eyes wide with surprise and fear.

“Don't move.” Foalan whispered under her breath.

Every one of the coyotes' heads turned in their direction in unison, their amber glowing eyes piercing the darkness.

“Never mind.” Foalan said.

Cody crashed through the undergrowth with Foalan close behind him. He burst through a bramble bush into a clearing where a murder of crows were circling a patch of ferns in the center of the thicket. He backed up into the bramble and felt Foalan’s breath behind him, she was looking over her shoulder for any signs of coyotes.

“They’re gone.” She told him. “Hey, look.” she pointed at the swath of ferns.

Cody spotted two huddled silhouettes. They were crouched under a fern in a mossy dip.

“Run away!” Foalan called “go! go! go!” All the crows' heads turned toward their hiding place. Lyn’s bewildered face poked out from under the fern, then her paws followed. She bolted to their hiding spot and crashed head first into Foalan.

“I’m okay!” she informed them.

“What are you doing here?” said Lyn in confusion.

“I could ask you the same thing!” Foalan shot back and then turned toward the clearing. The crows were keeping a watchful eye on both Hugo’s fern, Lyn, Foalan and Cody's bush, ready to strike at whatever moved.

“Okay.” Foalan muttered determinately as she poked her head out from under the bush to peer at Hugo, and then bolted right for him. “No! Foalan, don’t!” Cody screamed, he needed to help her, he needed to stop her, but he was frozen in fear. Hugo took this chance to run for cover, glancing swifty beside him at Foalan as he ran past. He dove into the bush and sat beside Cody, who was trembling with fear. Foalan stood beside the fern with her chest puffed out and her nose in the air like she had been back in the Hollow.

“See? I'm fi -” she was cut off as the fourteen crows dove for her and picked her up off the ground. Three crows grabbed her tail, two crows grabbed each of her legs and a few more grabbed the fur on her spine. After lifting her high in the air, they all let go, letting Foalan fall to the ground with a scream of fear.

“NOO!” Cody shrieked as she hit the ground with a sickening crunch and the crows flew away cawing and laughing in high pitched tones as their black cloud progressed through the sky. As soon as he was sure the crows were gone, Cody ran forward towards Foalan's broken and bloodied body, he had never seen her this still. That bouncing Foalan she had been before they entered the clearing, was gone, gone, gone, gone, never coming back. Outside was scary, outside could kill, he now respected the WideWorld, and the many dangers that lay in it, if he was to survive, he would need to fear everything until it presented itself as harmless. Her death had taught him that you were only as respected as you were, only as big as you were, and perhaps there was nothing you could do to change that, you could only try.