Craaven

Chapter 3: Watford, England 1977

"William?" I called as I stared blankly down at the floor below from the nest we were crammed together in. The old bird grunted in response.

"Why haven't you flown off yet? You stuck around this long, I don't think that's what you intended..." I stated. Will grumbled to himself something I couldn't understand but eventually, he responded with a mildly irritated tone, "Eh, go to bed, ya think too much."

I didn't want to drop the conversation so easily and go to bed. I asked him a question and I wanted an answer but alas... it was clear I wouldn't get a response so easily. So, I remained silent in the hopes that the bird would give in to the question that surely sparked some thoughts in the back of his mind. However, when I looked over nearly thirty minutes later, I saw that he was fast asleep and nestled comfortably within his own feathers.

I sighed and decided maybe it wasn't even worth it. I could try again some other time if Will and I were still friends. I rested my head on the edge of the nest we shared and fell asleep contemplating once again what my future had in store for me.

Day 14

A loud snap and a chattering sound disturbed my sleep the next morning. I wearily opened my eyes to see a squirrel sitting on the branch in front of me, cracking a nut and every so often, taking a small bite out of the inside.

I lifted my head and stared intently at the rodent, inspecting it sneakily. It was a fairly large squirrel with a dark ashen grey coat. It smacked the nut against the branch a while more and the sharp cracks hit my tired eardrums with the ferocity of a blaring alarm clock. I winced and let my annoyance grow more and more as I watched the squirrel.

Eventually, in an effort to make my grim companion proud, I decided to try my luck at catching the pest. I kept my eyes on the squirrel as I silently prepared myself for the lunge. I had zero clues about how I was going to catch the pest, but I figured I would go with whatever flow awaited me.

The scratching of my talons on the bark of the tree alerted the squirrel immediately and it took off, flying from branch to branch in long leaps and scampering to safety. I followed close behind, sloppily flapping my wings to go faster and clumsily swerving to keep up with the squirrel's sharp turns.

My eyes were glued to the squirrel and I swore to myself that I would catch it no matter how long it took. I was determined to do something remotely bird-like and finally start fitting into this new lifestyle.

The squirrel practically teased me with how many times it twisted and changed directions. I often found myself either bumping into branches or quickly pushing off other branches to keep from slamming face-first into the bark. The rodent's frightened chittering sounded more like taunting laughter and I growled and cawed angrily every time it narrowly missed my talons. I always thought squirrels were pleasant creatures before, now I'm beginning to see them as annoyances simply based on the fact that this one pest is too hard to catch.

Finally, however, something unexpected helped me get the upper hand which led to me finally catching this damn beast. The squirrel ran onto a rather frail-looking branch and lept for the next tree to continue running; only, when it jumped, the dead branch snapped and the squirrel went plummeting to the floor below. Thinking quickly, I took my chance and snatched it out of the air. The squirrel squirmed in my talons and squealed loudly as if any other creature would try and save it. I struggled to hold it as tightly as I could but after a while of its sharp nails scratching at my feet and its teeth biting my ankles, I huffed and adjusted my hold on it. I held the squirrel in one talon by its tail and it continued to squirm and fight to escape.

I sighed, "I'm sorry about this," I muttered helplessly and before I could really think about what I was doing, I flew close to a large tree and smacked the squirrel's body against it while flying by. I did it a second time just to make sure and when its body grew limp in my talon, I sighed again and flew back to the nest Will and I shared.