The One Winged Crow

Species and Greed

Narrator POV

It was late at night when Audine went out to get more wood for the fire she came back with arms full of firewood and used it to fuel the fire in the cave keeping both her and Crow warm throughout the cold winter night. Audine's Ember eyes landed on Crow's small frame as Crow stared back at her.

It had been a week since Audine saved Crow's life, although most of the days when Audine wasn't out stealing livestock from the nearby human village or hunting in the mostly desolated forest were filled with silence from Crow, despite Audine trying to learn more about her, ember eyes stared into stormy gray ones as the silence held just as thick maybe ever thicker when they both met for the first time.

Audine's POV

Crow wasn't talking, it's understandable that we met only a week ago, she is getting better with me giving her an equal amount of meat that I hunted or stole. She looked like she gained weight that's good, very good being malnourished in the winter is certain death.

I decided to ask Crow a question that I had a feeling that we were both avoiding a certain question what species is she.

"Hey, Crow?"

"Yes, Audine?"

"What are you?"

Crow's eyes widened, I could see confusion and a flicker of fear in those beautiful storms of gray eyes it framed her beautiful raven hair perfectly an-Wait no Audine stop, Begone Thoughts.

Crow then replied with "Why do you want to know?"

"Well its just I've never seen anyone like you before so I was curious"

Crow didn't seem like she didn't want to talk about her species, but she gave a sigh, she told me that she was from the Fairy Race and told me about her ancient homeland 'The Fairy Kings Forest'.

But when I tried to ask her why she left the forest that she talked so fondly about she immediately shut up, turned her back to me, and laid down holding her right wing to her chest. I immediately knew I screwed up big time, I decided to tell Crow about my species since she told me about the Fairy Race.

"I'm a Neko."

Crow had sat up but she still had her back to me still clutching her right wing to her chest, I continued to talk.

"I'll keep it brief since its late, long story short There are a wide variety of Neko's but the most common are cats, Wolf Neko's tend to be........ a lot more aggressive than real wolves. We are often mistaken for the real deal considering we look almost exactly alike but real wolves are a little bigger than us and we can still speak in animal form, but my kind is pretty rare in this part of the forest, we are mostly desired as either a servant...or for our pelts"

I noticed Crow was now staring at me her body language told me that she was calm but her eyes told me something else her eyes were filled with remembrance, it was obvious she was remembering something, but I couldn't put my paw on it, but nonetheless I decided to stop talking for the night.

"Well, that's a story for another time you should get some sleep Crow."

Crow seemed to snap out of her memories and without a word, she laid back down on the fabric, I heard her snoring a minute later, I looked at the night sky outside of my cave, Luna's Moon was full and bright I heard the howling of others in the far off distance, I didn't howl instead I stared at Luna's moon wondering what happened to Crow. I sighed and walked back inside my cave and laid down beside Crow to keep her warm and slowly slipped into the land of dreams.

When I woke up early the next day I shifted into my wolf form to go hunting but in the process I woke up Crow and she questioned about where I was going so I told her that I was going hunting for Breakfast and without another word I ran off. My paws had walked this trail for a while now, it was a hidden trail to the human village nearby, I usually like going to the village when I needed something to eat in the morning, sometimes but on rare occasions I will let the human children pet me because they will give me food, although this time I stalked my way towards a large field full of sheep with thick coats. I watched the flock patiently, waiting for an opportunity, I saw that one of the adult sheep looked frail and weak, perfect.