Alikus watched Ginkgo fly away.

She stood above the hole, the cold wind blowing her white feathers, and turned to gaze at all the corpses.

"Hff- ugh..." She sniffed, tears falling.

Why... Why can't I be a normal crow.

Why am I cursed?

What happened?

She began to sob, fluffing up her feathers.

I need to survive.

She looked up, sniffling. The dying birds twitched and called weakly, delicately laid on the ground in a heap among the corpses.

She took flight, flapping weakly on her just fledged wings to another part of the forest until she was too tired.

She saw something on the ground- A map! She looked down at it.

It was untidy and splashed with ink. All it showed was a bunch of trees, nothing else. She looked over at the bottle of ink.

"Perfect," She breathed as she splashed the ink on her feathers, sighing with relief.

She was a normal crow now, just with red eyes.

She flew up over the canopy, perching on the highest branch.

She saw where the forest ended, turning to grasslands, and took flight from the tree.

She landed in the grass. No corpses. Everything was peaceful.

Grass between her toes.

Soft wind blowing her feathers.

The scent of happiness.

In the distance she could hear something- crows cawing?

There was a bunch of crows on a small hill not too far off, mobbing something on the ground.

Alikus flew over to investigate, flapping over and landing. She pushed through the crowd, seeing a white gyrfalcon in the centre with an eye patch made of coral with a shell sewn into it and a necklace of coral with shells attached.

"Hush up! Go home! All I said was- OW!" The gyrfalcon screeched as a crow pulled a feather out of his wing.

Alikus watched the crows peck the gyrfalcon. I want to say something... Ugh, I'm such a coward...

A bell rang in the distance. Alikus fell over as all the crows took flight, flapping their wings and scrambling to fly off.

She coughed in the dust, looking up.

"Oh, hey." The gyrfalcon chirped, standing up. He rearranged his necklace with his beak.

"Are you okay?" Alikus queried.

"Oh, I'm fine." The gyrfalcon answered, yawning. "So what's your name?"

"Uh. Alikus..?" She answered.

"Cool, then! I'm Evereldette." The gyrfalcon replied. "Come with me!"

Alikus nodded and the gyrfalcon took flight. She followed.

What if he means to take me to the kingdom? She wondered.

They weren't heading that direction, however. They were heading to the ocean. Alikus could see it- like the hugest lake she'd ever seen.

They landed on a cliff with a few sticks at the end of it.

"This is where I live," Evereldette chirped.

"Oh, it's... Pretty?" Alikus answered.

"Well, it used to be, before the war killed my parents!" Evereldette replied.

"Well, I'm sorry for you- are you okay?" Alikus cawed awkwardly.

"I'm fine, Alikus- always fine." Evereldette answered.

Artwork by drargon