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Rooks and ravens weren’t known to mix.
Should they do, as they did on this fateful day, their flight paths may cross but never pass, bound for disparate destinations.
Upon the next sunrise, a raven perched on a branch overlooking a hole into the undergrowth. Gnarly roots masked the entrance to the local crow court, the rumoured home of the jackdaws’ Duke.
He watched as all manner of crows emerged from the hole. Rooks, jackdaws, magpies, a handful of hooded crows for good measure. Some cawed at him, others flying out without a word.
Another rook landed at the top of the gap, shifting into the maroon-haired girl he saw yesterday.
“Who are you?” She asked, just as he went into human form and fell backwards, raising his head to see her.
“Hello!” The branch cracked, and fell, sending him to the ground with an “oof!”.
He heard her laughter as he stood up and rubbed the dirt off his legs, offering a dusty hand to her. “I’m Petrius.”
“Oh, you’re the raven I saw yesterday!” She blinked in surprise, beaming. “You may call me Claudia. Do you have time?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” He shrugged. Most days he would be under one of his brothers’ wings, off hunting with the wolves or making fabrics out of deerskin. Other times had them stealing other birds’ eggs, despite their parents’ orders not to do it for fear of the victim being a swan or one of those crows.
“Come along, then.” Claudia smiled, going into bird form as he did the same.
The pair flew over a litany of conifers. Mist from the morning faded upwards, settling as clouds blotting out the sky’s hues.
He wondered where they were going, as a ruin came into view. It lacked two of its four walls, the remainder forming a corner with a single slit window, an arch and a decent chunk of its middle floor hanging on.
A small stream flowed in front of it.
Claudia landed and shifted first, drifting her hand over the archway. “This is my little alcove, I come here if I think it might rain.”
“So you think it’s going to?” Petrius sat upon the grass, looking up at the sky and thinking it would be fine. The grass held no such droplets either.
“I don’t think so.” She sat down near him. “It’s just a nice spot.”
“Then don’t jinx it!” Laughter followed from the both of them, hers fading first, akin to a rook’s caws.
“So what do ravens do?” He watched her trace her fingers into the water. Fish hopped and bounced upwards, one bouncing near enough she pulled her hand anyway.
“Uh, we hunt I guess. Wander the woods, hope not to find any bad eyes.”
“Bad eyes? What’s that about?”
“No one’s ever told you?” He tilted his head a slight, Claudia doing the same. She drooped the other way, and he followed, before telling her the story as his brothers told him.
“Oh, how interesting, my dad never tells me such stories. He always speaks in lessons.”
“Would you like another one?” Petrius gave her a pearly white smile, as he reached his hand into the water and splashed it at her, a fish flopping onto the ground along the way.
She gasped for all the birds to hear, her arms raised out from her cloak, drenched with her hair. “I had my quills in here!”
Petrius descended into laughter, broken for a moment when he got soaked too.
Favours got exchanged and returned upon the stream, the pair splashing their afternoon away.
“Hah, you missed!” He stuck his tongue out, going into raven form as to avoid another splash.
She kicked more water at him, and sat upon the grass to squeeze her hair out.
He shuddered at the clothes stuck to him. Drenched, soggy, the cold water weighing him down. Almost like the rain in a way.
“How do we get back?” He asked, watching a mischievous grin appear on her face, tutting him.
“Like this.” She turned into a rook and shook water everywhere, spreading her wings out.
When she didn’t revert just yet, he did the same, his feathers all the more lighter for it.
The flight back to the crow court’s entrance went without remark. His heart spiked in dread and relief when they landed, though he went into human form to find he was still drenched.
“Will I get to see you again?” Petrius asked, wondering if it was a silly question.
A jackdaw’s caw cut him from his thoughts.
Claudia glanced up at it too, her face alighted in alarm as she looked back to him and shrugged as if nothing happened. “See you later.”