Assassin Crow Evolution

Jimmy didn’t know what to expect when he crawled out of that rat-hole with Virena.

He didn’t expect to kill Hammer Beak or Zed. He didn’t expect to watch an innocent crow melt away as if she was a stick of butter that was exposed to the sun.

Last but not least, he definitely did not expect that he’d get robbed. He under-estimated the audacity of some crows.

’I can’t believe that I can’t fucking blame anyone for getting robbed!’ He thought, ’What am I supposed to say? Hey White Blade, I’m sorry your wife melted, but you shouldn’t have hidden my stolen Beast Cores? That would just be cruel right now.’

As he comforted his friend, preaching light words of affirmation, he furthermore thought, ’My god, maybe it’s for the best that I never absorbed the cores? If I touched whatever White Blade’s wife touched, I would’ve melted away instead. Yeah yeah, it’s for the best, but let’s just hope this motherfucker doesn’t blame me for everything. Crows seem to love to blame me instead of addressing their own stupidity. It’s getting old.’

Jimmy actually waited for the minute where the entirety of the blame would be shifted towards him. Other crows were eye-balling him, so he expected to be scolded, and perhaps even attacked at some point, but that moment never came.

Instead, White Blade said, "I knew that evolution demanded sacrifice, I just didn’t know it could get this bad. From this day onwards, whenever any of us find a core, we must seek you out first. Your wisdom transcends ours, Jimmy, and we must acknowledge that fact."

Plenty of crows complained in the background. Most of them did not want to talk to Jimmy directly, so they didn’t like the idea of asking him for advice.

White Blade noticed this, so he turned to them, and cawed, "Did you not see my partner melt? Cores are dangerous, damn it, and we don’t know anything about them! If you find a core, you must seek out Jimmy first. That’s an order! Actually, it’s more than an order, it’s a rule! Whoever ignores the rule, shall be banished!"

Jimmy witnessed the little argument go down, and internally, he couldn’t care less about it. In fact, this sudden responsibility he was assigned, annoyed him. He didn’t want to be followed around by clueless crows at any given time.

Nevertheless, he understood the logic behind White Blade’s concern. Since he was partially involved in his friend’s partner’s death, he was indirectly guilted into agreeing to these terms.

He turned to the murder of crows, and explained, "It’s important to know where you got the cores from. As a general rule of thumb, if the animal or beast you got the core from looks too weird, or too different from us crows, then it’s a bad idea to absorb its core. If that rule confuses you, then you shouldn’t touch the core at all, and seek me out."

...

The following week was perhaps the calmest few days that Jimmy experienced throughout this odd life as a crow.

White Blade’s predictions weren’t as far off as he had expected them to be.

The humans didn’t bother the crows again, for one thing, which was a huge plus in everyone’s book. They harvested Helene, the large crow they killed, and spread her hundreds of kilos of meat across the city. This, in a way, deepened the unspoken peace treaty between the crows and the humans.

That aside, the war with the ravens and the squirrels devolved into simple battles that the crows won over and over, without losing any more members of its community.

The few ravens and squirrels that survived the war, traveled so far away from the meadows that they were no longer considered a threat. They fled.

The large piece of land that the crows have craved for years now, was finally theirs!

They took control of the meadows, and won the war thoroughly! No one could refuse their victory!

White Blade insisted that Jimmy was a hero that had helped assure their victory. He didn’t like the fact that Jimmy was hard to control, but regardless, he refused to strip his friend off of his credit.

The crow community began to like Jimmy a little bit. They weren’t big fans, obviously, but they learned to tolerate him very well, and some even greeted him when they saw him.

Without a war to worry about, and with food being abundant, the crows cared less and less about social drama.

Gordon the Vast, along with the rest of Jimmy’s family returned to the meadows, and brought over fifty crows with them.

Some of these crows belonged to this community before, but had fled when they lost control of the meadows. The rest were opportunistic crows who came here for the promised abundant food.

Regardless of where they came from, the good news was that the community bounced up to above a bit above a hundred crows again, and come next spring, the numbers were bound to at least double depending on how thoroughly the crows mated with one another.

There were barely any predators around here, apart from foxes, which could be avoided easily by sticking to the trees, so they weren’t in any sort of real danger.

The crows spent a good deal of their time hunting for Beast Cores, but they were hard to find without leaving the meadows.

Foxes didn’t have cores, they weren’t strong enough to have them. They were simply normal foxes, and most other rodents lacked cores.

The Razor Squirrels were one of the few creatures around here that had Beast Cores, but they were hunted close to extinction across the meadows.

Jimmy wasn’t bothered by the utter lack of cores around here. He knew that he’d find cores if he looked hard enough, but as for the rest of the crows, he was happy that he wasn’t constantly being bothered by them with such associated questions.

During the week, Jimmy ’explored the wilderness’ for far more than ten hours, marking task seven as complete, and getting eight-hundred points as a reward.

Paired with the few kills he landed over the week, be it bugs or small critters, such as mice, weasels, rabbits and others, he pushed his total system points to a crisp eleven-thousand.

Jimmy didn’t want to rush and spend his points. Initially, he wanted to blow his points in the Arcana branch, but he wasn’t sure if that was the best idea right now.

He figured, "I’m supposed to ascend to the second Realm of Mana soon. My MQ should increase on its own, so why waste my points on it?"

Jimmy sat comfortably on a tree, and took a nap. He didn’t need a nest to rest.

The progress he could make in the future had him excited. Most of the drama from the community dissipated, and he was happy that he no longer had to walk in egg-shells around everyone.

Apart from his father, whom he rarely saw, the rest of his family started treating him well. Vorin even brought himself to apologize, and lately they often hunted together.

He was a bit upset that he was still technically banished from the family despite everything he contributed, but he didn’t let that bother him too much. Over time, most of the community cared less and less about his banishment, which helped him avoid drama in the long run.

Life was good, finally, and he hoped that this peace would last forever.