That's... hmm, about 4 years back or so.
Jeez, I feel old.
Anyway, here's a short story called "Chatter."
It's about two crow brothers and an incident...
Chatter
The sun had just risen and the trees shook as birds emerged from their nests, eager to meet the bright morning sun. Sparrows, cardinals, juncos, jays, and wrens all hopped out of their little homes, and they stretched their wings, letting the sun’s warmth seep into their hollow bones. Feathers were ruffled, birds leaped off of twigs, and the sky was dotted with birds in flight. Morning had truly begun.
Amid all of the awakening, there were two birds that didn’t leave their nest yet. Two large crow brothers, who went by the names Tesu and Mesu, were still sitting snugly in their small tree hollow. They didn’t feel any need to leave; they were planning.
A wren sitting nearby was preening his wing feathers when a loud “KEKEKEKE!” erupted from the hollow. Startled, he flew off, leaving the crows to laugh even more.
Inside the hollow Tesu cackled to himself as he saw the wren fly away.
“Little wren flew away quickee, ya? Kekeke!” he stated, awaiting a response from Mesu. Mesu hadn’t spoken the whole morning except for two words that Tesu disregarded.
“I’m planning.” Mesu had said right when he had awoken, and Tesu had shrugged it off and started his morning with some mischief. He had tossed some feathers at Mesu, who shook them off quickly. He had then laughed to startle the wren, yet as amused as Tesu was, he was getting bored quick.
Mesu didn’t reply to Tesu’s statement, and instead stared at the opening of the hollow. Tesu nudged Mesu with his beak, but the larger Mesu didn’t budge.
“Come on you lumpy, get them birdie feathers awake! Morning is here, ya? We fly and cause birdies to go crazy? Hmm?” said Tesu, bobbing his head up and down in anticipation of the chaotic day that lay ahead. Mesu shook his head.
“No, no Tesu, no time for that. I’ve been planning.” Mesu said calmly, and Tesu scowled.
“You got to be pulling my wingies, day with no birdie scaring? You got wormies in your head?” Tesu complained.
“No worms, no pulling wings, no bird scaring. Today we get revenge.” Mesu’s eyes grew large as his voice became menacing. “Today, we drop rocks on squirrels!” Tesu’s eyes gleamed as Mesu stretched his left wing, where some of his feathers were tattered and broken. “We cannot let this be with no revenge, ya?”
Tesu’s head bobbed up and down in approval, and Mesu seemed to cheer up with the thought of getting revenge for last week’s occurance. The week before, while scavenging, they were attacked by squirrels. Mesu, being the larger of the two crow brothers, wasn’t able to lift off in time to escape. His wing was clawed quite badly, but not to the point where he could no longer fly.
Mesu hopped to the entrance of the hollow, and said “Okay, we go now.” With that, he swooped down, then quickly flapped his wings to fly above the trees. Tesu hopped from leg to leg, and then zoomed out the hollow with both agility and skill. What Tesu lacked in intelligence, he made up for with his amazing flying skills.
Both crows darted to and fro, in between trees and branches, knowing exactly where they would find the best of rocks to drop on the squirrels. After a few minutes of flying they finally reached an old stone wall that was slowly falling apart. Grabbing some of the smaller chunks of rock, then carried their load to a large pine nearby.
“Ah, they not going to know what will be hitting them, kekekeke! They gonna get a bruise or two, gonna go running like crazy howling beast!” cackled Tesu, and Mesu quickly rasied a wing to silence him.
“We need to be quiet, ya? When they come, we go. We go to next branch below, we aim, we drop. They get hit. Simple.” Mesu explained, and he stared down at the foliage below. Somewhere down there was a bird feeder, one that the humans came and filled up every week. The squirrels were almost the only ones who ate from it though, since most birds were terrified of them.
Minutes passed, and finally a squirrel appeared. It looked around warily, and then darted to the spilled millet and corn below the feeder. Mesu’s eyes gleamed hungrily, and his claw grasped tighter around the large pebble he had brought. Tesu glanced at Mesu, who in turn glanced back. Mesu gave a nod, and silently they hopped a few branches down, barely causing the twigs to stir as they made their descent. When they were finally in range, Mesu lifted a claw and aimed the rock so it’d drop right on the squirrel’s back. He then let out a screeching caw, and both Tesu and Mesu dropped their pebbles onto the squirrel, who froze in terror as he saw three stones plummeting towards him.
Whether it was Mesu’s or Tesu’s rock, they would never know, but in that one moment when the rocks were almost hitting their target, the squirrel moved. A rock hit it square on the head, and the thud it made would forever haunt both of them forever.
Mesu and Tesu stared down at the squirrel, cackling softly as they waited for the squirrel to flee, perhaps with a limp. The squirrel never moved. Mesu swiveled his head to the side in confusion, and hopped down next to the squirrel’s body. Peering at the squirrel’s face, he reeled in horror as he realized at what he had done. The squirrel’s piercing dead stare was unbearable, and blood dribbled down its face as Mesu took a step backwards.
“Mesu, Mesu?” Tesu called with a sense of dread. He swooped down to talk with Mesu, but he immediately hopped away and flew away cawing. Mesu couldn’t stay there. He couldn’t at all. He had killed something unintentionally, and a mix of guilt and sheer horror coursed through his veins.
From behind him he heard Tesu take off, and he shuddered as he heard Tesu chatter, and chatter, and chatter.
‘Like the squirrel would… if he was still alive!’ his conscience yelled, and Mesu flew faster.
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