crows life

    Cory rode upon the ghust of wind as sunlight shone upon his newly washed black feathers, he was more of a night bird himself but he had to admit flying in the sunlight was pretty fun as well. 

    "Coooory, dont go to high," his sister, cecile, yelled from below him,"You dont want to get in trouble with the guardians again." He cursed at that, the guardians were cowards who would enact new rules about how high crows could fly, or about how they should act just because they thought a wild eagle or flyviper would attack them. How could they be a species that can fly and not be tempted to fly high, that stupid wild eagle sighting was putting everyone on edge. 

    Nontheles he returned to her height, not that he cared about rules or anything, just that he would hate for her to get into trouble because of him. 

    "Your too reckless," She stated, "Mom says one of these days your going to get into really bad trouble and that she wont be able to bail you out." In the distance they could see their home, North Nest 31, A patch of Redwood trees that stretched up hundreds of feet taller than the other trees. Each one could host enough burrows to hold hundreds of crow families, or two monkey families. 

    "Yes but when that happens ill get myself out of it," cory said with a cocky grin as he landed on a walkway in monkey town. 

    Stretching out before him was ropes and walkways connecting to doors in the trees where monkeys all lived. although the whole idea of doors was still pretty foreign to him as crows never used doors just curtains. 

    "Oh that reminds me i need to help janna move today," Cecile lied flying up and onward. Most crows were afraid of the monkeys and their had been many special disputes between the two species since the monkeys moved into this part of town, even though the war between the monkey kingdom and bird kingdom ended over five decades ago. 

    "Yo Bird Dynamite," Ricky said chewing a gumbo leaf outside the gym,"Whadya say wanna join the fights tonight." Boxing was a big part of their culture, Of course crows couldnt box they only had small fingers with talons on the end of their wings called grippers, mainly because they were used to grip things, but with grippers you cant make a good fist or punch well, only claw at things. So of course a couple months ago when cory entered the match against ricky no one though he would win, they actually thought he might die. Everyone betted against them, everyone except ricky and cory who had rigged the fights and made cory actually win. After that day cory was called Bird Dynamite and was very rich. It was unfortunate the Monkeys chips and the Birds shines couldnt be exchanged so ricky was only rich in this part of town. 

    "Sorry ricky im gonna watch the sky tonight, somthings gonna happen," Cory explained walking along the walkway. 

    "Ha your such a space nord," Ricky replied from the distance ,"Some other time then."

    "Hey Cory, do you want some fish," Miguel said tossing some food around in a pan from his kitchen window. Customers sat outside on some branches that had been fastened into chairs years ago, they all waved to him as he passed bye. 

    "No thanks im good, thanks though," He said seeing mara walking along the walkway carrying a huge bag of groceries. 

    "Mara you shouldnt be carrying so much you'll hurt your back,"He said flying up beside her. Mara notheless hobbled along, she was a sweet old lady who was also the shortest monkey he knew coming up at around 3 feet, taller than him by a few inches. 

    "Oh dont you worry dear i'm fine," she said behind her spectacles, she was always so stubborn when it came to accepting help, good thing he was more stubborn when it came to ehlping people 

    "Pleaaaaaaase,"he said flying infront of her. 

    "Cory."

    "You wouldnt crush the dreams of a young crow would you, i could die tommorow and i would say lying their, mara why wouldnt you let me hellllllp youuuu," he joked as she sighed. 

    " Fine." He took ahold of the full weight of the basket and flapped his wings with all his might to keep it in the air. Most crows werent that strong when it came to lifting things during flight, thats mainly why they used domesticated eagles to carry the heaviest of things. "You too sweet for your own good, I just wish you would stop getting in trouble with the authorities all the time."

    "Me, trouble, I have no clue what your talking about," He replied with a chuckle.

    "Very funny, i herd the guardians were looking for you again."

    "When are they not looking at me," He joked,"I think the high guardian has taken a liking to me."

    "Hilarious,"She said as they arrived outsider the door to her house, she oppened the door and he flew the bag inside setting it on the table. 

    "Hows the ground looking today young man," Mara's husband Eugene said reading a book from a hanging chair. In the past he was a soldier in the monkey kingdom, his squad was the only ones who dared set foot on the forest floor. He was probably one of the few people left alive who had set foot on the forest floor, and every now and again asked cory about how the place was doing.

"I saw an elephant and a giant snake fighting earlier today, the snake won of course but that elephant put up a fight," he explained resting down on the tables edge,"Oh and the forest trees down their are starting to change colors, i suspect we're going to have to migrate to the South Nest soon."

"It'll be a shame having you gone for the winter,"Mara said patting his head. 

"I know, i'll miss you guys," he replied, thinking about the many many months he'll have to stay in that nest before he will be able to see them again.

"Aww, and we'll miss you too," She said,"Before you all go i would also suggest getting another shipment of dye from barry, If you want to keep up that rebel look that is."

"Speaking of he should have the newest shipment already upstairs," cory said grinning.

"What are you dying it this time," Eugene asked from behind his book?

"Red, bright red," He said grinning while imagining how his wings would look,"Do you know if he's upstairs, i would love to have them dyed as soon as possible?"

"Whenever isn't he upstairs," Eugene said before dying of laughter.

"Lovely, I'm going to go pay him a visit then,"He said flapping his wings and hovering in the air. 

"Wait I got something for you,"Mara said going through her knitting bag. 

"I appreciate the sentimate mara, i really do, but i dont wear clothes never have and never will, its just not something birds do," Cory said getting ready to politely turn down another knitted sweater or pants, that monkeys were obsessed with wearing. Instead mara brought out a bag. 

"Try it on," She said as he stopped flying and draped the bag across his shoulders. The bag fit perfectly and sloped across his stomach in an angled manner, It was like a belly bag all the old crows wore but actually was stylish.

    "This is amazing,"He said flying around the room to see how it held up during flight. "Thank you so much mara!"

    "Of course,"She said as he flew around the room again before waving goodbye to fly up to barry's room. Once he was nearly a foot away from the door, the door opened and he flew in. 

    "I thought you were here,"Barry said, returning to the lab desk. Barry was a unusual monkey, he had no muscles really at all, instead he was really tall, reaching almost 4 feet. He also prided himself on being a genius. "I put a lock on my door to keep you from barging in, and yet even though you have no opposable thumbs just those grippers you still managed to pick the lock and still barge in so i figured why not just open the door and let you barge in as their seems to be no weakness you have that will prohibit you from opening that door unannounced." Barry continued on his rant as cory stopped listening. Barry liked the sound of his own voice so he often ranted like this alot, even though he was actually really hard to make angry. "Did you managed to check out the ruins again,"He asked stopping his rant.

    "Not today, I had to set up my campsite for tonight."

    "Do you still think that the meteor will crash nearby?"

    "Yep, i have a good feeling about it," he said thinking of the meteor he had viewed earlier today. It was going to be a huge one, although that wasn't the reason he was excited the reason he was excited was that it looked really shiny, and was somewhat drawn to it. 

    "Feelings aside let me run this bye you again,"Barry said picking up a scratch piece of paper, "Their is a seventy-percent chance the meteor will be affected bye the earths gravity, a forty-percent chance it'll enter the atmosphere, a thirty-two percent chance it won't break up on entry, and a eight percent chance it'll land near us, and even if it does hit this planet without breaking up on entry just keep in mind their is a good chance it can then kill us."

    "I like those odds,"Cory said, laying down in a hanging chair and chuckling. 

    "Even so it's still not as low as the odds of you someday getting to space though," barry said crunching some numbers and showing him a paper that said 6 percent. Huh that was new, usually it was around point one percent.

    "It's still better than your chances with my sister," Cory joked looking at the photo of cecile that barry had drawn. Hanging on the wall under it was a piece of paper that showed barry's chance of her going out with him. Usually it was point one seven percent but this time it was thirteen percent. 

    "Woah what's with that,"He asked?

    "Took you long enough to notice," Barry said, "Not that I'm surprised." Barry opened up a drawer and pulled out a tablet of metal cory had given him a few weeks ago, "Remember this?"

    "Uggg yes it was a pain to carry all the way here," he groaned. 

    "Yes well i'm glad you did, it's turned to be quite a treasure, look,"The glassy black metal soon lit up into a blue rectangle with little squares on it. 

    "What is it?"

    "A informational device, one that has tons of pages of information," Barry explained, "Not just about science but about their society and species as well."

    "You mean your ancestors the ones that made the ruins?"

    "That's the thing though, their not our ancestors their an entire different species, everyone thought that because their are skulls found at the ruins that resemble monkey skulls that the people who built the ruins were our ancestors but they weren't."

    "Who did then?"

    "Humans," barry exclaimed! He showed cory a drawing of a hairless monkey, hairless except for their head which was covered with it. He had also drawn an average monkey beside it showing that they dwarfed both monkeys and birds bye a couple feet. 

    "Before the crows, monkeys, and otters had sentience the humans had it first, thousands of years ago when our ancestors were mere animals like pigeons or tigers, in fact i hypothesise the reason we are the way now is because of them."

    "Uh huh," he said as Barry went on his science rant. 

    "You see from what i read it seems that humans got so advance that they started to try and conquer nature, stop storms and natural disasters and also change the creatures around them so they were bigger and could yield more meat for their huge populations. Something wrong happened though causing the planet to undergo massive changes they couldn't control, all creatures had to rapidly change to survive, while most creatures got stronger we got stronger."

    "Okay if they were so great what happened to them, and how does that tie into your chances of with my sister?"

    "It says here that humans had the technology to go to spa."

    "Wait really," he said!

    "Yes, and that's the thing im detecting a signal from space, i think they went to space when everything went bad, it said that they had the power to change creatures bodies, if they are still out their and i can contact them then they might be able to change me into a crow!"

    "You would change species just to get one girl?"

    "Yes, heck i would change species if i could be in her presence without her being scared of me." cory had to admit if anyone could be obsessed with his sister he was glad it was Barry, who just wanted her to be happy.

    "Well I hope you're successful, and if they do come from space maybe they will take me up there," Corry said looking up at the sky like a lover who was separated from his significant other. 

    Cory and Barry then spent the next couple hours hypothesising and talking up until the guardians sniffed him out, and arrested him. Not that it was the first time he had been arrested. His mother soon bailed him out and then scolded him for an hour or two. He then snuck out of the room and after a long day arrived at his campsite, having just dyed his feathers red. 

    "This will be a great night eh girl," he said, patting his telescope which he and Cecile had painstakingly flew there. He took a look at the meteor again, there was no denying that it was coming their way. Fire started to consume it's shiny surface as gravity started to pull it towards the planets surface. 

    Cory pulled away from the telescope as he could see it clearly now as a bright spot in the sky getting bigger and bigger and then he could see the giant ball pass overhead a wave of heat hitting him and then it crashed into a nearby mountain opposite of the north nest. 

    "Heh, looks like my chances are pretty high tonight barry," he said to himself as a wave of fire didn't tear him and that forest apart instantly. 

    Cory crept off the branch he was camping on, and unfurled his wings. After a five minute flight he was hovering around the crash sight, what used to be Gregory's pond, although the water was replaced with a smoking crater, and the trees were all burned away. 

    He would need to tell some of the hawk handlers to bring some water over here, when he got back. 

    At the moment though he was more interested in the meteor, from what barry had read most asteroids were bits of metal and ice and therefore would break apart on the entry of the atmosphere. This one seemed to be mainly made of metal and hadn't changed at all in chape, also it was really smooth. 

    Cory landed as a part of it started to slowly fall off, a perfectly square part of it. It took a minute before the thing hit the ground and then he realized the meteor was hollow, not only that but really bright light emanated from inside, with two silhouettes of monkeys standing in the doorway. 

    One stepped down and cory saw it wasn't a monkey although it was shaped like one it had pale white skin and red hair adorning the top of its head. 

    "Humans,"Cory said, "They do exist."