Free Web NovelChapter 13: The consequences of stealing an apple
"You are not in trouble," One of the crows said.
Jimmy was intimidated by the three crows at first glance. The fact that they held daggers in their claws didn’t intimidate him as much as their size did. They were no mere rats, he knew he couldn’t beat them if a fight was to break out, and even though they didn’t threaten him whatsoever, he felt forced to be compliant.
Each of them had a differently shaped beak, which hinted that they had evolved at least a few times.
"You’re Gnegor’s new kid, aren’t you?" The same crow asked.
"Yes," he nodded.
"That’s precious," the crow said, "Let me introduce myself properly, then. They call me Hammer Beak."
"I’m Zed," another crow, with a horrifying beak as big as a pelican’s, introduced himself with a short nod.
"Gutling," the third crow, bearing a long, curled beak said.
"Gutling, huh?" he repeated, "How did you get that name?"
"I gutted a Cockatrice before I even started flying," Gutling answered, "So my father gave me the name. That was the first, and last time I saw him look proud."
The atmosphere between them did not lighten. Jimmy was so intimidated by them that he didn’t even bother to tell them his name. The crows didn’t mind that much, and they even distracted him, as they did tricks with their daggers, spinning them from claw to claw.
"I guess we’ll call you Gnegor Jr. then," Hammer Beak smiled.
"I don’t have a hammer beak like my father, so that wouldn’t make sense," He blurted, "Call me Jimmy."
"Unusual," Hammer Beak squinted, "But let us move past names... We saw you rob that human, Jimmy, and I suppose your father didn’t tell you this, but we tend to stay away from humans. We steal their food sometimes, yes, but we steal their scraps, not their fresh food in broad daylight."
"I was hungry," he repeated.
"You were, but you must understand that if humans start hating us crows, they’ll eventually start shooting fireballs at us every time they see us." Hammer Beak continued, "We’ve had problems with this fire flinging moron for years, just because one of us pooped on his shoes. He killed twelve crows from what we counted."
At that moment, all that one-sided intimidation, and awkward atmosphere cleared all at once! Jimmy knew that he wasn’t in trouble, for one thing, but he also started brewing a gut-wrenching hate towards that Fire Mage who killed a murder of fellow crows for such an insignificant reason. He shared their hate towards the Fire Mage, but not their caution.
He cawed, "Why haven’t you killed him yet?"
"Because we can’t," Hammer Beak answered, "One of our strongest crows, a man as big as a cow, tried killing the human, but he was shot down in the dead of night. I think that ugly, featherless bastard can see in the dark too. We have stopped trying to kill him ever since."
"Oh," he grumbled, "Alright then, I’ll stay away from the humans as best as I can."
It appeared that this was all the crows wanted to hear, as they flew away shortly after. They said their goodbyes, and Jimmy felt that they left in a rush, but he didn’t really care, and continued munching on the apple he stole.
"Damn, I forgot to ask them about their daggers," he sighed, "Fuck it, I’ll steal one myself. I doubt those weird-beaked farts smithed the daggers themselves."
During the following hour, Jimmy looked for more food. The apple he stole was decent, but it was hardly enough to help fill his gut.
Biologically, he may be an omnivore, an opportunistic vacuum of food who’d eat almost anything, but since he had blown up in size today, his gut became far harder to tame. He wanted fresh meat, and so he looked for meat exclusively, ignoring a couple of rotten scraps of food along his hunt.
At last, he found a couple of rats. They weren’t huge, but he was sure that they were big enough to feed him, so he could finally rest and sleep through the night.
The sun was an hour away from setting. That was his estimate. He didn’t take a lot of naps today, and his eyes burned for one. He dearly missed taking naps.
Anyway, he pecked right through the heads of the rats, killing them on the spot. The tip of his beak was coated with their blood.
[+21 system points]
[+24 system points]
[Total points: 129]
"Nice," he said, as he swallowed a rat whole.
The second rat went down into his gut moments later. He could feel his stomach acid bubbling up already, because he was supposed to eat the rats one peck at a time.
"That should keep the fucker busy all night," he said, "I can’t keep looking for food all the time. I’m burning more energy than I’m gaining during hunts... I guess that’s the curse of being a big, fat fucker."
While Jimmy rattled on, the system flashed a notification at the corner of his eye. The notification did not have a background, and it was as simple as when she silently announced system point gains.
Entirely by chance, he spotted the notification, and asked the system about it.
[Iron Beak skill obtained - (1/25)]
"Huh?" he pulled his head back, confused, "I don’t remember buying that."
[You didn’t buy it. It’s a skill you attained naturally by continuously using your beak against prey. As you can see, you’re far from mastering it, since it features twenty five levels of progression, but the important thing is that the skill is yours to use now.]
"Oh..." he squinted, so as to focus better, "I remember that you said something about getting skills naturally. That’s nice, I guess, but it’s another thing that’s gonna drain my points."
[No, actually.]
[You cannot buy your way through progression on skills you attained naturally. Their levels improve as you practice them more over time.]
[As you advance in levels, the Iron Beak skill will help strengthen your beak, to the point where it’s as hard as iron. Utterly unbreakable.]
"I wish I could write all of this down," he grumbled, "Evolution and skills are so damn confusing. I don’t even remember what I’m forgetting."
Jimmy’s lacking enthusiasm was further tainted by his confusion. He knew what his body needed, apart from a nap, he was desperate for another IQ upgrade.
Today, he convinced himself that intelligence was the backbone of his evolution process.
Anyway, he got ready to fly off, and find a comfortable roof to sleep on, but at that moment, he spotted a familiar crow.
It was Vorin, his brother.
To his surprise, Vorin dived towards him at top speeds, and showed no sign of slowing down.
At last, Vorin crashed against his brother, and the two of them tumbled across the ground for a couple of feet. Jimmy’s size only absorbed half of the blow, so he got a bit of a bump on his chest.
"What the fuck is wrong with you!?" Jimmy yelled out.
"It’s all your fault!" Vorin pecked him, "The elders beat our father half to death, fat-ass!"
