Assassin Crow Evolution

Chapter 46: Pet the crow

Jimmy could not be tricked with cashews. He didn’t like them when he was a human, and he was sure that he wouldn’t like them now either, even though he hadn’t had the chance to eat nuts as a crow.

Rogbeard didn’t care to hear it. He threw a couple of cashews from across the room. They slid on the floor, and stopped close to Jimmy’s claws.

"Hmm... they can’t be poisonous, right?" He said, "Why would they be?"

Jimmy grabbed one of the cashews with his beak, and swallowed it whole. Rogbeard may have over-exaggerated his size, but the fact remained that he didn’t have to break most nuts apart in order to eat them.

Seconds later, he ate the second cashew.

"They taste kinda sweet." He said.

Rogbeard looked Jimmy in the eye, and then he dropped a few of those nuts close to himself. He was prompting Jimmy to approach.

"Come on, biggie, I don’t want to hurt you." Rogbeard said, "I just want to have a better look at you before you go."

Jimmy picked up on what Rogbeard wanted to say, but he was hesitant to approach. This was as close as he had ever gotten to a human without being yelled at, or chased after.

Every inkling of his gut feelings told him to stay away, or to fly away. He knew that he was pushing his luck too far. Other than that, he wasn’t really hungry either. He didn’t care about the nuts all that much.

Rogbeard continued flapping his hand, calling Jimmy to get closer.

Jimmy was at a decision point. He figured that this was the time to abandon his mission, but then again, he was very curious to see where this would go.

At last, he decided to take a couple of steps forward, so as to test the waters.

Rogbeard didn’t change his composure. He didn’t seem any more threatening than he was a moment ago, which gave him the greenlight to further approach the man.

A couple of steps at a time, he got closer to Rogbeard, up until he was within arm’s reach.

"Let’s see what this old fool wants..." He muttered.

Jimmy did not eat the cashews. He looked at the man closely, and remained on high-alert. He expected to be swung at.

"No dagger, no nothing," He said, "He can’t kill me even if he tried... assuming he can’t shoot fireballs."

Rogbeard noticed that the crow was tense. Perhaps scared, and yet too hungry to back away.

The sight of a scared, hungry animal broke his heart. Tears ran down his eyes, but he tried to hold himself together, as to not scare the crow, and then he emptied the rest of the bag of nuts.

"You have to eat them all now, or else I’m going to have to throw them out." Rogbeard said, "Come on, don’t be shy."

Jimmy picked up one of the cashews with his beak, and swallowed it whole. In the meantime, he had been looking upwards, so as to intercept a potential attack.

Rogbeard did not attack. He just crouched, and watched Jimmy up-close.

Neither of them knew it, but this odd meet & greet calmed Rogbeard down significantly, despite his tears. He finally had a visitor who wasn’t a complete pain in the behind.

"Maybe he’s not so crazy after all?" Jimmy figured, "Other than Virena, no one has treated me well ever since I flew out of my nest. Damn it, I don’t like how this feels."

A wholesome smile grew across Rogbeard’s face.

However, as he inspected the crow, he noticed an insect, so he stretched his arm out, so as to grab the insect, and feed it to the crow.

Jimmy saw the man reaching out, and quickly took a few steps backwards.

The insect that Rogbeard had seen, leaped forward, and punched him on the finger.

Rogbeard’s hand was knocked away in an instant, redirected towards his chest. The insect landed on Jimmy’s back afterwards.

"Oh, that’s your friend?" Rogbeard said, "You’re a unique crow, aren’t you? You have odd friends, and you’re starting to look less and less like a cow."

Jimmy figured that the man learned to respect some boundaries after that hit, so he went for the nuts again. He started to like their sweet taste, and in a way, he wanted to give this man another chance.

As he ate, the man did keep his distance for a while, but then he reached out his hand again, very slowly.

"Don’t be scared," Rogbeard said, "If you weren’t so jumpy, I’d give you a bath. You stink, and you look like a bloody mess. What sort of trouble were you in before you came to me?"

Rogbeard touched the crow’s head with the tip of his forefinger. He was very careful.

Moments later, he softly ran his palm across the crow’s head, so as to pet him, as if he was a beloved, and welcoming pet dog.

Jimmy didn’t know what to make of this, so he pulled away once more.

Rogbeard expected this, so he didn’t get frustrated whatsoever. He just tried again after a minute or so, determined to pet an animal that barely anyone else in the city had thought to pet.

Seeing no threat from it, and respecting the fact that Virena hadn’t tried to knock the man unconscious yet, or cut him either, Jimmy gave in to the pets.

"This feels nice," He said.

The kindness he was showered with got him close to mustering a tear. His mission didn’t include being petted by a human, so he lost his train of thought for a moment, and didn’t know what to make of this.

He said, "How come the only human here who isn’t a total dick, also happens to be a little crazy? What backwards parallel ass dimension am I in?"

Jimmy cawed, Rogbeard kept yammering on. Neither one understands each other, and yet this was one of the kindest, if not the best, conversations each of them had for a long time.

Despite this great distraction, Jimmy remembered his self-given mission eventually. So, he finished eating the cashews, and then he refused to be pet any further.

Instead, he slowly hopped towards the dead body on the mortician’s blood-stained, marble table. He wanted to see if the corpse of the man he had killed was on the same table.

Rogbeard did not panic when he saw this, despite spotting the hammer that Jimmy dragged around with him. He figured that a crow wouldn’t have the need to beat on a motionless body.

He simply approached the crow, and tried to understand what it wanted.