Wiedehopf 2, Chapter 7/8
Oh, my God, LJ, I should not have to reformat every post just to be able to avoid a wall of text. You suck so hard. It's like you and Photobucket are trying to turn users away.
I bought Ein Bisschen Zeitgeist yesterday, and, I have to say, Marie is my favorite song, with Zeitgeist and Jubel and Staub coming after. I really like Mäx's voice.
In which Fabi is a kitten and Jo and Mäx make the world's worst rescue team.
The crows regularly brought food to their leader so that she could keep her vigil over Fabi. He guessed it was pretty boring work. He was bored by it.
“I am going scavenging,” she told him in the dusk hours, hobbling his feet but leaving his hands free. Fabi rubbed them to bring the blood back. “You will stay here.” She set half her crows to watch him before leaving.
Fun. Fabi felt like a damsel in distress. Jo better come save him soon. He wondered why Crow-girl went hunting at night if crows were diurnal. She was probably lying. It wasn’t like Fabi would get a real answer if he questioned her.
The setting sun turned the night bitterly cold quickly. Fabi didn’t think they were in Germany yet, if that was even Crow-girl’s target. Maybe they were just walking to be walking. It was better than sitting in a jail cell, Fabi guessed. Made it harder to find him.
Soon the last glimmers of light were gone. Fabi didn’t even know if there was a city nearby. They had walked through forest and field, never getting near other people. It was really cold now. Crow-girl wasn’t back yet.
A Great Horned Owl swooped in on silent wings, its talons outstretched, ready to grasp the nearest bird. The crows screamed in terror. Fabi wasn’t afraid of the owl. He had no reason to be.
“Let me out,” Fabi said. They flapped their wings in distress as the owl came closer. “Untie me! I can help you!”
Fabi couldn’t have known how young Crow-girl was or how young her crows were. He couldn’t have known they would freak out without direction when a predator came upon them. One of the crows kept enough sense to undo his bonds. Fabi concentrated on his kitten form, and then he was a kitten. The bird swooped, seeing the new, more vulnerable prey. Fabi ran, taking the owl away from the crows.
The owl followed. Fabi zigzagged through the grass into the tree cover. The owl swooped down, missing Fabi just barely. He spun around and went the other way, back towards the crows. The owl kept after him. Fabi just needed to make sure he was still its target. He slowed, feigning tiredness. The owl came down, talons out.
They clenched around Fabi, and he was lifted into the air. Higher and higher they went, until they were above the treetops.
Fabi turned human. He twisted around, grabbing the owl’s great wings. It flapped them, trying to throw him off, but they were dropping now, fast, towards the ground. It couldn’t shake Fabi, and every attempt was a strain on its wings.
Then one snapped. The owl screeched in pain. They plummeted. Fabi looked towards the ground. He was still too high. He grappled with the other wing, trying to break that one as well. The owl struggled, stabbing at him with its beak. It had no chance. The other wing dislocated under Fabi’s hold, rendering the owl flightless.
They were too close to the ground. Fabi would be badly hurt if he tried to land as a human. The owl would be a danger once down, but he had little choice: he turned kitten. The owl cushioned his fall.
He tore at the thing’s throat, ripping feathers out as he aimed for the spine. There were so many feathers. How was he going to do this? Fabi paused. What was he doing, trying to kill this thing as a kitten? He turned human, and snapped the owl’s neck with a movement of his wrist.
Crow-girl was there when he looked up, staring at him. “You tried to save my crows.” Her voice was one of wonder.
ØØØ
They kept going, Crow-girl much more cautious than before, shaken by the near massacre of her crows. She didn’t say thank you to Fabi or anything, which was cool, seeing as he was her prisoner and all. Fabi didn’t need to be told he was awesome when he saved a bunch of lives or anything.
“I’m not one of the bad guys,” Fabi said when he got bored of the quiet. “Just so you know.”
“What did I tell you about talking?” Crow-girl snapped. Her voice didn’t seem too angry, though, more tired and bored.
“You look bored. If I talk, you won’t be so bored.”
Crow-girl admitted that was true. The crows weren’t very talkative, after all.
Fabi explained to her about Jo, about how he suddenly turned into a bird last year and met a bunch of people who said they were family. He told her about the medallion and how it changed everything, how they had to go searching for it with only a strange bird-man to help them. He explained about Jo turning back and himself not being able to turn at all. How he had tried and tried, and then Jo found him with a few whiskers on his face and nothing else. How Jo had showed him how to do more and how he finally managed a form.
Crow-girl listened, and then she told him to shut up, the same puzzled look she’d had for the last hour on her face.
“Get on my back,” she said, feathers sprouting along her arms and shoulders. “I know where they are keeping your brother.”
“So you’re on my side now, are you?”
“No. I’m just tired of listening to you talk.”
She became a huge crow, her wings spreading farther and farther out until she was twice the size of a golden eagle. Her beak was as long as Fabi’s middle finger.
“Don’t be an idiot,” she said when Fabi was about to clamber on. “Change into a cat. I’m not carrying you when you’re this heavy.”
She snapped her wings together, and they were off.
ØØØ
A barn. That was the jail: a freaking red-shingled barn in a happily green field. Sheep ambled about, ignoring the three humans traipsing through their pasture. Birdpeople apparently had no understanding of dramatic setting.
“We’re not in Cloppenburg, are we?” Jo muttered. Mäx snickered.
“I’m going to find us a way in,” Marine told them. “You stay here, Jo. And you-” she looked Mäx up and down, her lip curling, “-you stay here as well.” She flapped off in raven form. Guess the ravens couldn’t tell the difference between one of their own and a pretender. Stupid ravens.
Jo flopped down on the grass, spreading his arms and legs out, a big smile on his stolen face. It was more than a little funny that he was channeling David Hasselhoff, and Mäx had been just waiting for Marine to say something, but she hadn’t seen anything odd about it. It ruined the fun slightly.
Jo patted the grass next to him, not looking up to see whether Mäx followed his whims. Mäx sat, letting Jo wrap a loose arm around him. A sheep moseyed up to them. It flared its nostrils at Jo, breathing on him. Jo blew back at it.
“This is nice,” he said. Mäx was pretty sure Jo was just sunbathing by now. He frowned at the idiot.
“Yeah, real nice.”
“Fuck off.”
A raven landed next to them. It changed into Marine before either of them could do more than panic.
“I can’t get in touch with any of our people,” Marine said, crossing her legs. “But I know Felix is in there with the others. I’ve been watching these people and there are a lot of them, a lot more than us. It’s not just ravens, either. They’ve got someone important from the crow side. They keep talking about her.
“This is how it’s set up: stalls replaced with cages on either side, an office where Tereus is being kept, and the barn loft where most of the ravens are. If we can distract them, then the cages will be unsupervised.”
“Is Fabi in there?” It was all Jo wanted to know. He needed to find his parents, but Fabi was more vulnerable than either of them.
“Fabian?” Marine asked. “I didn’t see him. Tereus is, I promise, but I have not seen Fabian. Or Felix,” she added unhappily. “This alliance between the ravens and the crows bothers me. Crows hate ravens; they would only agree to an alliance if the reason behind it were extremely important to them.
“There’s a back door we can use. No one will notice us coming or going.”
ØØØ
They slipped into the barn while the hoopoes fluttered about, creating a distraction for the jailors. At least, that was what Marine said they would be doing. Mäx thought that was incredibly dangerous for the miniscule avians, but it wasn’t like Marine was going to listen to him. She had a hard-on hatred for him. Mäx didn’t get it. He also didn’t care. Bitch.
It was dark inside the jail, chilly and almost unbearably dry. Clouds of dust floated thickly in the air. Every breath smelled like dirt.
Marine’s description of the stalls being cages wasn’t exactly right. The barn had been gutted, paved with cement, and divided into tiny cells. The cells had metal bars, like a traditional, movie-style prison, but wrapped in a fine mesh covering. Mäx extended a hand. If they could just break through the mesh, the prisoners who were birdpeople could escape.
“Don’t touch the mesh,” Marine warned. “It’s electric. Meant to kill anything smaller than the average human. You should be fine, though,” she added.”You’re not exactly average human-sized.” Mäx revised bitch to something stronger.
Marine walked in front of them, searching for Felix. The barn was quiet, all of the prisoners either unconscious or watching them with wide eyes.
“Isn’t that Marine?” Jo asked. Mäx turned to look where Jo jutted his chin. Tied to the wall was indeed a battered, bruised, and unconscious Marine. Mäx had seen both Jo and Fabi fall asleep in form enough times to know they reverted to their original forms when unconscious. In that cell was the real Marine. The fake one was pacing the aisles, purportedly looking for Felix- who was slumped in the cell next to his mate.
“I knew she was acting weird,” Jo told Mäx, his breath hot behind the guitarist’s ear. They continued their slow pace, checking for Fabi, hoping for Fabi.
“Don’t say anything,” Mäx said lowly. Whoever was pretending to Marine had an agenda, and Jo was part of it. They didn’t need her to turn on them just yet.
It was pointless to expect Jo to start listening to him just because his life might be in peril.
“Who are you?” Jo demanded the second the false Marine returned to them.
“What do you mean?” she asked, eyebrows raised. “It’s me, Jo, Marine.”
“Marine never called me Jo. Who are you? Where is Felix? Is he even here?”
“Of course, Felix is here. That’s why we came. He’s just a little ways further up.” Now Mäx knew she was lying to them. They had passed Felix, seen him slumped to the dirty floor, the real Marine chained next to him.
“Prove it,” Jo said, clenching his fists. “If you’re really Marine, prove it right now.”
“I don’t understand what you’re on about,” Marine said, but her face shifted, and there was Marine before them.
“That doesn’t prove anything. I can do that, too.” And Jo did. This was getting kind of fun. Mäx looked around for a convenient crowbar, in case he needed to knock Marine out. Unfortunately, this was not a movie, and there was no crowbar just lying around nor a handy-dandy pocket knife. Mäx should start carrying those sorts of things. A pocket knife really would be handy-dandy right about now.
“Jo, you’re being ridiculous. It’s me, Marine. We don’t have time for this: we need to get Felix and your brother.”
“You said my brother wasn’t here.”
“I said he might not be here.”
“Hoopoes are dumb birds,” Marine said, shedding her false features, taking those of someone much, much crueler, “willing to follow anyone who looks the littlest bit like them.”
Jo slammed into her with the force of a wildcat, and they tumbled to the floor. Marine shifted, turning into a pit bull, into a snake, into a wolf, changing again and again. They clawed at each other, bit and slashed, snarled and hissed, changing all the while.
Mäx, being the awesomely smart person he was, stripped himself of his hoodie, tossed it over the fighting pair, then clamped down on the nearest part he could, trusting Jo to figure out what he was trying to do and get his skinny ass out of the way. Jo did, and Mäx fought his way to the false Marine’s neck. She continued to change forms, twisting and resisting, but not enough that he couldn’t keep heavy pressure on it. The struggling continued, and Mäx had to put all his weight on his arms to keep her down until, finally, she ran out of air and collapsed, shifting back into human form.
“Go on,” Mäx, panting, said to the Wiedehopfs, nodding at the ravenwoman. “You can have at her.” They launched their little, birdy selves at the false Marine, screaming.
Jo sat against the cement wall, trying to staunch the blood seeping from his arm. It still trickled down, a thin, dark rivulet following the line of his bicep. Mäx pulled his hoodie off the ravenwoman. He moved towards Jo slowly, coming to sit next to him.
“Let me see,” he said.
“I’m alright,” Jo told him, squeezing his arm tighter.
“Just let me see.” Jo scowled. “Jo.” Mäx pried Jo’s fingers away. The bite was deep, the two marks where the canines had been deeper and more bloody than the other teeth marks. Mäx stemmed the flow with his hoodie. “You think she brushes her teeth often?” he joked weakly.
Jo looked at him.
“You’ll have to wrap it the whole way around. The bite’s on both sides.” Wonderful. Mäx did so.
“I’m good,” Jo said. He glanced around. The cells all around them were filled with chained birds and birdpeople. A hoopoe fluttered down to Jo’s shoulder as another pecked at a lock furiously. “You think we should free these guys?”
“Yeah. I think that would be a good idea.”
ØØØ
It was not a good idea. The ravens came looking for their fellow eventually and, when they found her, knocked out, bleeding, and surrounded by empty cells, they were not pleased.
So Mäx knocked them out.
Okay, so it was more like he found a weathered two-by-four and swatted at the ravens until he smacked a few of them out of the air, but what was a good story without a dramatic retelling? One or two of them might’ve gotten knocked out when they fell to the floor.
The humans were a much easier target even if they were way harder to damage. It was a melee of fighting, and Jo, Mäx, the hoopoes, and the conscious prisoners were at the center of it. Well, the unconscious ones were there, too, but they weren’t too helpful, indiscriminately tripping anyone too distracted to look downwards.
Mäx swung at a brute of a woman, all big, veiny arms and buzz cut who took way too much joy in trying to crush his head with her meaty hands. Which was not how Mäx planned to die, thanks. He smashed the two-by-four over her head and groaned when she just kept coming towards him.
Jo was changing in a flurry of shapes while black birds descended upon him (this was sort of how Mäx ended up maybe knocking ravens out), while a woman Mäx remembered as Britta swiped at them with fingers made of foot-long knives.
They were losing, there was no arguing that. Half their manpower was down and what they did have wasn’t exactly fighting material against supernatural birds. Including Mäx and Jo’s unconscious parents, five of those on the Wiedehopf side were mere humans. It was the Winter War if half the Finnish had been pussies.
They were, in short, doomed. Fuck, Fabi better find a way to get them out when they ended up in the cages.
ØØØ
Very quickly, Fabi realized that hours of flying was not good for kitten brains. He had the incredible urge to spring from Crow-girl’s back onto the ground hundreds of feet below, the kitten brain completely disregarding the fact that this would definitely kill him. Not maybe kill him or a little bit kill him but definitely kill him. As in, dead dead. Kitten brains weren’t very smart.
They stopped once. On a windmill. The kitten brain decided that, too, was a safe distance to jump. Fabi was starting to think cats getting stuck in trees was a myth, because this cat was completely fearless and didn’t understand that death was possible. Hell, when had Fabi learned that?
Finally, after what felt like five or six hours, they landed again, this time in a field surrounding an enormous barn. The crows pulled the chains off Fabi, and he slipped down, feeling ready to kiss the ground.
“Get up,” Crow-girl said, changing within seconds of hitting the ground. She wasn’t tired? Made Fabi feel like way less of a badass. “Your family is in that barn. There is fighting going on. I can hear it from here.”
Fabi was up and running by the time she said “here”. His legs went all Ministry of Silly Walks, but he kept going, pushing forward even as he flailed and nearly face-planted.
The barn door was unlocked but heavy. Fabi flung it open.
“Stop!” Fabi yelled, running into the room. Black birds and humans paused to stare at him. Where was Jo? He couldn’t see him. There was Mäx…with a two-by-four? “You guys have to stop!”
“Why?” Mäx asked at the same time Jo’s voice said “Fabi!” happily.
“The crows and the ravens- they did this for a good reason. The family head’s been sending our people to kill them. They’re just protecting themselves!”
“Fabi!” Jo would not be ignored.
“Jo!” Fabi rushed into Jo’s arms, hugging his older brother tightly. “Look, we have to stop him.”
“Stop who?”
“Tereus. What he’s doing- it’s wrong. He’s just attacking and hurting all these crows and ravens, and they’re not even hurting us.” Fabi scratched the side of his nose. “Um, yeah, we have to stop him.”
“Who are you?” a man demanded in a raspy voice. “Why should we listen to you?”
“He’s my prisoner,” Crow-girl announced, the barn door shutting behind her and her mob. Her eyes glittered in the dark room. “I am Töwi, princess of the crows. Heed my words or prepare for the wrath of the entire crow family. Where is Tereus? I must speak with him.”
A muscular woman stepped forward, her arms crossed.
“I will take you to him. Disregard this mess.” She made a curious groink sound, and the ravens departed to the barn loft. Fabi watched them go, Jo’s grip tight on his arm.
The raven-lady led them (Crow-girl really, but Fabi felt like following her and Jo felt like following him) to a large room at the back of the barn. It was the only normal looking part of the barn with a white, wooden door and a simple latch. They went inside.
Bars had been set through the center of the room, the same mesh as on the cells outside covering the spaces in between. An old, wrinkled man huddled in the very center of the cell, muttering to himself.
“Tereus,” Crow-girl breathed. “How different you look.”
Crow-girl knelt before the Tereus’ cell and sneered at him.
“Your people and mine have never had problems with one another, Tereus. Yet you order your people to kill mine and you send hoopoes and lapwings after me and mine. This is inexcusable and it cannot be allowed to persist. The crow people are prepared to kill members of your family if you do not abdicate and make reparations.”
Tereus jerked his head up Crow-girl’s approach. He laughed, a mad, cackling laugh that ended in a wheeze. His face shifted, lips melting together into a beak. He cawed at her before his lips smoothed back into a mouth.
“Töwi, you came all this way to see me!” he said, cackling.
Crow-girl spat on the floor.
“Don’t play with me, old man,” Crow-girl snarled. “You are responsible for many deaths.” She looked at the raven-lady. “I wish to speak with the ravens and the hoopoes. It has come to my attention that the violence of late is the fault of this one man and not the entirety of the hoopoes. This is the opinion of the crow family.”
“The crow family speaks through you?” the raven-lady asked, disbelieving. “You are little more than a fledgling.”
Crow-girl raised her chin.
“I am the only princess left in these parts. The others have expired recently. It falls to me to find justice for our family, so, in that regard, yes, the crow family speaks through me. A council among the crows, ravens, and hoopoes is needed. Are you capable of doing that or must I find someone of actual importance in these parts?”
“I am in charge here,” the raven-lady said. She unlocked Tereus’ cage, fitting a chain around the cackling man’s leg. “We will call a council.”
ØØØ
The ravens and the crows screeched and cawed at each other, filling the room with their awful racket. The Wiedehopfs were all quiet, even the ones still in bird form, sitting on Jo’s shoulders and head. Sometime between the false Marine’s downfall and now, they had elected Jo their new leader. Except for the little one that liked Mäx- he was on Britta’s shoulder, since Jo had hissed at him when he tried to join Mäx. Which was sad. They were pretty birds.
“Who will repay us for our dead?” a raven rasped from the loft.
“We deserve restitution!” another called.
Tereus picked at his feed, the silver chain around his foot hanging loose. He made a surprised sound, a grawk!, but no one heard him over the noise. He had been shoved in a cage on the barn floor, in sight so that no one could try to free him. Not that anyone wanted to. That dude was crazy.
“We have dead, too, and captured! Some of them not even formchangers!” Britta argued. “You have murdered our young and taken our old.”
“We had need,” the raven-lady said. “The attacks only waned after we did so. It was needed.”
“Can’t they just call it even?” Fabi asked Jo. “The Wiedehopfs were assholes and the crows and the ravens were assholes back.”
Jo looked to Mäx, who set his jaw. Fabi’s argument was solid, his body language said.
In the background, Tereus choked and spluttered, no one noticing.
"Yes, but were we the ones to institute the violence? I think not.”
Töwi slipped in next to Fabi.
“Hoopoe,” she said, snapping her fingers at him. Fabi hunkered down. He hadn’t really noticed before, but he was a lot taller than her. “Do you want this to stop? You want only to go home, correct?”
“Yeah,” Fabi said because, dude, going home would be sweet. He was tired, he had no shoes, and he wasn’t actually wearing clothes. He was butt naked in front of a whole bunch of people. It was uncomfortable. He also- Fabi sniffed himself- kind of smelled. “Going home would be nice.”
“Then call in your favor now,” Crow-girl said.
“But you already-”
“Just do it.”
Fabi squinted his eyes. The fuck? How did you call in a favor?
“Uh…Cro- Töwi, would you do me a favor?” he asked, feeling awkward.
“What favor might I do for you, hoopoe?”
“I want the fighting to stop.” Wow, Fabi was completely lost. Jo was looking over at them warily, like he wanted to shank Crow-girl. Did Jo know how to shank people? Fabi hoped not. “You’re the princess of the crows: they’ll listen to you. Tell them you don’t think the Wiedehopf family is really involved. It’s just Tereus.”
Crow-girl studied him for a moment, then stuck two fingers in her mouth and let out a shrill whistle. The birds and people quieted. Crow-girl pushed her way through the crowd to get to the center of the room.
“The fighting must stop,” she said calmly, projecting her voice so that it filled the entirety of the room. “The hoopoes are not to blame for their actions- their leader is.” There were angry sounds of protest. Töwi glared at the room until they stopped. “I have spent the last few days in the company of one of these hoopoes. He was my prisoner, and he has proven beyond doubt that he is not to blame for this travesty.”
“And why would you, Töwi, listen to a hoopoe? Why should we listen to him?”
“Because,” Töwi said, grinding her teeth, “he saved half my mob from a Great Horned Owl at great risk to himself. While my prisoner, he killed an owl that threatened to murder helpless, frightened individuals to no benefit of his own. My mob reported that the owl made no move to touch him or in any way harm him. He did it simply because he could.
“Because of this, he has called in a favor. This hoopoe wishes for the fighting to end. He was taken without knowing for what he was being charged. A human was hurt in the process. The raven family later made designs on his brother and his brother’s mate, eventually capturing the mate. Don’t you see? Four innocent people were harmed, two of them barely connected to the hoopoe family. This fighting has no purpose.”
“Why should we believe your hoopoe?” one woman asked, stroking a raven with her right hand. “He could be lying.”
“I thought so at first,” Töwi answered. “But only hours before he saved my mob, they had delivered two dead to him. What kind of a man would save his jailors after such an occurrence?”
The crowd murmured.
“Then you blame Tereus for all of this,” the raven-lady said, her arms folded over her busty chest.
“Yes.”
“Release him from his cell then, and we shall see fit to punish him.”
Keys were found, and Tereus’ cell was unlocked. A cry of alarm went up when the first raven went inside.
“He- he,” the raven said, cringing like he expected to be punished. “The hoopoe is no more.”
They were too late to punish him: while everyone had been arguing, Tereus had choked to death.
ØØØ
Rainer, Britta’s mate, smoothed the negotiations over. With Tereus dead and Töwi’s support- and, by way of her, all of the crows- for an end to the violence, there was little the ravens could do to keep their prisoners. Jo’s parents and Fabi were free to go, with assurances that any raven or crow that attacked them from then on would be punished. It wasn’t the best assurance, but it meant they could go home.
Mäx wanted a shower. He also had to call a tow truck, pay the damages to the rental company, and find out how much the canceled shows had cost him. Actually, who was he kidding? He just wanted to get home.
But that would mean hours of driving or by train. Instead, they walked to the nearest service station and asked where they could find a hotel. Mäx footed the bill.
“You’re fucking expensive,” he told Jo, who shrugged and claimed dibs on the shower after Fabi (Mäx wasn’t made of money- Jo’s parents got their own room and Fabi, Jo, and Mäx got a connecting one, Jo’s father be damned).
He turned on the television and waited for his turn, before remembering that tow company thing was kind of important. Swap the tires out, give it a good wash, and they’d only have to pay for the broken side view mirrors. Cheaper than a whole car. Also less likely to make the news than “Ex-Teenie Band Trashes Rental Car”, which, in the wake of “Birds Hate Ex-Teenie Band”, would just make a wonderful press month. When had he started sounding like an adult?
Fabi and Jo were whispering to each other when Mäx got out of the shower (after using the one hand towel to dry himself- neither Fabi nor Jo had any clothes with them; Mäx had a gross-ass pair of boxers and what he’d been wearing for the last two days). Jo smoothed the sheets next to him, an obvious invitation.
It was sweet how they passed out together, Fabi curled into Jo’s chest. Mäx wrapped separate sheets around the two of them to thwart the inevitable freak out when Fabi woke up naked. Jo probably wouldn’t notice. Idiot went around half-naked all the time. Mäx petted Jo’s head and leaned down, brushing a kiss against his short hair.
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I bought Ein Bisschen Zeitgeist yesterday, and, I have to say, Marie is my favorite song, with Zeitgeist and Jubel and Staub coming after. I really like Mäx's voice.
In which Fabi is a kitten and Jo and Mäx make the world's worst rescue team.
The crows regularly brought food to their leader so that she could keep her vigil over Fabi. He guessed it was pretty boring work. He was bored by it.
“I am going scavenging,” she told him in the dusk hours, hobbling his feet but leaving his hands free. Fabi rubbed them to bring the blood back. “You will stay here.” She set half her crows to watch him before leaving.
Fun. Fabi felt like a damsel in distress. Jo better come save him soon. He wondered why Crow-girl went hunting at night if crows were diurnal. She was probably lying. It wasn’t like Fabi would get a real answer if he questioned her.
The setting sun turned the night bitterly cold quickly. Fabi didn’t think they were in Germany yet, if that was even Crow-girl’s target. Maybe they were just walking to be walking. It was better than sitting in a jail cell, Fabi guessed. Made it harder to find him.
Soon the last glimmers of light were gone. Fabi didn’t even know if there was a city nearby. They had walked through forest and field, never getting near other people. It was really cold now. Crow-girl wasn’t back yet.
A Great Horned Owl swooped in on silent wings, its talons outstretched, ready to grasp the nearest bird. The crows screamed in terror. Fabi wasn’t afraid of the owl. He had no reason to be.
“Let me out,” Fabi said. They flapped their wings in distress as the owl came closer. “Untie me! I can help you!”
Fabi couldn’t have known how young Crow-girl was or how young her crows were. He couldn’t have known they would freak out without direction when a predator came upon them. One of the crows kept enough sense to undo his bonds. Fabi concentrated on his kitten form, and then he was a kitten. The bird swooped, seeing the new, more vulnerable prey. Fabi ran, taking the owl away from the crows.
The owl followed. Fabi zigzagged through the grass into the tree cover. The owl swooped down, missing Fabi just barely. He spun around and went the other way, back towards the crows. The owl kept after him. Fabi just needed to make sure he was still its target. He slowed, feigning tiredness. The owl came down, talons out.
They clenched around Fabi, and he was lifted into the air. Higher and higher they went, until they were above the treetops.
Fabi turned human. He twisted around, grabbing the owl’s great wings. It flapped them, trying to throw him off, but they were dropping now, fast, towards the ground. It couldn’t shake Fabi, and every attempt was a strain on its wings.
Then one snapped. The owl screeched in pain. They plummeted. Fabi looked towards the ground. He was still too high. He grappled with the other wing, trying to break that one as well. The owl struggled, stabbing at him with its beak. It had no chance. The other wing dislocated under Fabi’s hold, rendering the owl flightless.
They were too close to the ground. Fabi would be badly hurt if he tried to land as a human. The owl would be a danger once down, but he had little choice: he turned kitten. The owl cushioned his fall.
He tore at the thing’s throat, ripping feathers out as he aimed for the spine. There were so many feathers. How was he going to do this? Fabi paused. What was he doing, trying to kill this thing as a kitten? He turned human, and snapped the owl’s neck with a movement of his wrist.
Crow-girl was there when he looked up, staring at him. “You tried to save my crows.” Her voice was one of wonder.
ØØØ
They kept going, Crow-girl much more cautious than before, shaken by the near massacre of her crows. She didn’t say thank you to Fabi or anything, which was cool, seeing as he was her prisoner and all. Fabi didn’t need to be told he was awesome when he saved a bunch of lives or anything.
“I’m not one of the bad guys,” Fabi said when he got bored of the quiet. “Just so you know.”
“What did I tell you about talking?” Crow-girl snapped. Her voice didn’t seem too angry, though, more tired and bored.
“You look bored. If I talk, you won’t be so bored.”
Crow-girl admitted that was true. The crows weren’t very talkative, after all.
Fabi explained to her about Jo, about how he suddenly turned into a bird last year and met a bunch of people who said they were family. He told her about the medallion and how it changed everything, how they had to go searching for it with only a strange bird-man to help them. He explained about Jo turning back and himself not being able to turn at all. How he had tried and tried, and then Jo found him with a few whiskers on his face and nothing else. How Jo had showed him how to do more and how he finally managed a form.
Crow-girl listened, and then she told him to shut up, the same puzzled look she’d had for the last hour on her face.
“Get on my back,” she said, feathers sprouting along her arms and shoulders. “I know where they are keeping your brother.”
“So you’re on my side now, are you?”
“No. I’m just tired of listening to you talk.”
She became a huge crow, her wings spreading farther and farther out until she was twice the size of a golden eagle. Her beak was as long as Fabi’s middle finger.
“Don’t be an idiot,” she said when Fabi was about to clamber on. “Change into a cat. I’m not carrying you when you’re this heavy.”
She snapped her wings together, and they were off.
ØØØ
A barn. That was the jail: a freaking red-shingled barn in a happily green field. Sheep ambled about, ignoring the three humans traipsing through their pasture. Birdpeople apparently had no understanding of dramatic setting.
“We’re not in Cloppenburg, are we?” Jo muttered. Mäx snickered.
“I’m going to find us a way in,” Marine told them. “You stay here, Jo. And you-” she looked Mäx up and down, her lip curling, “-you stay here as well.” She flapped off in raven form. Guess the ravens couldn’t tell the difference between one of their own and a pretender. Stupid ravens.
Jo flopped down on the grass, spreading his arms and legs out, a big smile on his stolen face. It was more than a little funny that he was channeling David Hasselhoff, and Mäx had been just waiting for Marine to say something, but she hadn’t seen anything odd about it. It ruined the fun slightly.
Jo patted the grass next to him, not looking up to see whether Mäx followed his whims. Mäx sat, letting Jo wrap a loose arm around him. A sheep moseyed up to them. It flared its nostrils at Jo, breathing on him. Jo blew back at it.
“This is nice,” he said. Mäx was pretty sure Jo was just sunbathing by now. He frowned at the idiot.
“Yeah, real nice.”
“Fuck off.”
A raven landed next to them. It changed into Marine before either of them could do more than panic.
“I can’t get in touch with any of our people,” Marine said, crossing her legs. “But I know Felix is in there with the others. I’ve been watching these people and there are a lot of them, a lot more than us. It’s not just ravens, either. They’ve got someone important from the crow side. They keep talking about her.
“This is how it’s set up: stalls replaced with cages on either side, an office where Tereus is being kept, and the barn loft where most of the ravens are. If we can distract them, then the cages will be unsupervised.”
“Is Fabi in there?” It was all Jo wanted to know. He needed to find his parents, but Fabi was more vulnerable than either of them.
“Fabian?” Marine asked. “I didn’t see him. Tereus is, I promise, but I have not seen Fabian. Or Felix,” she added unhappily. “This alliance between the ravens and the crows bothers me. Crows hate ravens; they would only agree to an alliance if the reason behind it were extremely important to them.
“There’s a back door we can use. No one will notice us coming or going.”
ØØØ
They slipped into the barn while the hoopoes fluttered about, creating a distraction for the jailors. At least, that was what Marine said they would be doing. Mäx thought that was incredibly dangerous for the miniscule avians, but it wasn’t like Marine was going to listen to him. She had a hard-on hatred for him. Mäx didn’t get it. He also didn’t care. Bitch.
It was dark inside the jail, chilly and almost unbearably dry. Clouds of dust floated thickly in the air. Every breath smelled like dirt.
Marine’s description of the stalls being cages wasn’t exactly right. The barn had been gutted, paved with cement, and divided into tiny cells. The cells had metal bars, like a traditional, movie-style prison, but wrapped in a fine mesh covering. Mäx extended a hand. If they could just break through the mesh, the prisoners who were birdpeople could escape.
“Don’t touch the mesh,” Marine warned. “It’s electric. Meant to kill anything smaller than the average human. You should be fine, though,” she added.”You’re not exactly average human-sized.” Mäx revised bitch to something stronger.
Marine walked in front of them, searching for Felix. The barn was quiet, all of the prisoners either unconscious or watching them with wide eyes.
“Isn’t that Marine?” Jo asked. Mäx turned to look where Jo jutted his chin. Tied to the wall was indeed a battered, bruised, and unconscious Marine. Mäx had seen both Jo and Fabi fall asleep in form enough times to know they reverted to their original forms when unconscious. In that cell was the real Marine. The fake one was pacing the aisles, purportedly looking for Felix- who was slumped in the cell next to his mate.
“I knew she was acting weird,” Jo told Mäx, his breath hot behind the guitarist’s ear. They continued their slow pace, checking for Fabi, hoping for Fabi.
“Don’t say anything,” Mäx said lowly. Whoever was pretending to Marine had an agenda, and Jo was part of it. They didn’t need her to turn on them just yet.
It was pointless to expect Jo to start listening to him just because his life might be in peril.
“Who are you?” Jo demanded the second the false Marine returned to them.
“What do you mean?” she asked, eyebrows raised. “It’s me, Jo, Marine.”
“Marine never called me Jo. Who are you? Where is Felix? Is he even here?”
“Of course, Felix is here. That’s why we came. He’s just a little ways further up.” Now Mäx knew she was lying to them. They had passed Felix, seen him slumped to the dirty floor, the real Marine chained next to him.
“Prove it,” Jo said, clenching his fists. “If you’re really Marine, prove it right now.”
“I don’t understand what you’re on about,” Marine said, but her face shifted, and there was Marine before them.
“That doesn’t prove anything. I can do that, too.” And Jo did. This was getting kind of fun. Mäx looked around for a convenient crowbar, in case he needed to knock Marine out. Unfortunately, this was not a movie, and there was no crowbar just lying around nor a handy-dandy pocket knife. Mäx should start carrying those sorts of things. A pocket knife really would be handy-dandy right about now.
“Jo, you’re being ridiculous. It’s me, Marine. We don’t have time for this: we need to get Felix and your brother.”
“You said my brother wasn’t here.”
“I said he might not be here.”
“Hoopoes are dumb birds,” Marine said, shedding her false features, taking those of someone much, much crueler, “willing to follow anyone who looks the littlest bit like them.”
Jo slammed into her with the force of a wildcat, and they tumbled to the floor. Marine shifted, turning into a pit bull, into a snake, into a wolf, changing again and again. They clawed at each other, bit and slashed, snarled and hissed, changing all the while.
Mäx, being the awesomely smart person he was, stripped himself of his hoodie, tossed it over the fighting pair, then clamped down on the nearest part he could, trusting Jo to figure out what he was trying to do and get his skinny ass out of the way. Jo did, and Mäx fought his way to the false Marine’s neck. She continued to change forms, twisting and resisting, but not enough that he couldn’t keep heavy pressure on it. The struggling continued, and Mäx had to put all his weight on his arms to keep her down until, finally, she ran out of air and collapsed, shifting back into human form.
“Go on,” Mäx, panting, said to the Wiedehopfs, nodding at the ravenwoman. “You can have at her.” They launched their little, birdy selves at the false Marine, screaming.
Jo sat against the cement wall, trying to staunch the blood seeping from his arm. It still trickled down, a thin, dark rivulet following the line of his bicep. Mäx pulled his hoodie off the ravenwoman. He moved towards Jo slowly, coming to sit next to him.
“Let me see,” he said.
“I’m alright,” Jo told him, squeezing his arm tighter.
“Just let me see.” Jo scowled. “Jo.” Mäx pried Jo’s fingers away. The bite was deep, the two marks where the canines had been deeper and more bloody than the other teeth marks. Mäx stemmed the flow with his hoodie. “You think she brushes her teeth often?” he joked weakly.
Jo looked at him.
“You’ll have to wrap it the whole way around. The bite’s on both sides.” Wonderful. Mäx did so.
“I’m good,” Jo said. He glanced around. The cells all around them were filled with chained birds and birdpeople. A hoopoe fluttered down to Jo’s shoulder as another pecked at a lock furiously. “You think we should free these guys?”
“Yeah. I think that would be a good idea.”
ØØØ
It was not a good idea. The ravens came looking for their fellow eventually and, when they found her, knocked out, bleeding, and surrounded by empty cells, they were not pleased.
So Mäx knocked them out.
Okay, so it was more like he found a weathered two-by-four and swatted at the ravens until he smacked a few of them out of the air, but what was a good story without a dramatic retelling? One or two of them might’ve gotten knocked out when they fell to the floor.
The humans were a much easier target even if they were way harder to damage. It was a melee of fighting, and Jo, Mäx, the hoopoes, and the conscious prisoners were at the center of it. Well, the unconscious ones were there, too, but they weren’t too helpful, indiscriminately tripping anyone too distracted to look downwards.
Mäx swung at a brute of a woman, all big, veiny arms and buzz cut who took way too much joy in trying to crush his head with her meaty hands. Which was not how Mäx planned to die, thanks. He smashed the two-by-four over her head and groaned when she just kept coming towards him.
Jo was changing in a flurry of shapes while black birds descended upon him (this was sort of how Mäx ended up maybe knocking ravens out), while a woman Mäx remembered as Britta swiped at them with fingers made of foot-long knives.
They were losing, there was no arguing that. Half their manpower was down and what they did have wasn’t exactly fighting material against supernatural birds. Including Mäx and Jo’s unconscious parents, five of those on the Wiedehopf side were mere humans. It was the Winter War if half the Finnish had been pussies.
They were, in short, doomed. Fuck, Fabi better find a way to get them out when they ended up in the cages.
ØØØ
Very quickly, Fabi realized that hours of flying was not good for kitten brains. He had the incredible urge to spring from Crow-girl’s back onto the ground hundreds of feet below, the kitten brain completely disregarding the fact that this would definitely kill him. Not maybe kill him or a little bit kill him but definitely kill him. As in, dead dead. Kitten brains weren’t very smart.
They stopped once. On a windmill. The kitten brain decided that, too, was a safe distance to jump. Fabi was starting to think cats getting stuck in trees was a myth, because this cat was completely fearless and didn’t understand that death was possible. Hell, when had Fabi learned that?
Finally, after what felt like five or six hours, they landed again, this time in a field surrounding an enormous barn. The crows pulled the chains off Fabi, and he slipped down, feeling ready to kiss the ground.
“Get up,” Crow-girl said, changing within seconds of hitting the ground. She wasn’t tired? Made Fabi feel like way less of a badass. “Your family is in that barn. There is fighting going on. I can hear it from here.”
Fabi was up and running by the time she said “here”. His legs went all Ministry of Silly Walks, but he kept going, pushing forward even as he flailed and nearly face-planted.
The barn door was unlocked but heavy. Fabi flung it open.
“Stop!” Fabi yelled, running into the room. Black birds and humans paused to stare at him. Where was Jo? He couldn’t see him. There was Mäx…with a two-by-four? “You guys have to stop!”
“Why?” Mäx asked at the same time Jo’s voice said “Fabi!” happily.
“The crows and the ravens- they did this for a good reason. The family head’s been sending our people to kill them. They’re just protecting themselves!”
“Fabi!” Jo would not be ignored.
“Jo!” Fabi rushed into Jo’s arms, hugging his older brother tightly. “Look, we have to stop him.”
“Stop who?”
“Tereus. What he’s doing- it’s wrong. He’s just attacking and hurting all these crows and ravens, and they’re not even hurting us.” Fabi scratched the side of his nose. “Um, yeah, we have to stop him.”
“Who are you?” a man demanded in a raspy voice. “Why should we listen to you?”
“He’s my prisoner,” Crow-girl announced, the barn door shutting behind her and her mob. Her eyes glittered in the dark room. “I am Töwi, princess of the crows. Heed my words or prepare for the wrath of the entire crow family. Where is Tereus? I must speak with him.”
A muscular woman stepped forward, her arms crossed.
“I will take you to him. Disregard this mess.” She made a curious groink sound, and the ravens departed to the barn loft. Fabi watched them go, Jo’s grip tight on his arm.
The raven-lady led them (Crow-girl really, but Fabi felt like following her and Jo felt like following him) to a large room at the back of the barn. It was the only normal looking part of the barn with a white, wooden door and a simple latch. They went inside.
Bars had been set through the center of the room, the same mesh as on the cells outside covering the spaces in between. An old, wrinkled man huddled in the very center of the cell, muttering to himself.
“Tereus,” Crow-girl breathed. “How different you look.”
Crow-girl knelt before the Tereus’ cell and sneered at him.
“Your people and mine have never had problems with one another, Tereus. Yet you order your people to kill mine and you send hoopoes and lapwings after me and mine. This is inexcusable and it cannot be allowed to persist. The crow people are prepared to kill members of your family if you do not abdicate and make reparations.”
Tereus jerked his head up Crow-girl’s approach. He laughed, a mad, cackling laugh that ended in a wheeze. His face shifted, lips melting together into a beak. He cawed at her before his lips smoothed back into a mouth.
“Töwi, you came all this way to see me!” he said, cackling.
Crow-girl spat on the floor.
“Don’t play with me, old man,” Crow-girl snarled. “You are responsible for many deaths.” She looked at the raven-lady. “I wish to speak with the ravens and the hoopoes. It has come to my attention that the violence of late is the fault of this one man and not the entirety of the hoopoes. This is the opinion of the crow family.”
“The crow family speaks through you?” the raven-lady asked, disbelieving. “You are little more than a fledgling.”
Crow-girl raised her chin.
“I am the only princess left in these parts. The others have expired recently. It falls to me to find justice for our family, so, in that regard, yes, the crow family speaks through me. A council among the crows, ravens, and hoopoes is needed. Are you capable of doing that or must I find someone of actual importance in these parts?”
“I am in charge here,” the raven-lady said. She unlocked Tereus’ cage, fitting a chain around the cackling man’s leg. “We will call a council.”
ØØØ
The ravens and the crows screeched and cawed at each other, filling the room with their awful racket. The Wiedehopfs were all quiet, even the ones still in bird form, sitting on Jo’s shoulders and head. Sometime between the false Marine’s downfall and now, they had elected Jo their new leader. Except for the little one that liked Mäx- he was on Britta’s shoulder, since Jo had hissed at him when he tried to join Mäx. Which was sad. They were pretty birds.
“Who will repay us for our dead?” a raven rasped from the loft.
“We deserve restitution!” another called.
Tereus picked at his feed, the silver chain around his foot hanging loose. He made a surprised sound, a grawk!, but no one heard him over the noise. He had been shoved in a cage on the barn floor, in sight so that no one could try to free him. Not that anyone wanted to. That dude was crazy.
“We have dead, too, and captured! Some of them not even formchangers!” Britta argued. “You have murdered our young and taken our old.”
“We had need,” the raven-lady said. “The attacks only waned after we did so. It was needed.”
“Can’t they just call it even?” Fabi asked Jo. “The Wiedehopfs were assholes and the crows and the ravens were assholes back.”
Jo looked to Mäx, who set his jaw. Fabi’s argument was solid, his body language said.
In the background, Tereus choked and spluttered, no one noticing.
"Yes, but were we the ones to institute the violence? I think not.”
Töwi slipped in next to Fabi.
“Hoopoe,” she said, snapping her fingers at him. Fabi hunkered down. He hadn’t really noticed before, but he was a lot taller than her. “Do you want this to stop? You want only to go home, correct?”
“Yeah,” Fabi said because, dude, going home would be sweet. He was tired, he had no shoes, and he wasn’t actually wearing clothes. He was butt naked in front of a whole bunch of people. It was uncomfortable. He also- Fabi sniffed himself- kind of smelled. “Going home would be nice.”
“Then call in your favor now,” Crow-girl said.
“But you already-”
“Just do it.”
Fabi squinted his eyes. The fuck? How did you call in a favor?
“Uh…Cro- Töwi, would you do me a favor?” he asked, feeling awkward.
“What favor might I do for you, hoopoe?”
“I want the fighting to stop.” Wow, Fabi was completely lost. Jo was looking over at them warily, like he wanted to shank Crow-girl. Did Jo know how to shank people? Fabi hoped not. “You’re the princess of the crows: they’ll listen to you. Tell them you don’t think the Wiedehopf family is really involved. It’s just Tereus.”
Crow-girl studied him for a moment, then stuck two fingers in her mouth and let out a shrill whistle. The birds and people quieted. Crow-girl pushed her way through the crowd to get to the center of the room.
“The fighting must stop,” she said calmly, projecting her voice so that it filled the entirety of the room. “The hoopoes are not to blame for their actions- their leader is.” There were angry sounds of protest. Töwi glared at the room until they stopped. “I have spent the last few days in the company of one of these hoopoes. He was my prisoner, and he has proven beyond doubt that he is not to blame for this travesty.”
“And why would you, Töwi, listen to a hoopoe? Why should we listen to him?”
“Because,” Töwi said, grinding her teeth, “he saved half my mob from a Great Horned Owl at great risk to himself. While my prisoner, he killed an owl that threatened to murder helpless, frightened individuals to no benefit of his own. My mob reported that the owl made no move to touch him or in any way harm him. He did it simply because he could.
“Because of this, he has called in a favor. This hoopoe wishes for the fighting to end. He was taken without knowing for what he was being charged. A human was hurt in the process. The raven family later made designs on his brother and his brother’s mate, eventually capturing the mate. Don’t you see? Four innocent people were harmed, two of them barely connected to the hoopoe family. This fighting has no purpose.”
“Why should we believe your hoopoe?” one woman asked, stroking a raven with her right hand. “He could be lying.”
“I thought so at first,” Töwi answered. “But only hours before he saved my mob, they had delivered two dead to him. What kind of a man would save his jailors after such an occurrence?”
The crowd murmured.
“Then you blame Tereus for all of this,” the raven-lady said, her arms folded over her busty chest.
“Yes.”
“Release him from his cell then, and we shall see fit to punish him.”
Keys were found, and Tereus’ cell was unlocked. A cry of alarm went up when the first raven went inside.
“He- he,” the raven said, cringing like he expected to be punished. “The hoopoe is no more.”
They were too late to punish him: while everyone had been arguing, Tereus had choked to death.
ØØØ
Rainer, Britta’s mate, smoothed the negotiations over. With Tereus dead and Töwi’s support- and, by way of her, all of the crows- for an end to the violence, there was little the ravens could do to keep their prisoners. Jo’s parents and Fabi were free to go, with assurances that any raven or crow that attacked them from then on would be punished. It wasn’t the best assurance, but it meant they could go home.
Mäx wanted a shower. He also had to call a tow truck, pay the damages to the rental company, and find out how much the canceled shows had cost him. Actually, who was he kidding? He just wanted to get home.
But that would mean hours of driving or by train. Instead, they walked to the nearest service station and asked where they could find a hotel. Mäx footed the bill.
“You’re fucking expensive,” he told Jo, who shrugged and claimed dibs on the shower after Fabi (Mäx wasn’t made of money- Jo’s parents got their own room and Fabi, Jo, and Mäx got a connecting one, Jo’s father be damned).
He turned on the television and waited for his turn, before remembering that tow company thing was kind of important. Swap the tires out, give it a good wash, and they’d only have to pay for the broken side view mirrors. Cheaper than a whole car. Also less likely to make the news than “Ex-Teenie Band Trashes Rental Car”, which, in the wake of “Birds Hate Ex-Teenie Band”, would just make a wonderful press month. When had he started sounding like an adult?
Fabi and Jo were whispering to each other when Mäx got out of the shower (after using the one hand towel to dry himself- neither Fabi nor Jo had any clothes with them; Mäx had a gross-ass pair of boxers and what he’d been wearing for the last two days). Jo smoothed the sheets next to him, an obvious invitation.
It was sweet how they passed out together, Fabi curled into Jo’s chest. Mäx wrapped separate sheets around the two of them to thwart the inevitable freak out when Fabi woke up naked. Jo probably wouldn’t notice. Idiot went around half-naked all the time. Mäx petted Jo’s head and leaned down, brushing a kiss against his short hair.
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