Rebirth Read online

  The crow turned his head and stuck me in the right hand with its beak about twelve times. It drove about half the length of the beak into my thumb joint with each lick, it leaned its head to the sides so it didn’t hit the same spot at the same angle more than a time or two. It moved like a sewing machine; fast and solid and painful.

  I threw it away from me, damn that hurt! I got my hand off the top of it but it had sunk all its talons out of sight in my other hand, the one under it. It snatched chunks out with one set of claws and held with the other, then swapped.

  When my hand came off the top of it, the little bastard walked up my arm ripping with its claws and stabbing with the beak. It was the size of a chicken, a vicious, rabid demonic chicken.

  I knew if it kept coming up my arm it would get to my face and probably take out my eyes, tongue, whatever it wanted. These sons a bitches ate worms and such shit, this one at least was a person eater.

  I slammed that mother fucker into the post by the steps, or I tried to, he moved just as I hit the post with everything I had. Bones crunched in my hand, I threw blood spatter in arcs as I swung it around trying to throw it off.

  “You little motherfucker! aaaaaaghhhh” I swung it into my knee, it turned its little demonic head and stuck my knee twice. “I’m gone rip” I dove to the floor to get my weight on it, “your fuckin” It stuck me in the tit!! “AOUCH head off!”

  It made no reply, maybe it got a little faster with the stabbing and ripping and it kept on coming up my arm.

  Growling ever time it struck, blood dripped off its head and body. It was all my blood. I had not inconvenienced that feathery piece of shit at all. The thing was having a fine day lunching on me. It was faster and stronger than anything had a right to be.

  I grabbed for the bird with my free hand, I would rip it in two.

  It turned its head and popped my incoming hand thirty or forty times while clawing its way around my forearm to the other side.

  I snatched my hand back away with a scream of pain, it dove back in on the arm it was eating like it owned the damn thing.

  Beta and I talked, Beta amused by the situation. “Its getting even with you.”

  I made it to the steps and jumped for the ground. The bird spread its wings and beat me with them. Bird wings are feather covered nun chucks, just fyi.

  “Cover my fuckin arm so this rabies carrying fuckin lawnmower of a fuckin’ killer bird can’t eat my arm on the way to my neck!” Beta obliged but left the holes where the claws were already buried in my arm.

  I hit the ground and felt the strength and speed of dirt hit all at once. The bird was just normal speed instead of invisible fast, I grabbed a wing and snatched it loose from my arm, Beta covered the holes. It had made it almost to my shoulder.

  I snatched at the wing it used that leverage to rip loose one last chunk from that arm, then started on the hand holding the wing with claws and beak.

  It buried its beak in the back of my right hand, I grabbed it by the back of its head and around the neck and pulled it out. It hung on with its feet stuck in the side of my hand and quivered, straining to get its head loose.

  I said “Motherfucker, you make one more move I will pull yo fucking head off your stinking carcass and burn your ass to a cinder, put your corpse in the toilet, shit on you and flush yo ass into the septic tank.”

  I know, it was ridiculous to talk to a bird, I was a little upset. And damn that was a lot of damage, tendons torn loose, from the blood fountains it had got some arteries too. I sealed fast to conserve blood.

  The bird held perfectly still except for the panicked breathing. I could feel its heart beating so fast it might burst. Yeah, it had been working hard. Bastard.

  Mindful of the claws, I put it on the ground and pressed it down to hold it in place. It worked with dirt to sink down farther and get away, something was familiar about it. Dirt to sealed it in and held it still while I healed up.

  I never heard of a bird that would attack someone that way, could birds get rabies? The way it stopped when I told it what I would do, that was out there, it knew what I was saying.

  “Rose, what in the world are you doin’? What happened? Where is it?”

  Wanda was standing there at the edge of the road with a pump shotgun pointed up, thank god, hands shaking and looking like she was going to collapse right there.”

  “Wanda, what the hell are you doin’ over here?”

  “The kids told me you was fightin’ a bird, I grabbed the gun and come to help.” She was staggering and sagged down as she spoke.

  “Wanda, come here and sit down with me. Not there, I sunk the bird there, you don’t want to put yo ass in reach of that bastard.” I got her sitting by me and refreshed her as much as I could. It helped but she needed some sleep and something to eat.

  “You sunk a bird? The one that was hurting you, so you ok now, you got it. I feel a little better, I’ll just head back over to the house, the kids are by themselves.”

  “Hang on a minute, I think this is a special sort of bird. Ain’t you, Harry?” That’s all it could be.

  I got no answer and Harry was out of sight in the earth, I checked with Dirt to make sure it was still there and hadn’t left. Dirt assured me it was still there, and in distress, it couldn’t get any air; Dirt blocked it off from the air because it could use air to escape. That also meant it couldn’t breathe, of course.

  I had Dirt raise the bird up slowly, and when the head came up I put a loop around it out of Beta. I made sure I could do that without Beta cutting the head off it. Long as I was driving, Beta could touch something or someone else and not react, if they touched Beta without my/our permission or if I wasn’t present, all bets were off. It would defend itself. Nice to know.

  Dirt brought it up the rest of the way and I trapped its wings and legs with Beta just to be sure.

  “Harry, I want to talk with you, find out what you’re doin’ here. I thought you wanted to be free, figured you were long gone.”

  I waited for the bird to reply. It looked at me, Wanda, and in general acted like a bird.

  “I know who you are, Harry, playing this shit ain’t getting’ you nothin’ but a pissed off me. You want me to, I’ll show you what that shit you done to me feels like. Is that what you want?”

  Wanda had scooted back when Dirt brought the bird up and she watched me talking with the bird closely. Finally she couldn’t stand it any more

  “Rose, you messin’ with me? I hope you is, otherwise I gotta say you in worse shape than me. What you got here is a crow, honey. They don’t talk. It looks like a raven, and a raven can talk a little, but this here is a crow, they wild things, eat road kill and rotten things. They don’t do a lot of conversation.”

  I really hoped this was Harry.

  “Harry, take human form, NOW.” I didn’t have time to make any threats, he was suddenly there, ass deep in the earth, but looking just like anybody else but for the being buried.

  The shotgun clicked there beside me, Wanda pulled the trigger with no shell in it. Then I heard her rack the shotgun to put a shell in the chamber so the next shot would work. I grabbed the barrel and pointed it up. She let it go and didn’t fight me for it.

  “Dammit, woman, don’t shoot it! This thing was supposed to train me and Mags.” I proceeded to tell her most of what had happened. Some of it she didn’t need to know. I heard myself talking; I’d have had some serious problems with this shit a month or two ago.

  “Problem is, I set it loose and it’s feral I guess. I don’t know what it wants, it was sneakin’ around the house and I grabbed it.” I was healing up the last of the gouges in my hands and arm. I pumped the shells out of the shotgun and handed it back to Wanda, she picked up the shells and reloaded. With our life now I was totally behind keeping the gun ready but I kept an ear out on her. I didn’t want her putting one in the chamber.

  Harry remained in the dirt. He swiveled his head around and looked me in the eye and tilted his head. It looked lik
e he was asking a question.

  I thought seriously about killing the damn thing. It would be quick and would be one less thing I had to deal with soon as I buried it, and I could bury it instantly. I leaned that way the more I thought about it.

  It might not be able to change while I had it locked down. If I let it go it might just fly away.

  That worked for me.

  “Here, I’m gonna let you go. You come at me I will put yo ass down before you get more than a tooth in me. You want to go, take off. Don’t come back though, I ain’t playin’ with yo ass now.”

  Beta was suddenly gone from it and I had dirt turn loose at the same time. I backed off and stood ready for it in front of Wanda so she wouldn’t get bit.

  Harry stood in the same clothes he wore before. No standing up, he went from crouched down to stood up in a blink.

  Wanda said “Shit!” and racked a shell. She was getting better with it, she sounded fast and smooth and might be fixing to shoot me in the back accidentally.

  I backed up a step, I didn’t want to take my eyes off the crow, I got where I could see her and she had the gun pointed up, finger along the outside of the trigger guard and safety off.

  “You ain’t got to worry about me Rose, I’m backin’ you.” She sounded steadier.

  “Harry, what you got to say for yourself? You leavin’?” He felt a lot less dangerous now.

  “Hungry.” He cleared his throat and moved his head around.

  “You ought to be full after eatin’ my damn arm up. Don’t you even think about bitin’ me you fuckin’ maniac.”

  “Apologies, scared me, getting away.” A little pitiful, hands trembling as he twisted them together.

  “Naw, you wasn’t getting’ away, you was tearing my ass up. It don’t matter. What do you want? I’ll get you somethin’ to eat if you hungry. But then you need to get on down the road, I got enough shit to worry about without a psychotic fuckin’ bird thing sneaking around bitin’ and clawin’ and peekin’ in the windows.”

  “Something to eat, please.” He fell to his knees and looked up at me pitifully. I wasn’t falling for that.

  “Wanda, will you go fix him a sandwich or a bowl of something, should be something in the fridge. Hell, I guess we ought to get out of the yard, never mind. Let’s take this inside. Come on” I stepped back and gestured him to the house.

  We walked into the kitchen in a parade with him in front. He pulled out a chair and sat down, trembling, he had the shakes.

  We bustled around fixing some food, I had some leftover pork chops I offered to heat but he took three of them cold with nothing else. He tore into them and looked like he was going to eat the bones after he finished the meat. I gave him some cereal, then the rest of a ham. Scrawny bastard could pack it away.

  He ate everything cold and he ate fast as he could cram it in. He turned down bread and anything to drink. He sat there with his arms lying on the table after he finished, looking at the table, hands together.

  I stood across the table from him, so I walked around where I could reach him and he would have to turn to reach me. If he started something I intended to beat him down just as quick as I could, and if need be Wanda’s shotgun was leaning in the corner.

  “Alright, we got that taken care of, now you need to leave.”

  He swiveled his head around to look at me without moving anything else. It was pretty creepy looking and not the way anybody would move.

  “Can I stay?”

  “I don’t see that happening. You sneaky and you act funny, you attacked me, you grab at shit you ought to leave alone and I just don’t trust you. Naw, you free to go wherever you want to go but you don’t come back here.”

  “I can help you. I know many things.” He turned as he spoke and slid out of the chair onto his knees facing me.

  “I ain’t interested. I don’t know what that means. You do all this weird shit and I got no way to deal with it; I don’t need somebody around I don’t know is with me.” I backed away from him; I didn’t need him hitting me from there, that would hurt, although…it was an excellent opportunity to kick him…naw, not yet.

  “I got hit by cars six times. Every time I try to eat a car appears and hits me before I can move out of the way. I tried it as a crow one time, a car still got me”

  That tickled me just a little, what a moron.

  “I got shot twice sitting in a tree last night. Then the police came with lights and shouted and threatened till I changed to bird and flew away”

  Wanda snickered.

  “They kept the lights on me and shot, they would have got me when I hit the fence but the dog got in the way.”

  Wanda had her hand over her mouth trying to muffle herself.

  “Some kind of little bird follows me everywhere and pecks me any time I am not looking.”

  He was solemn and sad and downcast and he ought to take that shit on the road. I give up and giggled and looked at her, she said

  “Sitting in a tree!! Hee, haa, oh shiot!”

  She grabbed me by the arm with both hands and tried to say something, tears rolling down her cheeks, and I lost it.

  “ahhh, haaa, haa, Yea,” and I couldn’t get anything else out.

  Ever time I would stop or she would stop we’d look at each other and Harry and it started up again.

  I got so I could speak,

  “I get that you got problems…ha, yeah, I can see where you would need help….” I had to catch my breath “Man, you just ain’t right.”

  Wanda said “For real, you don’t know no better than that? You a total idjit or got dropped on yo head, or what?”

  Harry swiveled his head to point his face at her in that uncanny way he had, “I am a crow.”

  “You look like a person, what do you mean you a crow?”

  I felt I had to help out,

  “Wanda, somebody took a crow and made it look like somebody. It’s feathers look like hair, everything on in and in it is made out of crow stuff. And never mind what crow stuff is, you know what I mean.”

  “Or, wait, Harry, are you a were-crow?”

  “I have no idea what a were-crow would be. I do not believe I am one of those. You had it right, someone changed me into this, and I can swap back and forth. Will you accept my fealty?”

  “I done told you, I can’t trust you. End of story. Fealty was when someone in the old days in some other country would swear to a king or some such, I don’t know anything about some fealty.”

  “Let me explain; it is an agreement between us, enforced by air, earth, water, fire and spirit. I swear service to you and you accept and swear to use me in your best interests. I would not be able to harm you.”

  “What about all the weird shit you do, the Beta grabbing and all? What do you get out of it?”

  “Fealty requires obedience if it is in your best interest. It creates a geas on me. It requires me to do my best to support you and your goals. You would support me; feed me, mainly, I don’t need much else. You could kill me if you needed to, whatever supports you the best. But you have to feed me if I need it, house me. I would be your retainer. It is a binding contract.”

  “I ain’t seen nothin’ out of you that makes me think you worth fooling with. Why would you want to lock yoself down with me like that? You could go on and live somewhere else, you’d figure it out.”

  “I don’t fit, I am no longer crow, I am not people. You’re the only one I have a chance with because you are strange.”

  “There you go with the compliments. Alright, let’s say we do it, what do I have to do?”

  “Like this, do you accept my fealty?”

  “If I do?”

  “Then you say you accept my fealty.”

  “I accept your fealty.” I felt a profound weight as I said it. The world lost focus for a moment.

  “Is that it?”

  “Yes. You are my liege. Let me show you what we can do now.” He was standing by me and placed his hand on my head and I felt dizzy for jus
t a second.

  “What was that?”

  “That was the sword. This is air.”

  Again, I got dizzy, and now a bad headache.

  “Stop, don’t do any more. I got a splittin’ headache, I gotta set down” I felt everything going dark and all the strength left my legs as I fell, but I didn’t feel threatened at all. It was very peaceful.

  I heard Wanda, had to be her, talking low and quiet like you do with a baby,

  “…be alright, I’m gone watch and make sure ain’t nothin’ happens to you. Come on back now, Rose, you worryin’ me baby.”

  “She is perfectly fine, just adjusting.”

  “You said that already. She don’t come to in the next few minutes…I got young ‘uns by their selves at the house and no tellin’ what sort of thing might be after them. I can’t stay here and watch Rose, I can’t leave you with her. So in a few minutes I’m gonna load yo ass up with buckshot so I can lock up here and leave her.”

  “She is aware now.” Sounded a little relieved as he said that; I don’t blame him, Wanda was serious as she could be.

  “Rose, you back with us?”

  “Yeah, I’m ok, just got dizzy, I guess I passed out. Hell of a headache though.” Had to be a migraine, the light was hurting my eyes and I was a little sick at the stomach.

  “I can fix this right up though, you go on back home. I got this.” I set up and made sure I didn’t pass out again.

  Wanda made sure I could stand alone. It was getting on toward dark and I knew she wanted to check on the kids.

  “You go on home, call me when you get there, I’ll be ok. Let me know if you need me. And, by the way, you seem to be a lot better.”

  “Just ain’t had time for worry to set in, I think. But maybe I’ll go take a little nap, I know I’m tired enough.”

  Soon as she was gone I asked Harry,

  “What the fuck was that? What did you do?”

  “I told you, the first was Sword. I gave you Sword knowledge, since you have a sword. Now you know how to use it, including knives, spears, things like that. The second thing was air. I use air, and you have it but didn’t have the right knowledge, now you do.”