Everything was going according to plan. The window had been left open and the old lady living in this house had just left. An ideal setting for robbery. The fool. She should have realised others would take advantage of it. I took a deep breath and made three short chirps. That’s the signal the team was waiting for. One figure burst out of the surrounding trees and swooped through the window into the house.
That was Leo. He’d always had a knack for baiting eventual cats. They were one of the many dangers of those operations and, thanks to my scouting, we had been able to expect and prepare for this one. Mere seconds after he disappeared through the window, I heard the cat hissing. I counted to ten, then gave another sharp chirp. As one, Hope and Rose dove towards the house and went through the window. Today, my role wasn’t in the thick of the action. Someone had to be the lookout. Worse predators existed than old ladies’ cats.
I was hidden behind the dense foliage of an oak tree yet I had a perfect view of the surroundings. A perfect spot. Now that everybody was in, all I could do was wait. I hated this. I had no idea of how things went inside, all I could do was pay attention and… wait. Scanning the sky, I froze. By the owl’s wing’s feathers! A squad of three large crows were quietly gliding up above the neighbourhood, surveying the houses as they went. On the lookout for thieves, no doubt. I wonder if they’d been tipped off. As dogs were guardians of the city ground, crows roamed the city sky. They were innocuous enough to not draw the humans’ attention. Leo, Rose and Hope could not exit the house now. They’d be spotted and, given the weight of their loot, would easily be hunted down. I had to send the signal. The success of our venture seemed like it would boil down to my sparrow-twittering skills. Sparrow were known to be a honest and kind species. If the crows heard a sparrow, they wouldn’t suspect a thing.
I did my best high-pitch sparrow impression. At least the crew would know not to leave the house for a time. I looked up and my heart skipped a beat. The crows had evidently heard the call as well. I held still, barely daring to draw a breath. I trusted that the foliage would protect me from their gaze, and maybe their laziness would prevent them from coming closer. Surely. Surely, they would just think me a sparrow.
When my heart felt like it would burst, I saw them turn their gaze onwards and continue on. Past us. I waited a minute or two and gave a short, shrill chirp. The way out was clear.
As smoothly as they had entered, my crew darted through the window opening and took off from the house they had just plundered. Barely a second later, the cat landed on the windowsill. It looked dismayed as its “prey” was already far up in the sky. Leo, Rose and Hope flew on. Rose had seven gemstone rings. Three dangled off each of her legs and she was holding a seventh in her beak. Hope was draped in gold with several glittering necklaces hanging around her neck. Leo only had a bracelet in his beak–he’d been busy occupying the cat.
They would go straight to our lair. The mission wasn’t finished until we had our booty stowed safe away. They’d fly low to avoid detection, from tree to bushes. Hope, the only one who had her beak free, grinned at me. “Hey Caitlyn, thanks for the heads up about the patrol. We were halfway through leaving the house when you chirped in. That actually gave us time to find another jewellery box.” She pointed at Rose, laughing, “Rose wanted to snatch a pair of earrings for herself as well. I had to explain to her how they were supposed to be worn.” Rose could only glare at her, but the meaning was clear. I burst out laughing.
I then had to follow them at a distance for the rest of the way to the hideout. We simply couldn’t risk any trail. At this point of the mission, the crows weren’t even the greatest threat. Other magpie crews were. They’d tail us, would find our hideout and then would ransack it. In this world, you had two ways of getting rich. You either stole from the rich, or you stole from those that had stolen the rich. We were the first kind, obviously. I had no scruple pillaging those already basking in luxury, but it was not my place to harass the poor.
I landed in our den shortly after the others had arrived. It wasn’t big, but it was home. We had found a tree trunk with a cavity in it in the outskirts of the city, not far from the slums. The cavity was high enough above ground that we didn’t have to worry about terrestrial beasts and thieves. No dog would find us here, even if they could smell the scent of gold–you never knew with dogs.
“Cait’!” Rose squawked. “That was cool! You should’ve seen that stupid cat, he kept watching and hissing at Leo even though we were happily looting that lady’s things! And I’m hearing the news that some cats want to act as guardians in the city. Ha! If they’re all as dim-witted as this one, I’ll take it. That will certainly make our job easier.” Then she suddenly rushed to me and embraced me. We never knew whether we’d all come back from such a mission. I hugged her back. What would I do without Rose and Hope, her sister?
“Where’s Leo?” I inquired.
Hope was busy counting and weighing the gold, but she answered without looking up. “He said he had some business to attend to.” She shrugged. “He’s always been super shady, that one. What business would you want more than rummaging through a well-earned treasure and marvelling at all of that glittering gold?”
I couldn’t suppress a smile. Hope had always been the most drawn to shiny things of us three. She had also been the first of us to become a lawless. Rose and I had tried–really tried–to work reputable jobs. But we both gave up, one after the other. Every magpie tries to make an honest living at first. But how could one do it? It’s easy for a dog. Easy for a rabbit, even. They basically get any job they want, everybody simply trusts them. But if you were a magpie, no one trusted you. Not even other magpies. They’d all assume you were a lawless bird and because of this you’d always struggle to land any job. My fruitless search for an honest life still rankled. All of this forced magpies to ways of thievery and banditry to make a living, reinforcing stereotypes. Talk about equal chances for all.
The sun had turned crimson when Rose came back with a satchel filled to the brim with high quality food. There would be enough in there for us to live on for weeks! And all it had cost was the ugliest of the rings. The more she emptied the pack, the more ludicrous it became. After the usual fried worms came the blueberries. Then the blackberries. When I spotted the cherries, I couldn’t help myself. “Where did you get those?” I blurted, “I know they’re so hard to get, I’ve never had any in my whole life!”
“Ah, I know a sweet hedgehog at the market, he knows the best spots to get them, he does,” Rose said, “Hope, weren’t you hoping for a companion recently? I could live with cherries on a daily basis.”
“You jest, as if I’d partner up with a hedgehog,” she answered, “what would we look like on a thieving mission?”
“You could stop stealing!” Rose said.
“And where would I get shiny new things to wear and hoard, pray tell?” Hope answered.
“Well, he could always come to the missions to bring us food and cheer for us!” I said. Rose burst into laughter.
“You’re mental, both of you!” Hope answered, although she could evidently not keep our humour at bay. Earning a year’s worth of food did that to you. “What about you Cait’, have you found your crow-husband?”
I snorted. “You wish. They can’t fly to save their lives. I’ll consider it when one outflies me.” When I turned to Rose, she was gazing outside and appeared pensive. “What’s up?” I asked.
She hesitated. “I… I don’t know. Leo should’ve been back by now, shouldn’t he? I know he’s weird like that, but it’s night and we haven’t heard back from him at all. It’s not like it wasn’t a small heist. I mean, it’s literally the biggest I ever did, isn’t it?”
“That’s the second one you ever did,” pointed out Hope.
“She has a point, though,” I said. She was right. It was weird for him not to show up. His absence gave me a growing eerie feeling that I couldn’t quite place.
Hope seemed to want to say something, opened her beak, then closed it.
Finally, I broke the silence. “Tell you what. We’ll go search for him in the morning, there’s no use looking for him in the dead of night. It’s pitch black outside.”
“I suppose you’re right Cait’,” Rose said. “I might just go to sleep now, I’m not feeling up to party anymore.” She was leaving unsaid what all of us were thinking. What had happened to Leo?
I woke up. The dark night had given way to a slate grey and some birds had already started to sing. If you asked me, no magpie had any business waking up this early. Not after a exhausting day of work. I was ready to go back to sleep when I felt it again. The same creepy feeling that something was off. Instinctively, I scanned my surroundings and found Rose and Hope soundly sleeping. Leo hadn’t come back. But that wasn’t it. Something else was going on. I roused up the two sisters.
“What’s up?” asked Rose blearily, “it’s not even dawn yet.” Hope yawned.
“Something’s off, we need to move. Now,” I urged.
Hope opened one eye. “What in the name of Barnie the owl are you blabbering about?” She croaked.
I began to shake with anticipation. The birds outside had stopped singing. “I’m telling you! Something’s off. Leo hasn’t returned, the silence outside is scary. I reckon something bad’s coming.” I began to plead, “Please! At least let us move away from here for the next hour or so.”
“Oh, very well, very well,” Hope snapped. “Rose, up. We’re moving.”
With a drunken stride, Rose got to the lair’s entrance and spread her wings. Before she could even fly away however, something dashed from above and crashed into her. The two forms tumbled down the tree.
After being stunned to silence for a moment, I screamed, “Rose!” Things were happening too fast to register. Hope had snapped to attention and was already hurtling through the entrance, knocking an intruder down the tree as she passed. I called after her, “Save yourself, I’ll get Rose.” There was one reason why I was the lookout during our missions. The lookout’s the one most prone to be chased. Only those who could fly were lookouts. I mean, really fly. Those who couldn’t simply didn’t stay a lookout for long. And I could fly. I felt myself smirking.
I hopped off the tree and immediately did a nosedive. They’d expected me to fly away, not to dive. I barely registered Hope frantically batting her wings to outrun the three magpies chasing her. I looked around. Good feather, it weren’t just magpies, there were crows as well. It looked like both a thieving crew of magpies and a squad of crows had chased us and attacked us at the same time. I wondered how they had managed to work together, but now was not the time to think.
Rose and the magpie who had slammed into her were on the ground, a flurry of beaks snapping and claws raking at one another. There was one good way to end this. Closing my wings even further, I gained even more speed. I became a bullet. A bullet aimed straight at the ground, zooming in on her aggressor. Then I saw it. Him. Leo.
“You jerk!” I snarled as I hurtled down towards him, then crashed into him. A gasp escaped him, and he softened my landing. Rose stood up. He didn’t. Rose was in a sorry state. Multiple scratches marred her once pristine plumage and blood was welling from one particularly nasty scratch on her wing.
“Can you fly?” I asked. She nodded.
“Then go! I’ll hold them off for as long as I can. Hope’s flown away already, she picked up three tails but she should be fine.”
She spread her wings and flew low to the ground. I didn’t wait to see her off, but hopped quickly to the left. Barely a second afterwards, a magpie landed hard on ground, where I had just been. Bastard. I gave a sharp jab at her wings, piercing them through with my beak. At least that one wouldn’t be flying off after me.
I pushed myself off the ground and faced off the intruders. I counted two magpies and three crows. Accounting for the two on the ground and the three chasing Hope, that was a group of ten. As the first crow flew towards me, I couldn’t suppress a manic grin. “Let’s play.”
I flew upward as he was diving. Right before we were going to collide, I spiralled and flipped, such that when we crossed, I was at his back. As he passed, I spread out my talons and ripped through his wings. I barely registered the wet crunch of a crow hitting the mud when I saw two magpies coming from my right. With not enough time to fly up to avoid it, I barrelled down to the left and I dropped towards the ground, gathering speed. Before reaching the ground, I angled my wings just so to pull upward and avoid the ground. Out of the two tails I’d picked up, I heard the satisfying sound of one not managing to pull up in time. I grinned, letting the thrill of the chase take over me. I began to make my moves more reckless than ever as I slalomed between the trees and branches. The other magpie was still keeping up however, close behind me. At last, I spotted a thorny bush ahead and hurtled towards it at breakneck speed. A mere metre before the bush, I suddenly spread my wings out and did a flip. I had hoped to narrowly escape the bush, but instead felt a long thorn lacerate my chest. A sharp pain shot through me as blood welled from the gash, but my pursuer didn’t get that lucky. I winced as I heard them crash straight into it. Three down. Two crows remained.
Despite my boasting last night, trained crows were incredible flyers, much better than the average magpie. Squads were trained for months.
Fighting the fatigue my wound was causing me, I flapped my wings as hard as I could, gaining speed and altitude. I couldn’t hope to match crows in pure speed, but I could outfly them. Both of them chased after me, cawing madly. Then, as I soared faster than I’d ever flown, as the landscape blurred around me, I relished the challenge I had today. I plummeted, and the dance began. Backflips and jabs, dives with talons outstretched. Each of the two crows matched my moves with a grace that belied their bulky shape. Only the present moment existed, and on we danced. As focused as they were on chasing me however, they didn’t seem to notice that I was slowly luring them away from my lair, and closer to the slums. A place where crows–guardians–were not welcome. I knew it wasn’t far off. I angled upward, above the tree canopy and they followed me.
They bursted out of the foliage as I dove back into it. When they followed, however, they found themselves in the midst of the city slums. Bandits, thieves, cutthroats surrounded them and I could finally blend into the crowd and disappear. Leaving them to fend for themselves.
Not long after, I managed to locate Rose and Hope.
“Hope! How did you manage to escape?” I asked.
She winked at me. “It’s not because you can that many magpies can outfly me!” She humphed.
I couldn’t hold back tears however as I saw Rose. She was in a sorry shape indeed. Gaping wounds hung along her side and her scalp was bleeding profusely. “Oh, Rose. Let’s get you help, dear. I have a feeling that if your hedgehog friend is able to get some cherries, he may be able to get you a healing poultice.”
Then, numb with exhaustion, stained red with blood, I mustered whatever strength I had left and embraced my two dearest friends. We were as poor as we had been a week ago, but we were alive. And as long as we were alive, there was a tomorrow.