Flock Together
- Chapter 4: Fight Together -
The rhythm of her new task flowed easier than she thought it would.
Her mother murmured instructions to her, and in the pauses between directions, Kuroko listened to the hundreds of crows whispering to one another. Their presences shifted through the black shadows, the exact where of their voices never quite clear, but a general feeling was easy enough to grasp.
It was difficult to listen to more than one voice at a time - the overlapping sounds seemed to scramble meaning, and the fact her mother seemed to be listening to everyone at once was a little mindblowing.
"The Cranes have answered."
Tero's soft voice came in from the void, and Kuroko was hard-pressed to pull back from the crowd and forward the message only to the direction of her mother.
From the small chorus of raucous cheers, her aim had been a little broad.
"Stay near the river" Her mother's words echoed from her beak, her own mind trying to remember the landscape she'd only flown past once. No, she had nothing to contribute. All she could remember was marshland and slow-moving water. "Try to drive them to unstable land, while we wait for our allies."
Kuroko felt them shift around, and the brief quiet that told her they were too busy responding to pass messages between themselves.
"The spiders have answered"
She didn't have the chance to pass the words along before the darkness lit up with a symphony of screams.
Shadows snapped open, several tattered crows falling from their roughly-grabbed branches and landing with soft thumps to the mat of petals below. Kuroko nearly missed sending her mother's next round of instructions, energy thrumming through her skeleton.
She couldn't tear her gaze from the black bodies lying uncomfortably still, on the brown-and-pink below.
"Pull back!"
She yelped the order, feathers spiking up with the urgency her mother had hissed it at her.
"Alpha, Theta, retreat. Let them follow, but maintain a safe distance. Head East."
Another one of the presences winked out, but there was no corresponding shadow she could sense at the Roost. Curiosity and fear roiled in her breast.
What was happening?
It wasn't often Tero felt the limits of his body.
Crows were swift, but swifter still were the long white wings of the cranes that flanked him. Their strokes were longer, feathers catching and pulling the wind, even as long black legs dragged behind them through the sky. From what little he knew of their kind, they had originally called the northern mountains their home, but regular migration down to the marshlands had given them an excuse to linger.
It wasn't like there was much anyone in the area could do to stop them. Where the Crows had their shadowy portals, the Cranes felt the pull of icy waters in their hearts, and could pull back. It gave them a ridiculous amount of sway, when living surrounded by water. A ridiculous amount of power.
He wasn't quite sure what Kokoro-hime had promised them, but the elemental birds had come to their aid, and that's all he cared about until the flock was safe.
Tero tried pouring on speed, finally picking up the brief whispers through shadows as his team came within range. His white entourage branched out, sweeping high above the treetops in a messy formation of long beaks and pale silhouettes against the cloudy sky.
"The spiders have answered"
Tero held back a snort at the broadcasted message, having never doubted they would. Greedy bastards.
Still, he sent a quiet thanks through the shadows, trusting Kokoro-hime to pick it up. She had chosen well, appointing her daughter as the main point of contact. Regardless of the rumors spreading, the young bird was competent in this, at least.
He dove between branches, emerging on what had become a muddy battlefield.
Long grass had been trampled, wetland herbs throwing up a medley of spicy scents into the thick air. Flurries of feathers dove in and out between manmade weapons, claws raking and beaks snapping at any fleshy opening they could find.
For all that their kind lacked in offensive power, he noted grimly, they did a fair job making up with maneuverability. Thankfully, their enemy did not seem particularly well organized, or even the most nimble crow would find themselves outmatched.
A human looked up at him as he swept over the thrashing crowd, wide brown eyes looking maniacal, clawed lips opening in a bloody grin. They leapt into the air, a bladed white staff whistling toward his body. Tero was quick to flash his tail, veering sideways and out of range. A mad cackle sounded off behind him, and he couldn't help his wince when a nearby bird yelped in pain.
Mindlessly attacking as they were, even a wild strike could hit in a swarm.
He relayed the details as best he could to Kokoro-hime, trying to note the main groups of humans, and the physical details they shared. She ordered the flock to pull back, to fly higher than the humans could reach with their weapons. Black wings obeyed, and a few more crows sank into shadows to nurse their injuries.
Black hair, brown eyes, a tendency to wear white. The red dots on their foreheads were telling - either an unlikely coincidence, or a callback to their demon blood. Tero would have suspected the spiders, but they seemed eager to fell the two-legged prey, laying sticky traps and concealed snares to open up a place to bite any who wandered into the thicker underbrush.
Something about this whole ordeal seemed *off* somehow. He was used to butting minds with humans to scare them away from the Roost's lands. They were conquerors through skill, not strength or speed. The beastlike bloodlust and single-minded lack of tactics in this group was unfamiliar to him.
He landed on a branch, surveying the terrain again. The Cranes seemed to be doing an excellent job herding them toward the river, crackling spires of brittle ice forcing retreat at the threat of injury. Hopefully the open shoreline would give them more ability to target with deadly force. They were far too close to the roost. Far too deep into their established territory, and far too aggressive to let live.
Tero tilted his head, hearing the heavy thump and a distressed shout as a human was dragged down from a tree behind him, a telltale rustle of exoskeletons the only real signal to what had happened.
Several of the humans had stepped out onto the river and he felt a pang of irritation.
Fucking bloodlines. The Spiders seemed to notice as well, and were quick to target the white-garbed humans still charging through the underbrush.
His irritation morphed into anger when he realized the Spiders were falling back, their bodies designed for burrows and trees, not the shifting water. Typical of them, to eat their fill and help only when it was convenient. He reported the movement to Kokoro-hime, taking a quick stock of the crows who had remained. Between the miserable drizzling clouds and thin fog starting to collect again, it was hard to get a good number, but he could tell through the shadows that they weren't eager to continue.
Honestly, he knew they'd be useless on the water, but too many crows had fallen under the onslaught of bone-white weapons and wild strikes.
"Alpha, Theta, permission to return home. Beta, keep in the clouds - follow from afar, and be ready to supply distractions."
Clicking his beak in relief at the new orders, Tero jumped into the sky again, racing along the choppy water to help lead the last group of humans across the water. He had his own orders to follow, and attending the Cranes was paramount.
Fog grew deeper around them, but between the teasing dives from white wings and angry shouts from humans, it was easy to keep them moving across the water's surface. A lucky strike clipped one of their long legs, and Tero winced at the cry of pain. He darted quickly to the taller bird, risking a quick jump to appear in the shadow of her wing.
Humans already converging on the faltering crane, Tero dug in his talons, yanking hard on his Chakra to pull them out of there.
He and the Crane fell in a pile of feathers and weak limbs, feathers splashing into murky water.
Tero wobbled as he pulled himself upright, feeling lightheaded from the sudden loss and aching from the early symptoms of spiritual exhaustion. She thanked him quietly, reaching down to pull the fragile leg back into alignment.
Tero decided not to look at it, his own leg twinging from the sight of joints bent in such a wrong direction.
He lunged back into the air, form shivering for a moment as he let the water fall through his form, wings briefly slinking into their true shadowy mist. Feathers solidified again, and he was dry. He banked sideways to ride a slow, warm updraft back toward the river. A small murder of Crows flapped far above him, asking a barrage of questions that he quickly answered.
No, it's not over yet. We're still here to provide support. Listen for Kuroko-san's orders, I will not override them.
The last comment got a scatter of displeased murmurs, but they did not disobey.
It took a long moment, but he found again the cranes in their strange formation, teasing and leading the aggressive humans to shore. Head starting to throb a little from exhaustion, he angled down to follow.
They seemed to cross an invisible threshold, and the fog grew thicker, saturated with mixed Chakra.
Shinobi, he whispered to his group.
Stay distant.
He was quick to bank off their trail, landing to watch the Cranes push the last few yards to shore. The humans didn't stop, striking at white wings, and then striking at the other humans who darted in to subdue them.
The tactics were swift, brutal, and familiar. Tero watched the white-garbed humans throw themselves at the Mist Shinobi, pitting bone-white spears and swords against the trained swiftness and stolen techniques of the human city's guard.
Tero twitched when he saw one of the Crane's signature ice pillars being directed by one of the shinobi , but the broad-winged birds did not seem bothered by the sight. If anything, they continued to circle and help, raising shining walls when the violent humans tried to flee.
It did not take long before the last of the bodies fell. Already, the clouds had opened up once again, sending a light rain to spatter against bodies and blood, washing away evidence of any conflict.
"Safe." He reported back, keeping his voice lowered. "Return to the Roost. All are slain." He remained in his gnarled tree, knowing one of the Cranes would be quick to call upon their new debt, even as far-away black wings turned away and headed back.
The Shinobi gathered the bodies, talking among themselves for a long while before raising the river's bank and sweeping dozens of bodies down to be devoured by fish and other aquatic carnivores. How courteous.
One of the cranes swept down, landing beside the one who had used her technique and spoke in low tones Tero couldn't quite detect from this distance. The human looked up, spotting his black form easily from the skeletal branch he perched upon.
He realized perhaps a beat too late that the two were also allies, and their clan may have just been dragged into human affairs, by way of debts.
Tero took a slow breath, flattening his feathers against the uncomfortable drizzle of rain.
This wasn't going to be a fun time.
Kuroko had kept her connection to the shadows open as long as she could, but her chest had begun to feel empty and aching in a way she couldn't properly describe. Drained, perhaps? Like all the fluids had been pulled out of her chest cavity, and replaced with seed fluff. Corresponding throbbing of her head and eardrums were quick to appear, until the dizziness nearly pushed her off the branch.
She cut the line, feeling guilty as she did so.
A warm body appeared beside her, familiar heartsoulself of her mother pressing into her feathers lending some comfort and much-needed stability. Kuroko leaned into her, sucking in air she didn't really need, trying to steady the flutter of exhaustion spreading through her bones.
Kokoro didn't say anything.
She just sat there, eyes closed even as birds tore through the membrane of shadows to flop exhausted into nests. Still, it was enough that she had come. Kuroko didn't realize how much she had missed her until the hole was being filled again.
Kokoro didn't react to the birds hopping onto branches to watch the two of them, nor did she open her eyes when Kuroko let out a soft, startled noise at the sight of a clearly dead crow being pulled out from one of the dark pools.
The elderly crow that had first greeted her lay sprawled across a branch. His beak hung open, red eyes wide and dull and blankly staring. She looked away, guiltily watching birds hopping together, pressing their bodies against one another as black mist seeped out between feathers. Too tired to ask what they were doing, Kuroko finally succumbed to her exhaustion and closed her own eyes.
And slept.