A Rave(n) in the Tower

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Jed was 9 and bored. His parents were dragging him around the Tower of London grounds, and he was wishing he was back home playing on his Xbox, or out hanging around with his mates.

As with, sadly, so many of his age nowadays, when bored he started to indulge his more destructive tendencies. With his parents not paying enough attention to him, and practically no-one else around, he had taken to throwing things at the black birds he saw wandering around. He wasn't actually a very good shot, so he hadn't hit any yet, but they didn't seem to be able to fly, so he figured it was only a matter of time till he got one.

He'd been working his way towards one particularly stubborn bird when he noticed out of the corner of his eye another one that seemed to be heading in his direction.

Slightly bemused at the odd behaviour, but not otherwise worried, he picked up a small tiwg and threw it at the newcomer.

Who promptly leapt slightly in the air and caught it in its beak, before dismissively tossing it over to one side.

Jed was surprised enough by that behaviour, but what happened next really shocked him.

The raven's beak opened, and then he heard...

"Alright kid, that's enough. Bugger off."

Flabbergasted he stood there open-mouthed as it approached him in a hopping gait.

"Seriously, you carry on with this, you and I are going to have a serious falling out, and those are some right juicy eyeballs I see there in your head. I'm just saying..."

Jed turned and ran to his parents, and the raven could see him talking fast and gesticulating in his direction. When said parents looked over his way though, all they saw was another bird, preening and cleaning its feathers.

As the parents dragged their still-babbling child away with dire imprecations about making up stupid stories, the raven make sure to make eye contact and slowly and deliberately winked before making suggestive poking gestures with its beak.

That was enough for Jed and he broke out of his parent's grasp, screaming in fear.

As the parents left to chase down their errant child, Quoth sniggered to himself and settled back down. Hopefully, he'd be going upmarket a bit soon, but in the meantime, encounters like this provided him with both entertainment and a nice snack of fear.

It was a raven's life, and no mistake...