[Okay, so Ricky asked me to post this, so I'm posting it. ;__; Um, essentially, it's a brief sketch from one the more recent stories that I have been letting percolate. It's about a girl named Wednesday who is an ambassador-in-training to work with a murder of crows that function as trained animals for the Government. The premise of the story on the whole is that the crows refuse to perform a certain mission, and she has to go on a Magical Adventure to figure out why. SO. THERE'S THAT.] “What are they doing?” He hissed and walked the edge of the cage like a stalking cat. Alpha watched him, sharp little beak jerking to match the slice of his heels. “Why aren’t they moving?” Dizzy crossed her arms loosely. “I don’t know, they’ve been given the command--“ “So ask them!” Mr. Ark shouted and halted his pacing beside her. Alpha flinched when that charcoal-suited arm flung towards the murder. Her lips pursed, fighting back the insistence that she couldn’t know, she wasn’t trained for this yet! Her lips pursed, and she turned obediently towards the birds. “Alpha.” His attention snapped to her, skull canting to one side. “Alpha. Mission.” Black feathers hackled, the crow swayed side to side. No. “Alpha—mission, please.” Alpha straightened, wings pulled tight and head pulled back to let out a string of calls. The other birds stilled, falling silent. Mr. Ark, hands clenching in to the stiff fabric and his elbows, sidled up next to her. One hand furrowed into his breast pocket. “What’s it saying.” “He’s—he’s saying ‘no.’” “What?! “ “Shh—he says, ‘No,’” Her hand rested against the agent’s shoulder, silencing him. “’No, bad face…bad human.’” “Bullshit.” Alpha’s head bobbed zealously. Bad human. Bad human. Bad human. The murder began to rock and repeat. Bad human. “They hate him.” Dizzy muttered. “They just keep saying it, I can’t tell why—“ “Fuck!” Ark spun away, fishing out a packet of cigarettes, spitting virulently even as he turned away. “This is bullshit, these fucking birds! I told them this was a fucking load. You people are idiots!” She barely granted him a glance over her shoulder. “They can hear you, Mr. Ark.” “Fuck you!” Came the response from the door. “They can’t hear shit!” The metal door chunked shut, anticlimactically soft in comparison to his outraged exit. Alpha scratched at the ground and leapt up, fluttering to the cage wall where he could land at eye level. Bad human. A-R-K. Bad human. “Wrong.” Dizzy corrected quietly. .A-R-K stupid human. “No.” She corrected again over a tight smile. A-R-K wrong human. That drew out a nod from the ambassador, a nod and a wary look back to Alpha. The bird chirred, beak tacking at the bars. W-E-D-N-E-S-D-A-Y. D-I-Z-E-E. W-E-D-N-E-S-D-A-Y. He knew her name—her full name. The fact hit Dizzy oddly; it tightened in her chest, setting her nerves on end like black feathers. “I—have to go. I have to go.” W-E-D-N-E-S-D-A-Y. “I have to go.”