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I dragged myself out of restless dreams this morning, and wandered through the house looking for Cindy. She was gone already...but not quite. I looked out the kitchen window and saw her getting into her car. I ran outside in my pajamas, waving to her, but she only called, "I'm late already, had to change a tire! See you later..."
BANG! I nearly jumped out of my skin with fright. Not again! Cindy got out of the car, looking around. "No!" I yelled. "Get inside, where it's safe!"
Cindy laughed. "Come on, that's not the Sniper!"
"What is it then?" I demanded. Another shot rang out, and a flock of crows flew overhead.
"Hunters," she said grimly. "Poching on my land. I've had more than enough of them..."
Another shot went off, and a crow dropped from the sky, landing in the dirt at Cindy's feet. Looking both shocked and horrified, she picked it up gently. It twiched in her hands for a moment. Then the twiching stopped, and the bird lay still, its beady eyes glazed, peircing no more.
"It's just a crow," I said. Then two bedraggled men in peasant clothes ran out of the woods across from us.
"That's our bird!" one yelled, while the other, who carried a very old gun, shouted, "Give us our dinner back, lady!"
Cindy flew into another of her rages, and I was glad I wasn't the target. "If I've told you once, I've told you a million times! This is my land, and I don't want you bloody hunters on it! Don't you have any brains?"
"Sure, lady, sure," the hunter with the gun said, "but they're just crows. Crows ain't good for nothing...except eating." He grinned, showing that he had very bad teeth. "Ever eaten crow pie?"
"No," Cindy said in a voice like ice. "I don't eat my name-bird. And I don't want people killing them in front of me, either."
The hunter with the gun gasped, and the other jumped backwards, saying loudly, "Sorry, sorry, we didn't know it was your name-bird, we didn't mean it..."
"Right," Cindy snapped. "Get off my land and don't come back. If I catch you hunting here again, I'm calling the police!"
"Umm, sure, but could you give us our bird back?" the hunter asked.
"No," Cindy nearly snarled. "It's my name-bird, it's my land, and you are tresspassers and pochers! Get out!" They scurried off.
"Your name-bird?" I asked, knowing that whatever this meant, it couldn't be good.
Cindy sighed. "We still belived in them in Durem back when I was born. I guess you don't have them in Aekea..."
"No," I said, "What is it?"
"When I was a baby, my parents took me to a wisewoman. Some said she was a Seer...I don't know." She shrugged. "Anyway, she told them that my name-bird was the raven...otherwise called the crow."
"But what is a name-bird?" I asked.
"Sort of like a patron bird," she said, looking sadly at the dead crow. "It's called that because part of the way it's chosen is your name...the rest might be your appearence, or just some whim of the one giving you it. Not everyone has birds, I knew a girl who's name-animal was a mouse! But whatever it is....it's like an omen if you see one. For a flock of crows to fly overhead is a really good omen for me..."
"And I guess for one to be killed right in front of you is really bad." I was trying with all my heart not to belive in this stuff.
"Very bad indeed." She was still looking at the bird. "For one to fall at your feet and die in your hands...well, that pretty much means..."
"No!" I shouted. "Don't say that! It's all rubbish and nonsense!"
"Ok, ok!" She looked at me strangely. "It dosn't have to mean death, it just might be something really bad. That could happen any day now, with those things..." She glared at the sky. "Get me the shovel, will you?"
"What?" I asked.
"I'm going to bury the poor thing, of course," she said. "The garden things are in the cupboard under the stairs..."
"I know!" I got her the shovel.
She wouldn't let me come with her when she buried the crow in the woods. Of course, she had to change her clothes because she got mud on them, and we din't get a chance to talk before she left. That thing scared me...but I don't belive in that nonsense! I refuse to!