10/28/2025, 11:08 PM
the world is getting colder. the snow is starting to fall.
cú knows it needs food. crow is growing restless. he is okay now that they have begun to strip the late-fall berries, but he is worried about cú, and cú tries to calm him and act like it is not starving. he still feeds it the few tiny mice he catches. it eats them all in single bites and its stomach aches for more.
it sleeps in nests made of torn grass and snapped branches and digs little pits in the freezing dirt to stay warm. crow insists on better shelter. it has been sticking to the mountains- this way it can find little caves and tuck itself into the back and away from the cold wind. it does not want to be buried again, to claw its way panicking into the air. it needs to stay alive. for itself, for crow.
today crow has found a river. he wants to fly it, so cú obeys- it cuts through the mountains and funnels the cold air through, so it sticks close to the trees and seeks out crow by the familiar sound of his voice. he is a good singer. cú caws back at him as it weaves through the branches and grooms its messy shoulder with its front teeth. it likes the music they make together, it and crow, and it is busy singing when crow's voice sharpens into a familiar note.
follow!
cú's ears prick. it quiets, and comes, ducks through trees and dried yellow grass and finds the riverbank. a body.
it gives a cursory sniff, already darting forward. tangy, cold. deer. it has frozen and the stranger-crows already around it croak and scatter when cú bounds towards them. it latches its teeth into loose flesh and pulls and twists until a strip of frozen meat falls away, tail wagging when crow flutters down to its side.
it feels better than it has felt in many weeks. there is food, at last, and cú starts cracking open protruding ribs and tearing what flesh and skin it can work loose, eating as quickly as it can, ears angling back. it is a scavenger and it knows scavengers better than it knows hunters. it knows where there is one scavenger, there are always more to come.
