The Night of the Crow

Transcript of the eyewitness account of the Night of Crow, as told to Flathac Anotor, in the year 1280 of the Era of Knowledge. Name of interviewee Tem Arallena.

You understand I was young that night, not quite 10 years.  I was in bed with my sister Lea, we shared a bed because we were poor.  The whole house only had two bedrooms and a main room!  Lea and I shared the bedroom with our three brothers, who slept in their own bed across the room.  We hated sharing with them, because they were loud and messy, like boys are.  

Lea and I had stayed up late that night, giggling and talking under the covers like sisters can do.  I'd gone to sleep, but woke up to my brothers making a bunch of noise at the window.  I told them to be quiet and let me sleep, but they ignored me like they always did.  I noticed the room wasn't as dark as it should be, and then I heard Mama and Pa out in the main room.  Mama sounded upset, but I couldn't tell what she was saying.  I could hear people yelling outside, too.  I woke up Lea, don't know how she was still sleeping with all that noise.  We got up and grabbed our shawls, the ones Mama had made for us.  Mine was orange.  Don't know why I remember that, of all things.  Mama was crying, begging Pa to not go outside, but he had his stern look on, and said he had to and opened up the door.  Lea ran to Mama for a hug, but I ran outside with Pa.  He tried to push me back in, but I darted out anyway.  Lea and two of my brothers followed me.  

Outside was like something from a nightmare, and I've had nightmares about it, too.  The sky looked orange, with no stars in sight.  I could see buildings on fire all over town, even some houses on our street.  There was smoke heavy in the air, going down my throat and making me cough.  Embers flew everywhere, one landed on me and burned a hole through my shawl to my shoulder before I could slap it out.  My eyes felt too hot, and they were streaming tears from the smoke and heat before I was far from the house.  

Pa, the other adults, everyone outside was staring up into the sky like they were stuck.  I looked up too, wondering why they were standing there instead of trying to put the fires out.  Flying over the town was a bird.  Not just a bird, though, that makes it sound too small, too everyday.  This was the biggest crow I've ever seen, before or since.  It was black all over, and the only reason we could see it was the glow from the fires.  Its wings took up the whole sky, and every time it flapped them, more sparks flew everywhere.  Iis eyes were as big as Mama's stew pot, and they glowed red.  I felt like it was looking right into me, and that stare burned in my thoughts.  I screamed from the pain of it, but it stopped as he kept flying and looked at something else.  

Sparks flew onto the house next to us, where my best friend Jykla lived.  I grabbed Pa's hand, trying to get his attention to put out the fire, but before we could move the house was covered in the flames.  It was so fast.  The crow flew straight up into the sky, and I thought it was going to leave, but it suddenly turned and plunged down toward us, screaming in a voice so big I thought my ears exploded.  They actually bled, a little, but I didn't know it at the time.  Just before it hit the ground, the crow pulled up and flew in tight circles around the town, making more sparks fly.  One of them landed on our house, and it went up in flames as fast as Jykla's had.  I think I was still screaming, but then that bird just...disappeared.  Never saw it again.  

I know some people worship that crow now, but I never will.  I lost my Mama that night, and a brother, and my best friend.  Nothing was ever the same after.  I'll never worship it.  I hope it dies in one of its own fires.

End of interview.  Tem died less than two weeks later when a stray spark from her fireplace caught the thatched roof of her cottage.