Week 1: Is that bird following me?

The crows of Augur Bay were being particularly raucous lately. All the chicks had fledged, so it was no longer a priority to avoid drawing predator attention to the location of their nests. But one crow, Catwy, was rather quiet.

Trying to make sense of what happened the previous weekend, and generally being the paranoid cautious type, Catwy decided to keep an eye on everyone who had been sucked into that memory with hier. Just in case.

So if you happened to notice a bird (medium-large, black, nice and shiny) looming somewhere over your shoulder and wondered if it was following you... maybe it was.

Harper hopped off the bus and headed homeward, paying no attention to her surroundings. Oblivious. And oblivious she would have remained if a nearby car alarm hadn't made the teenager jump out of her skin. Harper took a moment to collect herself and noticed her perhaps peruser. She hardly dared hope it was Catwy but even if it wasn't... Maybe she would get to pet a crow beak.

Harper took a detour home, picked up a bag of breadcrumbs from a convenience store and headed into the park. Once inside the teenager made a beeline for the nearest bench, using her heelies to make short work of the distance. And not at all to show off or anything, who would she even be trying to impress? A Crow? [Yes]

Harper sat down on one end of an otherwise unoccupied bench, opened her breadcrumb bag and pushed it to the other side of the bench. If it was Catwy then Harper would feel super condescending to throw the bread crumbs on the ground. But then, maybe some other crows were as smart as Catwy. Actually... Harper had heard regular crows understood humans and had language so, maybe Catwy was a regular crow? (???)

Catwy alighted on the back of the bench in a sudden burst of noise and flapping, looked at Harper, then hopped down to the bench and stuck hier head into the bag.

A whole bag of breadcrumbs. Yessssssssss. Catwy's tail bobbed and wings shrugged with excitement.

Sie puller her head out to beep a crow's thank you ("Ka!"), then went back to stuffing hierself.

Harper blinked in surprise and responded on auto-pilot, "You're welcome." She gave a little half chuckle and looked around the park, shielding her eyes from the sun. The teen hated people watching her eat, especially her parents, which was the only reason she wasn't vining this right now. Because all other things being equal this moment would be incredibly popular on the internet.

Seeing that no one was nearby Harper looked down at her feet, which didn't reach the ground, and wondered how to start this conversation. Hello friend crow, yes you're very welcome to the breadcrumbs of course, but would you happen to know a crow by the name of Catwy? No, Harper thought with a small shake of her head, too formal.

Harper clasped the bench with her hands and swung her feet back and forth, feeling dumb and awkward. Eventually she built up the courage to say, "Hey, um, Catwy?"

Catwy crept ever deeper into the bag as sie gorged on the breadcrumbs. 'Don't eat so much you can't fly,' sie reminded hierself. But they were just so tasty... and filling... and it was was summer now but when the weather got cold the humans would stop eating outside and it would become So Hard to find breadcrumbs...

"Hey, um, Catwy?"

Catwy jumped at the voice, unaccustomed to hearing one so close and having rather forgotten about Harper altogether. Being inside a bag, that meant sie ran into immediate resistance and jumped more, and hier wings flew out in readiness but the extra size only made things harder and you can't intimidate a bag, and--Catwy managed to flail free, only moderately dusted with breadcrumbs and not quite falling off the bench. Sie ignored the sparrows (lingering in a bush nearby, watching for stray crumbs, bold little beggars) laughing.

Ruffling their feathers as casually as possible, sie asked, "Yes?"

Harper had reached out to help her feathered friend but stopped herself. A human hand interfering would only make this situation worse. The teen took her hand back and folded them both, equally casually, in her lap. Harper cleared her throat, "Good I, uh, wasn't sure it was you. Sorry, um..." She trailed off, awkwardness radiating from the teenager. "I-I have a tree house and I wanted to um, invite you to hangout, I mean, if you like. Its really bright, so you won't have to worry about horned owls even though its out in the suburbs." Harper smiled, still awkward, still trying too hard. She had googled crows after the group talk session and ended up on wikipedia, of course. She was a little nervous about inviting a new friend, it had been some time since anyone else had been up there.

Catwy twisted hier head to the side at the invitation. A tree... house? Thinking it over... sie had seen humans build in trees sometimes. Not very practical nests, but usually good visibility. No owls was always a good thing--sie would square off with a hawk or an eagle (if sie had some backup), but owls were scary.

Catwy straightened up and bobbed. "Yes! Ka! Will visit." Sie flicked a persistent crumb off hier tail, then flinched at one of her sibling's yelling from a tree across the park.

Botwad had overhear hier chatting with a human and was threatening to go to mom... as if not every crow in the bay area could hear her lecture already.

"Gotta go; bye; thanks for food! Will visit!" With that, Catwy took off, abandoning the fallen crumbs to the sparrows.