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Grade
8

 

“Jinx and Crowe are missing, sir!”

 

One: Warren Jinx

"ALL MEMBERS OF The Order PLEASE REPORT TO AUDITORIUM 8-4 IMMEDIATELY." A voice buzzed on the P.A. system, waking me from my well-earned, nap. I rolled off of my bed onto the floor below me. My feet making a small thud against the dark carpet. As I pulled on my shoes, my eyes were forced to adjust to the room's dark paint and bright lights. The only things that had color in the room were the pillows, which were a deep red. Almost blood-colored. I exited the dark room and started to walk to the Auditorium. I wiped the sleep from my eyes as I entered, and took my seat.

A large man sauntered across the stage, his long, black cloak billowing behind him. His name, Nebelkrähe. “Welcome to The Order’s monthly meeting!” He said, his voice booming. “Now, we have located another crow. One that will be quite useful in our mission.”  After his voice stopped, the entire auditorium erupted in cheering and applause, startling me. “Whoever shall I choose for the hunt? How about...”  He placed his thumb on his lips and thoughtfully rubbed his cheek with his other fingers. “JINX!”  I could feel the color drain from my face as he stepped off the stage and slowly started walking toward me. “Are you s-sure sir?” I could barely choke out the four words. “Sir, I d-don’t quite know if that’s a v-very good idea, Sir.”

“Warren Jinx, your mission is to hunt down this crow, if you fail...DON’T return.”  He said, shadows looming over his face

“Y-yes, Sir! Of course Sir!” Why am I so awkward? I let out an audible sigh of relief when he grimly said, “Meeting dismissed.”

 

Two: Warren Jinx

Walking back to my room, I received random pats on my shoulder and a couple of high-fives. When I finally got back to my room, the Lite-Screen was lit up, notifying me I had messages. I opened the door, kicked my shoes off and sat down to process what Nebelkrähe had told me, not minutes ago. “No!” I said to no one in particular. “C’Mon Warren! You’re better than this, get up!” And with a heavy sigh, I heaved myself off the bed. I padded over to the Lite-Screen implanted on my door and placed my hand on it.

*BEEP* WARREN JINX, YOU HAVE ONE UNREAD MESSAGE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IT?

“Yeah sure, that’s why I’m here!” I grumbled annoyedly  

*BEEP* FIRST MESSAGE FROM Official Office AT 11:45 AM

“Warren Jinx, your presence is requested in office #387. Report there at noon.” END OF FIRST MESSAGE. Wow, well I’d better get over there now so I’m not late.

“Warren Jinx, thank you for showing up. Here is your letter!” An All-Too-Cheery Secretary beamed when I opened the giant glass doors. “Uh, thanks” I replied dully. The letter had big red lettering on it that said ‘OPEN WHEN ALONE.’ I opened it regardless, breaking the wax seal. The letter said:

These are your instructions. Read them carefully. We are entrusting a lot in you, Warren Jinx, prove us right in choosing you for this mission.

1.)Bring nobody except yourself

2.)Leave with nobody except the crow and yourself

3.)Do not be followed

4.)Bring only what we give you (you will receive the items in your room)

5.)CAPTURE THE CROW

6.)Don’t let anyone see you

7.)Leave at Eleven PM

8.)Be back by One AM

His name is Jach Crowe. Capture him alive

Do not injure him.

 

Three: Warren Jinx

I sat on a bench, holding the letter and a small bag filled with things to capture Jach. The bag contained a net, and a picture of Jach. I sat watching what appeared like nothing when a small bird, matching Jach’s description, glided to the ground. I stood up slowly and crouched behind him. I readied my net as he flew up, I stepped forward and captured him in the net. His struggling startled me, and I almost released him. “Woah! Jach, calm down!” I don’t know why I tried to communicate, I knew the crows didn’t understand until later. He turned his head toward me and just stared, he looked calm, not scared or angry at all. “Okay Jach, we are going to ‘HQ’ now, okay?” I held the net as far away from myself as I could while I walked back to my temporary car. I placed him in the cage they also provided for me. he hopped right out of the net and into the cage, and just sat there while I closed and locked the cage.

Driving back to the ‘HQ’ Jach was very quiet, at times I was worried he had dropped dead or had escaped. No, he was just sitting there, watching me. I wondered several times what he was thinking. Was he just internalizing his anger or fear? Or was he actually just calm?

 

Four: Jach Crowe

The grass below barely moved in the light breeze brought on by my wings. I flew down slowly and silently as not to warn any creatures that may have been near. I stayed as still as I could when I saw a small rodent eating a stem of grass.  It didn't know I was there.

I flew back up so I could grab it with my claws. As I moved to capture the small creature, a large object, larger than even I, stood up and captured me instead. I struggled against the coarse rope, hoping the being would release me. When I was finally able to see through the rope, I looked to see the rodent, but it was nowhere in sight. In the midst of my squawking and the large object's ungraceful movement, it had scurried away. The large object, no, human; the human spoke something to me, it sounded hurried, like he wanted me to stop.

I calmed down and turned toward the human, staring him right in the eyes. I hope he knows that he’s doing this, that I did nothing. He said something else, slowly and surely, he nodded and we started moving toward a large black monster. The human opened the monster’s back panel and revealed a wire-y box, a...cage! The human tried to put me in the cage with the net, so I hopped out of it; I didn't want to be uncomfortable. I stood staring at him while he closed the cage, he lingered for a second, then closed the monster’s back panel. He opened the front panel and sat down, then drew a long piece of fabric across his torso. What is he doing? Is he intentionally trapping himself? He woke the monster up and everything started rumbling. Then, we moved.

The human looked back at me several times, I wondered if he thought I was dead. He might have been trying to kill me, how should I have known? I’m just a crow; no, I’m not just a crow! I’m Jach Crowe!

 

Five: Jach Crowe

When we arrived at a place the human was speaking about, he picked up my cage and draped a cloth over it. Though I couldn’t see, I knew that we walked a while before he set me down. He lifted the cloth to reveal me to one other human. The first, my abductor, the male who captured me. He was very tall with light brown hair. The second was also a male with sleek black hair, he was wearing a long black cloak. “ Jach, thank you for obliging. We never wanted to hurt you, so I’m glad we didn’t have to.” Said the man in the cloak. How could I understand him? “You can understand me?” I asked him carefully.

“Yes I can, and soon you will understand him,” He gestured his...featherless wing toward the tall man. “Too. Not that it matters, but I m called Nebelkrähe. It’s...German for Hooded Crow. Now, Jach. Are you ready?”

“Ready? Ready for what? Why am I here?How do you know who I am? Why can you understand me and why can I understand you?”

“All in good time, Jach Crowe. All in good time.” A sickly grin spread across his face, showing me a full set of perfectly straight teeth. He picked up my cage and took me over to a shiny table. He roughly took me out of my cage and shoved me onto the table, then clamped some restraints around my legs, almost crushing my tail. I tried to hop around a bit wondering why they would need such a large table for such a...small thing like myself.  The man left the table for a second, then came back with something in his… whatever it’s called. He brought it closer to me, and stabbed me! He stabbed me! “I forgot to mention, you might feel a small pinch!” I don’t like this man. “Jach, you will now become larger. Don’t worry, this part won’t hurt…much.” He grinned at me again and then stepped back, looking almost disgusted at me. “What did you do!” I demand, but I heard something strange, not my familiar voice but rather, a...human sound.

Six: Jach Crowe

“Please clarify, I’m… human?” I try to ask without fainting. “That’s right, Jach. You are now a soldier for The Order, and you will obey.” The man called Nebelkrähe stated. “A soldier for what, exactly?”

"Like I said. All in good ti-"

“Stop it Nebelkrähe! I mean… No, I mean it! You keep recruiting and turning these crows, myself included! What’s your aim with this? And what’s up with this ‘war’ you keep bringing up?” My abductor interrupted. “What is this about? You never told any of us, and yet everyone worships you! We have a right to know, Nebelkrähe”  He seems to be quite intelligent, in terms of speaking. “That right has been taken away as of now, Warren. Don’t ask again. Jach, you’re going with him. Here’s your new stuff, you will be Warren’s roommate and only because he is the only one without a roommate.”  Nebelkrähe grimaced, throwing a large bag and a smaller soft rectangle at me. “Follow me, Jach. Our room’s this way.” My abduct- Warren said to me, squinting his eyes at Nebelkrähe.

Warren lead me to his...our room and told me to ‘make myself at home’. Wondering what this could have meant must have made me appear confused because Warren said “What I mean by that is- just, relax” I gently set my new belongings on the empty… larger soft rectangle hoping this meant I had claimed it. “Just so you know, what is mine isn’t yours, okay?” Though I don’t know what this meant, Warren insisted rather passionately; I will not invade his space. I answered by nodding slightly. Our room was intricate and rather clean. Warren had his books neatly stacked in a wooden box with several thin rectangles dividing it.  Across the room, a reflective object peered back at me. With a start, I realized the person in the reflective object was mimicking me. Warren started chuckling at my bewilderment at this thing. He simply stated “ It’s a mirror, Jach. It shows you what you look like, and does what you do.” This surprised me even further to the point where all I could say was “That’s me?” I have sharp features and piercing green eyes. My hair is dark brown and seems soft. My skin is quite pale and I am very thin. I compare my features to that of Warren. His features are soft and his eyes are grey, he is slightly taller than me and is also paler. He looks quite appealing, I wonder what he thinks of me?

 

Seven: Warren Jinx

My alarm clock beeped violently. “Oh yeah, my 'mission'.” I mumbled to myself. I turned off the alarm and shuffled across the room to my dresser, picking out a simple outfit. After I got dressed, I packed some supplies I might need; a set for picking locks, and some food of course! A grumble from across the room shook me from my thoughts. Startled, I turned around forgetting that I had a new roommate. “Oh, ‘morning Jach,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Did I wake you?” I asked worried I hadn’t let him sleep long enough. “I rose when your beeping device woke up.” When I get back I’m going to have to teach him some words, he obviously doesn’t know what basic technology is here. “If I may ask, where are you going?”

“I’m going to see why we are needed, I’m going to break into Nebelkrähe’s office. I’ll be back soon. Uhh- just...just sit there, I guess. Here’s a book that lies about what we’re doing here, why we’re doing it, et cetera." I tried to explain as best I could, he doesn’t seem to know much, though. “Et- Et cetera? What is that?”

“I’ll tell you later, Jach, I really have to go now, though. See ya.” After tossing the book at him and flashing a smile, I swung my bag over my shoulder and started to leave. “W-Warren? Why do you need to break into his office? Is this about-, Please disregard that. Be on your way then.” Jach’s face flushed slightly, I wonder what he was trying to say? ”I tell you about it later, okay?” I must’ve exited too fast because I got awkward stares from people going about their business. I snuck into the sea of people and tried to swim my way to the lobby. when I got there, no one was in sight. ‘Great, that’ll make my ‘mission’ a whole lot easier!’ I thought to myself. ‘Time to see what this is all about’.

 

Eight: Warren Jinx

Getting into the office was easy, the cabinets were not. I’m sure I was in there for twenty minutes before I got one open. “ A, C, E, H, J! Let’s see- Ah-ha! Warren Jinx: Human-turned crow blah blah blah. Nothing interesting here.” I flipped through some more files before a thick file in a leather folder came up. “Wha- Secret Mission?” I found it! So, the whole reason we’re here is to fight a war between the Ravens. The Ravens? Well, we’re obviously not going to win tha- ohmygod, NO! I took the file and stuffed it into my bag. I ran out of the office a little too fast and almost fell down the stairs to my room. Barging into the door startled both Jach and I. “JACH! We need to get out of here. NOW!”  I ran across the room to my side table. I dragged a suitcase from under my bed and started shoving everything I owned, which was very little, into the case. After that was cleared, I moved on to my dresser. I looked over my shoulder to see that Jach hadn’t moved an inch since I got there. “ Jach! C’mon, we need to GO! ” He looked at me for a second, confused, then he realized I wasn’t messing around and took the pillowcase off of his pillow and started shoving what he owned, which was even less than what I owned, into it. “Warren? Why are we leaving? I was just starting to get comfortable here.” Why does he ask so many questions? “ Jach-” I let out an exasperated sigh ”I’ll tell you later, right now we need to go!” I turned around, satisfied that all of my stuff was packed.“Okay, let’s go”

 

Nine: Jach Crowe

Warren had grabbed my elbow and wouldn’t let go. He kept dragging me down empty hallways trying to find an exit. Anything, an open first-floor window, some sort of garage; it seemed that any opening would satisfy him. “Here! We found it!” Warren whispered to me. He seems very adamant about leaving, I don’t quite know why, yet, but if he was generous enough to take me with him, I should, at least, trust him. Crouching down, Warren said, “Okay, put your foot in my hands, and I’ll push you to the window. Trust me.” I did as I was told and heaved myself through the window. I turned around and helped Warren up after me. We were free, I was finally near nature again! Warren noticed my stupid grin and smiled back at me. He stepped in front of me and grabbed my shoulders, “We’re not free yet, Jach. We have to get away from here. Vermont isn’t safe anymore; according to the file, the following states are either inhabited by Crow or Raven Recruiters: Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Vermont, and Virginia. So, New York or Pennsylvania? They’re the closest states.”

“Wait, Warren. Why are we running away?”

“Remember when you were turned into a human and Nebelkrähe said you will be a soldier for The Order? Yeah, well apparently the ‘War’ he was mentioning is between the Ravens and the Crows. This is a war we will never, ever be able to win, not even as humans. That, Jach, Is why we are running away. Ravens are larger, faster, stronger and have many soldiers.” The emotions displayed on Warren's face were indescribable."Jach, we have to go now, before they notice we're gone."

"Wait, Warren. Thank you for taking me with you." Warren's cheeks flushed and I could feel mine do the same. he shook his head a bit and asked: "Do you have any other questions before we go?" I nodded my head, “Why does Nebelkrähe want war anyway? Does the file say anything about that? ” Warren nodded his head slowly, and said...