Warning: Minor amount of objectionable and possibly highly offensive content. Restricted to a single paragraph at the very end after the second table.

[Corvus]

[South East of Small Island]

Having picked a direction, Corvus flew off towards the south. Bent Wing followed along, the two birds flapping their wings as they went. The ocean water below zipped by becoming less brown and more blue as they glided onwards.

As he flew Corvus let his mind drift, considering his circumstances. During his first three months after fledging he had tried various things to speed along his progress with the goals. While fledge and communicate increased depending on what he did, mature on the other hand didn't seem to be increased by anything but time passing. He had been quite put out when he had discovered that and worked out that at the pace it seemed to be going it would require three and a half to four years to complete. He'd apparently already finished fledge and communicate so there was nothing he could do but wait.

Corvus couldn't help but be worried about this journey. He had no idea whether he was leading them to salvation or death.

'Dammit, I can't catch a break.' Corvus groaned seeing a large dark cloud in the direction he was currently headed. A bolt of lightning crash down on the distant waters as they roiled and churned.

*Booooom!*

"Run!" Bent Wing cried out.

Startled Corvus slowed in his flight just enough to catch Bent Wing frantically flapping her wings as she veered further east. Unwilling to separate from her, Corvus turned himself to chase after her. At the edges of his vision the sky behind him flashed.

*Crack!**Boooom!*

Heavy winds buffeted him knocking him closer and closer towards the storm horizon in the south. Off in the north billowing black clouds began to drift towards the two birds as well. Corvus could only watch as in front of him Bent Wing began to flounder, the flapping of her wings slowing down. Holding her wings out wide she dropped down several feet as she allowed herself to glide. She beat her wings furiously every few minutes thrusting herself higher but then tired out and went back to gliding, slowly losing altitude as the process repeated.

Corvus adjusted himself so that he would be close to Bent Wing. He wasn't sure if there was anything he could do. He doubted it but he would still make an attempt no matter the cost. Sweeping down low, near the ocean Corvus was startled when a large body broke through the surface, ejecting a plume of water into the air. Letting himself fall onto the large marine creature Corvus ordered, "Land!". Obviously flustered by the storm and the whale's surfacing Bent Wing tried to set herself down gingerly.

Looking at her ragged appearance Corvus could tell she was exhausted. They had both stored food before they departed but because of her wing and her reaction to the storm Corvus worried Bent Wing would need more. Wedging the seed he had found into his wing, Corvus regurgitated roughly half of what remained in his crop. "Food," he said stepping back and re-storing the seed. Bent Wing gave of an aura of guilt as she took the seeds.

'For the moment this creature seems content to let us ride on it,' thought Corvus as he paced in a circle, examining the horizon for signs of land. 'Still it will need to submerge again at some point.'

With a simple, "Wait." he pushed himself back into the sky. Circling higher and higher he scanned for any indication of ground, while keeping an eye on the whale. Finding nothing he began to descend again, feeling a momentary wave of warmth wash over him as he did. Not sure what it was he turned to check if anything was there. Corvus felt it again. A flash of warmth above the cold ocean, this time just a touch longer. Intrigued he flew back and forth a number of times before the distant cries of Bent Wing made him realize that the whale was pulling away from him. Seeing her preparing to take off he shouted out, "Coming."

Directing himself towards the two, Corvus was almost slammed with the feeling of warmth again but this time it persisted. The feeling wasn't only warmth, there was a sense of security and an almost bustling energy too. When he had noticed he was falling behind he had began flapping his wings like mad to catch up but in this weird line he felt faster and stronger than ever before. It took only moments and he has once again right above the whale.

Circling as he let himself drop, Corvus alighted on the aquatic creature's large back. Off in the north west the two storm fronts were colliding. 'No choice,' those storm clouds made it abundantly clear that there was no going back. The direction they were being taken though had clear skies that were being dyed red by the setting sun. Well and truly committed, with nothing he or Bent Wing could do about it, Corvus prayed, 'God help us.'

As if mocking him, the creature beneath them shudder and water began to close over it's back as it sunk. Driven to take flight Corvus ascended to where he felt that strange sense of energy.

---Near Sunrise---

Corvus and Bent Wing had been flying throughout the entire night. 'Totally impossible,' he muttered to himself. This was well beyond unreasonable in Corvus' mind, 'There was no way we should have been able to fly that long but ...'

'It's gotta have something to do with this ... this ...' he couldn't help but sigh to himself as the words escaped him. He still wasn't clear on what it was but there was a mysterious ... vein in the air that seemed to be giving the two of them energy, kept the alert, made them fly faster and easing their journey in general. It defied everything he knew about nature but given the circumstances Corvus was simply thankful.

As the sun began cresting the horizon Corvus was now able to see off in the distance. While the vein or energy, or whatever it was, apparently provided them the ability to sustain their flight limitlessly it was restricted to the path that vein followed. The unnaturalness of the vein doing so however was starting to take a mental toll. He didn't think either of them could keep it up until they could return to the island. Thus it was a great relief when the peak of a mountain appeared at the edge of Corvus' sight.

As the two birds drew near they got a better view of what turned out to be an island. Flying over the mountains on the edge, it seemed to be an oval in shape with mountains on every side but the north. It was a breathtaking landscape, with a river running down the larger snow capped western mountains into the center of the island before splitting into two. One branch of the river went north exiting out the gap there. The other went south passing through a deep gorge in the mountains. Corvus didn't notice any of this though, his attention stolen by the fact that there was grass all over the island, save for the higher parts of it's various peaks.

This was the most green he had ever seen on this world.

Exiting the weird vein Bent Wing landed and immediately began to search for seeds. Following her down, Corvus chuckled to himself thinking that it looked almost like she was kissing the ground. Once he touched down he made a quick decision to plant the seed he had been carrying while she was distracted. He tried to move towards the center of the island only to be forced to stop short.

Whatever made up the energy path they had followed to this island seemed to be radiating upward from the ground in the center. It had the same effects but as Corvus pushed himself closer he felt like every part of his body was going to burst apart as it became saturated with energy. Settling on planting it on the outside he deposited the seed into a small hole he dug quickly. Covering it back up, Corvus was astonished as the seed sprouted up into a long stalk with two green bordered white leaves.

'Too quick' he thought as he let out a screeching caw drawing Bent Wing's attention. She moved over, standing near Corvus, to look at the tree sprout. Their feathers brushed as she did causing Corvus to react. Putting his concerns out of his mind he trotted off to gather some food.

---Months Later---

'Weird. This place is weird.'

Those thoughts had become an almost hourly ritual for Corvus over the past three or so months.

The entire time on the island had been peaceful, there were no predators, food was plentiful, and it was just them there. In other words it was perfect. An Eden or a Utopia but Corvus couldn't wait to leave.

The whole island seemed to have a similar affect to the energy vein in the sky. Not as pronounced perhaps, anywhere other than the center where the effect was actually much greater, but still ever present. It had been about a week after they had arrived when Corvus realized that he hadn't been getting hungry. He would eat out of habit but once he noticed he was doing that he stopped for a while. It took him close to a week to feel the first pangs of hunger. He was a disturbed by that, but since it wasn't anything bad he put it out of his mind and went back to eating by habit.

The tree bugged him too. It grew way too fast. By the time he ended his hunger experiment it was already taller than him. On some level this did set off warning bells in Corvus' head but in every other way this place was essentially perfect. He was considering just staying there, in fact he might have except for what his windows started doing. Checking his progress had shown that mature had sped up drastically and was flickering back and forth between 89% and 90%. Following this he checked his status window only to find.

StatusNameCorvusAge?y ?m ?dGenderMaleTest StageOneSpeciesCrowSpecies RankAnimalSkills3/3Titles---Empty---TraitsInsomniac

These two discoveries had been what decided it for him. Originally when mature had begun increasing quickly he had been happy, deluding himself into thinking that the process just got quicker when it got closer to the end. His age changing to ? and mature blinking up and down in value though, 'No way is that natural.' was all he could think.

On top of all the unnatural things going on around the island, Corvus was getting concerned about Bent Wing. Whenever he stopped moving she seemed to be standing beside him. Corvus found it irritating, as when she did their feathers would touch, it felt almost like an ant crawling over his skin. At first it had just been every three of four days but lately it was every couple hours.

'Maybe it's this place.' he speculated, doubting his own thoughts. 'It's possible she just finds this place as creepy as I do.' Looking over at her he cawed, "Follow!" and took off into the sky. Despite becoming suspicious of the island and the weird energy, Corvus had no choice but to find the sky vein again before he headed back to where he was born.

---Days Later---

Descending downward Corvus took in the familiar sight that he mentally considered Birth Isle. He didn't really need to name it but he got bored. The other island he ended up calling White Maple Island. Not a lot had changed, the green area of the island had expanded by a few feet and there appeared to be a few sprouting flowers. 'At least here I can't tell it's growing.' he sighed in relief.

Bent Wing, who had taken to sticking to him was now moving around, off doing who knows what. Corvus was a little relieved. He opened his Goals window.

Inheritance Test GoalPrimary ConditionSurviveSub ConditionsTaskCompletionHatch100%Feed100%Fledge100%Communicate100%Mature099%Form Family000%Claim Territory000%Nest000%Total Completion062%Participant NameCorvusGoal StatusFailure

His completion for the mature goal was no longer flashing back and forth, and the final conditions had appeared. 'The first two are easy, but I'm not sure I can do that last one.' Corvus couldn't help but qualm. He didn't have much time to think about it as a beak appeared through the window. Swiping it away he saw Bent Wing standing in front of him.

She charged at him spreading her wings. Trying to back off Corvus flapped his taking off slightly. He wasn't fast enough as their bodies slammed together. He tried to pull away but Bent Wing seemed to follow him, and after a few seconds he felt a strange sensation followed by a wave of exhaustion. Corvus collapsed on the ground, facing Bent Wing, stunned and thought, 'What the hell? Did I just get raped?'

[Author's Note]

I am sorry to anyone who is offended by how I ended this chapter. Not the act itself but more the treatment of the topic, which I feel is too lighthearted. I do think this is a reasonable reaction on the MC's part though, which is why I did it. Rape is a horrible act and the only reason I touched it at all is because of the distinct lack of human parts. I hope I never touch it again.

Feedbak, comments, suggestion for other creatures, yada yada yada, much appreciated. Not much into chatting at the moment, see above.

Also there is a new and final poll HERE on the formatting. If you have an opinion other than keep it or lose it post it below. I am going to stay with the current style until I hit 25-30k words.

Sorry again to anyone who was offended.