After what had happened, Corvus simply laid there shocked trying to gather his wits.

*Ding*

New TitleBent Wing's MateDescriptionAll beings capable of recognizing such a bond between your species will recognize you as the mate of Bent Wing. Members of the opposite gender within your race will reject you as a partner. Members of the same gender within your race will become hostile towards you if you approach un-mated females. This title is permanent and unchangeable.

Reading the window that appeared caused Corvus to groan. 'Permanent?! Unchangeable?!' his mind screamed. Separating himself from Bent Wing he flew off north across the water. He heard a faint caw from the ground but kept on going.

He ran away.

"Aaaaaa!" Corvus screamed into the barren northern continent. It had all happened too fast, he was shocked and confused. In his own mind, despite his current form, Corvus still thought of himself as human. He thought like one, he felt like one, so much so that he forgot that he no longer was one, at least physically. When he decided to help Bent Wing he never imagined things would turn out like this.

He didn't regret helping her, his regrets were actually one of the reasons he did. He had been unable to do anything when his mother passed. So when Bent Wing was injured and it looked as though Matty was going to kill her, he just moved thinking, 'Not this time.' He was happy that he was able to save Bent Wing, but he didn't do so out of feelings of love or even caring. What he felt was guilt and sympathy. He hadn't really thought about what the result of his actions would be but looking back the way One Feather and the rest behaved during Bent Wing's convalescence had hinted at this outcome.

Never mind how it happened the fact that it happened at all left him unsure of how to feel. He knew he needed to do that to complete his goal but even then he wasn't sure he would have been able to go through with it. Should he feel violated? Or should he be relieved that the deed was done.

In some ways he did feel violated but in his mind and his heart he had started looking down on all the other crows again. As much as he wanted to he couldn't bring himself to blame Bent Wing. He could see where she would get the idea that he was interested, his actions could seem as though he cared about her a great deal. On top of that she wasn't really the reason he was in this position, Telrok was.

'In some ways this could be considered a wake up call.' Thinking this Corvus rediscovered the northern cliffs he found before and landed on an isolated ledge.

'So many questions.' Corvus sighed, lamenting his ignorance. 'Too much! There's too much I don't know.'

Up until know this world lacked a sense of reality. As though it was created solely to be a testing ground, but what happened with Bent Wing mocked that idea. Corvus could see the logic behind forcing him to pair for reasons other than his own desire being part of the test, his mother read him several stories where that was the case for royalty. This went beyond that, not only did it force the pairing but with it happening the way it did nothing about him was proven. He could still after all remove himself from the situation.

'What is the point of all this?' The tree woman said that if he followed the direction of the windows he would reach her level? In that respect some of the goals made sense, they were about strengthening himself but some seemed to just be saying live. Live as a crow does. 'Could that really be it? What is the point of doing so?'

'Wait, wait, wait,' he repeated to himself. 'That tree soul thing said something else, what was it? Something about this test ...'

'No ... she said training.' Corvus squinted his eyes.

Thought and memories raced around in his head, crashing and bumping into each other.

"- I am a god, or near enough that making a distinction is irrelevant for you,"

...

"This stage of your training entrusted to me."

...

"- it was supposed to be testing, wasn't it?"

...

"It isn't as though you can never go back though. You just need to reach my level."

All the pieces began to coalesce forming a vague image. Corvus realized that however close his grandfather was to being a god he wasn't one, he couldn't be anywhere close to being one. A god might need to train his heir, but an omniscient being wouldn't need to test all 256 heirs he would know the best choice. Even the woman in the void could judge his soul and everything Corvus knew indicated she was below his grandfather's level. It was clear that there was something they were looking for, something they lacked the ability to find by examining his soul.

Closing his eyes Corvus went over every interaction he had had with the two.

...

"Hello, young one."

He felt something click inside of his mind as the bigger picture became clearer. 'What if it's not a test or training, but some mix of the two.'

'They can examine my soul and see what I have done but what if ... that's all they can do.' That thought worried Corvus because it was clear if that was the case it put this whole test on a much grander scale than he had ever considered.

'I need more information,' Corvus couldn't help complaining, 'but the only way to get it is from her. Should I ... kill myself?'

Shaking his head, Corvus thought to himself, 'No, there is no guarantee they'll resurrect me again.'

'That means I need to move forward. Act how they want me to, but how do they want me to?'

For a few moments he just perched there, trying to let his mind go blank.

Looking out over the western horizon he watched as the fiery afterglow of the setting the sun retreated from the encroaching night. The dull reflection of the world's waters being devoured by a black curtain. A void of darkness pierced only by the light of the distant shining stars.

After watching this scene, Corvus' mind was still roiling with thoughts but it was no longer a disordered swirling mess of chaos. He was struck by an epiphany when one final memory shook loose.

"- it is strongly recommended you pick Soul Memory as your Trait."

'They wanted us to be who we are. They want me to act as I would normally.' Having reached this conclusion Corvus' knew what he had to do. He had to go back. Back to Bent Wing. Even though he didn't or couldn't bring himself to feel for her as he would another human, that didn't mean he should let her life be ruined or messed up because of his and his grandfather's actions. His mind finally clear Corvus determined, 'Tomorrow,' as he fell asleep.

Having woken early the next morning, Corvus began his journey back to Birth Isle. His mind was plagued with dread and uncertainty the entire time. Despite how he actually felt about her, he had abandoned Bent Wing and he had no clue how a crow would feel about that. As such he was plagued internally by thoughts of human reactions.

These fears were replaced by a new one as he reached his former nest on the isle. 'What if she isn't here any more?' Setting down Corvus bellowed, "Hello!" breaking the relative silence.

Corvus' loud caw faded, leaving only the gentle swishing of the waves. Concern welling up inside him, Corvus took back to the air heading to the north. He didn't see her in the green zone either. 'What if she went to that island?' Winging his way upwards, he had almost reached that weird vein of energy to head to White Maple Island to look for her when a movement below caught his eye.

Gliding down he found Bent Wing fussing with something on a small ledge on the cliff. When Corvus landed nearby he could see that it was a nest she was building. "Hello," he trilled to her in the private tone used among crows. Bent Wing just shifted the dried seaweed stalks, ignoring him until she bumped into him as she circled the nest.

"Move!" she cawed pushing him aside. Corvus bumped the partially built nest causing parts of it to collapse inwards. Not willing to give up so easily he chirped again trying to get her to respond to him in some way. After his fifth attempt and third time messing up the nest, Bent Wing flapped her wings charging at him and yelling, "Leave!"

Heeding Bent Wing's words Corvus circled down to the beach, deciding to do something to help. He browsed through the seaweed that had washed up on the on the southern shore. Looking for ones with sturdy stalks instead of leafy fronds. He found a few but while wet they were far too flexible to use in his opinion. Intending to dry them out he draped them on any rocky surface he could find. All day that is all he did.

After sleeping, Corvus woke earlier taking several of the now dried out seaweed stalks to where Bent Wing was building her nest and laid them out nearby. As he waited for he to wake, he took a moment to examine the other window that had behaved weirdly while on White Maple Island. 'Status'

StatusNameCorvusAge4y 10m 25dGenderMaleTest StageOneSpeciesCrowSpecies RankAnimalSkills3/3TitlesInsomniacTraitsBent Wing's Mate

'F-Four years?'

Taking a deep breath Corvus calmed himself while shaking his head. 'This much makes sense. The vein in the sky and that island there had to be some draw back to them, now I know what it is.'

"Caaaw!?" came an irritated cry. It was one of the few Corvus hadn't settled on an exact meaning for, carrying undertones of challenge while seeming to ask 'What do you want?'

"See." he replied stepping aside to show Bent Wing some of his peace offerings. She turned her head to the side examining the first of the stalks before pushing it off the cliff. Scrutinizing each one Bent Wing pushed all the ones with more than two leaves off the ledge before snapping the leaves off those with fewer then adding them to the nest. Corvus dropped down to the fallen stems and de-branched them before bringing them back. Some Bent Wing accepted but some were apparently too thick or thin as she tossed them over the edge again.

Corvus was setting up more seaweed stalks to dry when he heard a faint plaintive call, "Food!"

Not having stored any food he rushed to the green area and grabbed a few seeds. Depositing them on the ledge he went back and stocked up on food before going back to making nest materials. For a time this was his life, prepare seaweed to be used to make a nest, bring food to Bent Wing, stock up on food. Right near the completion of their nest the other crows returned.

All of them looked bedraggled, and upon counting Corvus realized that instead of eight they numbered only seven. It was hard for him to tell which was missing, but as Matty, One Feather, White Wings, and Speckles were fine, he didn't care.

There was a bit of tension with One Feather and Matty, that Corvus chalked up to nesting in their territory. However despite the fairly rapid expansion of the grass and plants there really wasn't any other option. When Bent Wing had finished the inner lining of the nest, she started to lay eggs. It had been a number of days since the other crows returned so Corvus had been able to figure some things out. The missing crow seemed to be the one eyed crow's mate. It was a bit of a struggle but from Corvus' perspective it appeared that White Wing had paired with Bent Wing's brother while Speckles had done so with Heartless.

Birth isle turned out to be a stopover for One Eye's group, that now only consisted of him, White Wings and Aver or Average. It wasn't too long before they headed off to the west.

It was a peaceful period. Corvus just let the days slip by. Most of them spent eating or storing food, with the occasional bout with a small snake. Bent Wing had become less icy towards him as he performed whatever duties she expected of him. For Corvus it was easily the most bizarre relationship he had ever had, so while he was dutiful he couldn't help but wonder how she felt or even what she could feel towards him. If he was being honest Corvus would have had to admit that this whole situation still felt surreal to him.

Curious about his progress Corvus called up the Goals window.

Inheritance Test Stage One GoalPrimary ConditionSurviveSub ConditionsTaskCompletionHatch100%Feed100%Fledge100%Communicate100%Form/Join Family100%Claim Territory100%Mature100%Nest100%Total Completion100%Participant NameCorvusGoal StatsSuccess

*Ding*

Another window popped up over the Goals window.

CongratulationsYou have successfully cleared the Inheritance Test Stage One Goal.

Author's Note

Just a reminder, the poll on whether or not to keep or remover the current formatting is still going on HERE so if you have an opinion on it please vote.

I'm gonna keep this note short because barring blackouts or other uncontrollable things, I will be posting another three chapters at random intervals today.

Thank for reading I hope you enjoyed it, feel free to leave feedback and comments.