CongratulationsYou have successfully cleared the Inheritance Test Stage One Goal.

Swiping the new notification away, Corvus saw the Goals window morph displaying a new set of conditions.

Inheritance Test Stage Two GoalPrimary ConditionEvolveSub ConditionsTaskCompletionDetect Mana033%Absorb Mana010%Concentrate Mana000%?????????000%???000%?????000%Total Completion007%Participant NameCorvusGoal StatusFailure

'Mana?'

Corvus had never encountered the word before. He had a vague idea that it had some relation to either the weird sky vein or White Maple Island. He suspected it was some sort of energy he could tap into. As such he spent whatever free time he managed to get flying back and forth along the mana vein. Despite his efforts his mana absorbtion remained at ten percent. The days proceeded in this quiet almost plodding manner.

The slow life however didn't last very long, being shattered like an eggshell when the baby crows hatched. Corvus was now on the other side of the frequent feeding he had endured as a nestling. He'd been hesitant to give them food at first but Bent Wing refused to take it from him so he was forced to. She just watched him as he fed their young. An unnatural gleam passing through them as she did. Corvus had intended to give them names as the grew but the three stayed almost identical to each other in both looks and personality no matter how long he observed.

Things remained busy even after the young fledged as Corvus needed to watch out for them. Even though only He and Bent Wing and Matty and One Feather had nested it still got crowded on the island with all twelve of them. There were occasionally bouts in the family. Corvus hated it a bit but at the same time wasn't sure how to deal with it. Using human logic on top of now having three children he also now had two twin siblings and three younger siblings. 'I don't think I can keep this up,' Corvus sighed wearily having broken up another conflict.

Beyond the altercations between the two groups of crows Corvus also ended up dealing with a lot more snakes this year. He could only assume that the amphibious creatures were also dealing with over-crowding. He had been forced to kill quite a few of the snakes. The turtles and Frogs on the other hand had their populations balanced because of the crows feeding on the young. Corvus still couldn't make himself do it, but Bent Wing and the triplets did. In the current situation Corvus knew he shouldn't judge them for it but deep down he did. His human morals and ethics kept colliding with the natural order of things.

'Should I take them there?'

The time was soon approaching when the migration would occur. Corvus couldn't help pondering whether or not he should take his group to White Maple Island rather than follow the others. 'The only real reason to do so would be to separate the two groups for a time, but the drawbacks ...' he waffled, '... they're too severe. On top of ageing being accelerated three more mature crows would compound the population issue. That's a trip I need to make on my own.'

Ultimately deciding to follow the others Corvus lead Bent Wing and their offspring off to the west. This confused him at first but as they met up with One Eye's group he discovered another growing zone. This one was apparently on the same landmass he had arrived on the first time he was tossed down near a lake. After meeting up the whole flock winged their way south passing a river connected to a small lake and skirting a snow capped mountain as they approached the southern tip of the continent.

Passing over the ocean waters, every member of their group began to shows signs of exhaustion long before they were even able to see land. Bent Wing especially, so it was a great relief when One Feather called them to follow veering downwards to land on the backs of several whales that had surfaced.

'Fishy,' was all that came to mind when Corvus saw this. 'Looking past the inland green patch that makes little sense this is the second time whales have helped us birds out.' He couldn't help being suspicious of the unnatural things that happened but answers weren't forth-coming. Knowing there was no point questioning it at the moment he simply set it aside intending to ask the tree lady if he saw her again. A large portion of the journey was spent riding the whales. Every so often one of them would descend forcing the birds to move to another but they were never left without a mount. When the whale resurfaced all the crows that had made this journey previously rushed over to it. There wasn't much but there was usually some algae and the occasionally strand of some edible seaweed. Still food was scarce and all the birds remained hungry throughout the journey.

The first bit of land they came across was a barren island but the older Crows didn't stop anxiously rushing towards what appeared to be the mainland. The group was lead to yet another green zone Corvus never knew about. It was situated between a lake and the eastern edge of the continent. 'If this place exists why don't they just stay here?'

The temperature was nice, even at the start of winter Corvus could tell that it wouldn't drop low enough to be an issue. He could also see some cliffy mountains to the north-east. By all means this place should be preferable. Having been on the brink of starving Corvus, Bent Wing, and all the rest of the second and third generations began scouring for food. Once he satisfied his hunger, Corvus noticed that Matty, One Feather and One Eye were all keeping a vigilant watch on the surroundings. 'Three?!' he exclaimed. He had never seen more than one do sentry duty before. Eventually White Wings, Speckles and Aver took over allowing the older birds to get their own food.

It wasn't long before he encountered the reason for this heightened state of alert. It turned out to be because of a small cat, it looked something like a tiger but lacked the tigers imposing nature. It was however still very much a predator. It attacked when Corvus and Bent Wing left sentry duty just as One Feather and One Eye were going on.

It happened so fast that all any of them had time to do was notice and scold the emaciated cat with a half caw. In that time, the tiger creature pinned One Feather to the ground with a leap. Closing it's jaw around One Feather's head the other crows collective calls ended at the exact moment a sickening sound between a crunch and a pop broke forth. The birds that hadn't been here before were shocked taking a little longer to react. This gave the vicious predator enough time to catch two more of the yearlings killing them both.

Corvus was in a daze but somehow managed to take off. The entire group flew towards the cliffs he saw earlier separating back into their families as they took up what ledges they could find to perch on. The brutality of it all shocked Corvus. More because unlike with the snake he didn't see how any of them had a chance to even drive off the cat let alone fight against it. He felt like throwing up, but his body didn't comply.

His mind was reeling, he couldn't help but blame himself. 'If I had just waited. Even a few seconds. I would have been able to warn the others.' That night he didn't get any sleep at all.

Author's Note

There's number two. Three and Four will appear sometime in the next eight hours.

I know this one was short but because of the breaking points in the text I wrote one of them was always going to be and I wanted to leave you hang on the new goals for a bit.

Comments, corrections and ratings are always appreciated. I read all of them. Hope you enjoyed it.

P.S. Made a cover. It's far from amazing but as I'm not an artist or a painter it's as good as I can do.

Edit: Preventative measure I forgot to install in this note previously: Whales are mammals not fish.