Day Three--The Challenge

Jar-ed and Frait

Frait woke up on Day Three hearing bad news. Jar-ed was dancing.

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Jar-ed had woken up 5 minutes earlier, and he was feeling really, really good. Perhaps the best he had ever felt. Life energy was coursing through him, and he ruffled his feathers from front to back and reversed again, capturing fresh morning air as a perfect addition to the vibration emanating from deep inside him.

He knew he was feeling this good because of his success with the tree.

The tree really had lived up to the hype. There were now at least 150 ravens in the immediate vicinity who had found cool enough spots to hang out and sleep, and socialize, with only some, the original discovering group and a lucky few who had acted early, hanging out in the main tree.

The tree's key feature was you could always see it, wherever you happened to be flying, if you were close by or far away. The hunt for the perfect aesthetic landmark that all ravens could agree on and that everyone could see was much much harder than it seemed. It had to stand out, and it had to be beautiful, so beautiful and striking that ravens wouldn't have to think about it or practice it, the thing would just demand such attention.

This orienting feature was rare in its totality, and the neighborhood had filled out better than he could have ever imagined. It just worked out for everyone with the tree at the center, and it felt good. All the birds felt the same buzz of joy--a town coming together naturally, where they could socialize and help each other become better ravens without cutthroat competition right away.

It mattered, how beautiful the tree was, and how much it filled the surrounding area, a clearing within a bigger forest, with its character, its presence.

Jar-ed, enough reminiscing, he told himself, it wasn't doing anything to express this energy that was coursing through him, this current of excitement. The truth was he had just finished sleeping in the best spot he had ever come across within the most AMAZING tree, and discovering the tree had earned him top raven status as well! He was the top one, of every single other raven around.

It had worked out so well, beyond his wildest imaginings. In fact, he had to DANCE, right now.

And so he hopped the one, two three hops it took to get to the edge of the tree and leapt and ripped into the air with his wings.

Already the light was half again as bright and everything was visible.

Jar-ed, for fun, started sprinting on a slight upward trajectory, and then started turning slowly right.

He kept the turn a slight one, and just enjoyed the rush of powering his own flight.

After a bit he made the turn a bit tighter, then tighter, and then got the idea to really do something creative.

He began spiralling up, with tight circles making decent progress directly upward.

Whee! It still looked comfortable enough to the couple other ravens in view, but fun enough to be a worthy game.

Jar-ed leveled off and flew in a circle, round twice, ever tighter, until he straightened up and more or less hovered while still spinning around the same spot.

He stopped and held his position for a moment, stalling time, until he chose to flip over sideways, over his outstretched wing.

And again. He continued the tumble for a third time, upside down rightside up, and then got lucky.

A gust of wind into him gave him the perfect support for his tumble to extend again, and again, while dropping only a bit in height.

It was a stunt none of the others had ever seen before.

Jar-ed's mind slowed down, and he saw the final move, the way to end it epically.

He targeted the tree's extending pointing branch, and kept flipping right towards it.

2 flips, then the last one, and... he grabbed and hung on. And didn't let go.

His tree, baby. This branch. Right now. He took in the visual of the entire neighborhood. Fuck yeah.

He screamed into the world:

"I AM!" "I AM WORTHY!"

----

Frait shook his head. Jar-ed was not going to wither under pressure. And Frait wanted to do things his way, a way that would ensure that ravens would never leave this spot but would make it legendary, to be known by all ravens everywhere forever. Ravens needed to be toughened up, and Frait knew how to train them.

----

Jar-ed didn't hold the landing too long. He hopped down the branch and into his space, the best space, space of the highest quality for a raven such as himself, he was so lucky... where...

a female raven was waiting for him.

Now, Jar-ed knew this female had done this intentionally, and he had a split second decision to make: did he admire her? Was she worthy, here, now, for him?

And, he was delighted to discover, his body thought so.

She was bold. He had been bold in the last 3 days, and here he was because of it. His body liked her.

He hopped close to her and nuzzled. She nuzzled back. She cawed, once.

----

Frait heard this, he heard all of it. He couldn't help it, he had hopped as close as he dared within the tree. But now he lept out, out into the air beyond the tree.

He circled a couple times, and then dove towards Jar-ed's spot. Why wait. He had to challenge now. The new coupling would make Jar-ed's status final and permanent. It was now or never.

He dreamed of producing super ravens, as strong and as large as the world had seen, and imagined an army of future ravens produced by the fathers he would personally train.

Jar-ed would not approve of his dreams or at least he would interfere with them, and that was that. Challenge him.

Jar-ed took one moment to understand.

J: No! Why now?

F: Exactly now.

Jar-ed moved quick, fast towards Frait, and pushed him, hard, towards the edge of the interior of the tree.

J: Then move! You'll do it properly, in the air, and I'll dominate you the way you need!

Another mighty surge from Jar-ed pushed Frait out of the tree.

Jar-ed took one last look at the female then moved left to exit the tree 10 feet away from Frait.

Jar-ed simply flew higher and then directly towards Frait. Frait was again surprised at how big Jar-ed was. Jar-ed struck Frait's shoulder with his beak, hard, drawing blood, but worse, causing damage.

Frait was hampered, and Jar-ed didn't hesitate, moving in close quarters, attacking the same shoulder. He pecked violently at Frait's face, and wrenched and wrenched.

Jar-ed afforded himself a moment to back away to regroup, but renewed his aggression. His body was still feeling maximum strength and well being, and his attacks were working, so back to it... and scored again, with a sharp stab of Frait's neck.

J: CONCEDE!

Frait didn't respond, and managed to maneuver and regroup himself, and cuffed both a third and fourth foray from Jar-ed aside. Then, a success: he swooped up to attach a foot claw onto Jar'ed's shoulder and took two feathers from him.

Jar-ed, though, simply twisted around and struck Frait's belly with his beak. This was the worst blow yet, and Frait yelled in pain.

Jar-ed went back to the hurt shoulder with his sharp beak, and clamped down on it viciously.

Frait tore away and flew away. Jar-ed chased him properly, for a good three minutes, and a good distance away. And he kept up a constant trash talk chatter:

J: This is what you need, you piece of crap. Fuck with me, will you. Remember this pain...

He managed to land a perfect cuff across Frait's face and mouth.

And that was all that was said. Jar-ed left, a victor. He flew to the top of the tree's pointer branch, and screamed:

I AM!

Jar-ed then flew back to the female. She hadn't left. He took his time, and gently moved next to her without touching her. She gave in to the temptation and nuzzled him first, and was glad she had.

Jar-ed: What's your name?

Jessica told him.