CHAPTER TEN: {THE DANCE}
Crow awoke to a gray morning that matched her mood. She didn’t know what to do, or where to go, so she flew to the very top of the tallest tree, hoping for a better view of the world around her. But everything was swallowed in mist and low-lying clouds. Nothing had gone right since she left the mountain. No one understood her in this far off forest. She might as well just go home. At the thought of home, Crow felt a longing for her own nest and the familiar faces of her family. The feeling was so strong she began flying in that direction at once. With each pump of her wings through the heavy morning air, she became more and more determined to put this whole journey to rest. She would simply make up a story to tell her family, something that would help keep them from going to war…
But with those thoughts she remembered why she left. And she knew, deep down, that no one at home would understand her either. She swooped in low, unsteady circles until she decided that, if she was going to be misunderstood everywhere, she might as well be misunderstood in her own home. Eventually she neared the mountain. As the trees grew sparse and gray stone faces appeared, she remembered the roses and their odd laughter. Maybe she would see more of them, here on the side of the mountain!
That was the first pleasant thought she’d had all day—but when she landed to rest her wings there were no roses in sight. Her mood got worse and worse. She began picking up small rocks and seed husks and collecting them on a nearby tree branch. When she had a sizable collection she settled grumpily up on the branch and began flicking them onto the ground below. She hoped this game would distract her from how upset she was feeling, but she also secretly hoped to hit some unsuspecting creature on the head and amuse herself with their surprise.
But Crow was the one who got a surprise when she kicked a rock into the brush and heard a snake hiss with displeasure.
“What is thisss?” said one voice. “A ssstone on my nose?”
“Oh! Sorry!” Crow squawked.
“It’s a gift from a ssstormy bird crow I see!” This was a different snake voice, with a deeper rumble underneath the hissing. She flew down to meet the two snakes, knowing she probably owed them an apology. Besides, she had been pretty lonely all day and hadn’t talked to snakes in a long time.
“Hi. Hello. I am sorry for the stone on your nose—” But she was cut off by one of them whose golden patterns hypnotized her slightly as the snake moved.
“No sorry necessary, ssstormy bird crow. You struck your quarry ssso I salute you.”
“My quarry? Oh, no, I wasn’t aiming for you at all, I was just—” And again she was interrupted.
“Jussst what, bird crow?” The golden snake’s voice grew more intense, “tosssing ssstones for no reassson at all? With no sense of what is ssstirring in you? Sssomething must be stirring in you.. Some anger perhapssss?”
Crow paused, and then spoke quietly, “Yeah, I guess I am angry.” She was too tired to argue with what she knew was true. She was upset. And she was throwing rocks because she was upset. And, she even thought to herself that she wanted to hit someone…
“That’sss right” the snake said, as if she heard Crow’s thoughts. “You have reasons in you to jussstify your violence.”
There was something about that word, violence. Crow shivered as the snake drew out the word into four whole syllables, vi-oh-linsss-uh. Wasn’t preventing violence the whole reason she left on this journey to begin with? And here she was, being violent for no other reason except that she was upset.
“You’re right,” She admitted, “I have been violent, and I don’t like and I will never throw rocks again!”
“Rocksss have less to do with thisss than feeeeelingsss, sssstormy bird crow,” said the gold patterned snake as she slithered closer to Crow. “You sssay you don’t want vi-o-lence but can you sssay you’ll not get angry? What do rocksss matter when your anger staysss hungry? Would you truly deny yourssself a meal?”
Crow was a little confused by the notion of her anger being hungry, but she was intrigued. “You mean throwing the rocks is a way to satisfy my anger, and even if I don’t throw rocks I’ll still have this anger that wants to be satisfied?”
“Yessss bird crow, alwaysss important to feed your feelingsss or elsssse they will make a meal out of you.” And the golden snake flicked out her tongue as though suddenly interested in having a meal.
Crow hopped backward awkwardly, remembering that some snakes like to eat birds and their eggs, and that her people have also been known to eat snakes from time to time. “I don’t want to fight with you!” she said, retreating to a nearby branch. “I’d like to be friends!”
“Friendsssss” rumbled the darker snake, emerging now fully into the daylight with gleaming scales. “Friendsssss hold a sssmall ssspace for ssstrife between them. A sssssafe sssspace to hisssss.” And the two snakes began to dance, winding around each other and hissing, darting their tongues out in a kind of play fight that Crow watched from above.
Their gleaming shapes twisted and curled and the snakes began to look like rivers. Something in their dance began to flicker and move inside her, too. A pressure she’d been feeling since she first landed in this strange forest, since she first talked to the stag, finally began to burst and flow.