Chapter 54: Brave Cowardice
Stepping on a core was beyond Vorin’s understanding. He didn’t know where this was going, and he didn’t like the fact that he had to gut a squirrel just to step on some odd gem afterwards, but despite his disgust, he was too invested already, so he did what he was told.
The gem shattered the moment he stepped on it. He barely touched it, really, and yet the gem exploded in thousands of disappearing fragments.
A silver mist erupted as soon as the gem broke. The mist then compressed itself into a thin strand of light. It was almost beautiful to look at.
"Is that supposed to kill the squirrel twice?" Vorin asked, "We’re wasting time here, brother."
"Are we?" He smirked, "The squirrel is as dead as a squirrel can be, but tell me, do you feel any different?"
"I feel that we’re wasting time," Vorin doubled down, stubborn as a mule.
"God, I keep forgetting how stupid crows are." His smirk shifted to a frown, "Let me make this easy for you. Think about spikes."
"Spikes?" Vorin parroted, and he was close to losing what remained of his patience.
Within the blink of an eye, a couple of spikes appeared on the top of Vorin’s head. He felt a light pressure there, but he thought that he was nurturing a fresh headache. He didn’t know there were spikes on his head, and wouldn’t have guessed in a million years.
Luckily, those spikes were followed by a layer that spread across his entire body, except his feet.
"I feel weird," Vorin said.
Afterwards, as he wobbled his head left and right to see what was going on, he saw the tens of one-inch spikes that had spread across his body.
"What?" Vorin exclaimed, "You turned me into a squirrel?!"
"No, you’re still a crow," He tried to hold his laugh in, "But you just stole the main evolution that the squirrels have, which is their spiky armor. Congratulations."
"Oh, right," Vorin calmed down a little bit, "I heard White Blade mention that you have the spiky armor as well. It’s how you managed to save him, right?"
"It came in handy, yes," He nodded, "But I would’ve died at least seven times or something if Virena didn’t help me."
"Virena..." Vorin repeated, "Your bug friend, right?"
"Yes," He said.
Vorin felt overwhelmed. He did not expect to whip out spiky armor today, it was a lot to take in. He didn’t understand how his body could suddenly produce this armor, it didn’t feel natural, but he was excited to put his armor to use nonetheless.
"We have to tell the other crows about this!" Vorin exclaimed, "Equipped with these spikes, we might even be able to fight the squirrels one-on-one!"
"Have fun with that," He flapped his right wing as if to shoo his brother away, "You guys should try and crush as many cores as possible, once you steal the armor from the squirrels, that is. It’ll help you evolve your armor to the maximum."
"You’re not coming?" Vorin cocked his head back, offended, "But White Blade wants to see you."
"He may want to see me, but he doesn’t need me," He tried to excuse himself, "I killed the Fire Mage, I killed plenty of ravens and squirrels, and I just taught you how to harvest squirrels for Beast Cores. You guys can finish this war without me, right? For a banished guy, I helped more than enough."
Vorin did not know how to respond. For once, he was more confused than he was upset. It took him a while to muster the right words to say.
"But you were the one who said that we’re losing the war, and I was under the impression that you wanted to prevent that. That has to be why you just helped me get this spiky armor." Vorin pointed out, "You’re not making any sense, brother, why back out of the war now? We’re in too deep."
"Too deep, eh?" He parroted. "Tell me, how self-deluded do you have to be to demand my help, the crow you all hate?"
Before Vorin could say anything, he fiercely added, "You’re conveniently forgetting that I suffered for nothing, and I was banished for nothing! The same elders who beat up our father because they were trying to avoid a war, started two damn wars in a random morning! Fuck this war! Go finish it yourselves. I helped you enough, and I refuse to keep being drawn into it."
"You were not banished for nothing, brother, you’re remembering it wrong. Other than that, your banishment has nothing to do with the war, but if you want to take that route to abandon the war, then there is nothing I could do to stop you." Vorin said, and prepared to leave, but his anger got the best of him, so he added, "You know, after you got banished, I still called you my brother, even if I got shit from everyone because of it, but now, I’m starting to think they may have had a point. It’s impossible to have your back, nevertheless call you my brother! You stink of trouble."
Jimmy got the urge to tear his brother apart, but he resisted. He knew very well that the community of crows were set in their ways, and it would take a miracle to change their minds, so he did nothing. He got what he wanted already, he abandoned the war.
As for Vorin, he looked like he felt guilty for lashing out, so before he left, he said, "Be careful out there. If squirrels corner you, they won’t care if you’re banished or not."
Jimmy disregarded his brother’s advice. He didn’t care for it, and watched him fly away.
Razor Squirrels horrified him, yes, as they had nearly killed him before in a way so brutal that his feathers jerked up every time he recalled it. He feared them, but at the same time, he knew that he could kill them easily now thanks to the advancements he made. His feelings about them were a paradox.
Speaking of paradoxes, he also began to feel conflicted about abandoning the war.
Abandoning his family, and his community who had initially abandoned him, sounded logical. He felt that he should’ve done it a long time ago, if he hadn’t been so stubborn.
However, regardless of how logical his decision seemed, he still felt like a coward. He felt spineless.
He found that it required a ridiculous amount of will-power to do the right thing. Abandoning those who wronged him, after being so invested in their affairs, required a sort of iron-spine that he was yet to comprehend, and yet he felt spineless for doing so. He never felt both this brave and cowardly in his life!
It was a hard decision to make, but he was happy that he took at least one definite step towards a silent type of justice.
Anyway, Jimmy did not let the dismembered squirrel go to waste. He was hungry again, so he swallowed its organs one after the other, and pecked out pieces of flesh one beak-full at a time.
"It doesn’t look too rotten," He said, as his stomach gurgled, "I’ll be fine."
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