Assassin Crow Evolution

Jimmy was not hesitant to give the cores to the volunteering crows. He informed them of the dangers, but they still insisted on taking the cores.

They practically wanted to snatch the cloth beneath his claw, and it was greed like that which completely detached him from guilt.

Nevertheless, he wanted to keep order, so he didn’t simply throw the cloth at them. He aimed to distribute the cores, one test subject at a time. It would also be easier to observe the results that way.

With only three cores to give, he had the power to choose which of the ten volunteers got them. He could feel that they wanted to coax him somehow, he could see it in their eyes, and yet, they had nothing to coax him with.

They had nothing to offer as a trade, so he got to distributing the cores before they got desperate, and tried anything rash.

Opening the cloth, he then flicked one of the cores away with a stick, adamant on touching it himself, at least until he knew if it was actually safe to absorb it.

Despite the order he tried to encourage, the volunteers toppled over one another, ignoring the single-file line, eager to snatch the core for themselves.

"Jesus, calm down!" He exclaimed, "Order!"

The crows did not listen. By now he knew that one of them touched, and cracked the blue one open, but he didn’t know which one of them did so.

It didn’t help that the crows were still wrestling with one another, as if there was more of the core to share.

As the small dust cloud cleared, eventually, and the crows calmed down, the first thing he noticed was that there was no real difference amongst any one of them.

They didn’t explode in size, or transform into some other form of an eldritch horror. They simply still looked the same.

"Okay, who absorbed the core?" He asked.

The frantic volunteers did not answer.

"Anyone?" He pressured, "One of you had to have absorbed it. I doubt that you managed to stuff it up your arses."

Still, neither of them answered.

Jimmy couldn’t figure out why neither of them stepped forward, or at least made it known that they absorbed the core, but then he recalled the default behavioural patterns of anything remotely sentient, or conscious.

Greediness.

"So one of you motherfuckers wants to snatch two cores, huh?" He asked, "Okay, let’s make it simple, then. No more cores for any of you until one of you steps forward."

Jimmy realized that this demand was a mistake as soon as he said it. He realized that any greedy bastard would love it if the rest could not absorb a core.

Hosting test subjects was far more difficult than he expected it to be. He was under the impression that he would’ve been in charge of the process, but the pettiness of the average crow was so flagrant that it complicated things beyond bounds.

Neither of them stepped forward, and so he was ready to wrap this up, and take the cores back home, as after all, he too could be petty, but then, something abrupt happened.

One of the crows within the murder, suddenly leaped ten meters, or a bit over thirty feet above the ground without even slightly moving their wings!

"Ah, there we go," He said.

The crow spread his wings, so as to assure a safe landing, and Jimmy waited below.

"Your legs look normal," He approached, "They still look the same. If you tell me how you jumped that high, I’ll forgive you for hiding your new evolution."

"I wish I could tell you," The crow, a male, answered, "But I didn’t even know I touched the core. I was waiting for anyone else to step up, and admit to it."

"I’m tempted to believe you. Cores can be confusing, but this was no simple evolution. You must have felt something, man, you’re basically like a crow-sized mantis now." He argued, "You were just being a prick."

"I promise, I didn’t know!" The crow insisted.

"It doesn’t matter now," He sighed, "I can’t give you more than two cores anyway, so get out of here. Enjoy your new evolution. Maybe it’ll help you to seek out your own cores, instead of trying to leech off of others."

"That’s rude," The crow said.

Initially, he wanted to argue with Jimmy on the matter, but he was smart enough to consider the risks. Despite popular beliefs, Jimmy was still the strongest crow within the community, he was full of surprises, so he didn’t want to risk the slightest chance of getting in a physical fight with him.

Instead, he swallowed his pride, and took off. He landed on a tree nearby, curious as to who would get the next couple of cores.

As for Jimmy, he turned to his group, and said, "Well, at least we know what the blue cores do now. Do you guys find it useful?"

"It could be, if either of us get cornered by stronger beasts." Vorin added.

"I wouldn’t find myself cornered by a beast," Zoey said, "I’ll have to pass on the blue ones. I want to keep my skills pure."

"Fair enough," He nodded.

Afterwards, he slapped the red core with his stick, tossing it at the murder of crows.

The crows started fighting for the core like cartoon characters once more. They didn’t care to maintain order, and at this point, he didn’t care enough to encourage it either. He figured that if one of them died, the rest would fall in line as a result.

The crow who stumbled on to the core, could not hide it this time around, even if she planned to do so.

A horrid caw slipped past her beaks, stripping her off of gender, identity, and nearly her soul in the process. Jimmy was nearly sure he heard a bear’s last, painful roar as it submitted to an eternal slumber.

Panic overwhelmed him, and he looked around, looking for the bear. It took him a moment to realize that it was a crow who howled, when he saw one of them barrel-rolling across the ground.

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