"Shareef, take the noblemen and escort them to the front gate. Don't come to my office until I call for you," the Prince walked away.
It was evening by the time the meetings had ended, and he knew the transformation was going to start. He quickly headed to his office and locked the big doors. He stripped his jacket coat off and threw it on his sofa as he took a suppressant to reduce the pain of the transformation. In a few minutes, his body was tingling and in the next moment, he became a crow.
He flew around for a bit before perching atop the windowsill. His transformation depends on the number of times he takes his suppressants. Usually, he would go heavy on the suppressants in the evening and delay his transformation until sometime in the middle of the night.
'Let's just get this over with.'
He flew out the window and immediately shot out to the sky. He felt the wind blow through his feathers as he soared higher and flew faster. He looked out as other birds flew in the same direction as him. He dipped and touched his wings to the cool water and a straight line cut through the still water, sending ripples everywhere. He soared through trees and watched the last sun raws dance between the leaves and shimmer on the ground.
He quickly flew through Pereshwar and entered Karandish. As always the sounds and lights were loud as usual but he wasn't looking forward to that. Quickly seating himself down at the Thelowar's mansion, he watched for a familiar figure. He waited like that for a while before he heard a door being opened and a few chattering people exiting out. He looked down at the heads of people coming out and felt a bit disappointed.
'She might have not worked today.'
He decided to occupy himself with other thoughts and decided to just enjoy the night looking at the darkening sky. But, the stars didn't shine. The moon didn't look as bright as it did yesterday.
'Shit, why do I feel so restless,' the crow kept on feeling irritated as it shook out its wings and tried to lean back against the stone wall.
His eyes kept glancing towards the heads of the people coming out.
'Maybe she already left.'
He felt even more annoyed.
'Shit'
He took off into the air and flew towards the dessert.
'She might be at the dessert.'
He flew the same path that she took yesterday. In the distance, he saw smoke flowing up into the air.
'That's strange…'
As he flew towards the smoke, he noticed a few pieces of discarded clothing. The wind blowing across the desert decreased so the objects left on the ground were more visible to see. A few pieces of clothes covered with blood laid on the ground. The crow snapped his neck up.
'What if she…!'
He zoomed to the site of the smoke and carnage as fast as his wings took him. An overturned car laid at the bottom of a bed of rocks and he flew around it to inspect it.
'There is no dried blood in the car. The pieces of clothing back there looked like a boy's clothing. What if there was a hassle between the driver and the passenger? What if she wasn't even involved in this whole ordeal?'
'But, it was definitely weird that the van overturned in an area like this.'
The crow looked at the track marks and saw that it climbed to the top of the hill.
'This is definitely weird.'
He flew to the top of the hill.
'So, it rolled down here?'
The crow looked down at the car.
'Why would the driver even drive the car up here, if it was going to topple over anyways? There's a lot on the other side of the town if I remember clearly,' the crow shook its head, 'thank the lord, I banned their entrance into any towns or cities.'
The crow perched atop a tree.
'No little thug today.'
The crow went stiff for a second.
'It's not like I wanted to see her, anyway.'
The crow huffed and looked at the billowing smoke before he heard a sound of pounding feet coming from somewhere behind him on the ground. He closed his eyes and didn't turn his head to see.
'It's probably not her.'
A wind started to pick up all of a sudden. It rustled the leaves against each other and the crow focused on that. Suddenly, a person whooshed by. The crow's eyes snapped open.
'Is that her…?'
He saw a familiar cloaked figure and his eyes widened even more.
'It's her!'
She bounded from rock to rock as her head turned frantically. Her quiet moves were fast and in a matter of seconds, she was down the hill, and then she stopped.
'What happened…' The crow flew over and landed on the car.
She kneeled on the ground and her hands were on the ground. She looked like she was shaking.
'Is she crying?' the crow felt worried, 'What do I do?'
She stayed like that and small sounds of whimpers escaped her. The crow immediately flew over. The girl snapped her head in his direction. She covered her mouth and crawled away.
'Wait, don't-'
But, she already started sprinting in the opposite direction.
'You!'
He started to fly after her, a vein in his head popped.
'Why do you keep running away from me?'
He saw her wipe her face and he hesitated for a bit. He slowed down his flying and let the girl go.
'I'll follow from behind.'
She ran away and searched left and right.
'What are you even looking for?'
The crow was confused as to why he was feeling so concerned. He felt even more concerned as to why she was out so late. He followed after her.
"...Leela! Where are you?" her pained voice shouted into the distance.
'How long was she shouting for her voice to sound so hoarse?'
It was around night time and she was still screaming for Leela to come out. She ran and ran without stopping, screaming the same name. It was over an hour now. She ran all throughout the town searching in alleyways and in trash bins.
'She should just go home.' The crow unknowingly started to look for this Leela person.
".....I hate him so much….I hate him…" she looked up at the sky.
Her chest heaved and she was tired. They came back to the hill again. She sat down on a rock and looked defeated. The crow perched down beside her. He knew that she knew he was there. He felt a bit better that she didn't run away this time. Out of nowhere, she started angrily cursing at someone.
"Those damned pieces of shit! Flaunting their frickin' asses into my home like their some type of high-level bitches," she fumed as she took pieces of bread out of her cloak.
She angrily ate her bread and the crow sat there shocked. He laughed at the sudden outburst.
'How does she change so quickly from being sad to a cussing tyrant?'
"Squawk, squawk, squawk!"
The crow shut his beak. The girl snapped her head towards him.
'Shit, why do I have to sound so goddamn annoying?'
The crow made a mental note to never laugh in front of the girl. But he couldn't help it. Everything she did amused him, and he shook his head as he tried to stop thinking of thoughts that made him squawk randomly.
"You horny crow! Why do you keep following me?" she raged at him.
Even though she said that she still gave him a piece of her bread.
The crow felt himself smile as the girl turned away from him.
'So damn cute,' the crow thought while looking at her.
The crow had to do a double-take.
'The hell…? What am I thinking?'