Ebb and Mulk standing on the roadside, can still hear quite clearly the jabber of the two thieves as their images grow smaller and smaller on the Two-Step Trail.
"Well… I reckon their walk will be short before they find themselves at your home," Mulk says with a slight smile crossing his lips.
"I don't understand," Ebb responds with a puzzled expression.
"Not understanding what, my friend?"
"You could have easily slain those plunderers with your magic; why didn't you?"
"… And deprive Krusher the thrill of the kill? Besides, those two scoundrels have, no doubt, robbed and murdered many times. Lady Fate, gave them to us, so they might receive their just due; an end befitting their past deeds."
With a nodding of his head, Ebb utters, "Well… then I am quite certain that the badgers, the crows, and the rats will be well fed by the time we return."
Turning to walk on down the trail, Mulk stops suddenly and motions to Claw to come closer. Launching from a nearby branch where he had been watching the drama unfold, Claw flies the short distance and lands on a stump looking as if he is a soldier standing at attention. Just as Mulk clears his throat to speak, Claw eyes a grub worm burrowing itself into the bark, and with a tilt of his head, and a squawk, he drops his head quickly to the stump and snatches it up.
'Sorry, Sir… needed a small snack. You summoned? How can I serve?" Claw cackles.
"Watch out for that bird… I tell you, he CAN'T be trusted," Ebb remarks as he turns to watch a monarch butterfly stretch its wings on a nearby wild primrose.
"I can ole' man! I can indeed!" Claw retorts quickly.
"Well, we shall see bird! We'll shall see!" says Mulk as he watches the bird curiously. "I have a task for you. Fly back to the cabin and keep a watch on those two thieves… encourage them if you must… and then report back when they have been dispatched; is that understood?"
"Caaaaa! Indeed it is understood! I can be a spy of sorts! I like it!" Claw proclaims. "I will be back shortly… I can't imagine it will take Krusher long to deal these two scoundrels into their graves!" With a ruffling of feathers, Claw sets wing towards Ebb's hovel.
Claw, arriving ahead of the two men, waits on a low branch of a crabapple tree that throws a cooling shadow over the path leading to the entrance.
Craning his head to see down the path, Claw waits, rocking back and forth until he hears, the now whispers, of the marauders.
The shorter of the two, stopping and placing his hands on his hips, exclaims within earshot of Claw, "NO ONE with any riches be living in THIS shack! We have certainly been tricked! I say we head back; find those old men and END them! I fancy having that blade with the carved handle; fancy it, I do!"
With a loud cackle, Claw smugly answers and responds, "CAAAAA! I think that wise, gentlemen. There is NO GOLD I say… NO GOLD at all!"
Startled and spinning around to look in the direction of the voice, the taller yells, "Who be there?"
With a human-like laugh and a snappy comeback, Claw replies, "I be here and WHO be you?"
"Well… I'll be damned! It's a talking crow!"
"CAAAAA! And damned you'll be! There is no gold… best be on your way, I say!"
"It's a trick!" the shorter one blurts out. "This crow has been trained to speak this; to protect the gold I say!"
"Ah… to protect the gold, indeed. Looks as if the dweller, has gone just as the ole' man had said. I'm going to get inside; this shall be a quick in and out and the gold be ours."
Reaching for and turning the door latch, the taller one hears a low guttural growl emanate from within. Stepping back away from the door, he sees the door rattle.
"Sounds like a dog… and a big mean one at that. I'm going to check around back and see if there is another entry, perhaps near the fireplace… perhaps a way I can crawl under the floor."
"CAAAAA! There is NO GOLD…. Why not leave with your lives while you can! CAAAAA!" Claw screams as he follows the two around to the back of the house.
"Maybe we should listen?" the shorter one, now cowering, speaks.
"Nonsense! As you said, the crow has been trained to protect the gold."
As the two men scurry around back, growls grow louder inside the cool darkness of the shanty. Finding an opening that looks to be big enough to climb down into, the two men begin to pull away the loose rocks of the foundation.
Seeing the size of the opening, the shorter and fatter of the two notes, "There is no way I can fit down in there. I will stand, watch and pull you out with the gold as need be."
As the taller one kneels down to the mouth of the opening he slips off his overclothes pushing them to the side of the cranny. Pulling his rounded belly in, the determined invader snakes his way down into the cool, moist space; breathing in the mustiness of the years and leaving only his lower legs exposed to the outside world.
"See anything?" his comrade on the outside yells.
"Yeah! Trying to reach it now…. Think I see…." As the conversation is split by a blood-curdling scream, the tearing of flesh; the breaking of bones, and the bellows of a creature not known to man.
Frozen with fear, the fat thief grabs the legs of his partner and feels them shaking, go stiff, and then limp before he could even begin to pull him from the chasm. Pulling his partner from the underbelly of the shack, he finds him unrecognizable; the features of his face gone, with only shreds of bloodied flesh remaining and his hands and arms flopping about like those of a ragdoll, the bones of his limbs now in mere fragments.
Feeling the color leave his face, he kneels there in shock, not knowing which way to turn. Taking a deep breath and feeling his head begin to clear, he rises from the corpse of his now-dead cohort and runs labored steps back towards the front of the house and hopefully the safety of the path from which they had come. As he reaches the tree where the crow had first greeted them, the front door of the shanty opens with a loud creak. There, standing in front of him is the iridescent outline of what appears to be a wolf; opaque crimson red blood dripping from its fangs and creating a pool at its feet. Completely numbed by what is in his view, the would-be robber turns to run but finds his muscles unable to respond to his brain's commands. Turning, as if in slow motion, in the direction of the wolf, he sees the creature now moving towards him. With a single lunge Krusher with, jaws open wide, crushes the thief's arm as he tries to shield his throat. The sound of crushing bone fills his ears as he falls to the ground writhing in pain. Now lying in the bloodied dust and rock, Krusher standing over him; the once cocky and mouthy marauder stares into the luminous red eyes of the wolf with an unspoken understanding this BE his just due. Closing his eyes, Krusher tears out his throat… the pain is gone and only darkness remains.