Crows and Owls: An Ancient War

When Crow first found itself upon the earth, it wondered at its purpose.

“You must make sure the dead never tell their secrets,” God told Crow.

“What secrets?” Crow asked, to which God leaned in and whispered in Crow’s ear.

Upon learning the secrets of the dead, Crow’s feathers turned deepest black, for black is the color of the silence kept by the dead and by the night.

Crow took its duty quite seriously, and wherever the dead could be found, Crow would quickly follow to make sure the bodies did not speak.

One day, as dusk crawled across a winter’s sky, Owl, with its silent wings, stumbled upon Crow in conversation with the body of a deer who had met its unfortunate end. Owl, too curious for his own good, leaned in and overheard the forbidden secrets of the dead.

As Owl learned these truths, its eyes grew wide with surprise. It could not help but let a gasp slip from its mouth, to which Crow learned of his eavesdropper’s presence. Filled with shame at having failed its task, it begged Owl to tell no one of what it had heard, but the secret was too much for Owl not to share. In possession of the secret, Owl grew to prefer the nighttime, filling night’s silence with its haunting call, asking ‘Who, who, who would lend their ear so that he might unburden himself of the secret he had learned?’

From that day on, Crow made a vow that he would make things right. Wherever his ancestors went they would hunt owls, until once more the secret of the dead belonged only to its rightful keepers.