A forest, ravaged by dark magic, devoid of all forms of life that were too weak to handle such levels of dark magic, a spell was casted here, a spell to drain all life.
Not even bones remained, grass not just wilting but decayed, gone with the wind that blew it away, the trees, once vibrant, all of different colours and shapes. Bearing fruits of such delicacy that even the Primordials would relish in joy at their wondrous taste.
They now stand, grey and devoid of the life they had, so fragile that they could break with a touch, slowly falling apart as time passed.
Even the air felt like a cold wind that carried the feeling of death along with it, not even the Sun seemed to want to shine upon this wretched place any longer, the skies were covered in thick dark clouds but no rain came, as these clouds simply carried no water in them.
And in the egde of this very same forest was a massive tree, standing at about 200 feet or so tall, easily 25 feet in radius. Atop the massive branches of this tree, sat five crows of different colours at various parts of their body.
Blue Beak: Man I am starving!
The crow with the blue beak spoke out, dramatically holding it's belly as it layed atop the branch. Another turned its head towards Blue Beak, clearly annoyed.
Red Talon: Shut the caw up Blue Beak! I am tired of hearing you complain!
Red Talon, as his name suggested, had tolans that were a faint colour of red, not from blood but from birth. Blue Beak raised his head and looked towards Red Talon.
Blue Beak:What!? You got a problem with me complaining!?
Blue Beak rose to his feet, his eyes fierce as if ready to fight.
Green Eyes: You two better not fight, we are already starving as we are, best not to waste our energy with one another.
Green Eyes spoke out to mediate the tension between the two, though they wouldn't have really tried that hard to hurt each other, it was still a waste of energy.
Red Talon: Yeah yeah, whatever.
Blue Beak: *mumbling under his breath*
The two agreed with what the smartest of their group had to say, wasting energy on such pointless things wouldn't do them any good.
Black Fur: Ha! I win again!
Black Fur, the most intimidating of the group shouted out in triumph, he and Yellow Wings were playing a game of Tic-Tac-Crow using the decaying piece of branch. Though, unknown how, Black Fur was somehow able to cheat in this game.
Yellow Wings: I am bored out of my mind, if it weren't for that goddamn old man.
Yellow Wings, with his faint golden yellow wings fell back onto the branch on his back.
Yellow Wings: We have been starving for four days now, nothing to eat in sight. Even if we were to fly at max speed we will die of hunger before we can even reach halfway.
The others nodded their heads, it truly had been quite some time since they last ate anything. Eating the soil was not a viable option as it could kill them immediately, the soil was filled with dark mana, the mana would destroy them from the inside if they ate it.
The trees were also in the same boat, they could not be eaten, they wouldn't have provided much nutrition either way.
Red Talon: You know, we could try to hunt the snake?
The other four turned their eyes towards him.
Blue Beak: What snake?
Red Talon: The one that lives in the chasm.
Silence, absolute silence, they looked at Red Talon as if looking at a retard.
Green Eyes: Oh, you mean hunt the snake that is as tall, not long, but is almost as tall as this tree?
Black Fur: Are you out of your mind?
Blue Beak: And here I thought I was the crazy one.
Blue Beak whispered to Yellow Wings as Yellow Wings nodded his, agreeing with what Blue Beak said.
Red Talon: We could try.
Black Fur: How? Drop rocks at it? Try to peck it? Or should we summon the Great Ash and make it fight the snake? Are you listening to how dumb that sounds!
Blue Beak: Absolute bozo!
Green Eyes: Let's not be too harsh on our friend here, hunger has clearly made him brain dead.
Red Talon: What other choice do we have? Besides starving!
Such true words from someone who gave such a stupid idea, in the end they were still starving and maybe going out while fighting a big ass snake could be considered cooler than starving to death.
Even in such a dire situation, none of them ever thought of eating one another, not because they weren't aware of it, the idea of performing such a vile act upon each was completely snuffed out of their subconscious mind.
They knew that even if they themselves took their own life, the others would refuse to feast on their body, choosing to instead find a place to keep a body, where they all can die together.
Yellow Wings: If it wasn't for that damn old man!
A month or so ago this place was still filled with life, but a shady ass old man wearing a red robe while holding a wooden staff with the skull of a bird on top of it teleported into the middle of the forest. Mana swirled around him as he stabbed one end of his staff into the ground. His other hand held an item that disintegrated as soon as his staff struck the ground.
A wave of black mana emerged from where he struck, killing anything that it hit, even the soil and trees and the animals, monsters, everything. Sweeping through the entire island in a matter of moments. The crooked old man let out a maniacal laughter, throwing his head back, revealing his withered face.
His wrinkly old face quickly regained vitality and with a wave of his wand, he released a powerful blast that destroyed large section of the island. The island was now smaller than its original size, but the old man dared not stay long, he could clearly feel a massive beast slithering towards him.
The old man was able to teleport away before a massuve maw, lined with sharp fangs struck where he was, creating a massive chasm and making the remaining land crack and break apart even further.
These five crows had seen it all and were the only beings that survived until now besides the massive serpent. Any other strong creature was hunted down by the snake, the last other strong life form was killed five days ago, the crows scavenged on the remains, it only fed them for a day. The only other life forms were the worms.
Green Eyes: Well, at least we remember that old man's face and if we ever get strong we could hunt him down.
Red Talon: If we live that is. We may not even survive for much longer.
Black Fur: Well luck could shine upon us.
Red Talon: Not likely.
Black Fur: It could.
Red Talon: No.
Yellows Wings placed a wing around Red Talon.
Yellow Wings: Don't be such a negative bird, look at the bright side-
Red Talon gave Yellow Wings a fierce glare, Yellow Wings was the most optimistic out of the five. And sometimes that optimism could be quite annoying.
Red Talon: Oh yeah? What bright side is there to look at!? We are several miles away from the closest land with any food, we don't even have enough energy to fly for two hours! That is not enough time for us to even leave this island! There is nothing for us to eat!
Blue Beak: Well we are on an island surrounded by sea, there are probably fishes in the ocean-
Red Talon: The sides of the island are lined with worms that will eat us! Their mere presence is enough of a deterrent to chase away any fish! The ones that remain are all bigger and stronger than all of us combined!
Red Talon's talon was glowing a brighter red, it happened everytime he was enraged or angry. The others looked towards Yellow Wings, he immediately knew what to do.
Yellow Wings raised his wing and slapped Red Talon's head to the bark of the branch, due to how fragile the branch was it immediately collapsed. Breaking apart and falling to the ground, shattering on impact. Red Talon flew up from the smoke, the red glow now gone.
Yellow Wings: You calm now or do you need another smack?
Red Talon: Yeah, I'm calm now.
Whenever Red Talon got angry, Yellow Wings' job was to knock some sense into him. The others couldn't do the same as Red Talon would throw claws with them. Yellow Wings was able to only because both him and Red Talon came from the same mother, brothers.
The group flew to another branch, they all kicked it lightly to see if it could handle their weight. Well, the first one instantly broke apart and hence, they moved to the next, and the next, and the next until they found one strong enough to handle their weight.
Black Fur: This one seems more firm than the others.
Green Eyes' eyes glowed a faint green, analysing the branch they were now perched on.
Green Eyes: Likely because it is the "centre" of this tree.
Blue Beak and Black Fur got on their bird knees, joining their wings in a praying position.
Blue Beak: Oh Great Ash, we humbly pray to you, please rain down food upon us.
Green Eyes: Food just can't fall out of the sky, there is literally nothing above us-
??????: AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
A scream came from the sky, like a scream for help as the crows all looked up to the sky.
Black Fur: Blue Beak! The Great Ash has answered our prayers!!
Green Eyes: How the fu-