Crows Are Not To Play With Snakes

[Juno. 1276]

Accompanying Music

 

[!] Pinned to every road sign across the realm is a charcoal sketch on frayed parchment, delusional ramblings neatly written below in a deep, tenebrous ink that seems to catch no light.

 

 

Crows are not to play with snakes, no matter how shiny their scales and luminescent their eyes.

 

Crows are not to play with snakes, no matter how sweetly they hiss or how enchantingly they move.

 

Crows are not to play with snakes no matter how small they may seem, no matter how weak they appear.

 

For even the tiniest serpent can carry the most deadly venom.

 

I flew too close to the nest, was too entranced by reptilian ways.

 

I leaned in too closely as forked tongue whispered promises to me, ignored natural instinct to turn and flee.

 

Oh how quickly did such body wrap around my small frame, how expertly did fangs sink into my flesh, how agonizingly slow does the poison course throughout my veins.

 

For years I have been constricted, and for many more will I continue to be, I suspect until the end of time.

 

I know the venom will never kill me, and I’ll never have the strength to break free from the body coiled tightly around my own.

 

But perhaps I have been ungrateful; perhaps I can’t truly complain.

 

For even though I will never fly free again, the snake has kept every vow it ever made.

 

What a small price to pay.

[Bhased 3587]

Tilruir'tir of Joma regards the umpteenth sketch of a crow and a snake in his travels with the irritation one gets after getting the same youtube ad thrice in a row.