The first few days were spent in the confined nest, crying our gizzards out. It seemed to be the only means of communication for us.

I quickly realized, however, that meals were not a guarantee, despite what most human scientists had said about mother ravens administering food equally to all the chicks.

With six ugly and identical motherfuckers screaming your sanity out, it wasn't hard to confuse who was fed and who wasn't. Eventually, even Mama gave up and gulped down the rest.

It became obvious that survival was for the fittest.

My role, therefore, was really simple: keep my beak wide open or I would miss my food.

Speaking of food, God, I quickly learned to gobble worms as if they were some KFC chicken.

It was something that I would never have done in all my 77 past lives combined, but what would you have me do? Starve to death?
By the time two weeks were over, we were down to four chicks, two dead from starvation.
Lucky me!

The monotonous existence had begun to wear me down already. It was a good thing, however, that by then my sight had finally come.
I, however, did not enjoy it the way my other siblings did. I mean, the world was a new thing to them, but to me, I was actually disappointed to note that there was nothing fancy about this life either.

Our nest was located on what looked like a ranch.

From the top, I could spot countless horses, chickens, and herds of cattle on the vast fields. All this, however, was nothing new to me.
Weeks turned into months, and now our feathers were well-grown, and our wings were somehow developed, but still, our parents would not let us try flying. I had, however, become tired of this type of life.

It was even made worse by the fact that as time went by, my hope and expectation of finding my golden finger began to fade. It looked as if some fucker of a god had finally decided to amuse themselves with my misery.

It was during one such freaking day when I saw a head buried in a bush of long red hair, chasing a dog on the field where the cattle were grazing.

For a while, I was envious of her carefree life. I mean, she appeared to be enjoying her life... and of course, she was human.
It was at that point that I fully began to realize just what I had lost.

She was almost at the bottom of the tree where our nest was when she turned and chased the freaking dog further into the fields.
The further she went, the more I craned my neck to have a glimpse of her until I could not take it anymore. I leaped from the nest.
My mistake immediately became apparent. First, I had never as much as stretched a wing before in free air, and even though I tried to do it now, it felt as though they were never made for such a task.

I hit the ground with a thud and let out a terrible shriek. The pain was obviously insane, but my problem was in fact far from done. A bark rang from further upfield, and I knew that my 78th fucking joke of a life was just about to end.

I had thought it would be some anaconda, not a freaking golden retriever.

The dog had reached me and was sniffing me greedily. I shut my eyes, hoping that the shit would be over as early as possible. "Jude stop," rang a voice that, for the rest of this life, would be the voice of God for me.

I cautiously opened one eye, half expecting to see the jaws of the golden retriever closing in on me. Instead, I saw a figure approaching, a human figure with long red hair flowing behind her.

She knelt beside me, her gentle hands reaching out to inspect me.

"Are you okay, little guy?" she asked, her voice soft and soothing. I blinked in surprise, unable to comprehend how she could even tell I was a 'guy' in the first place.

Feeling a mixture of fear and curiosity, I croaked out a weak response, unsure if she could even understand me. But to my amazement, she seemed to comprehend my distress.

"Don't worry, I won't let Jude hurt you," she reassured me, giving the dog a stern look as it whined and wagged its tail. With gentle hands, she scooped me up, cradling me against her chest as she examined me.

well..the chest wasn't that bad..but maybe we will talk about that later.

"You are a raven not a crow, how cute!" she exclaimed as she ruffled my feathers gently.

My beady eyes were staring at her. As she leaned in closer, her face illuminated by the soft glow of the afternoon sun, I couldn't help but be captivated by the beauty that emanated from her features.

"Well, you look stunning yourself," I croaked, knowing fully well she wouldn't understand anything.

"Ohh! That is so sweet. You know what, it might be me but I think you just said I look stunning."

'What the fuck?' Did she just quote the words I had croaked? But... I had said them in the raven tongue... which is basically a meaningless croak as far as any human is concerned.

So how the hell did this girl understand what I had said?
It did not make much sense, so I wrote it off as a coincidence. From her face, I could see that she too had a confused look on her face.
"Ok! How about we try it again, cutie?" the girl said, still ruffling my feathers.

'Be careful, love, this is a grown-ass man in a raven's body.' Whatever the hell that meant. Her proposal, however, sounded even better. I mean, at least we would find out whether it was a coincidence.

"So, do you live around here?" Well, that was the thing. I cast my eyes down to where her golden retriever lay.
"You will not always be lucky," its eyes seemed to warn me. 'Well, fuck luck doggie and fuck you.'

Here was the thing though, I was so bored with living on the nest that even danger sounded better as compared to that life. Plus... well, the idea of being around this redhead did not sound bad at all. It was not as if I would be missed very much around the nest. Bird life was quite weird and to a person with any taste in human life, it became intolerable.

"See... it was just me and my weird thought," the girl sighed, making me realize I had not yet answered her question. "Not so fast, I don't even know how I got here." Her hand froze amid ruffling my feathers as she gave me a long searching look. She appeared to be questioning her sanity, and I held my breath, waiting to confirm whether she could understand what I had croaked.

"Did you just say you don't know how you got here?" she asked, now positively looking stricken. And there it was! "The fuck!" I shrieked in surprise. "And did you just curse?... No... no... I must be hallucinating... Jude is this real... I can now speak to birds?..." the girl blubbered. Her previous confused look, however, had given way to one of amusement. The retriever barked fiercely at me and made as if to jump for me.

"Behave yourself, Jude," she warned, and the dog fell back on its paws. At the same time, she placed me in front of the freaking monster. What the hell! ..had I said something wrong, had she finally decided to feed me to this thing? How cruel!

The dog lapped its tongue and opened its ugly mouth, giving me a good view of those terrible fangs.

"Told you you wouldn't be lucky always."

The retriever stood up, easily dwarfing my stunted self, but the voice of its owner brought it back on its paw.
"Sit girl, right... good girl," she said now patting its back. "You know what, I have a way of proving I am not mad... what is your name?"
"Quark," I croaked.

In truth, that was not my name. I mean, weird as it is, it sort of just came to me.

You see, we birds don't get names until the day you successfully learn to fly. Most of the chicks died before then, so it helped parents and siblings not feel any attachment.

"If you said Quark, jump onto Jude's back, she won't attack you, right girl?" she said as she patted the dog.
The beast gave me a long, weird look before barking obediently.

'Well, maybe not today,' its eyes seemed to warn me.

I knew, however, that she would not disobey her owner.

Dogs were too faithful to do that.

With a deep breath, I leaped onto the golden retriever's bark just as the redhead screamed in delight.