Week 9 Story: The Cravin' Raven

The prestigious city of Plumière. Far above the clouds, laid out in pristine towers and cobblestone streets, it's the ideal environment for its residents: a community of humanoid avians, whose hustle and bustle stems from aerial commerce, exercise, and an abundance of proud history.

“Stop in the name of the law! Further resistance will be met with appropriate punishment!”

“Gonna have to catch me first, jailbird!”

Though it's easy to miss the ruckus of robbery among that hustle and bustle.

The guilty party swerved through the high-rise corridors, swooping with the help of black-feathered wings, knocking over clotheslines and balcony pottery with his talons; satchel at the waist and a blue scarf fluttering behind his neck.

Following behind, rust-colored plumage and piercing eyes dove and weaved through the chaos left by his target. He wore a beige vest, a shimmering badge patched on the left breast pocket like a beacon.

"You're not getting away, Crave!" The officer exclaimed. "The perimeter's surrounded!"

The raven looked back swiftly with a sneer. "And that's the third time this week I've heard that one, Officer Rapnel! And who's the one getting the last laaaaAAAUUGH?!"
 

Facing forward again, the thief came to a quick halt upon seeing a group of officers blocking the way. Many clotheslines further obstructed the way forward.

"Well...no way forward but upward!"

Acting in a flash, Crave thrust his talons into a clothesline and flung his wings down! With a mighty "whoosh" the raven bounded over the rooftops!

"I'll pursue!" Rapnel barked at the officers. "You trail from all lateral routes possible! Cut him off at any adjacent escape!"

Resounding cries of "Sir!" affirmed Rapnel and the group dispersed.

Atop the buildings, Crave ran along the rooftops to rest his wings and reached into his satchel, resting its contents in his hands: a golden chain gleamed, flowing into a jewel-carved moon hanging from it.

"You'll be back where ya belong soon. I just gotta make it home without the coppers following..." With that, he promptly stashed the pendant back into the satchel. "No pressure, Corvin... Should be safe to head down again."

Spotting some awnings below, Corvin bounced back down into the flow of traffic and beat his wings as fast as possible.

"Just gotta make it downtown..."

"Gotcha!"

"Whoa!"

Springing suddenly from behind a wall, an officer blocked off Corvin's path, forcing him to dart down a different way. Corvin quickly started scanning for other escape routes...

"Maybe..."

"Hah!"

"Shoot! …How 'bout...?"

"Halt!"

"Oh, come on!"

Left, right, up, down... No matter where he turned, there was police there. It kept going and going until...

"...This just went from 'bad' to 'worse'..."

A fountain stood in the middle of a wide, white stone circle. Various businesses lined the radius of the area. It was one of the city plazas.

And there were many officers, by the street entryways and hovering above.

"Like I said..."

The words came above as Officer Rapnel landed behind Corvin, forcing him to flap back to the fountain in shock.

"The perimeter's surrounded." Rapnel sternly spoke with sharpness behind his beak and gaze. "Now, return the pendant to the museum; where it belongs."

"Oh, come now, Officer. You're mixing things up again." Corvin chuckled. "The Lunar Lantern is already where it rightfully belongs! Safe in my wings."

"How arrogant can you be?!" Rapnel shouted. "That is a priceless piece of history!"

"That's right!" Corvin cheered with mocking glee. "Long ago, when we were at the mercy of darkness, the powers-that-be delivered moonlight unto the world through the Lantern!"

Rapnel growled at this. "If you understand that much, then why-"

"Yes, that is the big question: Why?” Corvin interrupted. “All I can say is...it's a shame that piece of history was stolen, but let it be known that no one stands in the way of the Cravin' Raven."

"I've heard enough of this foolishness...! Arrest him!" Rapnel barked, and the squad began

 to converge on Corvin.

"Oh, my... I didn't want to do this, but you've left me no choice." Corvin muttered ominously.

Clasping the Lunar Lantern in his hands, Corvin began to whisper into the pendant, the air grew tense, and for a moment, the Lantern glowed white.

"What the...?" Rapnel spoke, feeling the atmosphere build, until suddenly...

"Fall back!" Rapnel screamed.

In an instant, Corvin's hands radiated white light. Rapnel was far enough away to escape, but the flock of officers flew close enough that every single one dropped to the ground in cries of blindness.

"See ya later, jailbird!" Corvin's laugh echoed, as distant flapping brought the scene to empty silence.

"Argh... 'Craven' indeed..." Rapnel cursed. "I'd better call in backup."

However, Rapnel sat silent, an odd nagging feeling prodding his mind.

"What’s that idiocy about 'history being stolen?' It sounded almost...spiteful. He’s one odd character... Aren’t ravens an exceedingly rare population? Not to mention that pendant shouldn't have any power... What's all this about?"

A crackling from the intercom in Rapnel's vest pocket cut his train of thought. "Officer Rapnel? What's the situation?"

Rapnel sighed. "Think about it later..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Chief. We have men down, and the convict got away... Again."

Meanwhile, downtown, a cramped, boarded warehouse lays dormant.

A hatch opens in the ceiling, allowing an exhausted Corvin Crave to drop through.

"Hoo... Home, sweet home." He hummed, flicking on a lamp in the corner.

The lighting, dim; the furniture, unappealing; but the eye-catcher in this warehouse was a desk where two items sat, ancient in appearance: a scepter and a hand fan, as well as a stack of papers. And Lunar Lantern sat down beside them by a tender touch.

"When civilization began, the world's creator used his sacred tools to let it flourish...yet those same tools were stolen from him, their meaning lost to extravagance and the people he trusted.

"Such a shame...but anyways..." Corvin pipped, reaching for one of many papers on the desk with fire in his eyes. 

(Moon-shaped pendant uploaded to Pixabay by user KRiemer)

"What should my next target be?"

Author's Note

Another case where there is no clear-cut source of inspiration for the story, but rather a mixture. The Alaskan and British North America Units refer to a trickster hero in the form of a raven, a clear example being in Raven and Moon Woman, where Raven (in the form of a child) tricks Moon Woman into letting him play with the moon, eventually bringing it out for mortals to enjoy, and this story is how the Lunar Lantern and the idea of a raven deity bringing about the world's current state to mind.

Then I went a little crazy. Considering the raven is often associated with misfortune, I became attracted to the notion of a scorned raven god. Throw in the affable thief qualities (e.g. Rhythm Thief and Lupin III) and a (un)healthy dose of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild making me think of the Rito bird people, and I ended up with this odd mixture of ideas that I was determined to find chemistry in somewhere. The story was written under having a larger scale world in mind, so my regret here is not being able to get all the details of the world in. But I tried to leave enough details to have a self-contained story with vivid details and background.

The primary characters' names are a result of research on the birds they are meant to represent. Corvin is a raven, and Rapnel is a falcon.

Starting with Corvin Crave, "Corvin" is a corruption of "Corbin," with associated meanings of "little crow" and "raven," but the source of the corruption stems from the genus of birds ravens belong to: "corvus." "Crave" serves to highlight the character's nature of thievery. His clothing was partially inspired by Kay Faraday from the Ace Attorney series, another example of the affable thief character.

Officer Rapnel's name stems from the term associated with birds of prey, "Raptor," of which falcons also belong to. It also stems from shrapnel spreading from a fired gun, aligning with his conducting of group strategy during police pursuit.

The city name, Plumière is a combination of "lumière," the French word for "light," and "plume," because bird puns.

Motion was very important to me in writing this, making some odd choices in dialogue structure and balancing controlling speed with exposition of information to convey a message, which I decided to take a crack at leaving unclear this time. I wanted to leave both characters with open-ended situations going into their futures to represent a conflict involving law, society, and personal duty. Even now I still feel iffy about it since I couldn't get all the ideas I had for this world in here, but hopefully you find something of value, and I can revisit the world of the Cravin' Raven some other day!

Bibliography 

Raven and Moon Woman from Myth-Folklore British North America Unit

Wikipedia research on ravens and falcons