Birds were fairies' natural predators. They had sharp beaks to pluck the small creatures' limbs away from their bodies and claws to pick up their victims and wings to fly them to whatever vile place birds came from.

Oh, to fly. Many fairies long dreamed of being able to fly. To scatter their pixie dust in the eyes of birds as they flew circles around the feathery devils. To be able to take bites out of cotton candy clouds and skim over water and barely touch the surface.

Truly, flight was a wonderful thing. It was a true shame fairies had lost it in the days of legends. Their mischief and carelessness had caused a group of fairies to cross the wrong man. This man, a wizard, stripped the fairy species of their wings. Unless they could complete a trial to prove they deserved it.

One such fairy, Drizzle, clambered up the thick bark of a tree as she begun her own trial to gain wings. In her village by the river, it was a rite of passage for fairies that were coming of age. It was a tradition that every fairy underwent as they reached adulthood, so the danger presented by the trial was never taken into question. Not even while she clambered up the cracked and rotted wood, slick with the monsoon of rain that poured around her did Drizzle question her village's tradition.

It was a long climb, but Drizzle was strong, and she was determined. Despite the roaring winds and pounding rain, however, Drizzle pulled herself up to one branch, sixth from the top. At the branch's tip was a gargantuan castle of tangled twigs, painstakingly interwoven to create a basket that harbored exactly what Drizzle was looking for. It was now that the true test started.

Drizzle took a deep breath in and began trudging towards the nest. As she approached, something stirred within, and as she clambered up the walls of interwoven twigs, a creature reared its head, turning to glance at the fairy that dared disturb its slumber.

"Come for your wings, have you?" The crow's voice was a grating screech that clawed at Drizzle's ears. The fairy fell to her knees, clutching at her pointed ears, her mouth open in a silent scream. The crow chuckled at Drizzle's show of weakness, "Your kind are very generous, you know, sending such wonderful snacks straight to my home."

Drizzle didn't respond. She stayed kneeling, looking up at the gargantuan monster. The massive crow just watched, an amused glint in its eye.

"What... are you?" Drizzle managed to squeak, just loud enough for the crow to hear.

"Why, I'm a crow, my dear." The bird responded, its knifelike beak opening and snapping shut with each word. "A corvid, a magpie, a raven, a bird." The crow stopped, letting the rumble of its voice pass through Drizzle's body. "A dealmaker."

A thick silence permeated the air. The crow stared at the fairy. The fairy assessed its options with fearful eyes.

"You have two options." the crow's raspy rumble started once more as it watched as the fairy's eyes flicked from the contents of its nest- three small eggs- to the crow, and back. "You can either fulfill your mission now," The crow's eyes never left the fairy, "or you can leave with your life."

Drizzle felt the crow's gaze pierce through her body, staring through her eyes and observing something behind them. Something Drizzle herself was not aware of. It reminded the fairy girl of the briefing she had received from the flying fairies from her village. That if the crow was home, she'd have to make peace with the great river within moments of the bird laying eyes on her. However, this great terror of the skies, this devil on black wings of death had not ended her life. Not yet, at least.

"Why are you sparing me?" The question on the tip of drizzle's tongue pushed past her lips and floated into the air. Her voice shook like a the branches of the trees around her, being beaten down by the furious water bullets that crashed to the earth from the heavens. Water droplets pattered against her small body, drenching her hair and making her tunic cling to her tired form.

"I always give you knife eared bugs a chance. I'm not to blame if your kin always choose death." The crow's eyes continued to bore into Drizzle, peering at the space behind her eyes. "Why do you hesitate?"

"I'm scared." The words seemed to move with a life of their own. Her true thoughts were stripped of their walls by the furious storm around her and the corvid's penetrating gaze. She knew it would only hurt her to lie. "And I don't want to hurt your children."

"I can see that." The crow blinked against the rain. The hail of droplets hardly an inconvenience to the bird. "I know you have your doubts about this ritual of yours."

"Are you going to kill me?" Drizzle's voice was hardly a whisper on the gale force winds.

"Not if you walk away." The crow's response eased Drizzle's quivering somewhat. There was an unspoken threat behind those words. There was a promise of violence.

The crow watched Drizzle slowly turn around, never taking its eyes off of her as she walked back the way she came. Even as she descended the massive tree's trunk, the crow's raven eyes never left the tiny woman's soaked form.

The climb down was worse than the climb up. Drizzle's muscles screamed against the strain as she clambered down the slippery bark of the tree, being bombarded harder than ever by rain, and even some hail. More than once, Drizzle lost her grip or tore a nail. Yet, even as her body faltered, she couldn't afford to give up. She kept climbing down.

The storm, however, was punishing. It was only a momentary lapse. Drizzle's fingers only slipped for a fleeting second, but that's all it took for the fairy to lose her grip and begin the long plummet to the river bank below the girl. A scream tore itself from Drizzle's throat, and her bloodied hands stretched out to the sky, reaching for a hand that would not catch her.

Drizzle's scream turned to a long, drawn out wail as she fell. Her eyes squeezed shut as her thoughts raced, her mind's eye turning to how she had spent her life. Was this her punishment for choosing peace?

The fairy braced for the impact against the ground and...

**POOMF!**

Drizzle gasped as she landed on her back upon a soft, slick wet surface. Her hands scrabbled for a handhold, and they found sleek black feathers. Clinging on for dear life, Drizzle held her breath until the crow landed on the ground and shook her off of its back, sending the fairy tumbling into the mud.

"You're a poor climber." The black-feathered avian remarked. Drizzle could almost swear she saw a mocking smile behind its beady black eyes.

"Th-thank you," Drizzle stared up at her savior from the ground, sprawled out in the mud, she thanked the great river she was alive. That the crow chose to save her. "Why did you come? To catch me."

"Call it a favor for not forcing me to taste your stringy flesh. Or to swallow your crispy bones." The crow let out a long, scratchy chuckle, the droplets of rain bouncing off of its sleek feathers.

Drizzle opened her mouth to speak, but the crow took off before she could squeak out a single word.

The fairy trudged home in contemplative silence that day. The day that she failed the trial.