Jeremiah was sitting at the top of his watchtower overseeing the third quadrant of the western wall. His keen eyes were his greatest asset, as he possessed neither brains nor brawn, and had no particular skills to speak of. However, his eyesight was an extremely valuable trait in the role of Observer. The wind blew lightly and he looked around. There hadn’t been any activity for several days, which was unusual for the time of year. There were at least animals spotted or the lone weary traveler looking for a place to rest their aching feet. Jeremiah was bothered by this, but he couldn’t say why. There had been, in the past few years, a several instances of non-activity. He shook his head, as if trying to cast off the negative thoughts like drops of water, or like a cow being bothered by flies. He took a long drink from his lukewarm water skin. It would be a long afternoon.

Late in the day, he was checking how long until his watch was over. He held an outstretched arm, pinky lined up to the distant horizon, the sun rested just above his index finger. He grunted, the last hour of the watch was always the longest. Just as he lowered his arm, hidden in the space previously hiding behind his hand, he noticed movement. It was a long way off, but he could tell it was a bird, a large one. It appeared to be moving east, towards the city. He picked up his sling of horns. Each played a unique tone for what kind of danger was present. He slid his hand along their smooth surfaces until he found the second to the last. One painted black, narrow and about as long as his forearm. He watched the bird as it rapidly approached. After close to twenty minutes, he blew his horn, someone’s time had come, but the method by which they met that end was to be determined.

The bird flew over head and Jeremiah watched where it was heading. He used a cone of stitched leather to amplify his voice and call out the birds location to the city guard as they followed its movements. Eventually the crow alighted on the rooftop of the building of the city parliament. He knew the leaders were there discussing issues and addressing citizen complaints since early this morning. He shouted the final location and thought to himself that some disgruntled person is about to make a terrible mistake. Either they’d kill and be killed, or they would simply be stopped in the act and prevented swiftly and irreversibly. He sighed a heavy sigh and turned around. Jeremiah froze and his breath caught in his throat. His limbs turned to stone and his stomach turned and curdled. The sky to the west, where the setting sun had been casting brilliant golden light and shadows leagues long, had become eclipsed by a flood of large black birds, all coming towards his home. The horns dropped from his hand and he followed them to his knees. Nearly inaudibly he found the words, “Gods help us all.”