Frama and His Raven

Ravens vs. Crows

Typically when someone reincarnates, they're reborn as the same species, right? Apparently I must've done something horrid in my past life because I am a raven.

Yeah, there's no elegant way of putting this.

I'm a fucking bird now.

To say it was odd waking up as a big black bird would be laughable. I spent an entire day kraaing to shrill calls that seemed to alarm other birds. After staring at myself in a small lake for God-knows-how-long, I deduced that I was in particular a raven... If I hadn't remembered that rooks don't have plumage on their beaks, I might've thought I was one instead.

Definitely not a crow however (which I am oddly disappointed at; I find crows more neat than ravens), for they are smaller and lack that beautiful fluffy tuft of feathers decorating my new chest.

I'm not an expert on birds nor a watcher, but I did rather enjoy Edgar Allan Poe's works. As embarrassing as it is to say, it's the only reason why I know the differences between the three black omen birds...

For my first few days in this new form, I didn't fare too well. I kept dwelling on the past, kept hoping and praying to God that this was a dream. Scared that I was in a coma, scared that I was dead.

Either way, I eventually just had to hunt. I had to feed and insects and carrion were the easiest things to find.

They tasted...fine, just fine. I couldn't be picky out in the wild. I'm a bird now, I need to eat what ravens eat. Which is basically anything protein based. Good for me though, means I have a larger pool to pick from.

The last memory I hold of being human was surfing on a big wave. I was caught off guard when it crashed into me. Usually this wouldn't be too big of a deal. I'm a surfer, therefore a strong swimmer as well. But I don't recall anything that happened after I went under.

Did the water manage to knock the breath out of me? Discombobulating me enough that I couldn't reach my board on time? Did the water toss me around so much I couldn't get back up? Did I get swept under a reef?

The exact location of where I was at the time eludes me, so I can't rule that possibility out.

As far as I'm concerned, my last moments were me surfing, the waves, the fall, ...the nothing.

I must've drowned.

Even as I fly around avoiding cats and canines alike, the thought sits heavy in my head, my gut.

Hopefully the proper authorities found my body. I hope my family held a proper funeral. I hope-

I hope one day I can figure out where the fuck I am.

I'm bound within some woods, that's for sure. But Hell if I know where this is.

Strange way of being given a second chance. If that is what this really is anyway. Maybe this is a punishment. Who knows?

Ohhh, bug. I set my sights on a group of convening beetles on a rotting log. I glide down and scoop two up, the rest scurry away in a frenzy. I managed to catch three more before the remainder successfully managed to hide.

Even with my sense of smell I don't bother to hunt them down. They got away fair and square so I don't see the need to give chase. Especially since I'm not starving or anything. There's lots of easily available food all about.

Being a bird with such a large diet variety has its perks. Natural selection at its finest. (Don't judge me, many people around the world eat insects and many products that you use have it in them. I'm not human anymore, I don't need to keep some sort of high horse because of it. I'm a bird now, there's nothing else that can't be done... also I'm pretty sure if I ate human food a lot that would make me eventually sick.)

Back up I go. Land on a branch overlooking the forest floor of dead leaves and hidden prey (and predators, camouflage is taking on a completely different vibe for me now).

This ain't much, but it's what I have to deal with. I'm not too sure how many days it's been. I would guess perhaps 2-ish weeks have gone by since I've woken here. While I can easily discern the passing of time from the simple rotations of the sun and moon, I cannot keep up with counting the exact days.

Once I lost count, I'd lost count. I had no way of counting. No marks to put on my arm or a wall to scratch. Just simple mental math. And after counting it to 8 days, I had gotten worked up with escaping what seems to be a family of foxes. And I realized perhaps 2 or even 3 days had gone by since I last mentally noted how many days it was. Without clear proof of exactly how many, I gave up. There was nothing more to be done.

In retrospect perhaps I should've scratched the floor with my talons. But there were problems to this. I can simply forget the location, something else would mess up the dirt tracks I left, or maybe I could get confused and mark it twice in one day.

It was all rather frustrating.

And by now, while there is some fun to be had looking for food (and seeing all these amazing fauna); I was beginning to grow bored.

I've accepted my fate and act like a bird now... Can't really do anything else now, can I? No point wallowing in self-pity, I'll just die that way... Again. But my mind is very much still intact. Like any other person in my modern day and age, we are bombarded with stimulus 24/7.

The lack of anything interesting to do was starting to ebb at me. At first I only focused on my predicament and why. Then carrying on to survival and staying alert. Now that I've gotten somewhat comfortable around here, the instinctual need to constantly stay focused for my longevity has waned.

My mind drifts as does the wind.

I...

I'm so bored!

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The story is not supposed to be taken too seriously, kinda supposed to be a 'big funny' and I am writing completely for myself. Wrote this because I wanted to write epic friendship & body horror.

Yes, in that order.

I'm just posting this 1st ch to get it out there. Imma be holding back a lot of chapters after this one hostage on my Google Docs until I have a good amount written. Then I will bulk post.

I can do that because no one will be reading this. :) Also I have other things to update so I probably shouldn't have another project to stress out about updating... I just couldn't resist this plot bunny and it was so self-indulgent soooooooo. Yeah.