Wisp - A Scarecrow's Tale

Chapter 5 - Caged

"Excuse me?" Theodore asked.

"Sorry," Wander said, "I just remembered; a flock of crows is a murder."

Theo and Mayor Blumfeld stared at Wander for a few moments, the latter looking amused and the former annoyed.

"Uh-huh," Theo said, "Well, whatever you wanna call them, they're here on suspicion of wisp theft."

"Oh? You have wisps living with you too, huh?" Wander said, glancing down at the wisp resting on his knee.

Theodore gave Wander another long stare before asking, "Just how long were you on that field of yours anyhow?"

"I dunno," Wander said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Can't remember."

Mayor Blumfeld and Theo exchanged glances at this.

Shaking his head, Theo said, "Frankly, I think they're innocent. Problem is, the locals ... well, crows have a reputation. Ain't sayin' it's right, just sayin' how it is."

"It didn't start that way," Mayor Blumfeld said, shaking his head. "We had a few crows stop by over the years and mostly people treated them like anyone else despite the rumors ... and then Mavis happened."

"She never liked crows much before," Theodore said, "But lately, it's all she wants to talk about. How they destroyed that giant tree of theirs, how they're filthy beggars, how they'd infest our town if we let 'em. Buncha nonsense, if you ask me, but unfortunately for Niki's folk, Mavis has most of the town eating out of her hand."

"And you?" Wander asked curiously. "Do you like crows?"

Theo shrugged. "Eh. I ain't got anything against 'em. No more or less prone to trouble than anyone else, and as for the fall of Ygdrasa ... well, frankly there are a lot of strange stories going around. Too many for me to take any of 'em seriously without solid evidence."

Mayor Blumfeld added, "We have a few other harpies who live in the village. You saw Janice earlier in my manor, I believe. They're hard workers, and I don't see any reason why the color of their feathers would change that. If it weren't for Mavis inciting the townsfolk, I'd have welcomed them to our city."

"All right," Wander said, crossing his arms. "So, what happened? Why are they all locked up now?"

"The crows set up camp well away from the city when they first got here," said Mayor Blumfeld, "so as not to cause a fuss. They kept their distance aside from an occasional group that came to buy supplies ... testing the waters, I thought. Folks didn't seem to upset by them at first, though I'm guessing that's because the crows brought us some extra business. Extra flits can buy a lot of good will if you know what I mean."

"Flits being money?" Wander asked.

"Right," Theodore said, giving Wander another odd look. "Anyway, everything was fine when suddenly all our wisps went missing. I tried to keep order but ol' Mavis riled up the villagers against the crows. She convinced them that the crows stole the wisps, whipped 'em up into a mob to raid the flock's campground, and dragged them all here."

"And you stuck them in cells," Wander said.

"Trust me, this was the kinder option," Theodore told him. "Like I told ya earlier, Mavis would've had 'em all tied up and tossed into the Twilight. I put a quick stop to that nonsense. That's murder, the kind where folk are killed, and we ain't having that around here without a heap of evidence showin' me it's absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, now I'm stuck; the townsfolk are still screamin' about justice, Mavis is threatening to have me kicked from my post, this lot's stuck in cages, and the dang wisps are still gone. I'd like to investigate, but I don't wanna leave Hannah here by herself in case some nutbag goes all vigilante and tries breaking in here."