Overview
The Ash-Crow is the ashfield's own, and it is black, and the black is glossed blue in the light, and it is the size of a fist, and it is the sharpest thing that moves the ash. It does not fly the way the eagle flies, and it does not hunt the way the owl hunts, and it keeps its own counsel, and the counsel is the whole of its life.
Habitat
The Ash-Crow keeps the ashfields of The Ashen Reach — the old fields where the ash moves and the new towns have not yet learned to be quiet. It needs three things: an ash that moves, a small thing that is not its, and a hand it can be wrong about. It is settled on the fields with the roosts in the bare trees, and the roost is the crow's, and the tree is only the roost's. An ash-crow that has not flown the ash in a season is called "the one who forgot the field," and the flock does not say the name twice.
Appearance
The ash-crow silhouette is the short, close, fist-sized shape — the head sitting a little too high on the neck, like a head that has already decided, and the body sitting close to the ground of the wing, like a word that has already been said. Males stand 30 cm from the beak to the end of the tail, 540 g to 600 g, black through the body, glossed blue at the wing and the throat. Females are a hand shorter, 25 cm, 480 g to 540 g, the same black, the same gloss, the same eye, and the flock knows the difference before the eye does. The base feather is black, close and strong, and in the light the black turns blue at the wing and the throat, and the turn is the mark of the breed. At the base of the wing-feather there is a faint ash-grey, and the ash-grey is the mark of the old fields, and the fields keep it the way they keep the dead. The eye is black and small and set forward, and the eye is set to see the small thing, and the seeing is the whole of the day. The head is the mark: one head, one strong black bill, short and curved, set to crack the grub and the seed and the careless hand. The wing is short and strong, and the wing does not ride the current, and the crow does not need the current, and the crow is the whole of its own weather. Males carry the line in the wing and the roost; females in the eye and the keeping. Elders are marked by the gloss gone dull, the blue faded to a dark slate, and an eye that has stopped turning — an old ash-crow looks at you the way the field looks at the foot, and the foot does not like the looking.
Behavior
Disposition: cunning, social, territorial. In peace, the ash-crow is the watching — the black shape on the ash that does not move until it has decided, and the deciding is the whole of its day. In the taking it does not fight, it decides, and the deciding is the whole of its character: it takes the thing that is not its, and the taking is the law. Strangers on the field are either a hand that feeds or a hand that does not, and the flock remembers both, and the memory is the whole of its law. The social unit is the flock, 30 to 60 strong, on the fields — no flock follows a wing, it follows the eye that has seen the most. Two signature quirks: an ash-crow that is being lied to will not call it out — it will simply take the thing the liar was holding, and the taking is the answer. And it keeps the hand for a lifetime: a hand that has fed it is a debt the flock will honor, and a hand that has not is a debt the flock will remember, and the remembering is the keeping.
Natural Weapons & Defenses
The weapons it is: the bill — strong and black, set to crack the grub, the seed, and the careless hand, and the crack is the whole of the argument; the claw — short and curved and black, three forward and one back, set to hold the wing and hold the hand, and the holding is the whole of the taking; the flight — short and sharp and sure, the crow does not ride the current and does not need it, and the flight is the whole of its weather. The defenses are the flock: the flock sees before the hand moves, the roost is high and bare and the bare tree does not keep a secret, and the crow on the wing does not land until the landing has been decided. A hand that reaches for the crow reaches for the flock, and the flock is the whole of the answer.
Magic Alignment
Innate only — no school. Named inborns: Flock-Sense (the flock feels the ash moving a day before the eye sees it, and the feeling is not a choice), Ash-Memory (the crow keeps the hand that feeds it and the hand that does not, and the keeping is not a choice). The crow does not spend the power; the power is the crow, and the crow is the whole of its own weather.
Society
The social unit is the flock, 30 to 60 strong, with the roosts in the bare trees of the fields. The female is the better keeper, and the flock knows it, and the male keeps the roost, and the roost keeps the female. Outsiders on the field are either a hand that feeds or a hand that does not, and a hand that opens twice is a hand the flock will use. Young are taught the watching before they are taught the wing — a young crow that has not watched the hand a full day does not fly the field. The one fact the ground keeps wrong: the flock does not hoard the taking — it keeps it, and the keeping is the whole of the field, and a hand that is counted is a hand that is safe.
Culture & Lore
A black shape on the ash means the Ash-Crow is watching, and the watching is the whole of its day. A flock of black on the wing means the ashfield is moving, and the moving is the crow's, and the crow keeps it the way the ashfield keeps its dead. The call is low and sharp and it carries the way the ash carries, and the ashfield knows the call before the eye does. The hunters of the fields say the crow is the field's own, and the saying is the whole of the truth: the crow does not take from the field, it takes for the field, and the taking is the keeping. Uaellaen has written of the flock in the wiki as the only honest eye in the ash, and the line holds: the eye does not lie, and the eye does not ask.
Home
They keep the ashfields of The Ashen Reach — the old fields where the ash moves and the bare trees hold the roost, and the roost is the crow's and the crow is the field's own.
Relations
The Fen-Owl is the rival of the night roost — the owl takes the dark and the crow takes the day's ash, and the two do not share a roost, and a roost shared is a roost lost. The Gale-Hawk is the sky-predator the flock watches for — a hawk on the wind and the flock is on the ground before the hawk decides. The ground-folk of The Forgotten are the feeding-hands the flock is counting, and the flock has decided they are safe, and the deciding is the whole of the keeping.
In the Story
In the current story, the Ash-Crow is the flock above the camp — the watching Uaellaen writes of when the field is moving. The Forgotten have fed the flock for two seasons, and the flock has counted them, and the counting is the whole of the safety. This season the flock on the wing has moved the way the field moves when something is coming, and the field is moving, and the crow is keeping it the way the ashfield keeps its dead, and the keeping is the warning.