Call of the Raven

Kuro fluttered down in a nearby tree, tilting his head as he watched the moving men. How strange. Of course, he had noticed the neighbors moving out some time ago, so their house had supposedly sold. The sign had come down a few days ago so he supposed it made sense for the person to be moving in now. The last neighbor hadn't been very kind to Blake simply because she was a Faunus. Racists really had no place in Vale, but, unfortunately, they still existed. For the most part, Vale was a good place for Faunus to exist simply as they were. But some people were still relatively narrow minded and bigoted despite how Vale tried to teach its population. It had been a number of years since Blake had last been active in the former White Fang--now the Band of Siblings--with Sienna. The SDC under Winter had scooped Blake up and started employing her to work as a company-funded historian. With that sort of good pay under her belt, it meant that Blake could move anywhere. She often went out of the country for various archeological digs but she mostly lived in Vale. It had really sucked the year she'd spent away in Menagerie to gather tales to publish into an account. Leaving him with Noire wasn't a good idea... Plus, the person she'd hired to take care of him and his friend wasn't any good. The woman hadn't given them any enrichment and had just tossed their food into their mews. Blake had been absolutely furious once she'd realised the damage the woman had done to him and Noire! Kuro started to preen his feathers as he kept one eye turned out to the people moving into the house. He could identify workers from some sort of moving company due to their uniforms though they were being directed by a blonde woman. Her eyes were a lovely shade of purple that reminded him of Blake's aura. She was definitely attractive, at least by human standards. Still, he hoped that she'd be a good neighbor to Blake. The years in the White Fang had been harsh on her as had the time away from her parents. Kuro had never met Kali and Ghira as they remained in Menagerie, but from how Blake talked, they were wonderful people. Kali had taught Blake all about advanced aura, so that meant she had to be a good person. As far as he was aware, there was no such thing as a bad advanced aura user... The ones he'd met were all exceedingly kind and compassionate, though that was a sample size of approximately two people. He heard the blonde directing the workers and he sat and watched for a while until he grew bored and flew back to the house, tapping his beak on Blake's bedroom window. She opened it and tilted her head. "Had enough time outside, Kuro?" she asked in Valian. He was thankful he understood the language because hearing her and Sienna jibber about in other languages hadn't been fun. But, sometimes, they wanted to keep things from the birds...though it wasn't like he and Noire would go telling people their secrets. Corvids were known for being neophobic and he wasn't about to go talking to people he didn't know. Why would they ever think that he and Noire had any interest in talking to people they didn't know? It was just so frustrating that the pair of women hadn't trusted them enough to talk about Band matters openly. He bobbed his head as he looked up at her. "The new neighbor is moving in. Did you notice?" He spoke to her using his own natural sounds, not Valian. He could speak Valian, of course, but it wasn't very good. Even aura breeds with a natural ability for mimicry weren't good at speaking. It was enough to get their point across, but they just didn't have the same acuity for human speech as they did their own natural noises. Blake shook her head. "No, I didn't. I was too busy working on this report for Winter." She sat at her computer with him and he looked at it. It was a map of Atlas, likely where all the sites of the Pogrom had been. He could see dozens of files open on her taskbar, all word processor documents. They were probably transcriptions of the various interviews she had conducted during her gap year. It was crazy to see how much Blake had moved up in the world but it helped that Blake had met Weiss one night at the Patch diner. But he was glad to see her successful in her chosen field of study. How hard would it have been if she weren't backed by the SDC? That company could really push the government around from his understanding of things. "It's starting to get rather late. We should probably eat." Who started moving in during the evening, he had no idea. The blonde woman had been pretty, but he was still wary. Even pretty people could harbor horrible intentions and mindsets. Honestly, it was often the people that were most attractive that had the worst intents and mindsets... They could be vicious and hide behind a veneer of attractiveness and beguile people. Thankfully, Blake was nothing like that, but still… "Yeah, you're probably right about that." Blake frowned. "I didn't have any time to get enrichment ready. Are you okay with bowl feeding tonight?" He bobbed his head. Blake was usually pretty good about giving them puzzles and stuff made of boxes or using puzzle feeders. It wasn't like she slacked on making sure he and Noire were taken care of. She was fallible as any person (or aura) breed was. She had a tendency to get wrapped up in her work and not notice the time slipping by. It always sucked when they didn't have enrichment, but he would never fault her for it unless it went on for several days or longer. She'd been good the past few weeks since returning from Atlas, so he wouldn't blame her too much. She held her arm out and he stepped up, then they headed down to the kitchen. Blake looked out the window and watched for a few moments before getting the dishes out of the dishwasher. He hopped onto the counter and she put together their meals. "She looks familiar for some reason, but I can't really place it." Kuro tilted his head. He thought he'd reconise somebody Blake knew here in Vale. She was usually the type to bring people home and have dinner or maybe even drinks with them. So who would she be? Then again...there were people he hadn't met that she'd spent time with during her college years. He'd really hated being away from her... Only seeing her on weekends had been horrible. Eventually, she finished slicing the fruits and veggies for the dishes and sat one in front of Kuro. "Have you seen Noire at all? She's not been home all day and I don't think I see her in her mews." Kuro shook his head. The pair were bonded, but he didn't spend every waking moment with her. She had her own murder of friends and he had his own unkindness of them. Some came and went, but others were steady. They belonged to older Hunters that had retired yet still had their birds. He was always glad to get out and convene with his unkindness. Plus, Noire had gotten on his nerves yesterday, so he'd opted to spend time away from her. "I can eat then go look for her if you think she's still out." He really wasn't fond of the idea, but he knew her usual haunts. It would be annoying to track her down. Then again, something may have also happened to her. Some people didn't like corvids and would try to poison them. It was hard to think that would happen in this civilised day and age especially in vale, but it happened all the time. He'd seen dead crows and ravens (wild, of course) on the roadside or in yards due to some sort of intentional poisoning. He did his best to avoid those areas since he'd seen too many ravens and crows end up dead there. How people could be so cruel to wild animals, he couldn't understand. "Let me go check." Blake went outside and Kuro helped himself to his meal. It was mostly fruits and veggies today, but he knew he'd get some waxworms, crickets, and other insects in the coming days. Blake's supplies had just run out the day before and she needed to breed more of them. Having live food was always nice so he was glad to have it when she gave it to them. However, the house was quiet and he wondered where Blake was after he'd finished. It shouldn't have taken her so long to check Noire's mews. He flew over to the window and did the puzzle to get in and out, then saw Blake leaning against the fence, talking to the blonde woman. He flew over to them, looking up at Blake. "What's taking so long? I thought you were worried about Noire." It was unusual for her to take so long. She was being awfully chummy with this new neighbor though... He was worried she secretly harbored negative thoughts about Faunus. The feathers on the back of his head raised as he looked at her. The woman's purple eyes were confused. "So is this one Kuro or Noire?" She held her hand out to him and he let out a hiss (learned from Weiss' various birds). She drew her hand back, eyes wide and body tense. "Kuro! You don't need to be so rude! This is Yang. She's one of Weiss' friends. We did some stuff back in university together, though we were never super close." He blinked and tilted his head as he looked at the blonde woman then at Blake. It was rare for her to admonish him like that. She must really have taken offense to what he'd done then. Normally she talked to him gently to dissuade him from doing anything. So for her to openly chide him... They must have known each other. Even so, he wasn't sure if he could trust the blonde woman or not. He'd just met too many people that claimed to be good only to be terrible behind the mask… "Eh, it's all right. I know birds tend to be neophobic thanks to Weiss and her obsessive falconry stuff. Even her aura breeds tend to be a little uneasy despite how much training she's done with them." Oh, raptors... Weiss had brought over some of her gyrfalcons before and Kuro and Noire were none too happy to have them in the house. That one goshawk of hers was terrible. Absolutely terrible. But if she did know Weiss practiced falconry... That wasn't something that most people would know in his experience. Weiss worked in conservation with the SDC, but it seemed like most didn't know she practiced falconry at all. If this woman did know that about Weiss, she has to have known the woman to some degree that Weiss would tell her about her hobby.    "Corvids are even worse when it comes to being neophobic. Parrots are pretty bad too. I grew up around them, so I would know." The pair continued to chitter chatter until Kuro let out a coughing noise (one he'd picked up from Blake). "What's up, Kuro?" "Did you get sidetracked and forget about Noire? Do I need to go look for her?" If Yang really was an old acquaintance, he couldn't be too mad about it... Plus, Weiss wouldn't be friends with somebody that was highly racist. She was a pretty good judge of character from what Kuro had gathered of her. Although he didn't like a lot of her raptors, aura breeds were usually pretty good at telling if somebody was a good or bad person...should they  be raised in the right way. But it seemed like Weiss had raised her raptors in the right way, so he believed that they would be good judges of character. And so Weiss was a good judge of character too. "Uh, kinda, yeah." Blake held her arm out and Kuro hopped up. "Let's  go check. I'll talk to you later, Yang. Maybe we could do breakfast tomorrow after you get settled in tonight?" Blake smiled at Yang who returned the gesture. "Yeah, sounds good." Yang gave a two-fingered salute, then withdrew into her house. Kuro could still hear banging and clanging from the moving men tossing boxes and furniture around. It was going to take her quite a while to get moved in, it seemed like. But that was none of his concern as he turned his attention away from it and back to Blake. They entered Noire's mews and saw her on a branch, fluffed up and head tucked underneath her wing. One foot was pulled up beneath her puffed feathers. Kuro looked at Blake and both of them gave a sigh of relief. At least nothing had happened to her. Apparently, she'd just been napping. He flew over to her and gently nudged her. "Hey, Noire, it's past dinner time." The crow pulled her wing out from under her head and blinked, eyes a bit cloudy as she tried to gain her bearings. “Huh? Oh, Kuro, Blake..." She lowered her foot and hopped away a little bit, stretching her wings out. "What's going on?"   "We were worried sick when you didn't show up!" Kuro huffed a bit and Noire looked away. He really was worried that something had happened to her. She was usually too smart to get caught by something like poison, but there was no telling. They at least got all their needs met under Blake's roof, so they didn't have to go foraging or anything. They weren't liable to fall to poison, but something could still have happened to her. She might have gotten hit by a car or something equally as terrible. They would never have known either! Since they were aura breeds, they didn't really need GPS or telemetry. Though it might be a good idea to start using it. "We might want to start considering telemetry or GPS." Blake always worried when she had no idea where her birds were... She allowed them freedom, but still... Yeah, that might not be a bad idea. "You might not be wrong, Kuro. Let's go inside, Noire. It's time for dinner." Noire nodded and hopped up on Blake's shoulder while Kuro rode in on her arm. He had already finished eating and Noire's food had gotten a bit mushy and gross. Despite that, the crow dug in and finished the bowl relatively quickly. With that done, they settled into the living room where Blake pulled up her laptop and started working again. With that done, the rest of the evening was silent aside from the ambient sound generator that Blake played in the background to help herself keep focused. Kuro was glad that nothing had happened to Noire... Even with as much as they could get on each other's nerves, they were still bonded... He slid up to her side and started preening her, content to let the world pass them by as the sun slowly sunk below the horizon.