by Einer von Rabe
and VapidPoem
She flew over the landscape with two hundred wings. She gazed at the silhouettes below her with a hundred pairs of eyes. She has many consciousnesses, but they all form one spirit - Her spirit.
Many of her beaks open and emit a cry. A cry for help that becomes a cry of warning. She could almost feel the fear of the ground-bound fleeing the swarm. She is an omen of doom. She does not want to be this, but she understands.
She does not understand who she is now. It was different from when she was few. Is this the hereafter? Purgatory? Perhaps a punishment for something?
She is scared. She is not frightened. She is lost.
The doctor gently dabs the wound with cotton wool. Her black, ancient-looking face mask has something of a crow about it, which is not entirely at odds with the doctor's aura. Like one of the winged scavengers, she bends over the half-dead body of one of her patients, a young man with a high fever.
There is a barely perceptible trembling and hesitation in the Doctor's movements. She wants her research to succeed. They must. Helplessly, she suppresses the panic that one false move or too high a dose of her tincture would ruin all the effort. Ruin it, as it has done too often.
The eyes of her patient's family stab into her like rusty needles, as if they want the Doctor to fail. It's all paranoia, but the wariness towards the strange foreign woman is real. The Doctor is aware of her her eccentricity. Therefore, it must not fail. It can't fail.
She is carried high by a wind, almost so high that she could be above the clouds. The wind carries her across the wide blue of the Atlantic to the east.
She feels the chill on thousands of feathers, but it is more like a gentle caress from a friend. She notices that she enjoys flying. A hundred wings beating to a song that only she perceives.
She forgets the terror she brought with her mass, for up here she is alone with her thoughts.
She thinks about what draws her to Europe. It is a feeling that she is missing something and that over there is that something. Perhaps it is the answer to what she is.
No matter what it is, she is filled with an immense anticipation and bliss for which she doesn't care what it can be.
The Doctor limps wheezing down the country road. A road sign welcomes her to the town of Bitche. A small cozy settlement along the Franco-German border.
She shivers from anger and frustration. She was so close, so damn close to the solution, a cure.
She reaches the city boundary and follows the signs to the center. Her mask hangs around her neck. Her outfit draws attention to her, as is to be expected. She pretends not to notice. Playing it down, as if she is on her way to a live-action role-playing Renaissance fair, even though she has no idea if there would actually be people like her walking around.
She maneuvers herself into a street restaurant and sinks into a chair. She slides the suitcase between her legs and puts her skirt over it to conceal it a little.
A young waiter saunters up to her and looks at her questioningly. The Doctor taps one of the pictures with the juices, barely paying attention to what she ordered.
Mere minutes after ordering the waiter returned with an Orangina Rouge, which made the Doctor hesitate for a moment, but in the end she decides that she could try something new. She sucked on the straw and pulled a snout. Much too sweet and sour.
She crosses the border from the long and peaceful Atlantic to the coasts of Spain. She flies over the land, over the rivers, over the deserts, over the mountains.
As she looks down she sees the people, once again terrified of her mere shadow. She sighs as her peace over the sea is gone.
The screams start to fade as she flies through the land, over the towering Pyrenees toward the voice that seems to sound like what she longed for.
As she got closer she heard the beautiful song. As soon as she heard it her mind forgot any stress or panic from those who judged her. She tried to fly faster, and as the sound got louder she knew she was getting closer.
The sting of failure from her earlier patient cuts deep. She was only one step away from saving the patient. One damn step. She is sure of it!
She had devoted her life to finding a cure for it only to fail patient after patient as she roamed through Europe trying to save as many lives as she could.
She drank deep into the night trying to think of what went wrong. Drinking her angers and sorrows away.
The Doctor eventually leaves the tavern, leaving a few notes to pay for the sour drink as she wandered down the streets of the town 'till she finally spotted a hotel. The Doctor goes in and rents a room for the night, although she couldn't get much sleep. It is still bothering her as to what could possibly be wrong with her cure after all of these centuries.
Early in the morning. she departs to wander through the misty streets of the town.
As she flew through the night she couldn't help but feel the calm wash over her as the people below went to sleep and she was once again left alone in the sky with nothing but her thoughts.
But as she soared through the sky she heard a lone cry replacing the wonderful music with the sorrowful crying. Her hundreds of wings work in unison to race towards the source and comfort the voice whose pain sounded all too familiar.
As the sun started to rise she found the source of the sound was within a small village, though it was covered in a thick mist. She began to descend and fly low throughout the town.
Then she saw her. They looked much the same but yet so different. The Crow was walking over the stone paths and she could tell that the Crow was the source of the pained cries.
The Doctor had been lost in her thoughts a short time ago, but now she was examining the conspiracy of ravens that had appeared in the sky. She had had a very brief encounter with these fascinating birds. When under the cover of night during wars she would scavenge the corpses of the deceased from war fields and mass graves. Not exactly an activity she was proud of, but one she deemed a justifiable evil as it helped her in her quest.
She shielded her eyes from the mid-morning sun as she had taken off her hat.
The size of the swarm is unusual and concerning, and as far as she can tell, the individual animals are also more bulky. One of the largest almost reached the wingspan of an eagle.
The Doctor dabbled only peripherally in ornithology, but the conspiracy's flight pattern was very noticeably focused.
She takes a look around for a possible reason. There is no one to be seen around for miles. No farms, no food laying about, no corpses. Only her.
The Doctor grabs her suitcase and clutches her hat to her head before she starts to sprint. The shrieking of the ravens grows louder as the flock descends.
The Doctor's steps become heavier until she has to come to a stop, gasping heavily. She is so drained that her breath only comes out of her mouth in wheezes.
She had not managed to shake off the ravens, but some distance lay between them.
The Raven saw the poor Crow running through the stone brick streets of the small town, struggling to keep her suitcase in her hands and her hat on her head.
She descended and attempted to come closer to the Crow to provide comfort. She couldn't afford to let another soul experience the same pain and longing she had always felt. Not while being so close to helping them.
After what seemed like an eternity the Crow finally slowed until reaching a halt. Though the distance was great the Raven easily glided over the path towards the Crow.
As the Raven moved to the sole Crow she began to unite her form into that of a human. With a tall figure that easily towers over the Crow in front of her.
The Doctor realized the ravens were still chasing her, and after mere seconds the distance had closed. With a dash, the Doctor ran further throughout the town. As the mist cleared the small rays of sun were blocked by clouds, which cried the first tears of rain.
The Doctor dashed for any cover she found that most doors were closed. Likely trying to shun her and leave her to her fate with the conspiracy. Eventually the Doctor came across a bridge outside the city, hiding under it as she tried to seek shelter.
Alas, the Doctor tripped over a cobblestone and by then was too exhausted to try to catch herself. She almost expects the ravens to swoop down on her.
But she didn't feel the hard stone floor.
She feels herself being raised up and a large, warm, black mass enveloped her. Feathers rustled and a soft and gently raspy voice whispered, "Do not fear. I have found you, Beloved."
It had recently started pouring out of buckets, so the doctor had to take shelter in a barn. She is shivering now in a pile of straw on a higher floor because she is completely soaked to the bone.
The strange bird creature takes one last look outside, closes the gate, and rustlingly steps towards her. The Doctor perceives the creature's appearance for the first time. The body is covered in blue-black feathers and is similar to that of a human, although much larger. On its shoulders sits a head with a woman's face framed by brown curls that stand out in a strange way against the black. The little bit of skin that can be seen was tanned.
With one of her hands, the Raven caresses her forehead. "Oh, you're all icy. Come now, get into new clothes or you'll catch a cold."
The Raven notices the doctor's displeasure, and tries to reassure her her. "Don't worry, is not going to judge you, Darling.“, she teases in broken French.
After coaxing her "patient" to change into a beige linen dress they found hanging in the barn, she drapes a military wool blanket over the doctor, which she had found in a crate, and snuggles up to her in the straw.
The Doctor does not dare to fight back, but recognizes that the mysterious monster is more than affable of her. Nevertheless, she is embarrassed to lay cuddled up together with her in a stranger's barn trying to get warm.
Her eyes close and she drifts off into a deep sleep.
They both awake nearly in unison with each other. By then the sun had started to shift into night. They both got dressed and left for the town, although the Crow seems annoyed at the monster's presence.
"Why are you following me?" the Crow asked the presence behind her. Instead of answering, the monster simply giggled and continued to walk behind her.
The Crow sighed, and walked into the town, searching for a patient. After hours of searching through the night, she found a tiny house buried deep in the countryside with her patient inside. The Crow walked into the house finding an elderly man lying on a bed. The Crow could sense that the man was obviously sick with the pestilence. As the Crow tried to work on curing the man, the monster periodically arrived with gifts of cloth, candles, and medicine from the town. The Crow nodded in gratitude and proceeded with the operation to save the poor man from the pestilence.
As the hours ticked by and the night grew darker the Crow's work seemed to be coming closer and closer to a final success! The Crow came ever so close to finally perfecting her cure, only for it to fail at the last second. The patient succumbed to the pestilence right before her operation could save him. The Crow let out a scream in frustration that could be heard across the entire countryside. As the sting of failure washed over her. she felt a warm presence comfort her. A hug from the monster behind her. As the two left the house the sun began to rise. The Crow and the Raven left in somber while going to the city.
People discreetly tried to avoid the pair as they were walking, not infrequently making signs of the cross. Mothers had already called their children back before they even came by.
The Raven did not seem to care, as she happily kept walking behind the Crow, occasionally plucking a flower from a window ledge and placing it in the Crow's hair and her hat. By the time they were done a bonnet of flowers decorated her hair.
The Doctor, on the other hand, has some difficulty in carrying out her activities, such as buying provisions and utensils and concentrating on finding possible victims of the pestilence.
The Doctor sits down on one of the benches that have been placed on a hill. All the walking had made her tired.
The Raven hardly seems tired and hums a melody.
"I'm so glad you're finally having a rest. All that doctoring around looks very draining," she says, "Here, have something to eat. You look very pale."
The Doctor looks at the thing the monster is holding out to her, which she had apparently pulled out of the folds of her plumage. It was a round and juicy apple.
"Where did you get it?"
"A child gifted it to me."
The Crow eyes the Raven skeptically, which makes her look sheepish, but she accepts the fruit. She retrieves a knife from her pocket and cuts the apple into thin slices. She hands one half to her friend.
"Here, let's share it."
The Crow smiles and so does the Raven.
The Crow drags herself along the country road towards the border of the Republic. She is worn out and her clothes are soaked with sweat and filth from working all day in the battle against the pestilence.
"'Darling. You are straining yourself. Let me help you"
"Help comes too late. All are dead" the Doctor mumbles, barely audible and delirious. Then she slumps down.
The Raven takes her to the wayside and dabs the sweat from her friend's forehead.
"Let me help you," she repeats, "Climb on my back."
The Crow is too weak to even put up any resistance. As soon as she had found a place on the back, her friend said: "Hold on tight now“.
With a cracking and rustling sound, the Raven takes on her other form and opens her wings, now larger and one pair instead of hundreds.
"Wha-wha-what?" the Crow could barely manage to stammer before the two of them flew towards the sky.
As the two soared among the clouds they stared at the world beneath them. Seemingly so peaceful, although the Crow knew all too well about the dangers the world faced. That is why she had to cure the poor suffering souls beneath her.
As they descended, the Crow was confused to find them at a different location than the farm the two had slept within. "Where have you taken me? What are you doing?" the Crow asked, but the Raven simply giggled and let the two down at a small cafe. "I am taking you on a date. You need a break, you have worked too long and too hard without rest." she said as she orders two coffees for both of them.
The Crow sheepishly orders a bowl of bread from the waitress for the two to split and sink back against her chair. "Fine. But only for a few minutes, I need to focus on the cure." The Raven laughs. "You need to spend at least 30 minutes relaxing. It will work wonders! You are a doctor you should know this!"
The Crow grits her teeth and accepts the "date" the Raven has decided to take her on. As the waitress comes back with their basket and coffee while she takes out her notebook and a pen and asks, "Anything else I can get you two?" The Raven speaks up first, "I'll take a French onion soup and a bottle of red wine." The waitress nods and turns to look at the Crow. "I'll just have the same soup." The waitress nods and walks back to the kitchen, returning a few moments later with two glasses and a bottle of red wine. The Raven pours herself a glass and takes a few sips.
After 10 minutes the waitress walked out with steaming hot bowls of soup that looked enough to make their mouths water. The cheese looked perfectly browned and the scent was almost intoxicating. The Raven quickly tried to dig in but realized her mistake all too late as the food almost burnt her tongue. The Crow giggled and handed her her cup of water to cool it down. "Perhaps it may be smart to wait a few seconds~". The Raven laughs at herself,
"Perhaps."
After their food cools down at least slightly the two dig in, enjoying every bite. The Crow notices the Raven is getting rather tipsy, and so
she tries to set a hand down on hers, "Perhaps we should go home. It is rather late~" The Raven sighs but accepts. "Okaaaaaay….. Buuuuuuuuut you should drink some of this." She held up the bottle, half of the wine still remaining. "We don't want it to go to waste!" the Raven drunkenly laughed and put the bottle in her hand before leaning against her shoulder.
The Crow struggles to keep the Raven up but obliges and takes a small sip. She is surprised as her last drink from the town left her with a sour and bitter flavor. But in contrast, the new drink left her with a feeling of warm happiness. As her small tastes turn into more sips the feeling inside her only gets warmer and warmer, until the two are frolicking through the streets, In that moment they couldn't care less about what anyone thought or said about them. Not even the waitress yelling at them that silver coins were not a valid currency and they still needed to pay could distract the two.
Before she knew it, the rest of the bottle was gone and the two were drunk on the street in each other's clutches. With it now dark in the night the Raven perhaps out of drunkenness begins to extend her hundreds of wings again, scooping up the Crow in her arms as they fly high into the refreshing night air.
"My skull hurts so much …" the Doctor whines, "What possessed me to get drunk …?"
"Do you want an honest answer?"
"No, I can guess. Why don't you have a hangover?"
Her friend points to a clump of corvids. Some are holding onto branches from a bush while lying on their backs on the ground. Others rolled down a slope. But the majority are lying on top of a big hill.
"'Neat trick'"
The Crow rummages in her bag and takes out an ointment, which she smears all over her face. The Raven watches her with wonder. "Papaver Somniferum ointment," the Doctor explained. "Where are we, anyway?"
"An excellent question." The Raven replies. "No idea."
The odd couple had been walking on a mountainside path for about an hour and a half. However stunning the scenery, it doesn't change the fact that they are helpless to figure out where they found themselves again after a hazy night.
"I'm never going on a date with you again."
"Oh come on, don't be so mean, Darling. You clearly enjoyed last night."
The Crow grumbles something before kneeling down and studying the herbarium. "The plants here are rather astonishing. We are near the Alps, but none of them fit my collection"
The Raven crouches down next to her and looks over her shoulder. "Nice collection. You really are a little nerd"
"I'm a doctor, what did you expect?"
"Touché"
The Raven gives the Crow a shove against the shoulder. "I could be wrong, but is that a signpost there?"
"It certainly wasn't there ten minutes ago."
The couple had followed the path and saw a town in the distance. According to the signpost, they seem to be on their way to Sjhlfels am Rhein.
The farmhouses that can be seen from the gravel road have an interesting mix of Swiss and Dutch-Belgian architecture, which were not infrequently found on hilltops. The majority of the grazing animals are familiar species such as cows, sheep, and goats, but occasionally there were creatures that neither the Raven nor the Crow could give a name to.
The city limits are bordered by a dry stone wall on which children of different cultures frolic with their pets. A small tollhouse stands at the gate, but the man inside waves the two of them through with a big smile. Perplexing them as the guard took no toll.
"That was quick," remarks the Crow, "We must have wandered around for an hour and now we're standing in a city."
Then she notices how much the Raven has fallen into amazement.
In fact, Sjhlfels has a very peculiar aura: the houses with flats and shops have a style all their own, where you can see the original cultures, not only from Central Europe and ordinary cultures. Next to a terraced brick house, there could be a twisting tower of glass and steel. There is also no homogeneous clothing culture: linen shirts, hanbok, cowls, silk scarves, and much more were found. The Crow is sure that some people even wore leather garments with fringes that moved of their own accord. On the streets, Humans, Dwarves, and Albae walked alongside people with visible electronic implants and deformations and animal beings straight out of a fable.
Even the geography is uncommon. Despite the clearly visible Alps, a wind blew sea air from the north through a fine mist. Bridges crossed small channels at regular intervals.
It seemed as if a child, out of sheer enthusiasm, had built a city out of all the favorite sights from the holiday destinations they had visited, mixing reality with legends.
The Raven and the Crow are now sitting in a café, blown away by it all.
The couple looked over the menu given to them. Many of the items on it looked familiar enough, such as bread, milk, salads, and cake. But as they looked around much of the food the other restaurant-goers were eating seemed alien. Yellow-skinned fruits with green flesh, purple potatoes and carrots, and mushrooms whose skin seemed to be the same color as that of deep space.
The Crow seems less enthusiastic, though the Raven seems almost over the moon. "I take it you want to try some local cuisine?" the Crow asks. "How many chances would we ever have to eat something like this again?" The Raven responds, the Crow laughs a bit, "Okay. What do you want us to get?" The Raven studies the menu and finds something that seems interesting. "How about the seasonal berry bowl?" "That sounds wonderful." The Crow smiles, enjoying their second date.
Less than a minute after they order a waiter comes and gives them a massive bowl of assorted berries and fruits. Some are normal, such as blueberries, strawberries, banana slices, and grapes. But others neither have ever even seen before. Such as tiny red berries that made them laugh while eating, small berries that seemed to have constellations within, and what seemed like small lemons though the lemons were sweet instead of tart.
After their short lunch the two leave to go walking through the town, though interestingly as they walk the town continues to shift around them in a near-endless expanse. Whenever they went to turn back, the space behind them seemed to transform into a completely different part of town. Despite this, the two do not worry as Sjhlfels was so far a wonderful place. Out of nowhere, the Raven grabs the Crow's hand and runs to a tiny store, giddy to go window shopping in the new town. As the two walk inside they see a small selection of trinkets and dresses. After a bit of window shopping the Raven heads for the door, though the Crow stops for a second to buy a metallic ball as a gift for her.
As the couple stepped outside, the landscape shifted again to being in the middle of a campsite in the woods. As the Raven walks ahead the Crow tries to catch up while almost tripping in her dress. "Hey! Wait up!" the Crow pants as the Raven slows down to let her catch up. As the Crow catches her breath, she holds up the metal sphere. "I. Got. Something. For. You." She sputters out in between pants.
The Raven grabs the sphere and wraps the Crow in a hug. "Awww. Thank you!" The Crow blushes until the Raven lets go and starts to toy with the ball until finally finding a button on it which she presses. The ball instantly starts to transform and shift into a copper-colored butterfly that flaps its wings. At first, its wings move slowly until the beating shakes the copper automaton. Finally, its wings begin to lift it up as the butterfly hovers off of her hands. While the two admire the creation, it flies towards the woods and zips across a forest trail. The Raven snatches the Crow's arm and pursues the butterfly. "Come on! After it!".
The pair tries to catch up with the butterfly, but it continues off of the stone path along a strong river with magnificent fish skidding along the surface until they reach a hill that the butterfly flies to the top of. The two quickly make chase up the side of the hill, though what seems like a small hill at first quickly transforms into a mountain as they can never quite get closer to the peak. When they finally reach the platform that the butterfly is on, it beats its wings again and flutters across the sign of the mountain. "Why won't you stay put!?" the Crow exclaims. "Well, at least it is waiting for us before it goes further." The Raven teases with a slight laugh.
After what felt like hours of chasing, the two finally manage to find it stuck in a bush. "HAH! Not able to run away now are you?" the Crow says elatedly. The Raven walks up and grabs the butterfly pressing a button nestled betwixt its wings, turning it off. They sit down in the shade of the trees overlooking a massive valley needing a break to catch their breath. The Crow lays down on the Raven's lap, taking a short nap while the Raven looks and the beautiful valley in front of her.
When the Crow finally wakes, she lets out a yawn before looking around. "How long was I out?" she asks. "Only for a few hours." The Raven replies, standing up. "You know, the plants here are unlike any others I've ever seen. At least not in any botanical books I have read. I wonder if they could have any medical use." The Crow states, placing several samples of the herbs in vials. "Wow. You of all people believe in pseudoscience?" the Raven teases. The Crow sighs, "You do know that many herbs do have accepted medical use? Right?" The Raven laughs a bit. "Yeah yeah whatever." She stares at the sunset, realizing it is getting rather late. "I think we should start heading back now. Come on.". She grabs her butterfly and scoops up the Crow in her arms as hundreds of wings emerge from her back flying the |two away from the shifting valley, back into the French countryside.
The couple made their way to a small settlement of a few thousand named Langres in eastern France. With it in the dead of the night, the two booked a hotel room to share until morning. The tired clerk stares at them for a second, pondering if a demon made out of hundreds of birds and a woman in medieval cosplay just flew from the sky to book a room. "Hello sir! We would like a room for one please." The Crow requests. The clerk nods and gives them a room key before guiding them to their room.
As they dress down and prepare to sleep, the Crow sits down at a desk and studies the samples she took from Sjhlfels am Rein. She stays awake for several hours analyzing each minute detail of the herbs, until with confidence she mixes them together with other medicine from her suitcase to create a new experimental antibody. In the meanwhile, the Raven was sitting on a chair watching TV channels until the Crow got up, done with her work. "So, what did you make?" the Raven asks, curious. "I made a medicine from the herbs. With this, I will finally cure the pestilence!" the Crow stated, determined to make her centuries of work finally pay off. The Raven and Crow turn off the lights and tuck into their bed, closing their eyes and cuddling next to each other after the long and tiring day. Eventually, both falling asleep.
The couple woke up deep into the morning, both exhausted from the day before. As the Raven got up and stretched with a yawn she looked over at the little metal butterfly on the nightstand beside her. A little souvenir of the hike the day prior. She looked over and saw the Crow already awake, in full medical gear. "Did you get any sleep last night?" "Why would I need sleep when I am so close to finishing my life's work?" the Crow replies. "Besides, I got a few hours. That is all that I need for the day."
The Raven sighs but does not protest further. She knows that her best day is mere hours away from happening. She gets dressed and packs the few things she had. "Well? Are you ready to go out?" the Raven inquires, and the Crow nods. Walking out the door, going towards the busy streets.
The pair venture through the town looking for any patient desperately in need of a cure. Of course, everyone that passed them had some extent of the disease, but she couldn't risk another person falling to the pestilence within the town as she was curing mostly healthy victims. But alas, they couldn't find a patient within the end of the day. As the night overcomes the daylight the two began to walk back through the streets which by then had lost much of their business. The Raven witnesses an elderly man walking through the streets, coughing. She tugs at her sleeve and points towards the man. She immediately knows that the man is suffering from an advanced case of the pestilence and likely has mere hours left to live.
Both of them quickly got the the man's sides and helped carry him to a small abandoned hut along the outskirts of the city. They set him down on a table and began to examine him. The Crow had to focus all of her effort on being a Doctor to save the man's life.
The pestilence is not akin to other diseases such as the flu, the cold, or even cancer as it is instead a connection to a malignant entity that has been plotting a horrific fate for the human race for millennia. The Doctor had been trying for centuries to find a way to sever this connection to save her patients, but alas the entity seemed to cause them to die every single time the Doctor got close to saving them. But this time would be different. She knew it would be. But she still hesitated, worried that she might not even be able to cure her patient even with the new medicine. Though all doubt stopped when she felt a hand go on her shoulder. "You got this. You can do this!". The Doctor nodded and began to prepare to save the man.
The Doctor placed a wet towel on the man's head to help with his fever. She took off the man's shirt and quickly shaved a small square on the elderly man's chest. As the Doctor was sanitizing his chest area she gave the elderly man a tonic from within her suitcase in order to let the man sleep through the surgery and feel no pain. As he went to bed, the Raven lit many candles around the Doctor so she would have plenty of light. She smiled and put on her mask, in the shape of a medieval plague doctor's outfit. A callback from a bygone era for which her quest to cure the pestilence began. She gathered her breath and lowered her medical tools, preparing to make the first incision.
As the hours tick by the Doctor gets closer and closer to curing the man. The Doctor prepares and makes the last necessary incisions before closing the openings and stitching the wounds back together. She holds her breath as she gives the man the vial of the herbal mix she had gathered from the valley and gently allows him to wake up from the surgery on his own over the next few hours.
As he finally awoke several hours later, the Doctor walked up and examined the man. She looked into his eyes for any trace of the evil entity that had possessed oh so much of humanity but couldn't see anything. Even just a few hours after surgery the man was already showing signs of recovery. She began to jump up giddily, taking off her mask and hugging the Raven closely. "We did it!" The Doctor exclaimed. She laughed, knowing her cure had been a success after all of these years. As the night progressed into day, the two helped the elderly man make it back to his family. Finally having been cured of the pestilence.
They left the man's house, the Crow looking at the woman in front of her. Perhaps overexcited from finally creating the cure, the Crow leans in and gives her a kiss on the mouth. For which, she responds in kind. After minutes of making out, the Crow pauses and stares into her eyes. "You know, I used up most of my herbs creating the medicine for the man. Perhaps we should go back to the valley to gather more?" "Well… In case you forgot, we only found those herbs after getting drunk on a date." the Raven stated, looking lovingly at the Crow. "Well then. I guess we have no choice but to go on another date~ maybe tonight?" The Raven giggles at the suggestion. "It's a date."
As the lovebirds embrace each other again, they walk to a restaurant, having almost everything they could want. Ready to save the world from pestilence, together.