Chapter 116: Cloaca

The only human that Jimmy built some sort of a connection with in this village, got herself into trouble, less than an hour after the two of them met. He felt as if the universe was mocking him, because he could already predict that he’d get himself involved in the matter, far before he actually got involved.

Jimmy saw the tall, hardy woman punch out a man that was about a third bigger than her, and from the looks of it, she was winning.

Deep within the madness, he tried to figure out what she was so upset about. He stretched his head forward as much as he could, as if he was a curious cat, trying to pick up on any singular word he could.

"Marta," He parroted, "That’s her name?"

Predictably, Vorin muffled in the background. Amongst the many questions he had, only one of them broke through the wall of Jimmy’s single-minded absorption.

Vorin had asked, "How can you understand them? They sound like a dying Dry Eagle to me. That Whaaa-uuurrr-gggh-baaa-baaa they’re screaming, can’t be making any sense to you."

Irritated that he was being interrupted, Jimmy snapped out of his sub, trance-like state for a couple of seconds, just to snap at his brother.

"You’d learn their language too if you paid attention. It’s not that difficult." He said, "Quit nagging me more than my actual partner, and learn something, brother."

Jimmy did not wait for a response, and snapped right back to it, observing Marta, which he considered to be the most interesting human he has ever met in this world so far.

Vorin stopped cawing his way through complaints, and did what he was told. He paid attention to the villagers below, or at least, he pretended like he was paying attention, so he wouldn’t further piss off his brother, but at some point, he did pick up on some of the words. He was even confident that he understood them.

Proud, he decided to share his findings with the ladies, since his brother was busy.

"Tadger? I think those men have hurt their cloacas," Vorin explained, "They keep pointing to it. Maybe they got fish bones stuck far up there?"

"Up their rear end?" Julia followed along, "Do you think that’s important, hatchling? Do you want to slip your beak up their stinky, slimy holes and peck at the fish bones for them?"

"I am not a hatchling," Vorin said, though he did not care to elaborate more.

The two hardy, hairy men he mentioned, did actually not talk about their cloacas, or anuses, specifically. Cloacas were found amongst birds and reptiles, amongst other creatures, and despite Vorin’s confidence, he was far off as to what they were pointing at.

The men were pointing at their penises, and laughing. Their exact conversation was irrelevant.

As a crow, Vorin was oblivious of the human penis. He didn’t know that humans had separate tools to make babies, and not an all-in-one tool like his cloaca.

Likewise, he insisted that they were hurt, and could not pick up on their actual penis-related jokes independently. Nevertheless, he was intrigued, and so despite being mocked, he kept listening to the conversations between the humans.

On to more important matters, Marta knocked out two more men, and Jimmy tried his best not to get involved. He wanted to help her, but he knew that if he got involved, he’d end up wiping out the rest of the villagers, regardless of how physically strong they were.

If he killed them all, he wouldn’t be able to retrieve whatever secret technique they were maintaining, if they had it to begin with, that is.

More and more villagers got involved in pinning down Marta. Eventually, they got the best of her.

Within the chaos, Jimmy picked up on the main thing she said that got her pinned down.

She repeated, "Ach, get tae fuck, ye bunchae bawbags! I’m tellin’ ye, a gabbin’ craw set that bloody fish’s heed on fire. It wisnae me, ya dossers!"

Jimmy understood most of what she said. He was learning their language quicker than what he was comfortable with.

’So they either think she’s lying, or they think she’s crazy?’ He thought, ’What’s the big deal anyway? This can’t be the first time they saw a fish with its head blown up.’

The men and women who pinned her down, dragged her towards the only building that was separate from the village.

Naturally, Jimmy followed suit, and circled above the building.

After a little while, he noticed that this village, which at its best would be considered barely livable in, had its very own prison.

If ale or beer was common here, which wouldn’t be a surprise, considering that he saw a crate full of what looked like alcohol already, then this prison was likely built to lock away violent drunkards, until they sobered up. It had to be the case, since someone bothered to build it.

Being able to think more clearly now when tens of new words weren’t being thrown at him, Jimmy quickly figured out the rest of the puzzle.

’They think she’s gone mad,’ He thought.

The small conversations he heard from afar, from within the villagers who threw her in prison, confirmed it. They were hoping that her ’episode’ would pass.

Jimmy landed on top of the prison, which was put together by thick, dependable lumber, and his team followed suit.

It was only now that he noticed the notifications that the system had been flashing at the corner of his eye.

[IQ: 159 points >>> 164 points]

[IQ: 164 points >>> 166 points]

[IQ: 166 points >>> 167 points]

These statistics were good news hidden in bad news.

IQ upgrades past his current total were difficult. He couldn’t go up tens of points at once even if he tried, which was frustrating, since even though he may be amongst the smartest, or even smartest crow out there, he was still dumb compared to a human.

The good news was that learning a few words from a human language gave him a little boost in his IQ.

’Eight points doesn’t sound bad,’ He thought.

Nevertheless, he pushed the notifications aside, and focused on the matter at hand.

There was a very angry Scottish woman below him, and he wanted to figure out if he could reap anything useful out of her jail time.