The Beginning

He used to like the silence, that is until it began to be disrupted by imaginary barks and howls from nonexistent wolves.  Now he could hardly stand the quiet of it at times.  It would make him nauseous, and Calyndar had found himself on the ground heaving on multiple occasions.  Surprisingly, though, those were the easy days.  On other days his mind took it upon itself to fill the silence he once enjoyed.  The noise it created would send him reeling, bringing up images he would rather forget.  It would speed up his breath and make him pause to see if everything up until that point was actually real or had all been a dream.  

(Short gasps, coming in quick and not out fast enough, blurred vision and weak legs that make him stumble and fall.

Pounding of hooves, dead bodies in the woods, bared teeth, harsh orders, a sweet voice.)

Calyndar snorts.  A pair of crows call from above, he flicks his ear and tilts his head upward.  He watches the crows and the crows watch him in return.  Despite the stupidity that Calyndar usually associated with these birds, intelligence gleams in this pairs eyes.

“What?” He barks.  Far from eloquent, but Calyndar had grown past that a long time ago. The birds looked at each other, then back at him.

"You seem troubled-"  "Quite troubled, yes!"  "-which is odd for someone like you."  "A brute!"  His ears pull back at the jumbled sentences the birds speak.

“The point.”  He presses.

"A point, please!"  "A point is hardly needed-"  "Quite true, quite true!"  "-when you already know."

A clawing in the back of his mind, razor teeth and sharp grins.  He clenches his jaw with a shake of his head and begins to walk away.  It seems these birds are as dumb as the rest.  They have nothing important to say.

"There he goes!"  One squawks.  "Running even when he knows."  The sound of flapping wings, the birds fly themselves onto another tree that was several feet in front of Calyndar's path, their movement draws him to another stop.

"It's your own mind that plays tricks on you-"  The most coherent one continues, "Games are only fun when you play too!"  "-and they call it a disease."  "Your past is controlling your present!"  "Sounds can set you off-"  "Crack, BOOM."

His muscles tense and his breath catches.  The second crow cackles, wings flapping erratically.  The first continues speaking as if nothing has happened.

"-or just you thinking. A strange thing."  "A sickness!"  "Not physical, only mental, but it's real all the same."

Forcing his muscles to relax, Calyndar expels what air he managed to take in.  Even if it was true that he had whatever these birds said he did, he was not sick.  He couldn't be.  Sickness made you weak. (You’re not sick, you’re not.)  Calyndar says nothing in reply to them, taking in another breath before shaking his head and continuing onward.

"Some have ways to keep it at bay."  The crow continues to blather.  "A smack or a pinch."  The second offers, unhelpful.  "It helps!"   The first ironically says.  Calyndar keeps walking.

These crows knew nothing -- nothing about him or his life.  He was fine.  He huffs as he continues on his path.  Soon enough the pair of crows lift themselves from their second perch, moving and gliding above Calyndar as he walks on.  A screeching caw leaves the mouth of one, Calyndar flinches involuntarily.

A coat black like his.  A white outline in the distance.  A sinister laugh.

Piercing pain at his temple draws him from his mind, and he glares as wings ruffle his mane.  The owner of said wings is withdrawing back into the air, watching with eyes that seem to say 'Told you so'.  A wetness drips from his temple and he knows the crow has pecked him hard enough to draw blood.

"A helping hand"  One caws.  "Worked like a charm!"  "No harm."  Hilarious.

“I'm not sick.”  Calyndar rumbles. 

"Never actually said you were."  Calyndar's ears flicker back, knowing that while the birds never explicitly stated it they had hinted at it all the same.  The other crow nods. "You assumed that yourself."

"Fuck off."  Both crows laugh madly.