Horizon Ridge with many a flirt and flutter

no rush! hope you dont mind my assuming that she landed shortly after him!

bartok flapped hectically after his/her prized possession (for which he now presumably needed an attorney – the legal battle ahead would be a cutthroat one. split custody? would he be primary caregiver or she? would he be paying support for their precious stone? did kidnappers even have rights?! oh the stress!!), straining his wings in an attempt to pump them even faster and expedite his downward voyage.

looking back, his eyes searched for any sign of the magpie, who was surely sailing after him to rescue her shanghaied cargo. right he was – she was gaining on him, and would soon zip by him with her lighter frame giving her the convenience of speed. not to mention, she was being transported by the indignation of a woman scorned. damn his clunky motor! damn her upgraded model! the raven nearly wheezed with all the frenzy of a hunting dog on the scent of a fox sprinting away with his milkbone. he broke through the treetops, unsure in his panic if she had already reached the goldenware but hopeful that she hadn't.

he practically slammed into the ground, his stout beak confronting gravity first with the rest of him shortly following suit. his wings sprawled, disheveled, tarry black feathers raining gently down around him as he laid there disoriented for a few moments.

but he soon remembered his purpose and jumped up, skittering pell-mell as he scanned the ground for the pebble. it had to be here! he squawked all sorts of colorful phrases, paranoid that the dumb cow who stole it in the first place possessed motion-tracking sensors and had somehow spirited away with it before he could land. his brain downloaded thousands of other similar possibilities as his eyes scoured and his beak racked through leaflitter.

just then, a twinkle flashed in his peripherals. he whipped his head and scooted over to its source. oh, good grief – mother earth's cleavage. where the underpinning of trees and their gnarled root systems thrived, the soil had collapsed and left burrow-like structures, and the piece of gold had fallen into one of the dozens of holes. "AUGHHHHHHHH!" the raven wailed, nearly falling over from the frustration of it all.

bartok stuck his head through the roots and clacked his bill inches from the rock, which was in stable condition cradled in a bedding of rotted bark and dirt. unfortunately, that was super duper not where he wanted it to be. with a moan that took on an sorrowful quality, the tail of it a drawn out whine, he turned to what he expected to be a certain menace present. he could pin all of his misery on her! deplorable creature! "your game suck! go away!"

huffing and puffing, the bird turned back around and peered into the dark again. "you. are. despicable." he bitched some more, narrowing his eyes to get a better look through the murk. he tried to angle himself to squeeze through the gaps, but only his wings made it through and he felt for the stone with the tips of his feathers. it worked about as well as expected.

he was much too fat to fit through the crevices. not that he would have if he could, anyway. he was acquainted well enough with forest to know that there was likely a resident who called this lair home. yup, probably something with teeth and an insatiable appetite for sauteed corvidae, and he didn't care much for that prospect at all.

oh.. but shiv wasn't too fat, was she? the magpie was considerably tinier than he, and could enter with ease! and her going in instead of him had the added bonus of diverting the hole occupant's attention away from him if necessary. his very own sacrificial lamb, so to speak.

bartok whisked his head in shiv's direction. "GO GET BARTOK'S THING." he demanded of her, moving politely out of the way as per requisite for her following his orders. how pleased would caiaphas be if she knew that bartok was dabbling in the hobby of sacrifice?! oh how proud she would be of her little zealot. how proud indeed.