Story: The Crow and the Prisoner

Desperate and alone she waited in that stinking hovel. Carried off by her scorned ex-lover and doomed to die in this prison in the woods. Her father, a brave and glorious knight, surely he was looking for her; surely he’d come to find her before she died. That man whom she’d once sworn to marry, he’d left her with little food and only a dog bowl of water. She slept on the dirt and made waste into a shallow hole in the ground. No body kept her company save the light of the moon. She sat at the low window to her prison and watched its slow crawl across the night sky. In the light of the moon, a shadow flickered.

Swooping fast past the prison she caught only a glimpse but she called out, “Oh! Brave sir, or kind madam please do me pity and find me here. I have been taken by the man who swore to love me and am left here to die! If you do love riches my father, the knight Gerald will surely supply them for he must very much want me back!”

            At this the shadow, not a man nor a woman, but a crow circled back to alight on the window sill. Wondering, it cocked its head and her, disappointed, turned away from the visitor.

            “Oh but a crow,” said sighed. “Although you are a large and beautiful bird you cannot pull the bars from these cages. Perhaps though, you may give me a bit of company for I am most desperately lonely in this cage.”

            Turning the her, the crow stare and opened its beak wide and spoke, “Dear madam I may not be strong enough to free you from your prison but I am a teller of tales. If you should listen, perchance I could provide you comfort in your dark time.

            And with little else to do, the young woman agreed and as she sat upon the dirt floor the crow began his first tale.

            A carpenter, a goldsmith, a tailor, and a hermit went camping one night in the woods and as they sat ‘round their campfire they discussed who might take watch against the bandits and creatures of the night. Being of strong and sturdy conviction, the carpenter did agree to take first watch and, as his companions fell asleep, he soon took to carving to keep him occupied and alert. He was quick and sure, and soon from a large block of wood the visage of a woman was hewn and kept him company through his watch, but soon his shift was over and the goldsmith took his place. Finding before him a beautiful figure, he was amazed and, admiring its beauty, committed to making a glittering set of gold jewelry with which to adorn her figure. As soon as he was finished and fast asleep the tailor rose to take his watch and, finding a striking woman decked in gold, he set about making her a fine set of clothes to complement her beauty. As he slept and at last the hermit did wake, the last man exclaimed to find a well adorned and lovely woman standing among them at the camp. He, at once, used his ancient magic to bring her now to life and, as the other men woke, they all found among them a beautiful, living woman brought forth from their combined labors through the night.

            Immediately the carpenter laid claim to her, “She is mine for I carved her body from the wood. I have done the bulk of the work and now I will take her as my wife.”

            The goldsmith, in anger fired back, “I have given her gold and jewels for her person! Having invested the most money into her I must have the most steadfast claim.”

            Not to be left out, the tailor exclaimed “If not for me she would stand before us naked and ashamed. I have given her dignity in clothes and so her virtue belongs to me!”

            The hermit, for his part, said “I am the one who has brought her to life. She belongs to me and no other. If not for my magic, we would be arguing for a lifeless statue now.”

            Among the arguing, the woman stood listening, and she realized that none of these men cared of her opinion towards them. These men disgusted her with their entitlement. They knew that she now lived but asked neither for her opinion nor her name. And as they argued she stole away into the night, belonging never to them but to herself now. And they did not realize till morning that their prize was gone and by then she was too far away for them to pursue.

            As the crow finished his tale he looked down to see the maiden sleeping peacefully upon the dirt floor and, again, he flew off into the night.

            As the morning sun arose and the woman awoke to find herself alone again in her wretched prison she began to weep for she believed she would never be free as the woman from the story. But as she cried, her voice was carried on the wind and soon was drowned out by thundering hoof beats. In fear and excitement, she rose to the window to see her father, dressed in shining armor, a regiment at his back, and a talking crow upon his shoulder. In short time they pried the bars from her hovel and she ran to her father, clinging to him in his armor.

            “Thank you little friend,” she said to the bird. “I thought you had abandoned me but you have brought my salvation. As promised you shall have your pick of whatever riches you want of our estate and are welcomed to live among us at your leisure.”

            And the crow took to living among them as a storyteller, giving company to the lonely, and hope to the hopeless.

(carving of a woman, pixabay)

Author's Note: Okay I really wanted to make this one longer and have the crow relate multiple stories to her as he did in the original tale but I clearly didn't have the room for that. I couldn't smash the told stories down into a paragraph like I had wanted so I just told one story and stretched it out a bit longer. I think the lead up to the story took longer than I thought it would but I got this in just under 1000 so I'm happy with how it turned out.

 The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot, by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi (1801)