Today's #flashfiction Heist's Nest

“Where's the snooze button?”

Rip Van Winkle* #quote

I have a free spirit, but first someone had to pay the bail. Anyway onto the flash fiction!

Heist's Nest

         To a human a bird's nest normally didn't make much of a difference to them. Maybe as an eyesore or the home of whatever nuisance of a bird that bothered them. Sometimes a person might find a bird's nest pleasant to have around.

         However the nest of one raven, the one people came to calling “Heist”, valued over a million dollars. Or more, people really couldn't tell. Birds liked shiny things and Heist gained fame for going out of her way to grab shiny things. She's flown straight into jewelry shops, grabbed something straight from the owner's hands and left. It took people years to find the nest of Heist.

       “Good morning friend! Good morning!” The raven yelled to the crowd gathered around the tall tree that housed the nest. Raven's could mimic words like parrots, but were much famous for their phrase “Nevermore”. Such a pleasant greeting didn't fit normal image of the bird.

        The tree's branches surrounded a hole that the nest rested in. The various valuables Heist stole were woven into the branches. To take any one of them would collapse her nest and the eggs would come tumbling down with it. Normally people wouldn't have a problem with taking down a bird's nest for a few million dollars in jewels but the old man with a shot gun next to the tree convinced them otherwise.

        “You get off my property!” The old man yelled to the news crews, onlookers, and people looking to claim the valuables for themselves.

         The police chief came forward. Due to the amount of valuables at the scene him and several officers were brought to the scene to discourage fights from breaking out. They intended to take the nest into evidence and have the lawyers sort it out later instead of having people riot over the bundle of valuables in public. “Sir, I have a warrant here to get the nest of the bird known as 'Heist' and bring it back to the station. We're not here to look through any of your property. We just want the bird.”

The old man rusty copper colored skin wrinkled as he scowled at the police chief. “Her name isn't 'Heist'! It's Olive!”

         “Good morning friend! Good morning!” The raven cawed louder. It flew on the old man's shoulder and it took some food out from the pocket of his worn shirt before returning to the nest. He still held his shotgun, ready to fire.

        “You are not touching her nest. Her children are in there!” The old man became more angry with every passing second. The police chief realized he shouldn't have spoken up. He read up on the old man before coming to the property. John Gregson. Eighty years old, wife passed, children died in an accident a decade ago. The old man has no family.

          The captain figured he could never figure out when John connected to the bird, but it explains why he valued it so much he wouldn't even take the jewels from its nest.

         “Now get out of here!” John yelled. He motioned his gun across the crowd. One officer started to reach for his but the police chief signaled him with a slight movement of his hand to stand down. He'd rather not have someone die here if he could avoid it. Another problem however was that the crowd's greed for the nest prevented most of them from moving. Those that found danger in the gun already left when Gregson first grew angry, however even some newscasters stayed wanting to get footage of the first disaster, assuming that they wouldn't be the ones to be harmed.

         The captain then said, “Mr. Gregson. A lot of people want what's in Olive's nest. When you go to sleep, people are going to come and try to get it, and then she's going to get hurt anyway so maybe we need to find someway to get her eggs out?”

         “I'll sleep out here!” John yelled back.

          The captain tried to think of something else to say. He'd been in hostage negotiations, but this didn't fit anything he'd been in. A greedy crowd growing more eager, while an old man being impossible. He feared that someone would just try to run for the nest at any second. He did not need a dead body.

         The sound of a gunshot smashed through the air.

        “Who the hell fired!?” The captain yelled. Gregson didn't it would have been a lot more damage. A young officer did. But not at the old man. Heist, or Olive fell to the ground dead. When the old man saw the body he passed out. Officers rushed over and grabbed his gun. “You idiot!” The captain screamed at the young officer who fired the shot.

          “What!? It worked! And only the bird died!”

           When he noticed that the news cameras started to turn towards him the captain lowered his voice to a whisper. “Boy, you don't understand people. We'll be lucky if the old man lives through this trauma.”