Tia

Tia began to dig fantically She was tired of being caged. She was in the back of the enclosure.

*Crows*

Gliding over the top of the fence, a crow settled himself on a nearby branch to watch Tia. "You looking to escape? Perhaps I could help... perhaps you could help me?" The ebony creature watched as Tia dug at the soil, but where she was digging, the fencing ran several feet underground. It would take an awfully long time to escavate her way out from right there.

Tia

She stopped digging and turned to the crow, raising a brow. How? She asked curiously but seriously. She wanted to get out.

*Crow*

"Follow me." The bird glided low and slow over the ground, moving along the side of the fence. He traveled a good distance before stopping near a dead tree that stood a few feet from the fence. The tree was very tall, but it was missing all but five of its branches. The crow landed on the ground and hopped around to the side of the trunk opposite of the fence.

"A woodpecker has told me this tree is rotten through and through, and riddled with the works of ants and termites. See how it leans on its side?" The sleek bird turned his beady eyes to the trunk. Indeed, the tree was leaning towards the fence slightly. "A raccoon mother has recently abandoned her den here; says the tree is too unstable for her. Going to fall sooner or later... the roots are rotten away, from the looks of it." The crow paused again, the flew and landed percariously on the side of the tree, clinging to a thick peice of wood jutting out. "See how it sways in the wind? Take a run and hit it as hard as you can. If it falls... you've got an easy way out."

Tia

She trotted along, following him, and when they came to the tree, she nodded and backed up a few steps. She ran as hard as she could towards the tree. She closed her eyes and turned her body so that the side would hit the tree just when she was an inch from the tree. She hit it as hard as she could and waited....

*Crow*

The crow took to the air just before the wolf hit, and alighted on the ground near her. The tree groaned and a muffled crunching, snapping could be heard below it, as well as the sparse limbs above as they swayed and snapped off after striking against other limbs.

The tree, very slowly at first, swayed to the side it was initially leaning towards. More crunching, snapping sounds could be heard as what remained of the roots below gave way. Then all at once, the big tree swiveled on its percarious axis and came crashing down. It struck the fence, tearing part of the side down. Now the tree acted like a little bridge, offering Tia a place to climb over without touching the electric wire at the top.

The crow fluttered onto the trunk of the fallen tree, "There, you did it! Just run across the trunk... and hop off the other side, into freedom!"

Tia

Tia nodded excitedly.
Thank you, thank you! She said with joy. She climbed onto the tree and scrambled across it. She howled in happiness, then disappeared to the Croal Mountains.