Big Man in a Little Costume

Mission:

Hara looked down at the costume in his hands and back up to the 3 farmers, his Potato farmer friend included. When he thought he’d kill for this little man he did not have this in mind.

“You want me…” He paused, still trying to wrap his head around it. “To pretend I’m a scarecrow?” He tried hiding his mix of embarrassment and chagrin but it was written plain across his face.

The farmers looked at him apologetically but nodded, “These birds, they aren’t like your normal murder of crows, they are smart. Every time we’ve tried putting a scarecrow up they come and knock it down, we figure if the scarecrow fought back maybe they’d finally leave us alone.” He rolled his eyes and sighed, torn between his newfound loyalty and his general reticence to look like an idiot. After a tense pause as he looked down at the costume he sighed once more.

“Go inside, do not look at me when I am out here, I will handle your crow problem.” he said, the farmers relaxed at his acceptance of their job, thanking him profusely while backing up nervously. He grumbled while he put the costume on, stuffing the canvas clothes with straw and putting a sturdy straw hat on his head. The costume of course was a little too small for him, and the legs and arms of the costume only went about halfway as far as they should. Hara grumbled again as he walked uncomfortably into the middle of the potato farm.

Standing in the cold, in this stupid costume. He began to make his way back to the farmers house after about an hour, the indignity of the situation becoming a little too much to bear for Hara. The only thing that stopped him was the squawking in the distance.

He activated his Byakugan and scanned the skies, confused by being unable to see the source of the squawking, he kept his eyes to the sky and enhanced his vision to give him incredible sight range but tunneling his vision. Off in the distance he could see a massive cloud of crows swirling in an area of the woods, their vast numbers creating a blackened tornado of feathers. The sight was almost unsettling to Hara, but it was quickly interrupted by the impact of multiple beaks on his legs and feet, the deluge of attacks springing seemingly from nowhere as the birds must have flown in low to the ground.

Hara struggled briefly before being tripped and falling to the ground, as soon as he lost the height advantage the birds began to attack from all directions and Hara was rapidly being overwhelmed. In a burst of savage anger he activated his Iron Heart Fortress, suddenly parrying and deflecting every bird coming his way. He grabbed the beak of one attacker, and flung its body at another bird, knocking the two of them out with ease.

As he defended himself he slowly and gradually returned to a standing position. The onslaught of attacks waning but continuing nonetheless. He fought harder, open palm striking each bird that came his way in a flurry of blows. He fought through them with blazing speed, and eventually the onslaught slowed and the birds began to retreat back, heading for a treeline off in the distance and in the same direction as the ominous storm of birds in the distance.

Hara pursued, now in fight mode as he ran after the birds with savage anger. Birds being birds of course, simply flew out of his reach and evaded him easily. He continued his tracking, determined to find their home. Launching into a full on sprint, he would run towards the same direction as the maelstrom, quickly finding himself jumping and dodging through the densely thicketed forest.

The birds, much like the farmers warned, seemed to be very smart. They caught on to his tracking, and began turning back to confront him and not give away their exact location. The dense forest provided some advantages and disadvantages, and while he was able to limit how many birds attacked him- he also didn’t have nearly as much time as he wanted to react to their onslaught.

As competent as Hara was at hand to hand combat, it could do nothing against the deluge of feathers that now assaulted him and his senses. He decided to change up tact, he knew the general area of the main murder of crows, perhaps he could just make a beeline for their home and force them to stop him through other means. With his new plan in place he bolted for the general direction of the maelstrom.

He ran forward, ignoring the stinging of the beaks and squawking as he sprinted through the forest with one goal on his mind. As he got closer to the storm, his head began to hurt, and his body began to shake as if under the effects of hypothermia. His run became labored and eventually slowed to a walk, as if he was no longer in total control of his body. He wondered what was happening to him, suddenly, blackout-

He regained consciousness on his hands and knees, crawling towards the storm but otherwise no idea how he got where he was. In front of him was a torrent of crows, spinning and forming a tornado that spun around one enormous crow. The crows eyes were his last image as he blacked out again.

He appeared at the tree line again, sitting and resting with his back to a tree. He looked back into the forest, angry at his failed attempt. Staring into the woods, the shadows of the trees looked more ominous now that he knew what lurked in its depths. He trudged back to the farmers house with his torn Scarecrow costume in hand, knocking on the farmers house and being quickly let in by the worried looking farmers. They fawned over him for a second before recoiling at his angry look.

“We are making a new plan.” He said with determination in his eyes and venom in his voice.

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[Exit]

WC-1022

Claims:

Hara wrote:[Exit]

WC-1022

Claims:

Approved