Never try to beat a pro gamer at his game

As usual, I’m on my spot when suddenly, there is a loud splash on the water of the pond, and soon after, one of the duck, I never know which one it is, like they are twins and all, so the duck, start swearing like hell, saying something bit his leg under the water!
Then the second one started flapping his wings screaming he’s under attack too!

Every bird around start gathering to look at the two ducks screaming madly that a fish is trying to eat them alive. It’s not like we could do anything about it, so we just stayed there, watching the scene. The two harriers started talking about taking bets and the ravens rapidly joined the conversation.
- So what did you bet and on what? Will the ducks survive? How big is the fish? Which one will lose a leg?
- Let’s stay fair, Noah dear, and I will bet on the same thing, and it will imply the survival of the duck brothers. As to what we bet…
- Dear Lou, why not betting on a week of services? Whichever win will have the two others serve them for a week’s duration?
- Not bad Noah dear, then I concur with that. What do you two say about it?
- So we bet one week of services on the fact that the duck will or will not survive?
- It’s fine with me Lex.

- Ook! Let’s do it then!
As soon as the betting was done than Noah, start shooting to the ducks.

- Hey there dear warriors of the water and swimmers of the vast pond! It occurs to me that you could simply join us on the shore to avoid those aggression of the lowest grade! It would give you enough time to build a solid plan and retaliate adequately against that vile aggressor of the deep!

Stroked by that simplest but fantastic advice, the two ducks got off the water while the harriers sighed in awe about how the ravens won that bet. Again.

Ellie was on the shore, trying to look through the water to identify the culprit of the attack. That head of her so close to the water that she could drink some if she wanted.

Suddenly a clawed paw sprang under her beak to throw a jet of water at her eye and she falls backwards with surprise.

- Dear Lou, did you see that?

- Of course Noah dear, should we start a game?

- With pleasure!

- Aallriight! Then! Alexis! Paul! Dear friends! Do you want to play with us?

- Of course we want! Answered one of the harriers when the other, nodded with delight.
- Then, I’ll explain how to start the game. You saw it like we did, right? Those vile attacks came from an animal and not a fish. So it occurs to me and you too probably than an animal couldn’t survive for long underwater. He will need to breathe! So that’s where you intervene, dear friends! What about you ask him, how good is the day, with a strike of your beak, when you’ll see his devilish snout trying to breathe some fresh air? Interesting right? In the meantime, we will all ensure that the vile beast couldn’t escape the ponds unnoticed? So each time he’ll try to breathe, you’ll have to strike! Fast! And when he couldn’t endure it anymore, everybody will wait for him on the shore. Brilliant right? So everybody! Takes positions around the ponds! Leave no void between you! And be sure to watch the water attentively! We’ll have to warn our dear attack team when the beast tries to breathe!

And so the game begins. I was wondering why the ravens didn’t take the role of the attacker instead of leaving the harriers do it. Well, I got my answer pretty fast. It was annoying! And pretty boring. The beast seems capable to not breathe for around five to ten minutes and he visibly tried to play with us too, once he understood the raven game. It’s easy to figure where the advantage lay in this game. And it’s not with us birds. At first, everyone was on edge, closely observing the water for the moment when the beast will breathe. But the beast was sneaky, leaving only the upper part of her snout outside the water … and then, there was also the time between the moment it was seen, the time needed to warn the harrier, who then take flight, graze the water and try to hurt the animal. Plenty of time to breathe and be gone underwater before the harrier were here. And if the harrier tried to attack more aggressively, they took the risk to fall themselves underwater and probably became the prey of the beast.

Time goes by, we birds were less careful to the signs of the beast and everybody started to be bored with that game. But the harrier couldn’t relinquish it, after all, it was their time to shine in front of the ravens they adored.
Do I have to spell it? But it was exactly what the ravens have in minds in the first place. Half a day later, close to all the birds were not watching the water anymore. Meanwhile, the harriers were exhausted and had taken a few bath too when trying to hit the beast.
Confident about her win, the beast finally put a paw outside the water. Trying to sneak out while the harriers were slept awake on the bench and nobody didn’t care anymore.

That’s exactly when the ravens stroked, picking the beast exposed too far from the water and any other hidden position. They jumped on her from the sky, claw inching on her back, plucking her air with their beak. They seem to be immensely enjoying themselves.

The beast put a scream I never heard before. Well, I did ever hear those kinds of sound, but not with so much fright and panic woven in it.

Our beast was a rodent of sort by the way and I often saw some of them around lakes and slow river. There must be a hole around here where he or they lived.
But in truth, the beast didn’t seem to have a good day. The two ravens were teaming up to hurt her one after the other, acting with precision and swift movements, taking advantage of when the beast was facing one for the other to strike with impunity.
The same I saw them doing with the dog. But this time it was way more violent. With the dog, they were playing and it was for the fun. Yes, I agree the dog could object to that, he probably didn’t enjoy it at all. But this time, it was mean to hurt and not playing a game.

The rodent asked for mercy quite rapidly, but the ravens didn’t stop. Soon the beast was shooting at us the record of all his life and things we didn’t ask about it. How he lived here for ages, how he was annoyed by our presence, especially since we were so numerous now, and big, like Ellie, and annoying, and shouting nonsense like the pigeon. Well, we seemed to be bad neighbours for him, to say the least, and he tried to make us leave the pond. But all those talks didn’t stop the ravens either.

For an hour the rodent tried to talk his way out, then he tried crying, and then begging, for, at the end, just screaming with pain, trying to just flee, far, far away from here.

But the raven never stopped, and followed him as far as we could see. Then they just came back home smiling with delight about a work well done.
And the rodent? He never came back. No need to ask why.