A crow with feathers as black as coal is flying through the cool spring evening. The bird is on its daily hunt for nutritious food. It lands on a nearby branch. The landing causes the small tree branch to shake slightly but that doesn't bother the crow at all. Since it's observing its surroundings with great curiosity and a watchful eye. The bird hops from one side of the branch to the other. Back and forth a few times while it watches the peaceful environment around it.
Mere seconds later, the crow plunges forward and resumes its wing work. A soft spark of delight and determination shines in the bird's eyes. As its gaze is focused solely on the tiny little creature shuffling through the grass. The crow got closer and closer and closer. It stretches out its talons, ready to call this little snack its own. But before the crow was able to reach the small creature, an owl flew by and snatched the mouse swiftly and quietly. Mean. Thanks to its quick reaction though, the crow was able to avoid an impact on the ground by flying a sharp curve upwards. Despite the unsuccessful grasp of the snack, the crow does not lose its dedication to catch itself a meal this evening. So, it continues to fly through the dense woods, passing by tress and keeping its senses sharp.
After a while, the crow finds another one of these hard white things stacked on a stick. It lands on top of that and bends down, taking a closer look at the object. The crow has seen a lot of these things already in this forest. It taps its beak on the hard white material a few times. It's a skull surely. But all the precious flesh and meat has already decomposed. Bummer. Once the crow finished its inspection, it took flight again. It passes trees and dodges the branches. At the same time, the black bird also keeps its eyes on the ground. Ready to pounce on anything that dares to move through the grass.
After a short way, the woods open into a slim clearing. The crow, curious to see what lies ahead, steers for that location. The sun has almost completely vanished behind the trees and the horizon, painting the evening sky in a dark, quickly fading purplish blue. Once the crow enters the clearing, it flies higher up into the air to get a better view of the grassland beneath. Its dark eyes spot something rather interesting at the very edge of the field. With a few effortless wing beats, the bird glides through the cool air and over to the alluring sight. The crow lands right next to its finding, observing it closely.
Turns out, it's a partly rotten human, a corpse. The bird nears the once living being cautiously, stretching its neck to get a better look without having to step further. By using its beak, the crow nudges the unmoving creature a few times to make sure that this isn't some sort of trap. As the bird pokes around near the head, its interest is quickly drawn to a dangling object. It inspects the delicious looking something rather thoroughly. It's round and the color, it once had, has faded. This ball is also attached to the main body by a not very long cord. Clearly, the delicacy must be an eyeball. In the split of a second, the crow snatches the eyeball, ripping the cord that previously attached the eye to the owner. It then throws its head back and devours the carrion with one big swallow.
After the tasty treat, the crow hops onto the back of the corpse, because it's laying on its stomach, and begins to pick at its scalp a little. With precise picks and nudges, the crow manages to rip out some brown hair. Since the crow now has everything it needed so far, it quickly heaves back into the air. The bird flies efficiently back to its nest with the hair bundle in its beak. Arriving there, the crow lands right in the middle. The precious nest, the crow built up so eagerly a few months ago, is made of a variety of bones. But not solely bones. The main binding element is hair and fur. Before the crow settles in fully for the night, it swiftly pushes the earlier gathered hair into the slight gaps of the bone structure to make the entire construct even more stable.
Regardless of the former trouble, the crow fetched itself a fine meal this evening. Surely, the bird will visit the corpse again tomorrow to maybe feast a little more on the provided buffet and to perhaps pick some more hair, skin or bones to decorate its nest further.
No matter how much you take from nature, one day you'll give everything back.
