Magpies

Sophie rubbed sleep from her eyes. The sun's rays streamed through the trees, dappling her skin with light. Verdant leaves rustled as she stretched out.
A magpie swopped down, his black and white wings shimmering in the dawn. A mouse dangled in his mouth. He landed and cocked his head to the side, his single eye fixed onto Sophie. She stroked his head, and he dropped the mouse into her other hand.
"Thank you, Rafe," Sophie said with a smile. Rafe blinked that single eye, pecked her hand, then launched back into the air.
Sophie cupped her hands to either side of her mouth and yelled, "We'lI be together soon!"

Sophie was almost mine. That selfish heart of hers beat for naught but her, and soon it would beat for naught but me.

Sophie rose to her feet. Unaccustomed to how human legs worked, she stumbled and hopped across the forest floor. Becoming more and more nauseous, she eventually bent over and heaved. "Rafe, what have you done to me?" His peck told her he would be watching and waiting on her needs, so where was he now? Why couldn't he bring her food that was more palatable to this human body?

I didn't watch Sophie's new body rejecting the food. Instead, I watched the branches and the sky for Rafe. Beautiful, kind Rafe, who dreamt of naught but relaxing on thermals with Sophie.

When Sophie straightened, she came face-to-face with Shadow. Black and white wisps intertwined into a void, with two pinpricks of light creating the illusion it had eyes. Sohpie smiled at it as she reached out and put her hand through Shadow. She screamed out for Rafe as crystals seeped up her arm.
The magpie swooped down, and dived straight into the source of her pain. When he emerged out the other side, he thudded to the floor, ice paralysing him.
Sophie drew her hand out of Shadow. The pain made her wince, but she refused her brain to dwell on it.
Ignoring that single, terrified eye, she picked up the magpie and wrung its neck. Its caws were wordless to her ears. Once the bird had stopped twitching, she cut out its remaining eye. It was easier to swallow the eye as a human than it had been as a bird. She looked to Shadow, trembling with excitement. The forest began to spin round her as she shrunk and changed, as wings sprouted from her human back, and her nose and mouth transformed into a beak. She moved her tail up and down and reached up towards the sky with human hands.
"Is that it? Am I the magpies' queen now?" Sophie squealed.

Half-magpie and half-human, Sophie was a sight to behold. It was a shame and a fortune that a creature such as her would not live in this world. I kissed her, tasting the dirty, vile contamination. It was, as always, beautiful. Strength seeped into me as Sophie's body became limp.
I picked up Rafe. Such a shame the bravest had to die in order for me to live, in order for the selfless to show just how disgusting they were. With Sophie's delicious spirit consumed, her heart became just another beating within me. As Sophie vied for attention amongst the masses, there was no hint of sadness for Rafe. In a few years, her pleas would ascend to false attempts at redemption - like they all did - just as selfish as she'd always been, with no gratitude to the value of Rafe's sacrifice.
 Some spirits found their way out of their vices, and were released back into the wild. But some, I knew, I would be spending an eternity with. Using my own bit of selfishness, perhaps borrowed from them, I found comfort with familiar voices.
Being the magpie's queen was a lonely job, but it was the only way to keep my precious birds safe.