He was a thief by trade and a philosopher by delusion. He usually stole because it made him feel alive, not because he needed shiny things, though, admittedly he did like shiny things.
“The world” he once said, dark wings fluttering besides his friend Todd “Belongs to those who dare take a closer look”
“You mean steal” Todd sighed .
The Raven had stolen all sorts of treasures; weddings rings, spoons, sunglasses, even candy from a baby once, but he had grown bored. He wanted to steal something that mattered. Something people could not replace.
One day as the moon hung low and cold in the sky, the Raven decided he would steal eyes. He wanted to see the world the way others did. Maybe, he thought, if he could look through a poet’s eyes he would understand beauty. Or if he had a child’s eyes he would taste what innocence felt like.
Todd who had enough of the Raven’s stealing was unimpressed.
He croaked “You are going to get shot dead one day”
His first target was an easy one, a scarecrow. He swooped down at night and plucked an eye from its face. When he tried them on the next day he saw nothing new, just the same sunrise, the same Todd scratching his massive belly.
“I don’t see very well” the Raven complained.
“That is a button, you idiot” Todd replied.
Next the Raven went after a fox. Now foxes are tricky business, they do not take kindly to ocular theft. By miracle and a very deep puddle, the raven managed to escape with an eye.
When he looked through it, everything seemed sly and suspicious. Everyone seemed to be plotting something, even Todd, especially Todd.
“Congratulations” Todd said “You have unlocked deceit. That will get you far”
He tried an owl’s eye next, hoping for wisdom. All it did was make him nocturnal and weirdly judgmental. He spent the next three nights hooting philosophy. On the fourth day Todd knocked the eye out of the Raven with a clean backhand slap.
Then there was the peacocks eyes, he could not stop admiring himself in the puddles. “This is what true love feels like” he said.
“As if you were not enough of a narcissist already” said Todd.
He found the human eye in a tumbler of water, next to a bed. The old man who owned it was still snoring when the Raven took it. He liked the old man’s snore, it sounded like a dying volcano.
Now, back at his tree, he balanced the eye in his claw, he pressed it against his socket and blinked. The world changed.
Everything looked slow, heavily, like a melting clock. The leaves did not rustle, the pond did not glimmer, even Todd looked less green.
“So this is what they see” the Raven gasped “The world always just a little bit disappointing”
He hoped closer to the water to find a hideous creature; half bird, half human.
He laughed “No wonder they all look so tired”
Todd lifted his head lazily from his pad “What do you see?”
“Regret” said the Raven, “Also” he squinted at Todd “You look fatter”
“That is perspective” said Todd, a little offended.
“Perspective” repeated the Raven, savoring the word like like a fresh rat “Is that what it is? No wonder the humans drown in it”
He plucked the eye out, wiped it on a leaf and threw it into the hole in the tree trunk he called home. It landed next to the button with a soft, wet sound.
The next afternoon while Todd was sunbathing, the Raven perched next to him, staring intently. “I wonder how life would through your eyes” he asked.
“All flies, I suppose” Todd said “I wondered when you would come after me”
The Raven tilted his head “Would you give me one if I asked?”
“Would you give it back, if I said yes”
They both knew the answer.
But the way he looked at Todd, made the frog sleep with one eye open.
Todd had grown anxious of watching his friend’s madness. Each day the Raven added a new eye to his strange gallery and each night he muttered to himself in languages that was not his own.
“Have you not seen enough?” Todd asked, voice calm like the pond below him.
“Enough?” asked the Raven “I have barely begin, there still is the cat’s eye, the snake’s eye, maybe even a mermaid’s eye….”
“You should stop” interrupted Todd “Stop before you forget what the world looked like when it made sense”
The Raven blinked through the elephant’s eye he was wearing “Sense is overrated”
“No” Todd pleaded “This is madness” He pointed towards the hole in the tree “Those eyes, they do not show you the truth, they show you pieces, like a broken glass, stare too long and you will bleed”
The Raven chuckled “Philosophy, for a frog”
“And tragedy, for a thief” Todd stared at the Raven “If you consider me your friend, come back”
The words settled between them. The Raven looked at his friend’s big beady eyes, and saw himself, for the first time, he did not like what he saw. He turned to his hole, slowly, picked the eyes one by one and dropped them into the water. Todd watched them sink below without so much as a ripple, as if the pond had been waiting hungrily to swallow them.
The Raven stared at his hallow for a long time after that, unsure if he had given up his collection or himself.
That night, the moon shimmered on the pond, the Raven laughed softly, it seemed to echo all around.
Todd whispered to himself “I hope he has not gone fully mad” and hid beneath a leaf.
From below, a voice replied “I can still see you, Todd”
Todd froze.
The thing about ravens are, they never return what they have stolen.
They just learn to hide it better.
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