North of the human-cultivated lands, the Black Flock arrived and gathered. Tens of thousands of crows and grackles were there from all around the World. Many were very young birds from the Far South Forest, born locally within the last two cycles, but they were all hungry and dedicated to the cause of the New Order.
Tomorrow they would feed on both the humans and the Scourge. The jays and raptors, if any survived the battle at Song Wood, were too far away and too few to interfere. Tomorrow the New Order would be established. Fed by ever expanding fields of grain, the blackbird flock would then expand still more, until it covered the entire World. For a time they would keep the human Brethren as slaves and food, as they kept the cowbirds and starlings, but eventually all Old Ones would die, as would all birds but blackbirds.
Black Heart sat high in a great elm tree, surveying his great Black Flock, cawing in pleasure, and going over his plans. Despite minor setbacks, everything was falling into place. Most of the humans would gather in the fields at dawn. The worms wouldn't attack right away, they would appear later in the day, when it was hottest. Long before the worms come, his flock would kill and consume the humans.
Each puny human was to be surrounded by several blackbirds. Then he would signal the attack. The humans were even being nice enough to install sound systems that would allow him to easily signal the entire Flock when to attack.
All the armed humans were to die before they could effectively counter-attack. With most weapons captured by his blackbirds, any remaining humans would be helpless and would be quickly hunted down. Only the unarmed Brethren were to be temporarily spared, to aid in the use of human tools. Grain would be harvested and stored as planned by the humans, but instead of being shipped to Earth it would feed the Black Flock through the long Aves winter. In the spring they would expand the territory they controlled, and in three or four seasons they would control all of Aves,
The fact that during the first big worm attack Blackie had managed to hold his flock back from attacking the worms effectively until the humans put down their guns was extremely fortunate. They did the same thing the next day, and spoke of it to the Brethren. The humans were now certain that they needed to lay down their guns in order to get birds to come near enough to sing with them and to protect against worms. When they did that, they would be helpless to defend themselves against his blackbirds.
As a back-up plan, if the worms did came before his birds attacked the humans, the humans would take up their weapons and try to defend themselves. The human use of guns would help him restrain his Flock until the worms and Old Ones destroyed each other. Afterwards his great flock would consume what remained of both the Scourge and the humans. In some ways, this was the better alternative, since the great worms would be weakened in destroying the humans.
There was some risk however, that he would be unable to restrain his flock from attacking the worms, and that the combination of gun-wielding humans and worms would be dangerous to the Flock. Also, in the expected chaos many of the Brethren could be lost, though they were expendable. In the end however, it would all still come out the same, since the Black Flock was all-powerful. The blackbirds will reign supreme, and Black Heart will rule over all of Aves.
Black Heart laughed at the clever irony of it. He had learned much from the Brethren, including the human concept of slavery that he was establishing with sparrows and cowbirds and would soon use with the Brethren. He had learned about human guns and wars and petty rivalries. He had memorized revealing passages of the Bible that Blackie had sung to him over the last two years.
Humans were a curious mix of both sentimental nonsense and ruthlessness. Many humans lied and cheated. In short, they were far too much like blackbirds to tolerate. They were rivals. All of them, including eventually the Brethren, would have to die.