The Greenwood was the place where the Sparrows had always lived, along with their friends, the Finches and the Cardinals. It was a small forest, but there were enough tasty plants and crunchy insects in there to support them all. Best of all, there were no predators, so the birds all lived happily there. The Sparrow family had lived there for generations.
Penelope Sparrow was coming home.
She flew in a straight course, in the short, fluttering ways consistent of Sparrows. Four seasons ago, Penny had left to travel the world. She’d settled in a home, and now was coming back to visit her parents. Hopefully, she could stay long enough to get to know her future brothers and sisters.
Penny spotted the short, slightly stunted trees of the Greenwood. It was all so familiar to her that for a moment, Penny forgot that she had ever left the forest. Then she started noticing small differences. There were new tree branches where previously there had been none, abandoned nests from a year ago, and lichen in places where it hadn’t been before.
Somewhere in the forest, a crow let out an obnoxious cry. Penny shuddered. Crows had a reputation of being cunning and ruthless, and she didn’t like having them here in the Greenwood.
A short while later, Penny found her parents’ nest. She felt awkward, like an intruder from another part of the world.
“Penelope Sparrow, where have you been?” It was Mama, who wrapped her wings tightly around Penny. “I can’t believe how much you’ve grown.”
Penny felt the corners of her beak twitch upwards. Mama always made her feel good. “I’ve settled down in a nice forest. Its a bit far from here, but I’d thought I’d visit. How are you doing?”
Mama pulled away and sat back on the nest. “You’re going to have three siblings. Your father and I can’t wait for them to hatch. I can tell that they’re going to be a wingful!”
Penny nodded. She remembered herself as a hatchling, and wondered how Mama could look forwards to having triple the job to do. Then again, Mama had always been good at dealing with naughty hatchlings.
Papa flew into the nest, holding a tiny worm. He dropped it at Mama’s feet and sighed. “I swear, those crows get more and more troublesome every day. I barely got away.” He turned. “Penelope! Where’d you come from?”
After Penny told Papa how and why she had come back, she asked, “What crows?”
Papa explained that a flock of crows had moved in and were stealing food from all the other birds. Many birds had gone hungry, and most of the Cardinals had moved away. However, he was sure that the crows would soon go away.
Penny didn’t feel too sure about that. From what she’d heard, crows were nasty birds, and they rarely moved unless forced. She doubted that the crows would be leaving the Greenwood soon.

The next day, Penny woke up at the crack of dawn, determined that no crow would stop her from bringing food home to her mother. If she was early enough, she probably wouldn’t be caught.
The worms were plentiful at this time of year, and Penny had no trouble finding a few particularly fat and juicy ones. She hummed along to the Finches’ early morning songs, sure that no crow would stop her. Once Penny had found a few wriggling worms, she took off to fly to the nest.
Penny was nearly three-fourths of the way home when she heard the harsh sound of wings flapping behind her. She turned her head and saw a pure-black crow chasing after her. It was twice her size, and was quickly gaining on her. She dove downwards and turned, trying to shake it off her trail.
It only seemed to get closer. Then, it called, “Give me those worms and I won’t hurt you!”
Penny clamped her beak tightly shut. Part of her wanted to shout a defiant “Never!”, but another part of her knew that if she spoke, the worms would fall out of her beak. If only she could make the crow lose her trail…
Suddenly, she felt a sharp, intense pain near her tailfeathers. The crow was hanging on to her tail. Then, the crow’s wing cuffed her on her head, and Penny tumbled out of the sky towards the earth. The worms dropped out of her beak as she let out an involuntary cry.
The crow snatched the worms and hovered above her.
“Please,” Penny cried, “Mama needs those worms! She hasn’t had any food for over a day, and she has three eggs that are going to hatch soon.”
The crow threw back its head and laughed uproariously. “That’s what they all say. I’ll tell you, kid, in this world only the strongest survive. Now get out of here before I make you.”
Penny saw the crow chomping happily on the worms, and she knew that this wasn’t the time or place to pick a battle with the crow. She rose up and flew back to her nest.

When Penny told Papa of her failure, he didn’t seem surprised, just glad that she had made it back unharmed. “Crows are nasty birds, Penny. They’ll eventually have to move on.”
These words didn’t cheer Penny up. “Eventually” could a long time away, and Mama had eggs to watch over. In the meantime, they still had to eat and bring Mama food. Penny pondered the problem. Suddenly, she had an inspiration. “Papa, why don’t we go out together to forage? One crow can’t fight two of us at once.”
Papa considered, then said, “Of course.”
Together, they flew into a small clearing. Penny and Papa both scoured the area for edibles, while keeping an eye out for crows. They had amassed a large selection of seeds when a harsh caw made Penny look up. It was the same crow from before.
She zoomed upwards to it, pecking as much as she could possibly reach. Papa also jabbed at the crow’s vulnerable underbelly. It let out a loud screech, and for a moment, Penny was sure that they had won this fight.
The crow retreated wearily, keeping one eye on the sky and one on Penny and Papa.
Papa said, firmly, “Leave now and don’t steal our food.”
The crow laughed. “You puny little sparrows can’t do anything to me. I’ve got backup, and I’m going to teach you a lesson.”
Another crow flew into the clearing, even bigger than the one before. Without prelude or introduction, it swatted Papa away like a leaf. Penny tried to fight back, but the two crows quickly overpowered her and threw her onto the ground.
With a last contemptuous caw, the crows left. Penny was severely bruised, and she doubted Papa was much better. Mama would be so disappointed… Penny got up and groaned. Flying back to the nest with all these bruises would feel like torture.
“Penny,” Papa asked, “are you okay?”
Penny tried to put on a brave face for him. “I’m… I’m fine. Let’s go back home.”
Together, they slowly flew back to the nest.

When Penny and Papa came back home, Mama was sitting on a tree branch, weeping. Penny asked, “What happened?”
In between sobs, Mama gasped, “They -- took -- the --eggs. I couldn’t -- I couldn’t stop them!”
Penny frowned incomprehensibly. How could the eggs be gone? The crows… they wouldn’t dare! Then she took another look at the nest. It was smashed up and empty of any eggs. Somehow, the crows had overpowered Mama and stolen all the eggs. Penny couldn’t imagine what was happening to her unhatched siblings.
At her side, Papa was standing in shock. He went over to comfort Mama, but it all seemed mechanical and jerky. Penny felt rage stirring within her. The crows had no right to take the eggs. They would pay for what they had done.
Across the forest, she heard a howl of shock and disbelief echo across the trees. “Oh no,” Penny whispered, “Their eggs… the crows must have taken their eggs too.”
That was when Penny knew that the crows could not be allowed to stay in this forest, for the safety of all future eggs. They had to drive them all out and take the eggs back.
“Papa, I’m going to talk to the Finches and the Cardinals. We have to drive the crows out of here,” Penny said.
Papa barely had time to nod before she was flying off.

First, Penny visited the Finches. The Finch family was the largest in the forest, and she was sure that they would want to help. She flew up to a group of two finches and asked, “Will you help us drive out the crows? They can’t be allowed to steal our eggs.”
The Finches gaped at Penny. Finally, one said, “We can’t. They said that they would smash our eggs if we even tried!”
Penny said, “But you can’t possibly just let them stay! We have to stand up to bullies like these crows.”
The two Finches shook their heads.
Dejected, Penny flew away. Why couldn’t they see that the only way to defeat the crows would be to fight them all at once? This was for the future of all eggs, not just the Finches’.
The other Finches were no better. Each of them claimed to be too afraid of the crows, or too preoccupied with their own hatchlings to help. Some of them had even chased Penny away, apparently too scared to even let the crows know that she had proposed to fight them.
Finally, Penny approached the Cardinals. Mama had said that all but three had moved away, and Penny hoped that they would be more courageous than the Finches. When she saw them, Penny immediately asked, “Will you help us drive the crows out of this forest?
One of the Cardinals said, “Of course. We can’t let the crows continue to bully us!
Another Cardinal asked, “Will we be rescuing the eggs first?”
Penny thought for a bit. She’d imagined all the birds defeating the crows and then returning the eggs to their nests, but now she realized that it was an unrealistic plan. Rescuing the eggs would have to come first, since they didn’t have enough birds to overpower the crows. Penny said, “We will.”

At dawn, birds from the two families assembled near the crows’ makeshift camp. Mama, Papa, Penny, and the three Cardinals tried to quietly move around, not wanting to wake the sleeping crows. Penny knew that in a direct fight, they would lose, but the crows showed no signs of waking up.
They checked the camp methodically, leaving no place unsearched. They even searched the trees that the crows were roosting in, but the eggs were not there.
Penny tried to think like a crow. Where would she put the eggs? She’d want to store them somewhere safe, where they wouldn’t accidentally break. She looked and saw 5 nest-like structures above her. She flew up and inspected them, but they contained nothing.
“Penelope! Come here!” Papa suddenly cried. He was standing near a grey rock.
Penny flew over, and there they were: the eggs. They were in a small hollow under the rock, mixed in with a pile of insects and seeds. Penny felt jubilant. Once these eggs were back in their nests, the Finches would have to help them drive out the crows. They wouldn’t be able to make any more excuses about being afraid for their eggs.
A Cardinal said, “I’ll go and tell the Finches that we have their eggs.” She flew off into the forest.
Penny began to sort through the pile of food and separate the eggs from everything else. As she looked at the amount of excess food the crows had, she felt angry. The crows didn’t even need to steal food from other birds! They had more than enough for themselves.
Suddenly, one of the Cardinals shrieked. Somehow, he’d gotten his feet snagged in some lichen and was swinging upside down, right over the crows. Penny watched in horror as he flailed his wings. How could he get out of the lichen?
He flailed his wings one more time and fell right on top of the crows.
As the Cardinal scrambled away from the trees, the sleeping crows woke up. They didn’t seem to notice him, but continued to peer around sleepily. One of them looked at Penny and said, “Hey, sparrow, haven’t you learned your lesson already?”
Penny said nothing. The crows laughed uproariously. Then, they launched themselves from their tree and dive-bombed Penny.
Penny tried to get the crows off, but they were too strong and powerful. She was nearly surrounded by crows, and they all dove and pecked at her viciously. Penny felt herself tiring. Her wings were getting limp, and holding herself aloft seemed so hard with the weight of the crows pressing on her. Somewhere above her, Mama and Papa were shouting, but she couldn’t hear them above the crows’ caws.
That was when the crows’ triumphant caws turned into shrieks of panic. They fled, and Penny saw that the Finches were here. There were fourteen of them, diving and wheeling among the crows. The crows scattered, and the Finches gave chase.
The Sparrows, the Finches, and the Cardinals had all had their eggs stolen by the crows, and they made the crows feel their wrath. The crows’ camp exploded into a fury of beating wings and pecking beaks.
Penny darted into the fray and pecked viciously at a struggling crow. It attempted to swipe her out of the air with its wings, but Penny hung on grimly. She and a fellow Finch continued to jab mercilessly at the crow, until it shrieked, “Stop! Stop! I’ll leave!”
Penny stopped. The crow was missing feathers in several places, and blood leaked out of its wounds. It flew laboriously out of the forest.
Penny flew over to help Mama and Papa attack another crow. It swatted its wings, trying to smash them out of the sky, but Penny darted out of the way. Whenever she got close, she pecked the crow as hard as she could.
One by one, the crows fled from the Greenwood. The birds of Greenwood had succeeded, and the crows were no more. They all let out a ragged cheer, and surveyed the battlefield.
Penny, Mama, and Papa looked at each other tiredly and smiled. They had done it. They had driven the crows out.
When they and the Finches and Cardinals all got the eggs to their proper homes, Mama gently tucked her eggs back into the nest. She sat on them, making sure that they stayed warm.
Penny anxiously asked, “Will they be okay?”
Mama nodded. “I can tell that they’re going to hatch soon. They’re ready to get out and meet the world.” She paused. “Penny, would you like to help me raise them?”
Penny stopped. Her first thought was no, that she had another home to get back to. She closed her eyes and thought. Home could wait. She had siblings to meet and help ease into the world.
“Yes,” she said.