[Bêthberry]

In unbelief Pip'kha saw Akaaw and Harclaw felled by the awful net and with fear he screeched out a warning to the murder to fly faster, higher, harder, to avoid a similar fate. In the tumult and chaos many crows flew into each other, breaking wing and stride, and more were lost to the ground.

Rik'ki'kew and Kawdor found their way over to Pip'kha, who called to them to look for Fingot Sparrowbane. Circling higher, the three finally found him, engaged in a furious argument with none other than Mitikaw.

"You fool, old crow! Look where Akaaw has led us. And himself to his own doom."

"Patience yet, young one. Have you so soon forgotten your lesson?" snapped Sparrowbane, his beak cracking further and his heart nearly giving way.

"Patience my feather tails! If you had supported me we would not have fallen apart."

"Mitikaw, you allow your headstrong nature to rule now when our heads must be cool." With these words, Fingot Sparrowbane sought to knock some sense into his son with a swipe of his talon to one of his son's wings. The action enraged the young crow who spun around and slashed back at his father. The act caught the old crow in mid neck and a large gush of blood spurted out, drenching Mitikaw and draining Fingot of his life source. His limp body spiralled down while Mitikaw struggled to remain aloft, the blood matting his feathers and making flight impossible. He, too, plummeted to the ground.

With sickening despair, Pip'kha watched the two fall, and the murder fall apart, disoriented. In the distance he saw his cousin Iodoc careen off and called to him, but the distance was too great for his weak caw to travel. Iodoc disappeared into the horizon. The tumultuous noise of the discord echoed away as Pip'kha held himself stationary above the bleak landscape where the pit diggers and elves had violated the land, unable in their folly to imagine things not of their own creation.

The unknown terrors had won, it seemed.

Pip'kha wept a silent moan of despair and grief for his lost comrades and the forsaken murder. Then, calling to Rik'ki'kew and Kawdor, who had faced the hostile forest with him when they sought to save Sparrowbane, Pip'kha flew on, sadly winging with a hollow sorrow and a new somber maturity. Pip'kha sought out Orthanc, not to return to the White Hand, but to find Fingot Sparrowbane's daughter, to add this sad fate to her knowledge of the tales of the crows.