Crow's Vest, continued

Monkey and snake settled down to sleep when the sun went down, and the world turned. Night Animals came out to hunt, slumbering animals snored, the stars winked coyly from behind the clouds, and life progressed as it should.
Time went on, and over the next few weeks the roommates lost their original careful way of acting around each other. Their bad habits appeared, the last things unpacked. Monkey, prone to fits of frustration, threw his banana peels around everywhere. Snake left his shed skins on the tree branches, and scared Monkey and Crow, who thought they were ghosts. Elephant, down below the tree, got irritated at the littlest thing and complained loudly about everything. But the other Animals agreed that Crow had the most grating habit of all. He would sit up in the top of the tree all day long, making comments about everything he saw. If the breeze blew the grass, it was cause for announcement. If the sun rose in the morning or the moon came out at night, he sent out a loud call. If anything happened that he thought was interesting or amazing or even boring he had to share it with everyone else. For a little while it was interesting to listen to him. But after two weeks even Snake, who had the most patience of all of them, was getting irritated. Elephant, Snake, and Monkey met one afternoon at the bottom of the tree and came to a decision: they sent Snake up to the top branch to have a talk with Crow.
"Hey, Snake, how has your day been? Did you see the heard of gazelles earlier? They sure stirred up a dust cloud, didn't they? I bet the watering hole is pretty crowded right now. What do you think the weather is going to be like next week? I hope it rains. I have so much dust in my feathers and..."
"Crow, hi, its good to see you too. My day has been interesting, and that is part of the reason I am up here. We met just now, Elephant, Monkey, and I, and we came to a decision. Your constant chatter gets on everyone's nerves. It bothers us a lot. We need you to be quiet, or you are going to have to leave. We mean it. No one can sleep, Elephant complains all the time, and Monkey has been gritting his teeth every time you open your mouth for the last week to keep from yelling at you. Please, just keep your beak shut, ok?"
Crow's beak clacked shut, and he just looked at Snake with a horrified look in his eye. "It bothers you that much, so much that you had to have a meeting, and you only just told me about it?" he asked.
"Yeah, well, we didn't know how to bring it up. Sorry. Will you be quiet?"
"Why don't I just leave, since it bothers you all so much to have me here? No one asked me if I wanted to live with Elephant and his whining, Monkey's banana peels, and even your ghostly skins, but I do it anyway, because I thought we were a family, who deal with our differences and work through them, instead of banishing people. I guess I was wrong." He gathered his feathers and flew up into the sky right then and there, leaving a single black feather behind as Snake gaped, watching his path up and up into the clouds with astonishment.

[third and final part tomorrow...]