Ravens and Roses

Chapter 4: Rain and Starlight

Craban looked over the queen as she slept. A distant thunder rolled in the sky beyond the walls of Brethel-Athan. Clouds covered the moons and stars above. Lightning flashed over the garden like great bursts of magical energy. The bright light reflected in the eyes of the raven as he looked over the queen. He decided that he would never again leave her side. Bird or not something deep within him told him that he was destined to be by her side. He liked her smile and the melody of her voice when she said his name. A break in the clouds of the oncoming storm sent the starlight filtering over her silkened locks of blonde. Craban had a strange feeling as his heart faltered in its beat. He hopped down from the headboard and waddled up the heavy blanket to place his beak against the cheek of the queen. A teardrop slid from the bird's left eye as a flash of dancing faerie's bombarded his memories. As quickly as the memory had come it was gone and Craban felt confusion as he saw his tear slip onto the alabaster skin of the queen. Craban hopped to the foot board and perched where he could watch over Maegden until he felt his eyes grow weary. Craban's beak dipped low as he fell into a deep sleep.

The trolls invaded the raven's dreams then. He watched trolls chasing a man with hair as black as pitch and eyes as blue as the sea. The man stopped in a clearing drawing a silver sword with sapphires set into the hilt. He parried and dove his sword forward. He fought a bitter fight as one of the trolls shot a burst of magic from its wart infested hand. The magical electricity hit the man in the shoulder causing him to drop his blade. "Nooooooooo!!" The man screamed out not in pain but as if he were trying to unsee what was before him. "I trusted you. How could you betray your people? I will kill you if you harm her! Why would you choose the trolls over your own people, Uncle?" The dark haired man slid to his knees as another bolt of magic from a nearby troll slammed into his faerie body.

"Ah, Ettrian I have waited for oh so long to watch you fall. I am going to let you live in agony. I will woo your queen and break her fragile little heart. Such an insipid fool you are. Have you not learned by now? I was there when the trolls took my brother and his wife. She was to be mine not his. I killed them and made it appear as war was on the horizon." Ettrian's uncle threw his head back and let lose a deep laughter laced with evil and malice. "Little Ettrian so weak. I will let you live by her side. You can watch as I run my hands through her hair and over her body, using her fully until nothing is left. Only when I have had my fill will I throw her to the dungeons so that my trolls can use her to spawn a new race of half breed bastards to do my every bidding. The rise of an insatiable army, to be set upon this world in a rage of doom and fury." The man held his hands in front of him and blasted the king with a new magical energy.

Craban cawed out suddenly  as he was jolted awake to the sound of booming thunder. He felt his heart racing beneath his feathered chest. There was something that he had dreamed of but what?

"Craban. You stayed with me? There is a storm raging out there. Good thing you stayed in here, huh?" Maegden reached forward and stroked his wings. Craban couldn't shake the feeling that something menacing was lurking. What had he been dreaming of? Craban lighted on the blanket and cawed out a loud answer to the queen. In the pit of the bird's stomach a nervous energy churned. He knew he was forgetting something. Maegden laid back and fell asleep once again. Craban perched on the pillow this time and rested his beak on the head of the queen as she slept. Just being near her comforted him in a way he couldn't explain. He thought long and hard. Where had he been before today? He knew certain things but had no explanation for the understanding of that knowledge. Yet he had no recollection of where he came from or even where he lived before the moment he spoke to the queen in the gazebo. Bits of memory faded as soon as he thought of them. Perhaps the mind of a bird was meant to be jumbled in such a way. Craban had no answers to the many things he felt. Maegden moaned in her sleep. She seemed to be dreaming. Craban leaned forward and whispered words of comfort into Maegden's ear. 

The storm outside seemed to pass and unleash the moons and stars from the cloud covered cage. The silvery light fell across the bed bathing the room in an ethereal luminescence. Craban sighed at the sight of the queen caressed in the beautiful light of the night time.