Crow

PROLOGUE:

Echo leaned her head back a little, closing her eyes as her tiny hands jumped across the keys on her father's piano. Since she was only six, her arms weren't nearly long enough to hit all the correct keys, and her legs couldn't really reach the pedals, but she played with all of her heart anyways.

Each day, she woke up early just to practice; so that eventually, once she grew enough, of course, she would be able to play the best songs in the whole world for her parents. They'd both be so proud of her then...

Just thinking about it made Echo grin excitedly. She'd wandered so deep into her fantasies that her hands stopped moving and rested abruptly on the keys; striking a frightening sound on the cords that immediately snapped her back to reality. Her hands jolted away from the instrument in surprise, and she giggled at herself after a moment. Because of her, she'd probably just woken up Mamma.

It was then, that she noticed the distant cawing sounds that seemed to be coming from behind the house. She remembered that a huge forest was back there, so the noises were probably being made by some sort of animal. Dismissing it as something uninteresting, she swung her legs over the bench and jumped down to go check on Mamma.

Stepping out of her Papa's music room, she creeped down the hallway as quietly as she could to her parent's room. Peering in around the edge of the doorway, she discovered that their bed was already empty and fixed up neatly. Mamma must already be awake...

Frowning slightly, Echo trotted back down the hallway towards the stairs. She ventured slowly down the stairs, like she was always told to do, counting each step as she went. ...13... 14... 15... and... 16!

She happily skipped off the last step, proud of herself for remembering her numbers so well. The familiar sound clanging pots under running water beckoned her from the kitchen, and she bounded through the hallway to find her mother washing dishes. Mamma didn't seem to notice her yet, so Echo grinned cleverly to herself.

With her best, practiced stealth, she tip-toed up to her mother's turned back. Then, coiling her legs with all her strength, she let out her loudest roar and jumped up to throw her arms around Mamma's waist.

"Oh!" Mamma gasped as she flung her arms up dramatically, dropping her dish towel onto the floor. "My goodness! I think you just about gave me a heart attack!" She clasped her hands over her chest in emphasized relief.

Even though Echo knew that her mother was overreacting, she still felt pleased with her work. She giggled and let herself drop back onto the floor, giving a cheeky smile as Mamma turned around to face her. Her mother turned off the water and bent over to ruffle Echo's hair playfully.

Looking up through the kitchen window, she saw masses of black birds fluttering around in the looming trees. So those were what had been making the cawing noises... Struck with sudden curiosity, she pointed at them.

"Mamma, what are those?" She looked back at her mother.

"You mean those noisy birds out there? Those are crows, honey." Mamma eyed them thoughtfully before placing a hand on her hip. "I wonder what's got them so worked up..."

"Maybe they're hungry!" Echo suggested after thinking about it for a moment. "Can I go put out some food for them, Mamma? Pretty please?" She tugged on her mother's apron hopefully

Mamma seemed to contemplate it before sighing, "Oh, alright. I'll get you some bread crumbs for the little birdies."

Echo clapped her hands enthusiastically, "Thank you, Mamma!"

Now armed with a brown paper bag of bread crumbs, Echo stepped outside through the back kitchen door. Excitement bubbled up inside her as she pranced towards the edge of the tree line. Mamma had told her not to stray into the forest, but she was sure nothing bad would happen if she just took a few steps into the trees...