The Ravens

Chapter one: The Raven Family

Torrential rain slashed down from the dark, unforgiving sky. There was no moon to light my way or see what horrors lay throughout the seemingly never ending wood.
My shoulder seared with pain from the symbol etched and burned into my tender skin. A symbol I now know to hold light when darkness comes but back then I didn't understand what that symbol meant. For me it only held dullness and pain.
Is it tears spattering on my cheeks or is rain trailing down my face and seeping into the creases in my skin?
Tipping my head back the sky seemed to bear down on me, the landscape once mystical and otherworldly is now streaked with fear and disruption.
I can't remember how I got here, only the glass. Stars danced above willow trees. Shady branches swept in ripples on the dark river below that bubbled and gurgled with a life of its own. While fireflies weaved their way through a field of flowers of many kinds. The scene was idilic behind a pane of transparent glass.
It was inviting and exciting. Something that couldn't possibly be but a simple illusion from behind the glass was shattered and left me in a dark wood that now left me shuddering with desecration.
Suddenly whispers from between the trees reach my ears, nothing you could make sense of just quiet trickles of almost words. Goosebumps begin to rise on my skin the hair standing up on my neck and I'm up and stumbling through the trees running to nothing, to despair and confusion until a dark figure rose up out of the clearing ahead.
Her hair was dark, black and shiny. The colour of a ravens wing and eyes that matches the bark of the trees around her. Her skin crinkled around her eyes that held a soft look. My heart banged in my chest as she opened her mouth and said "the second raven child at last." She held out her hand slowly obviously trying not to scare me and edged forward.
"Your safe if you come with me I promise" a faint smile played at her lips. Her hand reached out a little further and I stayed still my eyes widening as she spoke. "Alia, you belong with me, I can explain to you why you came here if you come with me to where it's safe."
I weighed up the chances of what she was saying and then with a leap of faith I hesitantly slipped my shaking hand into hers and felt a immediate calming affect ripples through my body.
She turned away holding tight onto my hand and lead me through the woods. Dark trees slipped silently past as we calmly slipped through the woods and out into a back lane.
The lane wound round the woods, framed by hedges and the stars decided to come out into the night sky and twinkled down at me. "Why am I here?" I said to the slim figure walking next to me.
"I will explain soon I promise but you have to trust me that I am your Mother and your part of the Raven Clan now" her eyes smiled at me as she looked at me.
The hard shell I had formed around me  slowly started to melt and one side of my mouth twitched in a little smile.
The hand next to me stopped swinging and we both came to a halt and in front of us built into the side of a hill a wooden door with the same symbol that had burnt my shoulder was carved into it.
I soon came to realise that the symbol bound me to them, the symbol was my family and I belonged to them.
Madreg pushed open the door and escorted me into the house. An old lady sat in a rocking chair by the blazing fire. Her hair cropped short and her skin starting to wrinkle on her hands. Her head was resting on the chair and fluffy grey slippers on her feet. She slept with a soft rumble in her throat.
"That's Nanny Alana" Madreg said and started to bustle around the kitchen, preparing food and beckoning me towards the table. "You must be hungry, you were stumbling around in the woods for a while. " she smiled.
I climbed onto the chair and sat as she slid a plate with a ham sandwiches on it cut into the quarters. I pick up one of the quarters and take a bite and chew.
Madreg sat down opposite with a cup of tea in clay mug that was glazed grey and blue.
I quickly finished the sandwiches and rubbed my eyes wearily out of tiredness. A huge yawn escaping my mouth and I moved my hand to stifle it.
"You need sleep, it's late" Madreg said and I nodded and stood up on my shaky legs. Following Madreg through the house we entered a small room with a bed and wardrobe and bookshelf, the walls were painted blue with animals hand painted on. It had obviously taken months to do. Madreg passed me a nightie and I changed quickly, dropping my other clothes on the floor and climbed into the bed and Madreg sat on the end of my bed and said sleep well Alia, we've waited so long for you and were overjoyed now your here." She leant forward and brushed her lips against my brow and I slowly fell into a dreamless sleep.