Sins of the Mother

PROLOGUE and CHAPTER I

    Staring down at his body, she tried to recall what brought her here. Why did she agree to it all? Her mind had been foggy, but for the first time in two years she could finally think. Her thoughts went back to her earliest memory. Running in the woods, hunting the deer that lived near her village. She looked outside and all she could see was cold gray stone, smoke. The wind blew through the window and brought the smell of brimstone, and magic.

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    "Why am I so destructive?" She cried, her tears hot on her cheeks. Her mother rushed to hold her, offering sympathy only to be pushed away.

"Raven, you are not destructive. You are just different. There is nothing wrong with you." She said, letting her daughter scream and cry in the middle of the room. "You have been born into this world; you were given to me. You are a gift. You are my starlight, my beautiful-" she said, interrupted by Raven running out of the door into the garden.

    Raven collapsed at the edge of the nearby pond. Her hot tears fell like rain into it, causing the water to ripple distorting her reflection. Her vision blurry, but not clouded she could still see the very things she was called by the people in the next town. Destructive, hideous, abnormal, wrong, a demon. She wiped her eyes and stared at her reflection. Her skin was as red as a garnet, and two small horns pushed out from the sides of her head. Her eyes were black pools of unknown, and her tail laid on the ground next to her. She hated everything she saw.

    "Why can't I be like my mother? She looks so much like the humans: no tail, horns she can hide, and skin like theirs too," as she murmured to herself a squirrel scampered over to her.

    "Raven, why are you making such a horrible sound?" asked the squirrel.

    "It's called crying, and it's a thing we do when we are sad," replied Raven, cleaning her face with water from the pond.

    "Why are you sad?" the squirrel crawled closer to her, coming to sit on her knee.

    "The children in the city called me a demon and throw rocks at me every time Mother and I go to pick up extra things for the village." Folding her arms, she looked at the squirrel.

    "Well, you certainly are different."

    "Gee... thanks," huffed Raven.

    "Let me finish! You can understand me! Not many people in your village can. I don't think that makes you a -what word did you use? Dimond?"

    "Demon, D-E-M-O-N,"

    "Right, right, right, demon. Well you can't be a demon!"

    "Why not?" asked Raven, getting agitated.

    "Because! You are nice! Demons can't be nice!" exclaimed the squirrel.

Raven let out a small laugh and sighed, "Then what am I?"

    "Raven," stated the squirrel.

    "Well that is my name, but not what I am. Ravens fly up there, I'm down here."

The squirrel ran up the tree onto a branch overlooking Raven, "If I'm up here, does that make me a pigeon?"

Raven let out a small laugh, "No, you are still a squirrel."

    "Well, then being down there doesn't make you any less Raven," stated the squirrel. He began to run back down the tree only to stop when he heard his name.

    "Quill! Quill! Time to eat!" Came a voice from the tree.

    "I have to go Raven, Mom calls! Remember, you are Raven not demon!" exclaimed Quill, as he ran back up the tree.