Raven Saga 01 - Raven

fill him in on what happened on those lonely nights in England.
    “Just before I came here I was... visited... by two big black ravens. They appeared at my window every night and frightened me a little bit. It wasn't just because they were there, it's because they knocked at the glass and looked at me. Really looked at me, you know. Almost as if they knew me. As if they were trying to tell me something. I don't know. I can't really explain it... I know it sounds totally crazy...”
    But it turned out that I was right, he was not easily surprised.
    “The ravens in London were our ancestors looking out for you in your hour of need, my dear child. There was no need to fear them. They were simply there to watch over you. To protect you. Fear not. They are a part of us.”
    It was difficult for me to know how to react to that. Clearly I couldn't believe that my ancestors had come back from the dead, in the form of ravens, no less, to watch over me. Why would they watch over me? Why was I so special? Surely, if anybody needed to be watched over, it was my parents. Certainly not me. But ravens? Ancestors? Please.
    My grand-father took my reaction rather well actually. I guess he knew that I wouldn't, couldn't, believe something like that. Me, a teenager who had lived her entire life cooped up in a tiny room within an apartment block in a big city on the other side of the world. Nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened to me.
    “My dear Lilly... must you keep your hair this way? Black is a colour of magical power. It is not something you should change unless nature requires it to be changed. You are beautiful. You look very much like my son. Your father. Embrace it. Do not hide from it.”
    “Oh, and another thing... Lilly.... you can call me Gabriel. Everybody else does.” He smiled then, and placed his hand on my shoulder before leaving me alone in the kitchen to my thoughts.
    I had hoped that he would have told me whatever it was that was being hidden from me, but he didn't. I would have to wait.

CHAPTER SEVEN

    Later, I felt the need to get out of the house and have a look around. Gabriel had told me not to wander too far and, above all, he warned, “Do not venture into the forest.”
    I had no idea why I was to avoid the forest, but I did as he said and instead took the gravel pathway towards the water. I didn't have to go far.
    As I wandered along the edge of the ice cold blue waters of the Pacific Ocean, I tried not to dwell on the fact that there was still no trace of my parents. Even after all these weeks, there was still nothing. We had been in touch with the British authorities but it was looking more and more like this case would be shelved. It would continue to be unexplained. An unsolved mystery.
    Instead of dwelling on recent life-changing events, I attempted to fill my head with the beauty that surrounded me. From the deep blue ocean to the bright blue of the cloudless sky and the startlingly beautiful green islands off in the distance, I was left truly breathless by its utter magnitude. Having little chance to appreciate it before now, I thought of how narrow-minded I must have been while living within London. Why my mother and father had never told me of the awe-inspiring landscapes to be found here, I will never know. It was like stepping foot inside the most magnificent giant oil painting – a true masterpiece that no artist could ever imitate.
    Had I grown up here, I would never have wanted to leave and everyone I knew would have been told of its breathtaking magnificence.
    Suddenly something jumped high out of the water and back again with a loud plop. I was startled but curious. I searched for more movement but there was nothing other than the gentle lolling of the soft waves lapping against the shore.
    Finding a huge piece of driftwood on the little beach, I sat and waited patiently for it to happen again. I was determined to see what was capable of jumping right out of the water before my eyes.
    I didn't have to wait long. Another splash and a plop, and a large fish revealed itself to me. Having little experience of such things, I had no idea what type of fish jumped like this – actually, I had no experience of fish at all – not to eat, nor to catch or even to look at, other than in school books.
    I had never been in the ocean, nor had I even been on a boat prior to my arrival in Canada. Narrow-minded, lacking in experience of all kinds and naïve is probably how the people here must