Raven Saga 01 - Raven

“and I can't believe I'm actually saying all this. Out loud. To you.”
    “Well, I'm kind of glad that you are saying it out loud. To me. I know how you feel, Oliver. I like being around you. It just feels... right. But I guess we'll just have to get to know each other better won't we?” I replied happily, “but now... it's so freezing. Why don't you walk me back home?”
    As we turned to walk back towards the house, I looked up at him and smiled. He caught me watching and he laughed.
    “In answer to your question... Canada isn't the only thing I'm falling for,” and I laughed cheekily as he took my gloved hand in his.
    As we approached the front door, Oliver asked me out on a date, “a proper date,” he said, the following Friday night. I happily accepted and he leaned in and gently kissed me on the cheek. My first kiss!
    “I'll pick you up at seven,” he said and then he was gone.
    That night I drifted off to sleep happier than I had done for a long time. But my dreams were strange and vivid once again.
    I found myself flying freely with the ravens while I was looking down at the cats below. Only this time they weren't small cats, one was a white mountain lion and the other a black panther.
    They were stalking something. I couldn't quite see what it was but as I flew closer, I saw that they were stalking Oliver. I tried to get his attention but he couldn't see me, he could only see and hear ravens squawking at him from above. “Oliver, Oliver watch out!” I yelled, but as hard as I tried to get him to understand me, I knew that all he could hear were the incomprehensible noises of a bird.
    I tried to reach him in time but it was no good, the cats had already pounced and as I landed nearby, I saw that he was covered in blood. As I approached the bloody scene, the cats seemed to bow down to me and skulked away as I picked him up with ease and carried him to the waterside to try and clean his wounds, but as I looked down into the water, my reflection wasn't that of a raven or a girl... it was that of a mountain lion. I screamed.
    I awoke with a start. My face was soaked from tears streaming down my cheeks.
    “Lilly, goodness me,” said Meredith as she rushed into my room and switched on the light. Sitting down on the bed, she cradled me in her arms. “It's all right. It was just a bad dream. Just a dream. Shhhh. It's over. It's over.”
    The tears wouldn't stop as I tried to tell her that Oliver was in danger. “The cats, the cats,” I sobbed.
    “No, it was just a dream, sweetie. Oliver is fine. Calm down.” Eventually, I realised that it had been nothing but a nightmare – triggered by the memory of the words I had learnt just days before... that Oliver and Ben's parents had been killed by wild mountain lions. It was nothing more than my subconscious mind playing horrible tricks on me.
    Meredith had been kind, assuring me that all was well. She even made me a cup of sweet cocoa to help soothe me back to sleep. The rest of the night went by quietly.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

    The following day I was awoken by the gentle sound of Gabriel's voice.
    “Another dream, Meredith? I guess I have no choice now but to tell her the truth. I had hoped the dreams wouldn't have started until she was at least eighteen. I understand now that it is a sign. She must be told. It's such a shame that this is all happening now. She is so young,” he'd said.
    I could hear the sadness in the way Gabriel spoke and that made me feel sad too, even though I had no idea what he had to tell me. I finally felt relief. Relief that, at last, I would know the truth. But along with the relief came the dread. After all, it must be bad for there to have been so much secrecy in the first place.
    Now that I knew he planned to tell me, I waited for him to broach the subject, so that day I just acted as normal, I went to school and completed my homework before dinner. It was after we'd eaten and washed the dishes that something finally happened.
    He had summoned my father's brother and sister, Wyatt and Meredith, who had arrived just as we had finished washing the dishes.
    “Lilly. It is time,” said Gabriel, as Meredith took my hand and led me into the living room where we all sat in silence before Gabriel produced an old battered shoe box and took off the lid. In it were photos and letters. He handed me a picture of a very beautiful young woman with long black hair. There was something vaguely familiar about her. In her arms was a tiny