Raven Saga 01 - Raven

I found a circular box and when I opened it, I saw two beautiful little crystals in the shape of angels.
    “It's to hang from the window in your bedroom. When I saw them I thought of you,” he said, adding “and your mother and sister,” he shrugged shyly, embarrassed.
    “I know that today is the day Neleh died and I just thought, well, I just thought you could hang them up today and they would be like guardian angels or something. It's silly, really,” he said shrugging again, as his cheeks turned a little pink.
    I hugged him tightly and grabbed his hand and pulled him towards my room, “Oliver, they are absolutely beautiful,” I said trying hard not to shed a tear. ”This is the best gift I've ever had. Thank you.”
    With the bedroom door closed behind us, I leaned up to him and kissed him gently while he wrapped his arms around me tightly.
    “I'm so lucky to have you, you know that?” I asked him as I snuggled into his shoulder and he laughed.
    “I'm the lucky one,” he said.
    The crystal angels were even more stunning when hung on either side of my window. The way the sun caught them made shafts of glimmering light shoot across the room, creating miniature rainbows all over the place. It was beautiful.
    But we couldn't lounge around alone for much longer as I was soon called back into the party as there were lots more gifts to open and partying to do. My final birthday present was a joint gift from Gabriel, Rose, Meredith and Wyatt. They had waited for everybody to leave before giving it to me... it was my very own computer.
    They explained that even though they had split the cost between them, they had only been able to afford a second-hand laptop but it was in excellent order, Wyatt had said as he showed me how to work it.
    “It wouldn't matter if it was out of the ark, it's fantastic” I told them as they laughed.
    “We know you've only ever used computers at school and we know most kids have them these days and felt that you should no longer have to miss out on anything,” said Rose.
    “Plus, it'll come in very handy for your research,” added Meredith.
    No matter how hard I tried at that moment, I could not stop the tears from flowing down my cheeks.
    I gave each one a big hug and thanked them from the bottom of my heart, knowing that I would use my new computer more than they could have imagined. There was now a whole world at the end of my fingertips and I was determined to discover it.
    After the others had all gone home, I rang Jo to tell her the good news but, naturally, she'd already known and said that she'd had difficulty not saying something when she'd given me my MP3 player. We laughed and chatted for a little while before she told me that we could now chat online whenever we wanted to... as Gabriel had also organised for me to be hooked up to the internet.
    “Which also means that you can finally keep in touch with your friend, December,” added Jo. She was right, of course; the last letter I had received from my only friend in England had included her email address.
    In fact, that night before I went to bed, I created my own email address and promptly sent December a message telling her all about Thanksgiving, Christmas and my birthday. I knew she would be delighted.
    Again, my life was changing dramatically and I was loving every second of it. I still thought about my father every day but was beginning to realise there was little I could do to find him on my own. I would need my family's help and to be able to get that, I had to wait until the spring. Until then, I would continue to read books and articles online.
    And that's what I did over the course of the next month. When I wasn't at school, working with Ben, hanging out with Oliver, or chatting to December or Jo online, I would devour as much information as possible. I didn't just read about all the animals that might appear in my path but also about myths, legends and tales about the so-called supernatural world. I read about beings that were only supposed to exist in story books, but I knew different and I also knew that I needed to learn as much about them as possible. Naturally, much of what I read wasn't exactly strong factual information, but beliefs and, in some cases, pure fiction. Nevertheless, every little scrap of detail was devoured. The more I knew, whether it was entirely true or not, made me a stronger person. Or should I say a stronger raven or a stronger cat... which, I still didn't know.
    I was