Raven Saga 01 - Raven

paranormal... whatever you want to call it. Eventually she started discovering all kinds of freaky stuff. So I learned all about it from a very young age, I guess.”
    Her mother had never married and still lived in New York. Tabitha was the result of an intense affair she'd had with a very wealthy man who had adored her. “But my mum didn't want to settle down, she likes her own company and she likes to travel a lot... for research purposes. My dad never married either, so occasionally they get together. He's been very good to her, and to me. He's a good man,” she said.
    I thought of my own father and felt a tug of sadness at the pit of my stomach. I wish I knew the truth. Where was he? Was he alive? Did he desert me on purpose? So many questions and so few answers.
    As we had been chatting, we had fallen behind. The rest of the group were quite far ahead and so we walked on in silence, increasing our pace until we caught up with them.
    A few hours later, in darkness, we arrived. It wasn't what I expected.
    The main entrance to the mass of caves beneath the mountains was well hidden. If I'd have been there alone, there was no way I'd have known anything was there.
    But a large group of people and creatures were waiting for us. I later found out that the raven and the owl had flown on ahead and notified them of our impending arrival.
    I wasn't prepared for such a large group, but everybody was very pleased to see me safe and well. Many of them patted me on the back and welcomed me into their home. However, my number one priority was to see Gabriel and so I asked to be taken to him.
    “Ursula will take you both to him. Now I must sit down. It has been a long day and a long walk for my old legs,” chuckled Finley as he was led in the opposite direction.
    “Come, girls. Zis vay,” ordered Ursula in a thick German accent. It was the first time we had heard her speak.
    “You're German, Ursula?” asked Jo tentatively.
    “I am, yes,” she answered and continued walking in a fast pace.
    “How did you get here?” I asked, hoping to get her to loosen up a little.
    She stopped and turned to us. “Now is not ze time for conversation,” she said, turning brusquely as she carried on walking, taking large strides. We struggled to keep up, especially after such a long hike up the mountain.
    Jo shrugged her shoulders and we walked quickly in silence, having little time to take in our surroundings. What I did notice though was that the sequence of caves rolled easily and smoothly into each other and it was warm. I had expected something cold and damp but it was quite the opposite. It felt homely.
    “Come!” yelled Ursula, “Gabriel is in here,” and she pulled back a heavy thick green curtain to reveal a large oval-shaped room covered in wall hangings and thick warm rugs on the floor. There were two old red leather sofas facing each other, with a mahogany coffee table carefully positioned between the two. Behind was a large king size bed and in it, lay Gabriel. He was surrounded by pillows. He grinned the moment he saw us. I noticed then that he was on a drip.
    “Girls, girls... I was so worried. Lilly I am so sorry,” he said with open arms but he winced as he moved.
    “Gabriel, I was terrified something awful had happened to you,” and I suddenly broke down in tears, “for a while I thought you might be... might be... dead.”
    “Dear Lilly. I'm okay. Everything is all right now. Come now, no more tears.”
    But they continued to fall, preventing me from speaking. Jo, instead, spoke for me, telling him all that had happened.
    “Jo, you have been so courageous, my dear,” he said to her.
    “But I didn't do anything... Lilly was the one who captured Vivian.”
    Finally able to speak I said, “But I couldn't have done that had you not captured Charlie, Jo. And when you winked at me I knew you were telling me Gabriel was safe. I couldn't have done any of it without you.”
    This time, it was Jo's turn to shed a few tears. After a few minutes, we laughed and hugged each other.
    “You are both the most courageous girls I know and I am so proud that you are my grand-daughters. Now that you are safe we need to send a message to the rest of the family to let them know. They're probably worried sick,” he said, adding, “if only this place had a cell phone mast. There's no signal around here.”
    We giggled with him then and pondered the quickest and safest way to get a message back. Ursula, who had been