Raven's Tale

Note: The below story is written by FlashTalon. Please direct any and all comments to the original author. All contributed material is posted with express permission of the original author. Don't steal it!

There is nothing more dangerous then to be a raven nestling. Unless it is to be a raven egg. And i don't mean dangerous for others. I mean dangerous for the raven. That danger exists even for Shifters such as myself.

I am Flashtalon Daughter-of-Ravens. Most call me Flashbird, or Birdie. It used to annoy me and drive me into a frenzy, but now I don't care. Call me what you will.It was summer when I hatched. The scent of leaves, growing and dead, raspberries--just starting to grow-- and ice-cream was in the air. It was beautiful. The nights were gorgeous, deep black, and the sunsets were like liquid ruby and gold on a black satin curtain.

I was 16. Bold. Brave. Fearless. Defiant. That was me-- the scrawny dark haired, dark eyed girl who didn't have any idea of the power within herself.

I had taken to wandering the streets at night, alone, and would dance in dark alleyways and sing songs of life and nature and death to the sky.

I thought no one had heard me. I thought wrong.

One night in my wanderings I met a Vampire named Ash Swift. He soon joined me nightly in my wanderings, as we became fast friends. He was blond, with blue gray eyes, and seemed to know many things. For better or for worse, Ash and I found we had many things in common. We both were social outcasts, who preferred to be alone. We both loved reading, were thieves of sorts (I was a maniac for stealing 'pretty things' much to my parents' fury), and loved going to see 'horror flicks'. And neither knew the other was something other than the normal person.

Ash loved to watch me dance in the moonlight of the Alley on First and Walker St. Being the wild being I was, I did.

Then one night in mid summer it happened.

Ash and I were dancing in the rain of a summer thunderstorm, laughing and daring the gods of the sky to strike us when... to my surprise, we were struck. Not by any mortal attacker, but by a lightening bolt. Ash was unhurt, but I was tossed into the sky by the electric force... and forced painfully into my avian form, screaming.

The scream of a newly hatched Raven attracts predators. The power of the Raven...of a Purebred Raven...is amazing. And many would do anything to get at it, to have the Raven on their side, or to kill it so others can't have it. And of course...there are those who are fond of killing ravens just for fun...Throughout the city, the cry was heard by the supernatural. It was designed to summon the nestling's parents--the Avian parents, to protect the fragile life...but it instead, in the modern day summons predators more often.

Ash looked at me, dazed. "Jessii?" he asked, curious, wondering what I was as much as I was.

But he didn't have time to be curious for long...

The rest of the Vampires had arrived.

Sensing a threat to my Safety, Ash called out ,"Fly Jess, FLY!!!!!"

I did. I needed no second warning as the Vampires looked from me to Ash and then tried to get to me.

So I was left alone.

I came home after I returned to my human form. I felt wierd. Odd. Disconnected...Yet free. I knew the Raven was the part of me that had always been hidden, and now I knew I would be able to call on it as I willed. Mother could care less. She listened to my shrieks about Vampires and birds and lightening...and sent me to bed, grounding me. Dad gave me a severe beating for being out so late... and I didn't get any dinner.

At night I snuck out of my room...and flew off into the night. Ash was waiting for me at the cemetery. One of our secret meeting spots.

He said he had spoke to the other Vampires. But It hadn't worked out. He said he'd have to prove himself to his Family, and some other stuff I didn't understand as i shifted to my human form.

Then he attacked, catching me off guard, lashing out with his claws, catching the side of my face hard with the tips. It hurt. I winced, turning away,hissing,"What was that for?!" But Ash offered no answer. Perhaps I should have listened to what he was rambling earlier...He attacked again, like a wild animal, and not like a wild animal. It was like nothing I'd ever seen, and he was not like the Ash I knew before. It was then that I learned he truely was a vampire, not just some wanna-be. And I was terrified.

I listened to the instincts of my kind, and transformed into the war form. Half human, half bird. I raked my hand-claws against Ash's face, and with my beak pecked his skull until blood spilled like liquid ruby. With my bird hind-claws I disemboweled him... then I looked. And realized what I had done.

I turned back into human form, weeping in sorrow. How could I have hurt him? He was my friend! Dizzy, feeling sick, I collapsed and passed out.

The other vampires found us later that evening.

"Well, well well. Look, the bird's beaten Old Ash." said their leader. "Perhaps she's more of a vampire than he was."

I looked to Ash. He was dead! His head had been chopped off with a silver plated feather and stared blankly at me.

I puked.

The vampires laughed.

"Polly want a cracker?" a brown haired one asked me.

I glared.

"Leave her alone. She is one of us," said a voice.

All froze.

A shadowy figure walked along the rows of tombstones, hooded.

I sensed Death. Something far older than the vampires...and far more dead.

"She's not a vampire!" finally protested the leader.

"No. But she is Kin." said the Shadowy figure.

"Kin to who?" one of the other vampires piped up.

"Alexandre Shayde." he replied.

Some of the Vampires looked stunned. Alexandre Shayde was a powerful, old vampire. He had visited the city once to go to the funeral of an elder vampire, and had made a gracious gift of cash to the family of the deceased and his clan.

I watched the Shadowy Figure curiously, wondering who this 'Alexandre Shayde' was.

The figure looked back at me.

"Go with these vampires. They will teach you what you need to do."

Do? Me? need to do something?

More frightened of the Shadowy being than the vampires, I did as I was told, nervously walking towards the vampires.

It turns out I didn't need much teaching, and the vampires weren't such a danger as I'd thought. I became the spy and thief supreme for the vampires. I work for "Sparklies" and "Snacks"and they have provided me with shelter. It turns out ravens work quite well with vampires--if you can get past your first night. My parents think I was murdered, and I no longer answer to my former 'mortal' name of Jessi. I am Flash. Flashtalon Daughter of Ravens, or Flashbird, if you please. I've even got some reg'lar ravens working 'for' me. We call ourselves the "Sun Thieves"...and boy do we have some juicy tidbits to share...

I'll tell ya...for a price.

-Flashbird, summer '99