The Death Bridge

Raven looked down at her ankles and saw that she had taken off her dagger as well. "Seriously Raven, you are a very smart person, taking off all your weapons!", she scolded herself. The shuffling stopped. Raven barely breathed, trying to listen. She heard quick, soft breaths near the door. Raven slouched in relief. She had heard those soft breaths before. She softly chuckled to herself. "Boy, I'm jumpy tonight," she thought. She went over to the door and opened it. "Shame on you, Mili! Giving me a fright- hey!". The moment she opened the door, Mili rushed past her into the shack. Raven was dumbstruck. "Such arrogance! She just came into my shack uninvited!" she thought.

But then she noticed that Mili wasn't acting normally. She was breathing too fast and kept looking past Raven. Following Mili's gaze, Raven turned her head back to the door and she looked carefully around, looking for any signs of danger. But everything seemed calm and in order. She closed the door and turned towards Mili. "What did you see girl?", she softly asked the doe as she walked towards her. "Calm down, it's alright now. You're with me", she softly said as she patted Mili's neck. She silently observed Mili for a few minutes. "I wonder what had gotten her spooked like this?" she thought as she looked at the doe finally starting to calm down a bit.

Mili calmed down after a while. She went to the side of Raven's bed and curled up beside it. Raven looked at Mili's soft breathing. It was steady and deepening. Her hot breaths were white in the cold air. Realising how cold it was, Raven took one of the pelts and dr.a.p.ed it over the doe. "Don't worry girl. I'll be done soon with lacing the walls with the pelts. Then it'll be a lot warmer in here", she whispered. She stood up and went over to the table where she left her weapons. She took her dagger and fastened it around her leg. She went to her bed and climbed under her hide blanket. She was exhausted. She hadn't slept for three days. She had figured that if she were to be truly exhausted and fell asleep, the nightmares would stay away. And it seemed like her theory was right.

Her eyelids drooped. She battled to keep her eyes open, but her exhaustion defeated her. She fell into a deep sleep.

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Raven felt plain air around her. Dark, cold air. She opened her eyes. A wave of shock washed over her. She found herself falling into a dark and seemingly endless void. The wind that was assaulting her face as she fell deeper into the black void, turned icy. The cold air burned her eyes and her face turned numb. A faint light caught her eyes. She was falling directly towards it. She fell closer and closer. She knew she should be afraid and trying to get away but something about the light made her feel comfortable, made her feel warm and safe. The light became bigger and brighter as she got closer to it. She felt a strange sensation, almost as if the light beckoned her to reach it. But she couldn't. It was as if the darkness around her kept her from getting any closer to the light. She saw a long slender object that seemed to be the source of the brilliant light.

She wanted to reach out, to touch it. But the darkness held her back. She struggled, trying to reach the object.

"Raven!" She heard a voice call out to her from afar. "I told you to stay away!" She heard the voice say. "Get back here now!" The voice said again. Raven stopped struggling. Those words seemed all too familiar. "John" A different voice echoed through the darkness. The voices became more. All shouting into the darkness. There were too many voices, too many words spoken.

"Raven, honey"

"Whatever happens here tonight"

"…the light of life."

"…listen carefully"

"What if I lose it?"

"You don't know your own parents?"

"…guide you…"

"…it is special, just like you…"

The words were mixed and crowded in on Raven. She squinted, trying to shut them out of her mind. But all her efforts were in vain. She felt her panic level rise. "Stop!" she screamed through clenched teeth. "Please" she begged the voices. But they didn't. Fear spread through her. She felt her sanity slowly slipping away.

"Wake up", a soft deep voice echoed through the mass of voices. Raven heard it and lifted her head, searching for the source of the sound. "Wake up", she heard the voice say again. She looked around and saw a lean figure standing near the light. "Wake up!"

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Raven jolted awake, panting. Cold sweat trickled from her temples down her neck. Her face felt numb. "What was that?", she thought to herself as she pulled her blanket up to her chin, trying to escape the cold air. "The light…its call felt so real." She turned her head to the side and looked at where Mili was still sleeping soundly. "At least one of us gets to sleep peacefully…" she thought. She noticed that her shack was filled with light. She got up and looked through a crevice in one of the walls. "Seems to be midday. Well, at least I got some rest…even though I had another nightmare...Me and my theories…never a good thing…" She sighed heavily.

She changed clothes and picked up her quiver. She fastened the quiver around her c.h.e.s.t and picked her whip up from the table. She looped the whip through the quiver's belt as she walked towards the wall. She took her unstrung bow from its rack against the wall and tucked it between her back and the quiver. She walked to the door. She suddenly stopped. "I think I'll take my sword with me today." She turned around and grabbed her sword and fastened it around her waist. "All set…" she said as she patted the hilt of her sword. She went back to the door. She looked at the doe and smiled. "Why does this animal always sleep so long…" She chuckled to herself. "It's beyond me…" she thought, shaking her head at the doe. She opened the door and went outside. Closing the door tightly behind her, she turned around only to stare directly into the black eyes of a Shadow Beast.

"Oh smoke…"