Quoth the Raven
254 Words
When they came to a small alcove around a doorway, the raven stopped and looked at her. She had the unnerving sensation that he was looking into her rather than at her. She found it much more difficult to focus on him, a black bird in dark shadows. The raven shook himself, settling all his feathers back into place. He fluttered up onto a railing, and she flinched back, remembering the man who had attacked her and his fate. She was sure the look the raven subsequently gave her was one of annoyance.
He tilted his head for a moment, thinking. Then he sighed and began, “You don’t know this yet, but you know me. I’m not going to hurt you, so stop looking at me like that.”
“Annoyance, definitely annoyance,” she thought.
Then she tried to think whether it was supposed to be better to interact with characters in one’s nightmares or to try to ignore them. The raven solved her dilemma by pecking her on the hand. Not violently, but with enough force to bring her out of her mental wanderings and make her hurl some vulgarities at the bird.
She had a suspicion just then that if a bird could smile, the raven would be doing just that. He just stretched his wings, settled them back into place and said, “Are you done? Because I do have other things to do, you know.”
She burst out laughing, finally overcome by the absurdity of it all.
- Writer
