A raven took off from the highest tower of the palace with a message tied to his leg. The moonlight shone through the snow and glinted off his feathers. Wind and snow pushed him from side to side but he kept going. The palace faded into the distance and the only thing to guide him was the tugging sensation he had felt all his life, pulling him to a small town at the border of taurus and weseldore. Something screamed in the snow beside him and he ducked right as a clawed hand swung through the air where he had been. He had to keep going. Keep going.
Kasha walked happily down the snow covered street. Today had been a good day. She had earned fifteen copper pieces at work, enough for two weeks of food, she had gotten off early because of a snowstorm coming in that night and Landra had told her about a winterberry tree at the edge of the woods. She stepped up onto the wooden porch of the house she shared with her grandmother. It was small and made of dark spruce and got cold at night but it was home. Kasha pushed open the door and stepped into the kitchen.
“Grandma!” she called stomping the snow off her boots “im home! They let us off early today. Boss says there’s a big snowstorm coming in from the north tonight. “ She took off her coat and hung it on the door. “Oh and grandma! Great news! I got fifteen copper today. Isn’t that wonderful?” she walked over to the counter and picked a roll out of a big wooden bowl her grandma always kept on the counter.
“Grams?” she asked through a mouthful “you here?”
Her grandmother peaked her head in from the living room. She was an older woman. In her mid sixties with long grey hair and wise brown eyes with smile lines around the edges.
“I’m here kashashita. That’s wonderful news!” She walked over and hugged kasha. “Let’s have a roast for dinner. I’m going to go out to the market. Do you need anything?”
“Na.” kasha replied “im good. But there’s a big snowstorm predicted to hit around three.”
Kasha’s grandmother smiled “thanks dear. I’ll be sure to be back before then.”
Kasha nodded
“I will be back soon kashashita” she planted a kiss on kasha’s head and took her coat off a hook. She left and kasha was alone again. She sighed, grabbed another roll and headed up to her attic room where she plopped down on her bed and set her satchel down next to her. From her satchel she pulled out a coin purse which jangled with this week’s pay. She took one of the little copper pennies and put it aside before replacing the purse. The pennie she placed in a box hidden in her matrice. After she had finished with that she pulled out a sketchbook and pencils and began to draw.
Kasha’s attic was a wonderful room. It had two slanted walls coming up to make a peaked ceiling and circular windows looking out over the town. She didn’t have many possessions. Only her clothes, a few books and some trinkets she kept on a shelf in the corner. And the drawings. They covered the walls. Drawings of what she imagined the far off places she read about too look like. The grey waste in weseldore, brimstone basin in arden, the great plains.
Kasha flipped to a new page in her sketchbook and began to draw not a place but a creature. A huge raven flying through a great storm with a message tied to it’s leg. She blinked and shook her head.
“What in the name of-” she asked, tearing out the page and crumpling it. She set down her sketchbook and lay back closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. It felt like someone had put an axe in her skull.
She lay like that until her grandmother came home.
“Kashashita?” she called up the stairs “are you up there?”
“Yes grandmother.” kasha yelled
“Would you come help me with dinner?”
“Sure.” kasha swung her legs off the bed she stood. Her head began too clear as she made her way down the stairs.
“The strangest thing just happened, grandmother.” she said as she walked into the kitchen
“Hmm?” her grandmother asked bustling about the kitchen pulling out pots and spices. A large chicken, plucked and gutted, sat on the counter.
“I was drawing and I sort of blanked out. I remember starting to draw a picture of the great plains and then I blinked and I had drawn an entirely different thing.”
“Is that so?” her grandmother asked “what did you draw? Was it that cute baker girl?”
Kasha blushed “no, grandmother, it wasn’t tala. It was a big raven flying through a snowstorm. Odd isn’t it? Grandmother? What’s wrong?” her grandmother was standing stiff as a bored in the center of the kitchen.
“No she whispered. Not yet. Not yet.”
“What is it? What’s not yet?” kasha asked coming to stand next to the older woman.
“I haven’t had time to train- and the sword? Where is that? No. no it can’t be.”
“Grandmother, you’re frightening me. What sword? What can’t be? Have I done something wrong?”
Her grandmother looked up, her mouth a thin line. “It’s nothing kashashita. You have done nothing wrong. Just the worries of an old woman.” she patted kasha on the shoulder and got back to work. The wind began to howl outside and snow began too fall, but kosha didn’t pay much attention to it. Just another storm. They ate their meal in silence and kasha went up too bed early. She changed into a shift and crawled into bed sore from the hard labor at the scrap yards. As soon as her head touched the pillow she was pulled into a dream. She stood in a throne room. An elderly man sat on the throne arguing with a young woman.
“My lord, it is true!” she said but the man shook his head
“There is no way.” he said it like he had said it many many many times before.
The woman threw her hands up in annoyance “you have too believe me. The prophecy has come. The armies are massing. I saw it.”
“It is impossible.” the man barked
“The ignorance of kings.” the women hissed “fine then. If you wont do anything, then I will.” she turned on her heels and stalked from the room. She passed where kahsa was standing and winked.
“I forbey it, ashara!” the king called after her “i am still your king!”
The women left the room and closed the huge wooden doors with a slam, then suddenly kasha was standing next to the women in the hall outside the throne room. The woman turned to her with a maniacal grin on her face.
“What’s your name?” she asked
“K-kasha.” kasha stutered
“Alright kasha. We don’t have much time. You need to listen closely. I am going to show you something from the past, the present and what may come. Are you ready?”
Before kasha could say anything they were standing on a frozen beach. Bodies littered the sand and fires burned in the distance. Longboats had cut paths through the ice and were docked a little ways up the shore. Kasha looked around in horror.
“What happened here?” she asked
“War. pain. Death.” the women responded sadly. “This is what happened a hundred years ago when we did not rise to face the invaders.”
“It’s horrible.” kasha whispered “why would anyone do this.”
The woman shook her head sadly. “I do not know. Are you ready?”
“Ready for wh-” kasha began but she jerked and all of a sudden they were standing on a boats deck. It bristled with humanoid figures with dark cracked skin. Through the cracks it looked like blood was running.
“These are the monsters that are coming too destroy our land. They were bred in the far north and will kill everything and everyone in their hunt.”
“Hunt?” kasha asked looking around
“Yes. They are hunting for something. A relic from the time of the gods. A sword. It is said to be hidden deep in the northern peaks. Near the eastern sea.”
Their surroundings jerked again and this time they were in white run. Kasha looked around. Everything was destroyed. The houses, the shops, the docks. Everything. Bodys lay about the wreckage. They were standing where kasha’s house had once been. Now, all that was left was a few piles of smoking wood and the stone supports.
“Grandma!” kasha screamed looking around frantically “grandma!” the women nodded sadly.
“I am sorry but this is what will happen if you do not stop them.” the women took kasha’s hand.
“I have one more thing to show you.”
Kasha nodded and they shifted. They stood in a big stone tower. Wind howled and snow blew outside. The inside though was filled with birds in cages. Mostly messenger birds, but there where songbirds, peacocks, sparrows, finches, and all sorts of birds kasha had never seen before, but the thing that drew her eye was a big raven. He sat in a simple iron cage in the corner of the room.
“There isn’t enough time to explain everything.” the women said “the mages are beginning to pick up on my magic. Kasha, you are the hero spoken of in a prophecy a hundred years ago. When the demons come, one will rise to be our savior. One with wings of darkness and a mark of power upon her neck.”
Kasha’s hand went up instinctively to cover the birthmark on her neck.
“No.” she said. “I’m not a hero of old. I work in the scrap yard. I live with my grandmother. I’m not a hero. And i don’t have wings.” she said pointedly.
The women sighed. “You have no choice kasha. They are something and there is nothing i nor the king nor anyone else can do about it. It is you kashashita onawa. You must leave tonight. People will be coming to find you. Agents of darkness. You musnt let them take you. Kai will come to you and then you must leave. He will explain everything clearly.” there was a rumbling in the distance and the women groned “not enough time. Listen closely kasha. There is someone I want you to find. She is a rogue mage from the guild of magic. She will aid you. Now go. “ the women stepped away and opened the cage with the raven in it. He flew out and landed on the women’s shoulder. Kasha could have sworn he winked at her. Kasha shook her head. None of this was real. It was all a dream. She wasn’t some sort of hero. Her vision swam and she felt as if she was going to vomit.
Kasha’s eyes snapped open and she sat up.
“What in the land” she mumbled pressing a hand too her stomach. She swung her legs off the bed a d