Perspectives

Chapter 1: First Impressions and the Storm

Rebecca's POV

Why did it have to break? I need this bow to catch dinner tonight! Stupid Will caused me to get in line too late, and there was nothing left to eat! He should have at least shared with me! Oh well. I'll just tie this string here... oh darn it! The string broke!

Groaning to myself, I grab some extra string in my basket to tie up the bow with, but it's too long. Not a problem. I'll just cut it like so... ouch!

I cut my finger!

Whimpering from pain, I hold back my tears as I try and figure out a solution. I don't have a bandage with me, so I'll have to make due with some cloth from my shirt. I'm about to rip some off when I notice a tall redheaded man standing above me, observing my work. I think he's a mercenary from our army, now that I think about it, and the thing that catches my attention about him are his eyes; they're as hardened as stone, and completely devoid of any emotion at all.

He raises an eyebrow as I take in his appearance, and without a word, rips a small portion of material off of his shirt, bends down towards me, and begins bandaging my finger with surprising gentleness. His kind act accidentally causes me to lower my guard, and I can feel a tear roll down my face from the pain of the cut as I sniffle. When he sees me crying, I swear I notice his eyes change; just for a moment, but they change, somehow.

Either way, within a minute, he finishes bandaging my finger and starts working on my bow, tying up the string I just cut up. Quickly tying it together, my bow's fixed within a couple of minutes, and when I test it in my hand, I can tell it's even better than when I first started using it. Amazing!

"You are too young to be in this army," the man says to me, and I look up at him, confused. "Why are you here? This is too dangerous a situation for someone like you to be in."

"You think so?" I reply with uneasiness. "I... have to be here. I'm looking for someone important, and besides, I have to help protect my friends. So, that's why I'm with this army, sir...?"

"Raven." Eyeing me curiously with his still hardened gaze, he calmly grabs some loose hair over my face and relocates it behind my ear, and I blush slightly at the gesture. What is he doing?

"Er... I'm Rebecca! It's nice to meet you!" I quickly interject, trying to change the subject. He really is a handsome man, and he did help me just now... but now I remember something important; lots of the people in the army say that... I should stay away from someone like Raven. They say that he's antisocial, scary, and cold, but I think they're exaggerating. He can't be that bad.

"I know who you are."

Never mind; that's kind of scary.

"I need to know who my allies are, so I gain intelligence on them from others," Raven clarifies, and I'm relieved from the answer; if he just knew my name for no reason, that would be creepy. Somehow, though... Raven doesn't seem like the 'creepy' guy to me. I believe there's more to him than meets the eye.

"Well, either way, thank you very much Raven! Do you want me to cook something for you as thanks?"

Raven's POV

Hmph. This girl should not be here; why am I encouraging her by fixing her bow? We really aren't too far away from where she lives, according to that friend of hers. Someone should take her back. I don't want my sister here either, but she refuses to leave. At least this young girl should be in safe hands then. I will admit, however, that her reasons for staying are sound.

"Could you repeat that?" I ask Rebecca, and she merely smiles at the question. She really is a cheerful girl, and I honestly wonder why I came here in the first place; if I had truly known for sure about her personality...

"I want to hunt and cook something for you!" she responds happily. Such astonishing changes in demeanour she's showing me: firstly, sadness from the pain of her cut; secondly, embarrassment while I fixed that small piece of hair that was getting on my nerves; and thirdly, cheerfulness. All within a couple of minutes. Not an easy feat. And she can hunt as well? Perhaps she can handle herself. Better for me, anyway.

"I can get anything for you! Duck, boar, deer..."

Other than Lucius and my sister, no one has ever put the time and effort into keeping conversation with me, and for some reason, as I listen to her excitedly telling me about her hunting skills, my chest starts to feel strange. I don't recognize the light scent she is wearing, and perhaps I am reacting to it. It's probably best to stay away. I was fine when I was by myself anyway. I don't need her company. Lucius will just start bugging me about it anyway.

"...surprise me," I reply unenthusiastically.

"Wonderful! I'll make something tasty for you sometime!" Giving me a farewell smile and wave, she runs off, carrying her bow, and I decide to leave and put up my tent before it gets too dark. Setting up a tent in the pitch black is not fun.

Great. Lucius distracted me, and now... I'm setting up my tent in the dark. That's just wonderful. It's raining too, adding to the horrible atmosphere. And of course, he's in his tent, nice and warm, probably reading one of his religious books to pass the time. This is NOT what I wanted to do tonight. And I have to do this all by myself!

Wait a minute...

"Raven? Why are you setting up your tent now?"

...Rebecca?

Why is she out here in the rain?

"You shouldn't be out here! Come on, let me help you!" she shouts over the downpour, and she begins quickly stomping a tent peg into the ground before I step in front of her and halt her progress.

"You are the one who should not be out here!" I angrily respond. "We are in the pouring rain... leave now."

She looks at me curiously, almost as if she's contemplating why I'm telling her this. Shouldn't it be obvious? I really can't believe or understand her blind enthusiasm to helping me. Why does she care so much?

"And leave you, Raven? That's not very nice."

I sigh at her insistence. Hmph. Well, I guess the faster we work, the faster she'll go back to her tent. "Let's do this quickly."

We work surprisingly efficiently together, and pretty soon, the tent is up. And of course, after finishing, Rebecca is shivering from the rain, so I forcefully take her into the tent and give her one of my blankets to warm herself up with. Seeing her like this kind of ticks me off. I said from the beginning that she shouldn't be here, and yet, here she is, offering to help put up tents in the rain! How logical is that?

"...I don't understand you."

Still shivering, Rebecca looks around the tent and examines it with interest before staring at something in particular. What's she looking at? There's nothing here of interest. Just my sleeping stuff, some clothes, and...

...my picture of Priscilla.

Why is she so interested in it?

Rebecca's POV

Who's that picture of? She looks familiar... wait! That's Priscilla! Why does he have a picture of her here? Oh my... could they be in a relationship? That's interesting. How could the two of them understand each other? Priscilla is so sweet and caring... what is there about Raven that she could love about him?

I'm curious to find out, though!

"Is that Priscilla?" I ask him while pointing at the picture, and he solemnly nods to affirm the answer. At this point, it's time to be really nosy, and so I 'go in for the kill', so to speak: "Do you love her?"

Raven raises his eyebrow at the question, and I grin, knowing I've hit something. Let's see how he reacts! "Well?" I prod, "do you?"

Instead of answering, he simply opens the tent flap, looks out at the unrelenting rain, and grabs some clothes from his bag before tossing them over to me. "Here," he says, "you can't go back to your tent... the rain's gotten worse."

Going and looking outside myself, I see that the rain has worsened, and the wind's ridiculously strong. It's not even safe to be out there! Good thing we double re-enforced the tent pegs earlier!

"So..." he continues, "you're staying here. I'll go in the corner, and you can go where I usually sleep. Change into these clothes under the blanket. Try to sleep." After he finishes his sentence, he pulls out a blindfold, ties it onto himself, and lies in the corner while settling down into slumber. Honestly, I can't really believe what's going on here!

Hee hee... I know Will wouldn't believe me if I told him!

Author's Notes

New three chapter story by me! My goal is to finally get Raven right! I messed him up slightly in his cameo in 'Her Smile', and I REALLY messed him up in 'A Mutual Feeling'. (remember THAT? :p)

I discovered the secret: I cannot do a full-fledged romance with him. No mutual expressions of "I LOVE YOU" to each other... and no implied incest either. :p As well, I can't go too nuts with Raven, or his personality will be wrong. Not like I did with 'Kissing Booth'! Sain was quite nuts there for good reason! However, I do know that Raven can easily hold his own in a conversation, so I truly don't believe he's speaking too much. Plus, I always saw him as a very observant person; noticing certain things about others and filing them away without anyone knowing.

I think I've basically forgotten how to write third person. :D Therefore, I chose this interesting approach to understand Raven and Rebecca's thoughts in more detail. Originally, it was going to include Lucius' POV as well, but in the end, I decided against it. By the way, this is the only chapter to reference a support conversation, and even then, many things about it were changed.

She really IS a cheerful girl, and I honestly wonder why I came here in the first place; if I had truly known for sure about her personality... This line is purposely ambiguous in meaning.

Well, I've had enough time to think, and it's time to resolve our wonderful conflict in A Glimmer of Hope! Thing is, my life has suddenly gotten very busy in a good way, and so updating will be slower in the future. Just mentioning to you guys!