content, author's note edited as of April 14, 2011; no warning added.
Author's Note: Because my friend insisted I write a COAD fic that wasn't slash.
Crouching in the soft layer of white that had dusted itself on the ground, the nine-summer-old boy grinned. He conducted the naming ceremony for himself the previous night.
As he drew patterns in the freshly-fallen snow, he realized that he could have done it wrong. After all, he only had old memories to rely on for instruction and some of those memories contradicted others.
Ark pecked gently at his chilled fingers and cocked her head in sweet curiosity. She cawed at his him.
"Dark," he said firmly, stroking the head of the white raven, "my name is Dark."