Duck stared at the massive black bird in front of her. It stood perched on top of her mother's grave.
The raven peered at her with narrowed blood red eyes – eyes that made her shiver. Goosebumps rose on the pale skin on her arms and she stepped backward.
Cocking it's head, the bird spread it's beautiful dark wings and rose them high on either side of itself. The little red head screamed as hundreds of much smaller ravens came from all kinds of places, swarming around the larger one. Duck covered her head before cowering. They circled around the raven in a tornado like form until Duck could no longer see it.
The swarm of birds grew quicker until they were all only a dark blur. Their wings began to hum.
Duck gave a soft gasp as the "tornado" disappeared, vanishing from the bottom. Sitting in the raven's place was a boy with those same blood red eyes.
July...
[BEEP]
Duck's alarm went off abruptly, definitely late, and woke her with a start.
Her curly, strawberry peach hair was all over her bed as she pulled the covers off of her body and blinked to adjust her sapphire eyes to the morning light. She didn't even have time to stretch or yawn when her room mates began to bang on her dorm door.
"Duck! Wake up, already!"Pike shouted with another hit to the door.
"You can't do this! Mr. Cat almost called the wedding planner yesterday!" Lillie whined and knocked gently.
"Oh, no!" Duck muttered, crawling out of bed. She snatched a brush from her dresser on her way to her closet and dragged it through her long tresses.
"Every single day!" she hurriedly took off her lacy white night gown. Duck opened one of her drawers and put on her bra. A moment later, she had on her school uniform her white knee socks on her legs. Duck didn't have time to put her hair in her usual braid, so she put it in a messy bun that left most of her hair down at her shoulders towards the front.
Biting her lip, she sighed at the sight of herself in the mirror. Same as always – a small, 17 year old girl with way too long hair and huge, babyish eyes. Her eyes wandered over to her chest. Yes, she had wanted that to miraculously change, too, but her wishes never seemed be granted.
"Duuuuuck!"
Both the pleading voices of her friends made her heart beat quicken as she remembered how late she was. Duck ran to grab her bag and threw open the door to see her impatient room mates standing in the hallway.
"There!" Duck's eyes gleamed, "Only 3 minutes late today!"
Lillie giggled, her cheeks turning pink, and she reached a hand up to cover her mouth.
"Oh, Duck.." she laughed, "You're so cute."
The red head frowned, turning to look at Pike. Pike gave Duck a smug smile.
"Well... Duck, you should really look before you walk out the door to make sure EVERYTHING is on..." she pointed to Duck's lower half and Duck's eyes widened.
"NOOOO!"
How could she have forgotten to put on her skirt?!
Meanwhile..
"So, my son," a disembodied voice rang through a dark realm covered in raven's feathers, "How is your progress coming along?"
Anyone might have thought the voice was speaking to itself, for there was no one else seen inside the realm, but soon, a boy appeared, lying sprawled in the black feathers like it were a bed.
The prince looked up at the abyss of a sky with his ruby eyes, giving a long, drawn out sigh.
"Father..." he spoke with a smooth, yet slightly sad voice, "You must forgive me."
"What is it you need my forgiveness for, my son?"
The prince reached up to push his shoulder length snow white hair – similar to dove feathers- out of his beautiful face.
"I still feel guilty for failing my mission in my old school.. I tried finding a pure heart for you again at a pool party last night, but... None of the women around me are enough."
"Perhaps you and the other ravens will find purity in the new school you've transferring in."
"Maybe you're right... the others have a good feeling about this one."
"Ha," the voice sounded amused, "How unlucky for those sweet little girls."
"Yes, how unlucky.. There's bound to be at least one girl with an all too pure heart. Today should be really exciting."
"Mytho." the voice spoke again, this time a little more gravely, "You know you must find a pure heart if you want your father to live. Need I remind you that each heart is another five hundred thousand years more."
"I understand, father." Mytho rolled onto his stomach. "I will get you a heart immediately."
"Excellent. But you be sure to devour as many hearts in the process. You'll need to be strong as well if you're going to be the next Raven King."
Mytho's lips curled into a mischievous smile, his ruby eyes darkening.
"Yes, father."
Lillie, Pike, and Duck bit into their warm, fluffy croissants all at the same time. Lillie closed her eyes and sighed in content. Pike grinned before devouring her croissant in seconds. Duck grinned widely and slowly ate her's, careful to savor it's taste.
"Thank goodness we bought these from the bakery in time..."
Lillie and Pike glanced at her.
"If you don't wake up early enough, we won't be able to get breakfast before school." Pike said with a mouth full of food.
Duck pouted, "What were you guys doing outside the dorm room this morning, anyway?"
Pike laughed, "Spying on all of the sexy upperclassmen."
"If you both have enough free time in the morning, why don't you guys get the breakfast and wake me up? You know my alarms never work..."
"Well that's rude!" Lillie stood up from the bench, gathered her things, and turned away from her. "Pike and I are the older ones! You wouldn't understand! We don't have all of that free time you do... we want to get out and spy on cute guys like we did in our freshman years!"
"Yeah, Duck," Pike smirked, "You have all the free time. Why don't you ever spy on cute boys?"
Duck blushed, "Oh... I... I haven't really seen that many cute guys before... maybe I just haven't had one catch my eye yet.."
Lillie rolled her eyes, "Yeah, right. You haven't been spying on cute guys because you're always stuck in your art studio until midnight. So you wake up late.."
Duck blushed, "Just because I'm a freshman doesn't mean I have to stalk guys! I'm here because I'm an artist! What else?"
"Whatever. But we stay behind so we can ALL get in trouble. You're the youngest, so me and Pike have to be your big sisters and wake you every morning."
Pike grinned and winked at Duck, "Big sisters, huh?"
Duck rolled her eyes, "You guys would be horrible older sisters."
Lillie gasped and turned to narrow her eyes at Duck, ready to say something back when the sound of the Gold Crown Performing Arts Academy warning bell reached their ears.
"And NOW we're late!" Duck grabbed her bag and took off. Lillie and Pike giggled and ran after their "younger sister."
1st block ~
"For this problem, you will have to use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the missing side length, and then you will be able to multiply the side lengths to find the total surface area..."
Duck did her best to take her notes in math, but she got bored not long after writing down everything on the entire first page.
"Oh! Did you see them? The new transfer students?!"
"You mean that group of teens that were in the office this morning?"
"I've never seen them before! They're gorgeous!"
"I heard all 7 of them are family..."
"All of them?"
"I think they're just cousins, actually.."
"Who cares? Did you see how hot the guys were?"
"There weren't many girls..."
"Aw, poor Harrison."
"Shut up, Evangeline."
"Did you see that guy with the hair and the eyes?"
"Uh... I don't know, Evangeline, Could you be a bit more descriptive?"
"His hair is snow white, and his eyes are blood red!"
"Ohhh... yeah, I guess he looked pretty cool... What about that girl with the curly dark hair and the red eyes? She's pretty hot."
"Eh... She's cute, I guess. I can tell her smiles are fake, though."
Duck became curious and twisted around in her seat to look at the twins Harrison and Evangeline.
The siblings fixated their golden eyes on her and stared.
Duck blushed a little, "Uh... sorry, I uh, couldn't help but overhear-"
"-Of course you couldn't," Harrison folded his arms over his chest, "We don't even sit a whole foot away from you."
Evangeline poked him in the ribs with her elbow, "Be nice," she turned to look at Duck, smiling softly, "Yeah?"
"Uh... we have transfer students?"
"Isn't it cool? I think there have only been a few people that have actually seen them, but they're all so glamorous that it's likely half of the school is aware they're all here."
"Duck, Evangeline? Have anything you want to share with the class?"
Duck turned around in her seat, quickly, apologizing to the teacher.
"I'm sorry! Um, please forgive me, It was my faul-"
"Yes, in fact!" Evangeline stood up on her desk. Harrison covered his face with his hands, muttered something, and laughed. Duck watched Evangeline as she announced something the teacher was probably getting around to.
"We have hot transfer students and I am so bored right now."
The teacher, Mrs. Flowers, glared at Evangeline and demanded for her to sit back down in her seat before she fell.
"Well, since your classmate brought it up, I should explain... We will have transfer students today, but they won't actually attend until tomorrow. Today, you might see them. The principal will be showing them around. Remember, if you meet one of the Ravenwings today, please be sure to greet them nicely. We need a good impression on the students."
A moment later, the classroom was alive with chatter about the Ravenwing family. Duck was in deep thought about what Pike and Lillie had been teasing her about earlier.
Often, they'd make fun of her for always staying in her studio and never paying attention to guys or dating.
Maybe I could date one of the guys in the Ravenwing family? Yeah, right!
Duck immediately blushed at the thought and shook her head, laughing.
4th Block ~ Raven Wing Family's POV
"Ahh, it's lunch time, finally!" Rue stretched and curled up next to her oldest cousin Fakir on the picnic blanket she had been glad to have remembered to bring. Femio was lying in a tree that stood in front of them, gazing at himself in the mirror. Autor sat on the ground with his back against the tree, his nose in a book, as usual. Constantine and Uzura were already eating the lunch Rue had packed, and Mytho stood, leaning against a tree, his backed turned as he scanned the forest not far from the Academy.
Fakir smiled over at Rue and stretched out his arm so she could lay on it. She accepted his offer and gave a sigh of content.
"The principal's kind of annoying, isn't he?" Fakir looked up at the sky, speaking to no one in particular, but expected an answer from at least one of his cousins.
Autor frowned, turning a page in his book, "Well, at least he spent more time talking about the library than he did that stupid garden. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I'm looking forward to being a library assistant."
Femio laughed and turned to look down at Autor, "They do have cute girls at our Academy, am I right? I've already been given 28 phone numbers."
Constantine ran a finger through his dark brown hair and smirked up at Femio.
"Really? I've gotten 53. Come on, Femio, you can do better."
Femio almost fell out of the tree, he was so startled. He turned to glare his deep magenta eyes at Constantine.
"You're right, I can do better! I didn't charm them this time, remember? We were only walking down the hallways. If I had stopped to talk to one of them, I definitely would have gotten more numbers!"
"Uh huh."
"Seriously, Consta! I saw you! You were talking to every girl that walked up to you! You had a better advantage, you cheater!"
"Don't call me Consta unless you want your pretty little face ruined."
Femio winced and crossed his arms over his chest, looking away.
"Geez.."
Rue laughed, "Wow, Femio, I still can't believe that after all that power you have, you're afraid of a 13 year old."
"What's that supposed to mean? That I'm not the most powerful?" Constantine narrowed his eyes at her, taking another bite of his sandwich.
Femio laughed, "I'm not afraid of him. What I'm afraid of, is him ruining parts of my face. I can't have that. It's too precious and I've worked to hard to get it this way..."
Constantine rolled his eyes and climbed up the tree Femio was on while he wasn't paying attention.
When Femio noticed, he yelped and fell off of his branch.
Constantine laughed down at him, grabbing a bright red apple off of a tree branch.
"I was just getting an apple for Uzura. Why are you so jumpy?"
Femio blushed, pouting and looking away. Constantine tossed the apple down to Uzura and she caught it, laughing at Femio.
Uzura noticed Mytho seemed unsettled. She stood up and walked over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. He turned to her and smiled softly.
"Hey."
Uzura cocked her head, "You okay, Mytho?"
Rue and Fakir sat up.
"Yeah, you haven't said anything since we left the kingdom." Fakir raised an eyebrow.
Mytho sighed, "Have you guys not noticed?"
"Noticed what?" Femio frowned and pulled a few leaves out of his hair. Constantine hopped down from the tree to walk over to Uzura and Mytho.
"I don't smell anything..." he sniffed.
"My scent must be stronger, then. I can already smell a pure heart. It's somewhere in that school, and we've walked everywhere, but that girl just keeps on moving... It's annoying.. We've been searching for a pure heart for a year now and there's finally one here."
"Maybe there are more than one?" Rue asked.
"Perhaps, but there is a heart that has the slight scent of a raven and pureness, I don't get it.." Mytho ran a hand through his hair. Fakir sighed.
"I'll look for it, then." Constantine volunteered.
Mytho shook his head, "No, it's mine."
Constantine would have disagreed with him, but the look in his older cousin's blood red eyes said it all. This wasn't something he should argue with him about.
"Whatever." Constantine turned back to his food.
Rue stretched again, "Alright, Mytho, if you want it that badly, you can have it. Make sure to at least give us a little bit of the credit when you tell uncle."
Mytho smiled, "I'm off, then." he snapped his fingers and he was gone. What was left of him was a raven feather.
Uzura picked it up and turned to sit next to Rue, "It's a shame... I thought we were really going to go to this school. It actually looked kinda fun. They had a band and they needed more drummers."
Rue threw an arm around Uzura and pulled her close, kissing her on the forehead.
"Maybe uncle will let us return even after our mission would be complete."
Uzura smiled up at Rue with her huge blue eyes.
"Silly," she laughed, "The world will be destroyed by the time we hand that heart over to uncle."
Rue giggled."Right. Silly me for forgetting."
Meanwhile, Mytho had entered the Academy once again and inhaled. He picked up the sweet scent of the pure heart almost immediately. He followed the scent up a flight of stairs, and then down the hall, stopping in front of the door of an art room.
Duck wiped her forehead, mentally kicking herself for being so careless as to get paint all over her face and clothes.
Dipping her paintbrush inside of the blob of red paint on her palette, she turned back to her canvas.
She had no idea what she was painting, but she was surrounded by sketches and art pieces she had started off drawing the same. It was always a painting of a black bird surrounded by either blood or destruction.
The only colors Duck used in her paintings were black or red. It wasn't something she could explain – even though her friends would ask when she showed them a new painting.
She asked herself the same thing.
Most of her paintings came from horrible images she saw in her dreams.
Recently, she had had a dream about the time she had met a strange boy when she was younger. He was a very beautiful child, with feather like white hair and curious blood red eyes that watched her every move. The boy, named Siegfried, had scared her at first – he possessed strange powers that could kill anything he desired, and seemed to shut everyone else out but her. Though it took time for Siegfried to trust her, he and Duck had become friends.
And he disappeared one day.
Duck shook her head. She'd been thinking too much about the dream, but it had left her so curious. Would she ever see him again in the future? Where was he now?
It left her wondering.
Before she knew it, her hand was moving on it's own, dipping the brush in water and then in white paint to draw out the hair, gray and blue for the armor he'd worn, and then she dipped the paint in black for the ravens that had surrounded him in a tornado like fashion.
Duck looked down at her paint. She wouldn't be able to get the eyes correct if she didn't darken the red.
Creek...
"Hm?"
Surprised at the sound of the door opening, Duck snapped out of her state of concentration and spun around to greet her visitor.
But when she saw who was at the door, she dropped everything in her hands and gasped. Her paint palette and paintbrush fell to the wooden floor, splattering it with paint.
Just across the room, leaning casually in the doorway, was someone Duck was almost positive was an older Siegfried.