Chapter 3: French Hens
On the third day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Three French hens,
Two turtledoves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.
Raven awoke with a start. Her breath came raspy for a moment as she tried to put the pieces together. She had been dreaming.
It had been so vivid, but as she sat up in her bed the details were slipping away. She had been walking down a tower hall; there had been a song. Something that sounded so familiar, the words were-
There was a sharp noise to her right. Startled she rubbed at her eyes to pull in the needed light so she could see. She glanced over where she had heard the noise.
Ebony pecked at the cage bars insistent on getting out. Raven rolled her eyes at her jumpiness. Awake enough she crawled out of bed and over to the raven's makeshift cage.
She had borrowed some fancy metal pieces from Cyborg's garage and used her powers to bend them into something to hold the bird. She wasn't about to go through another night of bird-pecking hell.
Raven slid up the door and Ebony hopped out and nipped at Ravens finger.
"Dumb bird," She hissed pulling her hand back offended.
There was a rap at her door. Her powers shot out a second out of surprise. The cage tipped over and a few books fell. She chanted slowly to herself before going to her door. Raven couldn't feel anyone at the other side when she neared the door.
She sighed to herself not mentally stable enough to deal with Beast Boy if he had decided to do a little "Ding, dong, ditch" this morning.
She pressed the door and it slid open. An empty, quiet morning hallway greeted her. For once there was no music, Starfire must not have been up.
Almost dreading Raven looked down.
And wished she had stayed in her room.
There was another box, smaller than the last but similar in structure.
"This better not be more birds," She grumbled to the empty hallway. Conjuring some black mist the box floated up to the girl.
Biting her lip slightly she pushed back her hair before taking the box in her hands. It was fairly heavy. She shook it slightly hearing something rustle. It didn't sound alive.
Raven glanced down the hallway again half-expecting to see someone, anyone. All that met her was the glimpse of sun that was beginning to rise through the far window.
With that she turned back around and walked back into her room, the door swished in place behind her.
Raven sat down on her bed, throwing the messy lavender covers aside. She watched Ebony try a few failures at flight on her carpet floor. Apparently the little bird was not a flier yet. Her fingers gripped at one side of the box.
Consciously she lifted the lid ready if it were some crazed bird again.
Instead three books were inside. They were thick volumes with brown hard covers. Raven conjured some light in her room to read them.
"French Hens cookbook?" She spoke aloud reading the title of the book. She picked it up to reveal another that looked identical except for the small script on the spine that pointed out it was volume two. The pulled it out as well sitting it on her bed and pulled out the last book.
It was volume three.
There was a white strip of paper acting as a bookmark poking out of the third book. Reluctantly she slid it out and unfolded it. There were the same typed words that had come to plague her.
Raven,
Figure it out yet?
-An admirer
She stared at the paper a whole five seconds before reacting.
"Figure what out?!" She growled holding the paper tightly memorizing the words. When they were forever book marked in her mind she floated the paper over to join the others.
She stacked the three books again. So now she had three French Hen Cookbooks. If she were willing to forgive the birds she wouldn't forgive a stupid present like this.
She took inventory on her gifts: A pear tree and a raven, Two doves, Three French Hen Cookbooks...
One, two three-
She flipped through the first and second books quickly making sure they were cookbooks. Pages of food and directions looked back at her, as they should. The first two days she had some kind of clue.
She looked back at the empty box to make sure she hadn't missed anything.
There was nothing there. Disgruntled now she picked up the books to put them with her others in the bookcase. Stupid or not she could never toss out a book.
She had put the first two on the shelf between her spell book and Edgar Allen Poe collection when Ebony nipped at her bare feet. In surprise she dropped the third cookbook. It opened and laid spine up on her carpet.
"Why must you hate me so early in the morning?" She stared at the little raven a moment before retrieving the fallen book.
Something had fallen out of the opened page. It glittered on her carpet floor.
Her hand closed over it as she picked it up instead of the book. In her hand was a piece of red garland.
Robin.
She stared at it a long while before picking up the book. Something else had slipped and was poking out of the corner of the book. Swiftly Raven pulled it out realizing it was garland, and blue.Cyborg.
She tipped the book downwards and shook. Sure enough the last piece of garland fell out of the book. It's green and shimmering in the sporadic lighting of the room.
Beast Boy.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," Raven coached herself realizing the reason for the flickering lights.
When her room lights had steadied she gathered the three colored stands in her hands. They were identical beside their color and about four inches long.
She hated this. This wasn't a clue; this was a gloat that she hadn't figured it out. When she found out who had done this she would-
If it were Beast Boy she would kill him, swift and justly. They had their moments but he knew the line. All those times he shot down his cocky attitude.
If it were Cyborg, well that would be weird. But she'd leave him disassembled with a warning to anyone that wanted to help.
And if it were Robin, she and Starfire would give him the pain not even Slade could produce…
Raven heard music start downstairs. Starfire had to be up. With force she shoved the last book onto its place on the shelf. She had decided a shower would do her good. Carelessly she threw the garland onto the carpet while making her way to the door in search of a shower.
Starfire watched Raven angrily tapping her fingers on the table.
"Friend, is something wrong?"
Ravens attention shot back to the girl beside her. They were the only two left in the tower, earlier the three guys had decided to go out and buy presents. It was much to Ravens distress she couldn't get at them today.
She had already contemplated killing all three of them and be done with it.
"Nothing's wrong Star. Did you see anyone up really early this morning?" Raven glanced at the clock, 5:34. The boys had been gone almost the entire day.
"Well I did go and wake Robin this morning, but he insisted on sleeping further, he had been up late." Starfire brushed back some of her hair, a red ribbon in place today.
"Oh," Raven added already sinking into her thoughts. Did this make Robin guiltier, or did it mean he couldn't possibly have left the gift?
She didn't want to think about if it was Robin. He was, after all Starfire's boy.
"So Titans I thought that tomorrow we would all go out and enjoy some of the holiday festivities." Robin addressed everyone when they were seated for dinner.
Raven strangely had volunteered to cook using her new book. Beast Boy had caught her first poking at her French Hens Volume two and asking why she had a cookbook. She had glared at him accusatory and refused to answer.
"Oh may we go see the Santa of Maul?" Starfire asked eagerly watching Robin with wide gleeful eyes. He smiled warmly at the girl.
"Sure, now let's dig in."
"I would be careful, Raven made it," Beast Boy added before anyone took a bite. Everyone stopped; they had thought Beast Boy made it because he was in the kitchen.
"Well at least I don't have to worry about it being tofu," Cyborg smiled in Raven's direction before bravely taking a big bite out of his chicken.
Everyone was watching Cyborg take the first bite. They were still weary of Ravens last dish that had ended up quite poisoned. But it had been only Beast Boy who ended up sick when he jumped at her food and ate a plateful.
After swallowing the meta-human looked up at his friends. "Raven this is…awesome, where'd you learn to cook so good?"
Raven pushed down her growing pride shrugging as if it was no big thing.
"Raven had a cookbook," Beast Boy explained grinning almost… knowingly?
"Friend where did you get such a magnificent book of cooking?" Starfire asked between bites of mustard covered mashed potatoes.
Raven paused a moment unsure of how to answer. The person who had given it to her was seated at this table. Beast Boy next to her was waiting, fork poised, with a small smile. Cyborg next to him was engulfing food, but his posture suggested he was still listening.
Raven turned slightly to Starfire getting a quick glance at Robin. He was eating the vegetables slowly as usual.
"I found it," She replied which wasn't exactly a lie. Starfire nodded sufficed and continued eating.
Raven stared down at her food before finally gripping a fork and trying her own creation.
He finished up his dinner enjoying the company of the other titans. Every once in a while when no one was watching he would take a glance at Raven. He noted with a smile she had used the cookbooks.
Raven raised her violet eyes and looked at him. He didn't feel panicked or caught; she had been looking at the other two male titans every once in a while.
He opened his mouth as if he was going to ask why she was staring.
Her gaze immediately moved back to her own food.
Raven was going to kill him when she found out it was him. He wondered how long until she put it together, he wasn't after all the best detective of all time.
Yay, I love all my reviewers. Hope you enjoy the mess of clues everywhere. XD
Ooh and thanks Tiffwiff, I feel dumb now for not researching, so I'm going to apologize to everyone, the twelve days of Christmas is actually after Christmas. I kind of thought it was but there's more material to work with if their Christmas if coming up. So sorry if I confused anyone, but I am more knowledgeable now!
Yea I'll just go hide and feel dumb a moment more.
Keep them guesses coming; I love seein how everyone's putting together the clues.
-Dragonslayer527