Chapter 5: Golden Rings
On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.
Raven turned over, the purple bed sheets took a dive off the side of the bed. Ebony, who had managed to break free from the mangled wiring of a cage was caught under the sheets and cawed angrily.
Raven mumbled and shuffled some more in her bed.
Her dream started dissipating as the drowning melody had almost come to chorus. Gasping she sat up in her bed hearing a melody clearly in her mind.
Rubbing her eyes she turned her head a moment. There was still music, but it wasn't in her head...
In her haste she lost her usual poise and fumbled out of bed. The song that had haunted her for the last few days was playing through the tower.
Raven took a quick look at the digital clock across her room, it was far too early for Starfire to be up. Earliest she was up at 7, it was nearly two hours before that. Forgetting her cloak she rushed to the door. Pushing it open she stepped out determining the direction of the sound.
Walking down the hallway barefoot she followed the slow music. A females voice had started vocals, but she couldn't make out the words just yet.
That darkness of the early morning tower didn't bother the girl. She took the stairs down toward the living room following the sound almost blindly. It was close now, on the couch?
"On the fourth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me..."
She caught some of the lyrics as she rounded the couch. Summoning light to her fingertips the area around her lit up. Peering over, she saw Starfire's music playing. On top of the black portable stereo facing her was one of the stuffed Raven's she had thrown out of her room the previous night.
"...and a partridge in a pear tree."
Raven stopped dead and looked at the player listening intently. Had it just said pear tree? She had a pear tree, up in her room dying.
"On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree."
Raven hit the pause button on the cd. The song did say pear tree, and it was a gift.
She replayed the last stanza stopping it after each verse.
"Four calling birds," they had to be the four calling raven toys.
"Three French hens," the French Hen's cookbooks.
"Two turtle doves," she had gotten two doves.
"And a partridge in a pear tree," a pear tree and a raven.
"True love?" She scoffed as the song continued playing on. She quickly filled in all the pieces. A gift each day, just like this song. Each time it would be something similar to the song lyrics.
Raven had noted the fifth day was golden rings. She grumbled to herself, she did not need to be getting jewelry now. Pressing stop she quickly pulled out the red designed cd to find the title of the song.
"The Twelve Days of Christmas," She memorized the title before really reading it. "Twelve Days?" Raven choked out, she could feel a headache coming on. She did mental subtraction, after today she'd have seven more days.
Closing the player she gripped the cd, making sure to hold it through the center hole and made her way back toward her room. She needed to listen to this song and see what other gifts she would be getting.
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Raven made it back to her door to find it open. Before she could jump to conclusions intelligence quaintly reminded her she had never closed it behind her in her haste.
Sighing she made it back into her room. Only when she made it to her bed did her anger catch back up to her. She dropped the cd to her floor to prevent herself from subconsciously breaking it. There on her bed in a small amethyst velvet case was the fifth present.
Stepping over her sheets she snatched up the box. As much as she didn't want to see five golden rings she flipped open the small box.
Gasping her eyes met five, not gold, but amethyst rings. Gold bands held five small glimmering violet stones.
In honest awe she pulled one out, a small white paper was attached to the ringlet. The stone shone in the light that had begun to rise outside. She knew on Earth one was quite pricey, but five?
She pulled the paper off and unfolded it.
Raven,
An amethyst for a beautiful goddess.
-An Admirer
Still in slight shock her lips formed a small smile.
Then reality shocked back and she scowled. How had one of the titans gotten enough money for five rings? And why spend it on her?
She knew Robin and Beast Boy had each inherited a small fortune from their families (which is about all she knew about their families). As for Cyborg, she didn't know. Raven played with the idea he might have asked one of the other two.
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"Friend Raven, have you seen my cd?" Starfire was moving around the living room upturning furniture looking for the "missing" cd. Every once in a while she would stop to fix the red bow in her hair.
"No," Raven answered before turning back to Cyborg.
"By the way, I'm missing some metals from my garage too, anyone seen them?" Cyborg turned again to throw over his shoulder. Raven shifted slightly. Robin and Beast Boy grunted in response still glued to the video game.
"What kind?" Raven asked. Cyborg turned back around facing her across the kitchen table.
"Um first some titanium, and then recently some aurum."
"Aurum?" She asked pushing back her still wet hair.
"Yea, it's like gold."
Raven swallowed hard. She didn't want to think about missing gold. She moved a hand to hide the ring on her left hand.
She felt silly even considering wearing the thing. Yet, somehow she felt obligated. It wasn't every day someone gave you five amethyst rings.
"Oh, haven't seen any," She murmured even though she guessed they were probably both residing in her room. Cyborg shrugged before getting up.
"Must have misplaced them. If you'll excuse me, I think I have a high score to set."
Raven nodded and Cyborg headed for the video games where Robin had just smashed his high score off the board. Her eyes followed over to where the three guys were. Something sitting near the game station caught her attention.
"Beast Boy?" She asked getting up and moving into the living room.
"Yes?" He spun around when their video game was about to start.
"Can you hand me that thing by the game?" Raven pointed to the object as she walked closer.
He nodded and fetchingly grabbed it. Turning back to Raven he gave her a funny look.
"This stuffed animal yours Raven?" He held up the small raven grinning like it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. She heard the other two boys stop, put down their controllers, to look at her.
"Yes," she leaned closer and snatched it from him as if daring him to ask any further.
"What's with the-" That's as far as he got when Cyborg and Robin promptly jumped on him and covered his mouth. Apparently Raven had been radiating black energy. She blushed unbeknownst to anyone at her quick temper.
Chanting to herself mentally she looked up to see the three now wrestling as they yelled apologies to Raven, Beast Boy even threw in a plea for his life.
"Relax, I'm not killing anyone," She clutched the raven in her left hand waiting for the three to stop. "I'll be meditating," Raven added silently when the three had untangled themselves long enough to look at her.
Without a second glance she headed for her room and some needed meditation. The three unnerved her constantly now.
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After almost three hours Raven pulled herself back into solid form.
Breathing evenly and refreshed she pushed herself off the bed. She walked to her book case and pulled out some more crackers she had saved for Ebony. Crumbled and maybe a little stale they were most likely a divine snack for a scavenger raven.
"Now where are you?" Raven picked up her blanket and set it on her bed. Moving over to the stolen wire cage she peered down inside. A few scrambled pieces of newspaper were stuffed inside after Raven had realized all those crackers eventually went somewhere. But there was no bird.
In fact, Raven hadn't seen the bird since this morning. After she'd rushed out...
The psychic attempted whistling to lure the bird out. Growing irritated she overturned a few more things in her room looking for the black bird. Subconsciously she fixed the mess with her powers as she went along. Ebony was not to be found.
"Stupid bird going and leaving my room." She mumbled before sitting back down on her bed. It was nearing evening so there was no use trying to find the bird now. There were a million dark places for it to hide in the night.
Raven would have to try tomorrow morning.
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Later that night he paced the floor of his room. All the while a content look on his face.
Earlier that day he had been in a small rumble with the other two male titans. When Raven had grumbled she wasn't going to kill them they had all untangled to look at her.
That's when he had spotted it. One of the rings he had given her that morning. It was snugly on her left hand as she gripped the plush raven. It matched her eyes perfectly, better than he had imagined while planning the idea.
While Raven had been downstairs he had snuck to put them in her room. His pacing paused a moment. She was going to kill him slowly for that.
A black bird ruffled its wings resting on his shoulder.
"Lost raven?" He asked no one before going back to pacing and planning his next gift.
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The admirer's gettin pricey. Thanks for all the reviews, you guys make my mail box happy! (And I do love them long reviews!)
I was planning on eliminating one person from the mystery in the 10th chapter, but if I do three different endings it wouldn't really work. Umm so I don't know. I'm afraid of the reviewers who won't get their couple, and my sis who bugs me until I write. XD I could defiantly do two different endings. Any suggestions?
And yea I am trying to torture you all as well as Raven. Hah!
-Dragonslayer527