Chapter 5: Shadows that follows

Raven glared at the TV, it wasn't on. Which confused Garfield a lot, she just sat there on the couch staring at it.

"Raven? What are you doing?" He asked when he came into the living room for the third time to see her in the same position.

Raven dragged her glare away from the TV. "I don't know…" She muttered as she looked at him with her head tilt.

"The TV is off if you're wondering." Garfield walked up to the coffee table and picked up the remote. Turning it on it landed on 'Animal planet'. "want to-?" He turned to her, only to find her behind a pillow glaring at the TV again.

"How?" She whispered.

"This thing." He showed the remote. "Turned it on, you want to watch this?" He asked. When she didn't answer he let the remote got on the table before going back to the kitchen.

He was making lunch, he had planned on taking Raven to the park today as he didn't want to lock her up in the house. He looked into the living room from time to time, she was wearing some of the new clothes they bought the day before. A purple t-shirt and black sweatpants.

She was looking at the TV in wonders, Garfield looked at the TV. She was watching a show about raven, that was ironic.

He went back to the kitchen, only to find Beast eating one of the sandwiches he was making. "BEAST!" He yelled. The dog looked at him shocked before running past him into the living room. Garfield gave a chase and came into the living room, he looked around before his eyes fell on Raven. He could see Beast trying to hide behind her, she was looking at him strangely.

"What did he do?" Raven asked as she looked at Garfield.

"He ate something he wasn't allowed to." He crossed his arms and frowned at Beast who tried to make his escape. "Not so fast there buddy." Garfield walked up to Beast who now sat on the floor with his ears folded back. "Don't eat my food, you have your own and you don't see me go around and eat it…"

Raven looked at him strangely, he was talking to Beast as if he were another person. To her surprise the dog looked at the ground and whined a little.

"That's right, no go lie down." He pointed to the hallway, which Beast did. Garfield followed the sad dog to his bed under the stairs. Garfield smiled to himself, he didn't know why but Beast was funny when he was like this.

"Was it that bad?" Raven asked from the door.

"No, it's just a punishment. He isn't allowed to eat my food, so I just make him lie down for a little." Garfield smiled.

Raven nodded before going back to the TV. Garfield went back to the kitchen to finish the lunch. When he had packed everything he thought he would need he went into the living room, he looked at the clock 12:05, they had a lot of time.

"Hey Raven?" She turned to him as she watched the end credit. "Wanna go out? Like to the park, I made lunch." He smiled and tried not to sound awkward.

"Sure." She smiled and got up.

Garfield smiled wider before going back to the kitchen and got the basket. He walked over to a shelf and picked up a leash.

"Beast, wanna go to the park?" He asked, the dog began to jump around, his tail going back and forth and his tongue sticking out of his mouth. "I'll take that as a yes." Garfield put the leash on Beast's collar.

They walked out onto the street. "The park isn't far away from here, we'll walk." Garfield smiled.

They walked down the street, Garfield had to pick up Beast's poop twice. But they made it to the park safely and without interruption. They walked around the park for a bit before finding an empty table. The table was placed under a huge oak tree near a small pond.

They sat down under the tree and began to eat, they talked a lot. Garfield found out more about Raven's past, that's when he remembered. "Hold on." He took out a notebook. "I'll take some notes so Rorek doesn't think I'm slacking." He smiled.

Raven began to tell about her past to him while he wrote down as much as he could. About an hour later Beast suddenly started to bark and growl at a bush nearby.

"Beast what's wrong?" He asked as he knelt down beside the dog, he looked at the bush. "We know you're there." Garfield called.

A tall black figure moved out of the bush, it simply stood there leaking with shadows. Raven suddenly gasped. She threw her hands at the figure, a mixture of black and white magic shot at the figure. It fell back before fading into the ground.

Raven stood still she looked around for any signs of the figure. She was too late when the figure was behind her and threw it's own magic at her. She fell to the ground and groaned. The shadow suddenly vanished into nothing.

Garfield ran up to Raven, he felt stupid for not helping. That's when he noticed Black shadows were crawling up the side of her face, while the other side of her forehead were bleeding.

Garfield pulled out his phone and called Victor. "VICTOR! I NEED YOUR HELP! Drive home to me as quick as you can." He hung up, being quick he took a picture of the shadowy slime thing on her face. Garfield grabbed the basket and quickly lifted Raven into his arms.

He ran home just in time to see Victor pull up into his driveway. Beast was following close as the dog knew something was wrong with Raven.

"Good you got here dude!" Both males ran inside, Garfield placed Raven on the couch and backed away so Victor could get a closer look.

"I have no idea what this is Man!" Victor yelled. "Other than the shadow, she's in some kind of trance." He said and rubbed his forehead.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door, Garfield went to open it. He thought it would be Terra, but no.

A tall black haired male with four coloured eyes. The person wore a long black cloak with roman-ish male clothing under. "My sister." He said and moved past Garfield, he was about to stop him when he felt a strong breeze push him away. The figure moved into the living room where Victor was pushed away with the same breeze.

The figure moved over to Raven, he looked at her a moment before placing his hand on the smoke. The smoke grew white before vanishing, the figure stood still a minute before going back to the door. "If she asks, I was never here." He said before they heard the door close.

"Who was that?" Victor asked.

"How should I know?"

Raven suddenly groaned and sat up. "W-What happened?" She asked.

"You were hit by something. Here I took a picture." He showed her his phone.

"She was injured and you took a picture?" Victor asked and looked at Garfield with doubt.

"Hey! I had no idea what that was, maybe she knows and maybe she could tell us."

"It's 'Umbra limo'" She said. "It's shadow slime, it paralyzes a magical being such as myself. And since I'm out of training and bad at magic at the moment, I was unable to protect myself in time." She said, she began to rub her head in confusion. "But who took it away? Only a mage or magician can do that."

The boys looked at each other, the person told them not to tell her about him. "It just vanished." Garfield lied.

"Strange, but okay…" She looked at the ground before looking up at them. Suddenly she was overwhelmed by dizziness, she placed her hand on her head.

"Come on, I'll take you to bed." Garfield lifted her arm over his shoulder and helped her up to her room.

When he had settled her down she fell asleep almost immediately. Garfield walked downstairs again walked into the living room where Victor had settled into the couch. When Garfield entered the room he was meet with a sly grin from Victor.

"What?"

"You like her…" Victor smiled.

"Of course, she's a nice person." Garfield said.

Victor frowned. "Not like that! You like-like her." He smiled again.

Garfield went stiff. Did he? Did he like her more than a friend? She was better than Terra that was for sure. But was it wrong? they weren't even born in the same era.

"So what if I do?" Garfield growled and crossed his arms.

"Dude you gotta tell her!" Victor cheered.

"What?! She's like 9000 years old!"

"Age is just a number…" Victor said. "By the way, it's 9017."

"Shut up man!" Garfield sat down on the couch with a frown.

Suddenly Victor's phone went off, sending Beast into a barking mode. "Sorry!" He yelled.

"Hello?"

…

"Yeah, why?"

…

"Ye- NO!" He hung up.

"Who was that?" Garfield asked.

"Rorek, he wanted me to bring Raven to the lab. I already know what he wants to do with her." Victor sat pushed his hands to his face. "We have to keep Raven away from Rorek, you and I both know to him, she's just a lab rat."

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