"This is about the Journal, isn't it?" Charlie asked, still following the girl against right judgement.
"Yes. You searched it," she began, "for someone close to you, am I right?" Charlie nodded, unsure of where she was going with this."Alright, and you found a note, very strange, not very informative and a bit secretive? Don't answer that. The answer is all over those huge eyes of yours. Of course you did."
Tears were welling up in Charlie's eyes. Who was she to bring up the heartbreaking search for my fathers page. "Hey, kid, don't cry. It's going to end up ok. I can't exactly tell you why or how yet, but it will. Just wait it out, ok?"
"OK." He murmured, not wanting a girl to see him bawling like a little child. "So, who are you and where are we going?"
The girl smirked before responding. "The name on my birth certificate is Samantha. But we all can change our names if we want so now I'm Ivory. And who are you, kid?"
Now it was Charlie's turn to smirk." Well the name on my birth certificate is Charlie. But now I'm some guy who hasn't made up his mind about what his name should be. Sgwhmuhmawhnsb, for short." He said, sounding out every letter of the abbreviation as if it was really a word. Ivory laughed, and to Charlie even her laugh was dangerous, cutting, but still beautiful. Charlie even smiled himself, and he hadn't felt real happiness since he was twelve. Maybe I am like her, Charlie concluded.
"Oh! The answer to your other question is we are going right into the middle of this forest." She said, waving her arms around her, motioning to the trees surrounding the back of the cemetery. They walked in silence for a few seconds, until Charlie realized something. He was walking normally, but he made the loudest crunch on the dead leaves. Ivory made no noise at all.
"How are you doing that?" he asked her.
"Doing what?"She said, scrunching her eyebrows together slightly.
"Not making any noise on the leaves! It's practically impossible!" Charlie exclaimed. Ivory burst out laughing, much to Charlie's dissatisfaction.
"You are not going to believe any of what's about to happen to you. It's all crazy stuff, so pinch yourself now, 'cause you're not dreaming." She said, as she walked out of the forest into a small clearing containing only a huge weeping willow. The tree was magnificent in its own horrific way. The tree cast a shadow down onto the grass, and the grass within it appeared to be dead. As the sun moved and so did the shadow, the grass that came out of it appeared to be back to normal, and even fuller of life than before. But that wasn't the only element to the tragic beauty. Hundreds of night black ravens were perched among the branches. Charlie glanced over at Ivory to find her smiling at him, knowing how he was breathing the beauty of the awesome sight. As the pair reached the tree, all the ravens jerked from their branches and glided into the forest, only two of them remained on their perch. Ivory whistled, and on of them flew over to her. The other stayed on its branch, eyeing Charlie.
"Charlie, meet Jet, my raven." Ivory said to him, stroking the bird on its feathered back. The bird, Jet, squawked his greeting at Charlie then turned his attention back to Ivory. Charlie had already fixed his gaze upon the other raven, who was still watching him. Charlie wasn't sure why it was still there; all the others had flown away. As he caught the stare of the bird, only one word came to his mind. Jade. And as he thought that, he lost his vision, and total blindness enveloped him. He started blinking endlessly trying to bring back vision.
Just keep your eyes closed for a moment.
A voice whispered in his ear. Charlie was sure no on else was here besides him and Ivory, but he took the advice. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, and when he opened them, his breath caught in his chest. He was in the tree, watching himself lie on the ground, while Ivory fussed over him. Where am I? Am I dead? Charlie wondered.
No no silly. I just met you, I wouldn't let you die. I have waited thousands of years for this, for you. I'm Jade, your raven.
My raven? Charlie thought. The raven that was in the tree was in fact whose eyes Charlie was seeing out of.
I'm here to be your partner. If you ever want to see out of my eyes, just think my name hard enough. You won't pass out every time. Only this first one. I think I should kick you out of here, because Ivory seems worried. Most people don't stay like that for so long.
Charlie felt as though he was being pulled from the chest away from the raven, and soon his vision went black again. When he woke up, he was surrounded by faces.
"Ivory! He's up!" a voice shouted from above Charlie. Ivory raced over and stood next to the boy who had called her over.
"Oh good you're up!" she said, as Charlie pulled himself out of bed. As he stood up, a handful of kids surrounded him. "Charlie, this is Rose, "she said pointing at a red haired girl who looked about twelve, "and Olive," a dark brown haired seventeen year old, "and Ever." She finished with the black haired girl who looked about sixteen. Then a tall, dark haired guy started to speak, "And I'm Skylar. This is Shawn. And you are…?" he finished, questioning Charlie.
"I'm," Charlie began, deciding on a name for himself. He'd never liked "Charlie" much. "well… I'm not really sure. I haven't decided yet." As Charlie finished, one girl, Rose, walked up to him and grabbed his shoulders.
"This," she began," is Paris."
"Like… from Troy?" Charlie asked. Rose shook, and her eyes had changed colors. When she had spoken to him, they were grey, but now they are a dark blue.
"I'm sorry. I don't know what I said. How bad was it?" she asked.
"Rose gets little snips of info from our Leader. I guess he wants you to be called Paris, like the Greek prince. Interesting. Do you like it?" Ivory explained.
"Yea. It's pretty cool." Charlie replied. But he wasn't focused on the conversation. He knew a lot about Paris. He also knew about how it had been prophesied that he would be the cause of Troy's downfall. And in the end, he was.