No POV

They stayed on the move the whole day, only stopping for bathroom breaks, short rests and to eat, most of the time they had to stop for Stevie Rae. She was starting to get really restless on the back of the horse. She groaned in boredom and stared up at the sky. If the person in front of her wasn't the person in front of her she would have fallen asleep, her head resting on his strong shoulders. She shuddered and shook the thought from her head. She yawned and started to randomly do breathing exercises but that quickly got boring too. She decided that since she was on a horse she would try ridding sidesaddle, couldn't be that hard. She carefully moved her right leg to the left and situated her butt on the round hump of the horse's rump. She couldn't quite get situated. She took out her tongue in concentration. Rephiam then cleared his throat loudly and she looked up at him. He looked back at her with death in his eyes. She giggled nervously and threw her leg back over to the other side. "Sorry." She muttered a big embarrassed grin on her face. He scoffed softly and turned his head away. She half sighed half groaned. Now she's bored again. She looked at the others who were ignoring her. Obviously they saw what she was trying to do since most of them had smiles on their faces. She blushed slightly. She wanted to yell out that she was bored but what good would that do? She pulled her bag into her lap and started digging in it. Her spare clothes, an empty canteen (she filled it up the last time they crossed a river but she drank it all), some crackers and that was about it. She snorted and Shadow's Wing snorted back at her. She giggled and patted the horse's rump. "Are you bored too?" Another snort. She chuckled and pushed her bag onto her back. She sighed. What about riding backwards? She thought. She smiled and looked at the back of Rephiam's head. If she was going to do it, how was she going to do it? She thought about it for a moment and then she got it. She placed her hand on the horse and took her right leg and as she picked up her left leg she turned herself. Once again her tongue escaped her mouth in concentration. She was just about to be fully turned when the worse happened.

"What are you doing?"

"Eep!" She fell off the horse and landed on the ground with a thud. "Ow…" She sat on her butt and looked up at Rephiam who gave her an annoyed look. He expects me to answer. She thought numbly. She noticed the others were around her, looking at her, waiting for her to speak. "I was uh…" She laughed once. "Tryin' to ride backwards."

"Why would you try that?"

"'Cause I never rode backwards?" She chuckled. "Was never allowed."

Reid laughed once and he covered his mouth and continued laughing. Rephiam gave him a glare and she started snickering. He removed his hand. "She's so freakin' entertaining. First she tried riddin' sidesaddle then—"He erupted in laughter and through his laughter you could hear him trying to apologize.

Rephiam sighed and he shook his head. He looked down at Stevie Rae who by now was standing and glaring at Reid, who was still laughing. "Are you done now?"

She looked at him. "Hm? What? Oh. Yeah sure. I was just bored."

"Hm. Good." He was about to bring her back up on his horse when Hothlepoya stopped him.

"Chief, look at that."

Rephiam turned his attention towards what Hothlepoya pointed out. Out in the distance was a person running towards them and waving, a raven flying before him. Then shouting came out and Rephiam could only think of one thing. "Hey! Hey Black Ravens! Wait! I wanna be a Raven! Wait! Don't go!"

"I vote we leave." Amaro stated. "We do not need another distraction."

Stevie Rae scoffed. "You can't just leave him here, whoever he is."

"A son of either Kalona or one of us no doubt." Hotah stated.

A small kid, not even yet a teenager, stopped before them, panting heavily. He has the same thick, black hair as the others and obviously Native American. He wore brown hide pants and shirt with a vest over the shirt. His moccasin covered his feet and on his back was a book bag probably filled with all his things from home and tied to the outside were some survival tools. A raven landed on his shoulder and cawed loudly. "Thank… Thank the Spirits. I found you guys." He smiled up at them. He straightened from his bent over position. "I have been looking for you guys for months now. I've been following rumors and stuff."

Rephiam got off his horse and walked towards the kid. "How can you be so sure that you are a Black Raven?"

The kid sighed softly. "Well, my mother, Talise, said that she was raped by a Black Raven and that once I was born, Zeina here, came down to me and became my raven."

Rephiam looked at the bird. Any women can claim she was raped by a Raven, but if they were, only their sons can get a raven at birth. "Let me see her."

"Oh yeah. Sure." He looked at his raven and nudged his head over to Rephiam. The bird followed immediately and landed on Rephiam's hand.

Rephiam inspected the bird. He raised his other hand to the bird and clicked his tongue. The bird hopped from one hand to the other. "Hm. Follows directions well." He extended his hand towards the boy and the raven hopped back onto the boy's shoulder. "Fine. If you really are a Black Raven and you found us the first time, you should be able to find us again in The Valley."

Amaro groaned. "Why is it we keep on getting distracted?"

"Shush Amaro."

"The Valley?" The kid asked.

"The Valley." Rephiam confirmed. He got on his horse and yanked Stevie Rae up behind him.

"How am I supposed to get there?"

"You figure it out. Hah!" The Black Ravens ran off on their horses, their path changed due south. The others all laughed at the kid who was shouting out for them, all except Chogan, Rephiam and Stevie Rae.

"That was mean. You should go back and help him."

"No can do." Reid replied. "We all had to prove that we wanted to get into the Black Ravens, we had to prove ourselves."

"This initiation has been the same ever since the original three." Hotah added.

"Even Rephiam and Amaro, the first sons of Kalona, our original leader, had to do it." Finished Hothlepoya.

Stevie Rae shook her head. "It's not right. He could die out here, all alone."

"If he said that he survived out here for months while he looked for us, he can defiantly last a three day journey." Rephiam said.

"For us?"

"For him." Rephiam answered. "We will be at The Valley in less than a day's ride."

Next chapter you find out what The Valley really is and some more on the nameless kid here… If he survives, mwu-hahaha. Please review. (: