Kingdom of Ravens

Water. That is all I hear and feel… The sound of the waves as they crash into each other— and into me. I never learned how to swim; I never thought it would be necessary. I should have listened to Mother when she offered. Now that she’s gone and the people of my hometown were after me, there wasn’t anywhere else for me to run. I only escaped because I’ve foreseen my fate if I was to stay in my village any longer— His Majesty wanted me dead. I gasp for air as I desperately clutch onto nothing, seawater getting into my mouth. That island off the coast… I must get to it at all costs, live a new life, away from the King! But the more I struggled in this vast, slick trap, the weaker I grew... Is this what being on the verge of death feels like? Will this be a painful way of passing? For once, I cannot see what will happen… How I wish it didn’t end this way. As my consciousness slowly drifts away, I feel numb. I succumb to the tossing and turning of the tides; it is the end for me. I begin

'Tis harvest season. Father and I had just finished threshing the last bit of wheat into the second bushel basket. He starts scooping the grain with a tin measuring cup as the sun began peeking over the horizon, pouring quarts of it into a small, separate bag— this is what we’re to keep. “Ah, looks like it’s time, Severin,” my father says, removing the coif off his head to wipe the beads of sweat forming on his forehead. “Are ye ready to head into the neighboring village, son?” I peek into the bag he is holding and notice that the amount of grain in it is less than what he poured last time. “That won’t be enough for us,” I state, pointing at the bag. “I don’t see any harm in adding another quart or two, Father.” “Yer mother doesn’t like the grain, son. That’s why two pecks of this grain is what we trade for vegetables; the other bushel is for Lord Davidson.” “She is not my mother, and she will never be. Moreover, we’re already scarce with food, Father! Who would care a hang if tha

“Hells, Sapphire, I’ve told you, for the last time, to stay out of my bloody kitchen, you skelpie-limmer!” I hear the familiar, annoying voice of the woman I’m supposed to call my mother shout from inside the hut. Father just left to trade in another village, and I’ve returned from assisting one of our neighbors harvest their crops. I dash in to see what’s happening and find Sapphire being beaten by our stepmother with a thick piece of wood. Where in blazes did she get that?! Sapphire wails as every swing of the timber comes in contact with her body, causing large, red and swollen marks on her skin. “Stop,” I screech, reaching my hand out to grab my sibling’s arm. “What are you doing?!” “Disciplining your beef-brained sister for constantly getting in my way, if she cannot learn how to cook for the family on her own, she’s best off out of the kitchen or dead!” Before Beatrice’s swing hits Sapphire once again, I rush in between them to wrap my arms around the poor, bruised child, an

“Right…” I mumble, eyeing my concoction in the glass bottle. “Many failed attempts and burning myself with that last one, however…” I pull the cork out of the glass cylinder, placing my folded hood upon my nose to prevent myself from inhaling another possible failure of an experiment. “Vaporo!” I exclaim, remembering to pronounce the spell precisely this time. The liquid in the bottle warms up in my hand and begins releasing haze. I keep my arm outstretched as the air in front of me becomes heavy and unclear, the mist settling around me. As the haze thickens, the liquid decreases— and when the bottle goes empty, the fog stays in the air. “I did it?” I think out loud, inspecting the empty glass in hand. “By the gods, I did it!” “What is with all the noise…?” I hear a voice behind me. Swiveling to find a groggy Sapphire by the door frame, I rush to her and cover her nose with my hood. “Don’t breathe in the fog!” Wide-eyed and possibly wide awake now, my sister replies with a muffle

“Five… Four… Three…” I mumble to myself as I pull on the external part of my ear to position the earring’s hook. I’ve never done this before, but here is to hoping that I am doing this correctly. “Two… O-one…” Shik. “AUGH! Sweet bloody nails of the gods! Sapphire, how in heavens did you do this?!” My ear warms up as it throbs in pain. The hook is now through the chunk of skin, its edge protruding on the other side. I am unsure if I’m bleeding, but with shaking hands, I reach for the other earring, and do the same thing to my other ear. “I wish you were hither so that I don’t have to do this. These are supposed to be on your ears, Saph…” My sister is dead. I shouldn’t have been so reckless; I wasn’t aware of my surroundings, and my excitement got the better of me. I held her lifeless body in my arms all night yesternight, hoping that whatever ability she had used to heal our wounds and bruises would also heal the hole she had through her chest… But it never sealed, and it never b