Chapter 12 – Raven

RHETT

I woke in a daze, my body feeling like it had gone several rounds with Mathias. The sun poured into the room as the big orange ball peeked up over the horizon of the trees. Freely and demanding through the white curtains.

It wasn’t the sun that had me waking from a heavy sleep, but the sound of a bird squawking. A noise that should have been comforting and familiar, but it wasn’t.

Birds had left the sky. Either flown off or had suffered the same demise as the rest of the wilds and fallen prey to the monsters.

The squawk comes again. This time, with resistance from my body, I climbed from bed and made my way to the window drawing open the thin fabric that blocked my view.

There, on a ledge, sitting opposite my window perched the biggest raven I had ever seen. I stared at it confused. My forehead creased as its bright yellow eye blinked at me.

I hadn’t seen a bird in months, years. Yet there sat the enigma of a raven. Its black feathers glistened under the early morning sun's