The Raven and The Flower

I haven't been able to be on the computer for few days. And yesterday I begun writing a short-story which isn't so short as my previous ones. And it's in English so it has taken more time to write it. It's soon almost six pages so I'll put only the first three pages here today also because it's not finished.
I'm sorry for the grammar mistakes.

Enjoy!!

The Raven and The Flower

“I know I am shorter than you but that doesn't give you the right to hit me”, I said to the eleven guys around me. Every single one of them was taller than me and I'm actually not really short. “Do you always go around hitting short people? That's rude.”

“We didn't hit you because you are short”, the man beside me said, “but because you shouldn't be here at all.”

“And you look weak”, someone other added.

I smiled briefly to the one who had said I look weak.

“The thing is”, said the man – obviously their leader – in front of me, “you are in our territory. Our boss doesn't like people coming and going however they will from our borders. It's okay so long as they have our permission. But you, young lady”, he said leaning above me, “you don't have anyone's permission, do you?”

I remained silent and continued staring into his brown eyes.

He sighed. “Very well, if you won't say anything you don't leave many options to us. Boys, what shall we do to her?” he looked around him and the rest of the men grinned. The boss turned to me and grinned, evil look in his eyes.

“Beat her, boys!”

I had enough time to take my weapons. As I fought them I thought that they could be drunk because they had failed to do a body check to me. I would've done that if anyone as suspicious as myself had come into our territory she or he wouldn't have been armed a second after meeting me.

I sighed in my mind as one of them ripped my left sleeve off. He didn't have time to see the tattoo on my shoulder because I shoot him in the head. The only one who saw it was only one who was alive.

“You”, he said breathlessly. I said nothing as he went down on his knees. “Please don't kill me, I did only how I was told”, he begged.

“We all do”, I told him as I shoot him in the head. The alley was quiet. I had nothing to do there anymore. My job was done.

“The Viper won't be messing with us for some time”, I muttered as I turned myself into a raven and flew away.

“Did your mission go well?” Crow asked as the manor's door closed behind me. He had been on a similar mission in the territory of the Squid. I shrugged. “I got all the information Heron wants but I had to kill eleven people”, I told him. “They were sent to beat me – I don't know what's the point in beating people when it would be more profitable to kill them – and I couldn't get away from them without revealing my business there or killing them.”

Crow nodded shortly. “So your mission went better than mine. I almost got killed by his right hand before I could get all the information I needed. Luckily for me, that bastard missed by little so I only got a bullet through my ear”, he explained pointing the bandage around his head.

“Oh, I'm sorry to hear that”, I said, touching the bandage where it was bloodied. He shook his head. “It's nothing, I've got worse injuries before.”

Then we reached the Heron's room. “You first”, I said to Crow who shook his head. “No, you first”, he said. “I insist”, I told him. “You arrived here first so it's you first.”

Crow bowed his head to me and knocked on the door. After a while we heard Heron's voice say “come in”. I tried to give Crow an encouraging smile but Crow didn't look like I had succeeded.

It was thirteen months since I had gone investigating in Viper's territory when the Clan war XXV started. It was a horrible time. We couldn't trust anybody we didn't know for sure to be on our side. Everyone on the streets was our enemy. We couldn't leave the manor in daylight and in the night we had to be extra sure nobody's gun wasn't on us especially when we were in our bird forms. People died everyday on every side. It was actually a strange kind of war because nobody had allies and that made a long list of enemies. Every Clan fought against every other Clan. Nobody who belonged in a Clan was safe anywhere in any time of the day. It was a very stressing time. I remember that almost every person I talked to appeared to be very strained. I didn't go outside my rooms very often during the Clan war. I just looked out from the window. I refused to talk to anybody else but Crow, Jackdaw and Rook, who were my foster siblings. I didn't talk much to them, either but it was just usual me.

Many of my Clan died before the war ended. Crow was one of them. He died seven months after the war had started. It wasn't until then the Clan war XXV ended.

“Where are we going to bury him?” Jackdaw asked me when we sat in the morgue few days after Crow's death. When I remained silent he went to ask Rook the same question. Rook muttered something I thought was: “Crow would've known.” All three of us were shocked because of Crow's death. Jackdaw was overly happy and went around arranging the funeral. Me and Rook, on the other hand, were silent and stared at nothing most of the time we were awake.

I remember that when our foster parents were still alive and father died, the both girls had been the same as our mother. All the three of us just sat and stared at nothing while Crow and Jackdaw were happily arranging the funeral.

Crow's funeral wasn't as grand as some other's who had died in the war. There were only the three of us in the cemetery. It was a sunny day, such as Crow had said he wanted his funeral day to be. His grave was next to our foster parent's grave. When the body had been covered in soil and the grave was full the gravedigger left us alone. I started to sing when I knew he couldn't hear us. Rook joined me and Jackdaw in his time. It was an old song of our original Clan, the song made to the founder of our Clan. Her name had also been Crow so we had thought that Crow would've liked it. At the end of the song, we all had started to cry. I was the eldest now so I took the younger ones and hugged them.

“He won't come back anymore, will he?” Rook asked quietly. I shook my head. “No, he won't”, I said sadly. “He's gone forever and we won't see him until we, too, die.” All the three of us fell silent.

The wind started to blow and it dried the tears in our faces. I lifted my gaze from the ground – and that's when I first saw her. Also dressed in black, she looked so beautiful the tears came in my eyes again. I didn't know her then, because she didn't belong in any Clan. Jackdaw and Rook noticed my staring though she didn't. When I couldn't see her anymore and turned my gaze away they were grinning to me.

“What?” I asked them. “Nothing”, Jackdaw said, and I didn't trust at all in what he said, partly because he glimpsed at Rook and they both started to giggle.

“What's so funny?” I asked, smile creeping to my face. They only laughed harder and I felt really embarrassed.

Both me and Jackdaw got pretty fast over Crow's death. Rook, however, didn't seem to be getting over it even half a year later. Rook was very distant and cold. She refused to answer to anybody else but me. Jackdaw begun to avoid her company and I was the only one in the whole world who could see her every day, partly because I was the only one she let into her room at all. Rook wouldn't talk so I remained silent, too. I watched her eat and when she had finished I would play something sad to her with the piano that was in her room. First I had tried to play something cheerful but it had made Rook cry. She said it reminded her of Crow.

About eight months after Crow's death Rook tried to do a suicide. I think that was the thing that shook the whole Clan awake from the dream that everything was all right now because we weren't at war. Rook was taken to the hospital because she had lost much blood. Jackdaw seemed to blame himself for Rook's condition. I was afraid that he would try to do the same as Rook so I talked to him.

“Jackdaw”, I started. He turned his gaze towards me. “What?” he asked. “You aren't going to kill yourself”, I said. Jackdaw looked a bit surprised but I continued. “Rook is going to survive and if she gets home and you're dead... Let's say that then I'm the only one left.”

Jackdaw smiled and stood up. “Don't worry about that”, he said as he embraced me. “I'm not going to do a suicide because Rook tried it. I think that one suicidal per family is quite enough.” I wonder why did I start to cry, but it could have been because I was so relieved. I couldn't stop crying for a long time. We stood there, Jackdaw and I, embracing and he was stroking my hair. I think he was a little puzzled about comforting me because it had always been me who comforted him.

Soon after Rook was taken to the hospital I learned that she wasn't the only one suicidal in our Clan or in any of the Clans, I believe. There were some people among our Clan who tried to do a suicide and two of them succeeded. I think I wasn't the only one who thought that maybe the Clan war XXV was the last one.

During the next year everything went bad. Every Clan seemed to be begin coming apart and ceasing to exist. It took two years all the Clans had ceased to exist. Ours wasn't the biggest but it was last to go. Magpie, the leader of our Clan said that we had to do it because if we had been the only Clan left, the next few years we all would be assassinated and that's not what we hoped for. Our clan didn't come apart but we abandoned the name “Crow Clan”. We all had to get family names. First we were told that we had to get “real first names, too”, but we protested. Our first names were the proof that we belonged in the same family. And we had never had other names so we didn't want to change them.

All those who had belonged in the Clan couldn't live in the manor anymore but we three could stay because our mother had been Magpie's niece.

After the Breaking of the Clans we didn't know what we should have done. We had been trained to be warriors, assassins and investigators. Jackdaw and Rook, too, although they had been only twelve when the Clan war XXV had started. Magpie had to put them in a high school. I think they didn't fit there. They had uniforms that looked silly. Neither of them liked those and they rebelled against the rules all the time. We had had a home teacher when we lived in the Clan. Jackdaw told me that everybody either feared or admired them. He couldn't seem to decide which was worse. Rook told me that even the teachers feared them. She said that they weren't punished if they broke the rules. I know that they had to do cleaning or loads of extra homework but Jackdaw and Rook didn't think that as a punishment since they had been living so hard life before.

I, on the other hand, had nothing to do since I had already completed all my studies. I couldn't go to the university because I had thought that I would be a member of the Crow Clan my whole life like my parents before me. I think I went slightly mad because I had nothing to do. I did household chores the whole day until Jackdaw and Rook had returned from school. I knew I couldn't live like that when I was in the manor. I tried asking Magpie if I could move away but he wouldn't meet me.

 I started walking around the city streets in the nights. In the city there is many streets people avoid. I walked particularly those streets. Of course, those streets have their kings and queens. They fight with another gangs. And since I was a stranger, everybody attacked me. They didn't want to stop trying to best me, even when I had beaten them numerous times. I rarely got bruises because of my training. Then, one night, months after I had started going into the city in the night, they all came at me once. Every single one I had fought and defeated and more. They hated me very much because I came there only to fight. They could have killed me if somebody hadn't come to stop them. I was unconscious, but Jackdaw and Rook, who had come to carry me home told me that it was one girl, about my age. Rook said she had had long, red hair. Jackdaw told me she had come to the manor and told them that I could die if they wouldn't come. I didn't know how she knew my name or how she chased the “street warriors” away but I knew that I owed her my life.