The devil on my shoulder

Ch2

In a moment of false confidence, I just stood up and began to walk. The moment I stood up, however, I wasn't entirely as confident anymore. But in the spirit of; 'I've already begun' and 'gotta see this through', my feet moved towards the place the raven had shown me.

I'm not entirely sure whether the raven had picked up on my hesitation or not. The thing is though, it didn't seem to bother the raven. It just did its little weight-shifting dance once more and pointed towards the place it wanted me to go.

The further away I got from the church, the further my tension loosened. The raven steered me through a crowd of people wanting to buy some cheese on the market, towards an alley behind one of the warehouses lining the square. It was one of those dark alleys the nuns of my orphanage always warned me to not enter. Of course that meant the raven would want me to enter it.

After shaking thoughts away of getting murdered and robbed, I actually did shuffle inside the alley. It wasn't even that narrow of an alley, the height of the buildings lining the alley just made it so that the sun couldn't reach the ground.

Halfway through the alley I could see a shadow moving towards us. The shadow seemed to have sparkles in their hair. Upon further inspection, they also seemed to have sparkles on their hands and part of their clothing.

"This is Moniam," the raven spoke. "He is part of the smithing guild." Turning towards me he said to the boy whose name apparently was Moniam: "This is Fiona, the one I have told you about."

I quickly interjected. "Call me Fi please."

The raven and boy both did the same slow nod, acknowledging my request. I couldn't help but notice that the raven had not once introduced itself.

The boy - man? He seemed older than me - looked like he already knew the raven. He was a handsome figure to look at, now that he was close enough that I could see more than his outline against the shadows. He had an afro full of metal cuttings that glimmered, even with the lack of light. His posture was that of someone that had been a smith for years on end. His eyes on the other hand, looked young and sparkled with youthful impertinence.

"Good to see you too, Raven," Moniam said. "I was almost scared you wouldn't be able to convince her."

The raven, who's name apparently was also Raven, looked with a stern look back at Moniam. They had a small moment together, then a small nod. There had been an understanding I was not - yet - part of.

"We must hurry now," cawed Raven. "The chances of them," pointing towards the church which was now spilling out with nuns that had a 'not so nice' look on their face, "getting their hands on us, is getting bigger every second we stay here.". And he seemed right.

There was a certain urgency on the faces of the nuns, they must be looking for me, because I was found in the midst of a scandal. Maybe they are searching for me because they want me silenced. Maybe the friar made sure they would silence me. Maybe the choice to run away so suddenly without preparation was the stupidest mistake I had ever made. Maybe I should just go back and..

"Well, Fi, let's go then." said Moniam.

A silence fell between us. I had not yet decided to go through with whatever they obviously were planning. However, Moniam had succeeded in interrupting my thoughts; my circle of doom. The silence on the other hand stretched a little longer than neither Moniam nor Raven felt comfortable with.

I had to make a decision. I had to make a decision.

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to make an important life-changing decision, and the only thing going through your head was; 'I have to make a decision?'. It's nauseating to say the least.

Somewhere from within one of my otherwise lost memories, there was a memory of a nun saying to me; 'Feel your feelings. Feel your heart pumping, feel your fingertips buzzing, feel your toes wiggling. And then, make your decision.' Because I lacked something else to go on, I decided to do just that.

"Oke," I muttered under my breath. "I will go with you." Then somewhat louder; "But I need to take a breather in a little while and I need you two to explain exactly what is going on."

That seemed to suffice.