The Whisper of the Nightingale

Chapter 13: Moving Forward

Within the cave, Raven and her brother had been talking about their past four years together, for hours. Sometimes they grew sad as they thought about the people they'd lost, but sometimes they would laugh as they retold their experiences of an event from their different perspectives. At the moment, they were talking about exactly such an event.

"So your little game of tag was all an act? You knew all along what I was doing wrong!" Hoatzin acused.

"Hehe, well not exactly, but I did think I could help Brother make some advancements." Raven was smiling.

"I was so annoyed with you at first..." Hoatzin sighed; "Really Sister, you are too calculating!"

Both of them laughed.

"Speaking of calculating, what do you intend to do now?" Hoatzin asked.

He had already come to terms with his sister's vast experience; even if Raven would always be his little sister in his heart, he naturally let her make their future plans. Besides, it was not like he could do anything about what she decided anyway - he was after all stuck in the ring - that they by now had named 'Life Link'.

Raven, that had been absentmindedly re-braiding her hair, only pondered over the question for a second.

"Well, the Talon's must be taken care of, and as the first step will be for me to enroll at Sky Academy,"

"Great! There you can grow stronger at a fast pace, take care of Dunlin and learn the identity of the mystery elder. It's good to not be too impatient." Hoatzin's response was quick; he naturally also knew that Raven, as she was now, was likely no match for their enemies. She had to grow stronger.

"...as a man." She finished.

"Of course you will... wait, what what did you say!?"

"I will be enrolling as a man, or well, as a boy." Raven repeated calmly.

"But why?"

"Think about it; while it is true that most people haven't seen my face due to always being veiled in public, if a female were to enter the Sky Academy's martial division, with a cultivation like mine, it would cause too big of an uproar. Even if I can use the Fox's Veil to alter my aura, it doesn't actually change how I look. Sooner or later someone would recognize me."

"But you would be capable of disguising yourself as a boy!? Have you seen yourself lately - you are as far from a boy as a four-year-old toddler could possibly be, and it will only get worse as you grow older!"

Raven laughed. What her brother pointed out was indeed true, but even in her old world Raven had been forced to hide her sex many times. Raven knew that there was a lot more to "being male" than the physical features of her body. It was rather a question of mannerisms: body languagee, how one chooses to speak, how one chooses to act and a lot more. Of course, once Raven entered full puberty, her body would complicate things, but firstly, that was at least six years in the future, and secondly, even if the Fox's Veil couldn't actually change her appearance, it could alter what people payed attention to.

This combined with her previous experiences made her fairly confident in her abilities to remain as a boy for the ten years she would attend the Academy. Not that she had any intentions of waiting ten years before extracting her revenge - once that was done she would have no issues reveling her identity.

Instead of explaining all this to her brother, she figured it would be more efficient to show him. She shifted her sitting position ever so slightly; relaxing some muscles, while tensing others. Her facial expression changed, enhancing her more masculine features.