Mirdovia: The White Raven

Chapter 1: The Dreams

Aasrena stands on the deck of a ship. Standing alone with dead bodies lying all around her. She runs up to the mast to overlook the waters and notices nothing but a sea of black feathers. No water, no tides, no land.

Aasrena quickly turns around panicking. Her heart racing as she doesn't recall what happened. Did she do this? She questions herself as she looks between the bodies. Then she spots it. A circle of white feathers. She looks at it confused as that cold voice enters her thoughts again. "It's time, my child."

The sky turned dark above her with darker clouds rolling in. The rain begins to fall rapidly and drench Aasrena in seconds. The waves grow bigger and the ship rises and lowers with the waves. The storm bean to unsettle Aasrena further. The blue lightning zips around the clouds. She looks up to the lightning zipping around and she fails to move.

"Az!" A women's voice calls out. Aasrena looks down to see her friend Moria standing on the deck. The dead bodies vanished as the water flooded the top deck of the ship and poured down the grates into the lower decks. "Az." Moira pleads this time. "Help me."

Aasrena stands frozen in the rain unable to move. She tries to reach a hand out to grab a hold of her friend and a bolt of lightning from the clouds above strikes downwards. The bolt surges through Moira's back and travels down her body through her legs and exits the bottom of her feet.

Moira collapses onto the top deck with her eyes smoking. Aasrena drops to her knees as everything goes dark except for the numbing pain losing another person close to her. The cold voice returns in the darkness. "Pledge yourself, my child, and you'll have the power to prevent your own suffering."

Aasrena floats there in the darkness. Unable to see anything nor touch. Her own body hidden from her sight. All she could do was hear the buzzing of her own mind, her thoughts, and the voice of the women, The Raven Queen. "I pledge myself." Aasrena whispers into the dark void. A cold air rushes over as the sound of hundred flapping wings fills the air. One by one a row of red eyes circled all around her in the darkness.

Then, a single white feather floats down in front of her and the red eyes fade. The flapping wings stop and the cold breeze settles to a halt. Aasrena reaches out to grab the feather and everything fades away once more.

Aasrena wakes up in her bed in a shock. Her copper brown eyes shifting around her room in a rush to confirm her safety. Her beating heart began to slow as she takes a deep breath to relax. Pulling her jet black hair out of her face.

She sits there motionless recounting the events of her dream. The words echoed back to her over and over again. She pledged herself, it was time.

Aasrena gets out of bed and adjusts her black and white robes. Making her way across her home to a backroom where lies a shrine to The Raven Queen. Feathers lie together in a pile with a porcelain mask laying against a stone. Aasrena lights the surrounding candles and kneels with her hands in her lap. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before muttering her prayer.

Life drags on however, Aasrena gets into her leather garments that reeked of fish and covered in blood stains. Pull on her rubber boots with a heavy sigh. "I never want to see a fish again."

She makes her way to the docks for work. Seagulls fly overhead in their large flock. Zipping around under the overcast. Two large ships slowly approach the docks. One of them hoists a black flag with a white turtle shell. The other flag was red with a golden trident pointing upwards.

"Rime!" A man calls out from a wooden shack. A muscular man with a blood stained apron and leather gloves gripped a large butcher's knife in his hands. He itches his chin through his long black beard. Aasrena turns to see her boss. "Yer in charge of Jackson's haul." He says and wipes his butchers knife blood off on his already stained apron. "I'll have Moira acquire Balyn's."

Aasrena gives a thumbs up and heads towards Jackson's ship. The one with the turtle flag. She waits with her arms around her back and her mind flashes back to the dream. The bodies, Moira, the storm. As she recalls the lightning strike hitting Moira the boarding ramp falls onto the pier and snaps Aasrena from her trance.

"Morning, Rime." Jackson gives a warm smile as he greets her from the ship. Unlike herself and her boss, Jackson is a Triton. A humanoid fish species with a blue green skin tone. They have fins on the back of their calfs and usually have green hair like Jackson. He steps down the ramp and takes off his hat. Aarena bows to him with a smile. "Good to see you again, Jack." She says as she straightens herself back up.

Jackson pats her back and stands beside her. "Likewise, old friend. We got ten barrels of salmon aboard. You should have no trouble with it, right?" He gives her a curious look and Aasrena laughs. "Only salmon?" She asks. "Couldn't find the lobsters this time around?"

Jackson shakes his head and gives a light shove to Aasrena. "That was cold. I lose one haul to a storm." He jokes to himself and Aasrena laughs with him. Jackson settles himself down and pulls out a pouch from his coat and slips it into her pockets. "Don't tell the old man." He says with a wink. Aasrena whispers "thank you" and heads up the ramp to grab the barrels.

The smell of fish hit her faster than she imagined as she stepped aboard the top deck. Quickly plugging her nose. The crew makes their way by and off the ship behind her.

Aasrena looks across the docks to see Moira waiting for Balyn's ship to dock and the dream comes back to her. The smoke exiting her eyes. Aasrena shakes her mind clear and grabs the first of the barrels.

A couple hours go by and Aasrena carries the last of the barrels into the shack and looks to her boss gutting the salmon already. "Anything else, Radly?" She asks and shifts her hands in front of her.

Radly keeps gutting the salmon and doesn't turn around. He lets out a muffled sound as he thinks. He buries the knife into the cutting board and turns around stroking his beard. His blue eyes gazing further than the walls of the shack. "Moira looks about done. No other ships in the distance." He looks to Aasrena and shrugs. "Stay close by, i'll ring the bell if you are needed."

Aasrena nods. "Yes, sir." She leaves the shack and heads back towards her home. She gets to her front door when she gets a chill down her spine. Quickly she turns to the nearest tree to see a Raven eyeing her intently. The cold voice entered her mind.

"It's time."

Aasrena's eyes turn to black and she collapses outside her front door. Her vision returns with her in a darker place. Everything looked exactly the same, but she couldn't find the sun through the grey sky.

The tree with the raven was now dead and nothing more than just branches. Aasrena turns around to see all the trees were dead.

Aasrena opens the door to her home and she finds a tall women standing behind the table across the small room. A porcelain mask hiding her face and a large black cloak wrapped around her entire body. She wore black feathers around the hood of the cloak.

Aasrena kneels in the doorway without a second thought. "Your presence honors me, my queen." The women extends her long arm outwards and a magical hold grabs onto Aasrena. She's pulled up to her feet and the women lowers her arm back to her side.

Your service is now required