Free Raven by Shelly Pratt Page B

asking him, he would probably die of embarrassment if she’d brought it up. She put her mug back down on the tray and he did the same.
     
    “Can I ask you something?” she said.
     
    “Yes,” he said.
     
    “Why a raven? What was it about this animal that made my grandmother choose this as an alternate vessel for their souls?” she asked.
     
    “I think it’s important to remember that your grandmother’s spell didn’t eventuate the way she had intended, but with that in mind, the raven was very much a symbolism of the words spoken as she uttered her spell of witchcraft to the damned. The words spoke of evil flying away, so the world could be rid of their souls. In uttering these words, the spell found a way of working its magic to suit the nature of the beast whilst still adapting a literal context to the words. Hence a raven was born. A creature that could fly, black as night – a symbolism of their dark nature and most importantly, the correlation between the bird and its depiction throughout our cultural history,” he said.
     
    “You mean the negativity that surrounds the bird?” she asked.
     
    “Yes of course. Throughout history people have always thought of ravens as the bearers of ill omen and death, in part because of the negative symbolism that their all back plumage brings. Throughout Europe they have been known to represent the ghosts of murdered people or souls of the damned. Your grandmother’s spell was actually an adaptation in itself, and the flaw of the spell itself was that everything these people were in their human forms translated to an animal known throughout our cultural history to possess the same traits. I’m not saying the raven actually has these traits – it is just the way the spell was interpreted as the curse set in. Culturally a raven had been known to perform great malicious acts and lead people astray, which of course draws a very significant parallel between the two. The flaw was that the spell also represented another cultural depiction, which was that the raven possesses super human strength and powers. I guess in hindsight it would seem like a poor choice of animal with the already dark negativity that surrounded such a bird.”
     
    “She was too weak, my grandmother I mean, to carry out the spell,” she said to herself, “that’s why there were so many flaws with it”.
     
    He nodded now, like he already understood the predicament of the whole mess and why it was flawed. Aiyana realised now with the pitch black sky outside that more time must have passed than she thought and didn’t realise that they had been talking for quite so long. She sensed he was done talking for the time being, but didn’t want him to leave just yet. He too seemed to linger, making no move whatsoever to leave her.
     
    “Can I show you something?” he asked, taking her hand as he did so. She gathered the question was offered purely out of courtesy, although he had to have known that she would have said yes anyway.
     
    She let him pull her up off the settee and walked with her hand in his to the glass doors that opened up on to the balcony.
     
    They went outside, and even though she followed obediently, they both were remiss to let go of each other’s hand. He stopped and closed his eyes – inhaling the night air deeply as he did so – drinking in all the scents that blew across the wind towards him. His ears also strained to absorb the sounds around him and he seemed satisfied that all was well within their proximity for the time being.
     
    He opened his eyes now and looked at her with such a look of wanting that she was sure her heart missed a beat. He pulled her long dark tresses out of the tie that had secured her hair off her face and he shook it loosely down her back. He stroked down her back and pulled her closer to him. That smell about him, so woody and earthy, it made her almost lose her senses as she tried to figure out what he was going to do next. He bent his head