Venturing: Friend like Crow

“This is the place.” I heard Zander remarked while silence fell after him. He gaze at the other dragons gathered with him and frowned, tucked his wings in and said nothing while listening to Yang who responded after him, “Alright. So Raven where is your home again?” She gaze around the area we were in. But could not find him at all. Yang was surprise. Frowning, she turned her attention to the clutter of trees staring back upon us and silence loomed over us again. We had just arrived onto the forest. It was morning; the sun was just about to rise from the horizon. Clouds floated about like cotton candy. Although they were lighter of gray than what we were used to however. As Zander stared at the clouds, we looked for the raven. Wondering where he had went.

Silence had loomed over us seconds after Yang had started speaking. We were all worried. After not finding the raven for a while, Yang had started stepping forward. She gasped when she stepped upon something. Everyone turned to her in response, wondering what she had stepped on. She lowered her eyes and stared at the ground. Grabbing a white thread of paper from the heel of her foot before raising it towards her eyes. “Gross…” I heard Kyro mocked, Zander adjacent to him laughing to himself. “Guess we found a note.” “Looks like its more like a hint or a clue.” I started, walking up to her and turning the paper over. It revealed a sentence towards our dragoness as she looked over the words. She looked surprise by it. But kept her composure while looking up from them and stared onto mine then the others. “Ling is right, it is a clue.” She handed it to me. “Think you know what it says?” “Nope.” I remarked lightly while being hit with the paper which was shove onto my chest. She growled in response. I whimpered after her and complied before lowering my eyes, staring at the paper.

“It says, ‘Break the tranquility and see through my eyes.’”

“What does that mean?” Zander questioned me, crossing his arms staring at me with narrowed eyes. “It meant, ‘look through the raven’s vision’, Zander.” Yang interrupted me before I could common to Zander. Although I pouted, I huffed and said nothing. A small smile drifted from my face while looking over to the dragoness who nodded towards me, a smile responded to mine as silence fell over us. Though it was broken by a gust of wind and Kyro’s shuffle of wings, Yang and I decided on the obvious. “Alright,” Yang’s words cut through the silence again as her eyes turned to the others before responding again immediately afterwards, “Since there are five of us here. We will split into two groups. Kyro, take Zander and Natty through the forest. Ling, come with me towards this tree behind us. I bet we will find something there.” “Looks like the two are going on a date now.” Kyro teased. I could only blushed after them as Yang laughed in response, “Maybe. But it is police business after all. Now come on you guys, lets get a move on now.” “Right… Right.” Zander remarked, rolling his eyes as he and Natty turned around. Kyro walked behind them, leading the trio of dragons into the forest where they disappeared from our sights and leaving us alone. With only a pair of us left out upon the entrance of the forest woods, I stared off into the distance horizon of where the trio had left us. Before feeling a tap of the claw upon my shoulder, I turned around and stared at Yang who motioned me to follow her.

We walked upon a few steps. Towards a particular tree that Yang had mentioned earlier. As we approached it, I was forced to look towards the skies. But the leaves from the branches obstruct my visions, making things harder to see what was the clearer picture beyond the forest. Although my mind was snapped into two and drawn me back into the reality of things, I looked over to Yang who already spread her wings out and jumped up. She flapped her wings as she draws closer towards the branch closest to the ground. Disappearing inside afterwards. I watched her go into the branch, I had hoped she did not hit herself against the hard brown branches above. On the other claw, I did hope of finding the raven soon. ‘Where ever he is right now…’ I muttered to myself while raising my ears and listened to Yang’s voice calling for me. I looked up and stared upon the first branch that she was on, waving down to me with a bright laughing smile upon her face. I just chuckle and said nothing afterwards while mirroring what she had done, five seconds ago and flew up towards the branch she had landed upon.

However, being clumsy as I was, I accidentally hit my head against the underbelly of the branch. I saw sparkles of red, blue and green sparkle in my eyes as I felt dizzy. Almost feeling as if I was going to throw up or something along of those lines. As I fell gradually upon the ground, I stick my tail upward and allowed Yang to grabbed it, pulling me upward. For I landed upon the branch, still dizzy but safe from death below me. I groaned and held my claw towards the side of my face, my eyes fell halfward while looking over to Yang who was still giggling. Though her head started shaking a bit while she spoke to me. “Dang Ling. Still could not get used to using your wings for boosts and such?” “Shut up.” I barked at her, red line emerged from my cheeks and between my nose and mouth while I looked at her with narrowed eyes. She just smirked in response before throwing her claw out towards me, I snatched it and pulled myself to my feet.

We were hundreds of feet up into the air. I could see the grounds below us were small. Without looking down, Yang lead me towards the base of the branch. Thus from there, our wings were spread. We jumped at the same time and flew upward. We grabbed onto the next branch above us, accelerating us higher in elevation. We repeated this sequence of events until we reached our destination which was upon the apex of the tree. Once we got there, we landed with our wings folded behind us as our eyes shifted to the darken room standing before us. We looked surprise. Although Yang was much better at keeping it to herself than me. The room was smaller than what we had expected however. The walls were not finish; and we could see a bit of wood’s color sticking out from it. No sofa, television or anything was around the room. We could see a golden telescope pointing towards the northwest. The floor was scattered with piles of papers. A chair was settled behind the telescope. An arrow was pointing directly to the base of it too. Yang, being curious, walked up to the chair and the telescope. Grabbed onto the base of it and shove her claw inside the hole. She pulled out a golden coin. Holding it against her head, she stared at it momentarily while I looked around floor shuffling through the piles of papers that were around.

“Interesting.” I heard Yang muttered while I turned to her in response. She gaze at me for a moment before a brief smile crossed her face. She walked up to me and settled her coin in front of me and spoke, “Ling. Look through that for a moment, alright?” “Why should I look through that?” I frowned, pouting a bit while looking to her. Yang smiled, even laughing a bit since she cannot contain it at all and commented to me, “You act as if your a hatchling.” “Well, you acted as if you are an adult.” I shot back with a grin. We both laughed a second later before I complied. I grabbed the coin that Yang was holding and got up onto my feet. With Yang taking my place, I stare at the coin. It was a hard piece of real gold. No wrappers were upon it, so I guess no chocolate. Disregarding that thought, I kept staring upon the coin before noticing something at the center of it. I tilted my head to one side, frowning before throwing my claw to the front of the center coin. I pulled what seems to be invisible tape. I blinked in response, my mouth hanged opened as I continued pulling the tap. Covering underneath was a stripe of glass. But it was not normal. ‘No… It is not.’ I thought with a smile before turning around and shouted to Yang. She was startled that she kicked the piles of paper in front of her. It fell over in response and scattering the papers once again as she looked up to me with a growl.

“What is it?” “I found something.” I responde, walking to her and crouched down adjacent to her. Her expression eased off somehow and she looked at the glass strip upon the center coin. SHe blinked in response and threw her claw towards the center coin, questioning me. I nodded, “Yeah. But get this. The coin is actually tainted with four colors. With two or three of those colors clustered together, mixing up into a vision that we normally could not see at all.” “Which is the raven vision, if I had presumed correctly.” Yang said, I nodded again. “Remember that clue the raven gave to us upon the ground.” Yang recited the clue from memory before becoming silence afterwards. I looked to her, expecting her to get it. She nodded and said nothing while allowing me to explain further, “That was what the raven meant. We need to flip the coin and see it through raven vision.” “‘break the tranquility…’” She trailed before nodding her head, “Alright.” She got up onto her feet. “Do it then.”

I nodded in response, then lowered my eyes towards the golden coin that was in my claw. While I flipped the coin into the air, I counted mentally to myself. Upward. Why? I have no idea however. I thought that to see through the visions of a raven, someone must flipped the coin through an unknown number of flips. ‘I think it was a supertisition or something.’ I thought to myself while the coin descended from the air and landed upon my claw. I looked to it. It was facing upward. I closed my claw around the coin then slowly move the coin upward to my fingertips. Formed a circle around it then rose it towards my eye. I saw a completely different vision. It was like different colors clashing against one another to formed the colors of the outside world. I could said nothing, for the words were already taken from my mouth leaving it opened as I gazed unconsciously through the coin. Yang rolled her eyes it seems and chuckled before walking up to me; grabbed onto my other arm and pulled me up to the edge of the room. She adjusted my head so the coin would be pointing to the entire forest from the bird’s eye view.

I saw a forest. The colors inside the coin turned to black. I looked surprise for a bit before resettling myself again through the vision of the coin. With silence looming over both me and Yang, I stared at the forest as the colors adjusted itself to show the outlines of a raven head. I saw a beak at the right edge of the forest. The curve of the forest above the beak and the descending line as it runs down the forest towards the other end. “What… what the heck.” I remarked, clearly loss of words while Yang looked at me with a tilt of her head. “What do you see?” “A raven head.” I replied, she blinked and shook her head. Her growl echoed into my ear as she grabbed the coin from my eye and settled herself upon it too. For after a while, she saw it too and pulled her head back away from the coin. Turned herself to face me while we fell to silence. “Why a raven head?” “A good question.” Yang replied before raising her claw and pointing to the post that was adjacent to the window.

I walked over and stared at the post. Then read it word for word before shifting my attention towards Yang who urged me to read it. I huffed before nodding and turned back to the post, starting back again from the first word and read it down until the end. It reads, “‘That color is rare in this part of the forest. Not commonly found in normal forest that humans were in.’” “Humans?” Yang questioned, a bit surprise by that word. I sharply turned to her and nodded, “Yeah. ‘Not commonly found in normal forest.’” “So we are looking for something that is not part of a normal forest then.” Yang replied, I nodded again. She frowned and raised her head towards the ceiling of the room, pondering over the words that I had read to her. It was a few moments of silence that perhaps I could get used to however. But shaking my head and focusing upon the topic at hand, I turned my attention to the bird head shaped forest. Blinked a few seconds before grabbing onto the shoulder of the dragoness and shook her. This aroused her to reality as she shifted her eyesight towards me and tilted her head to one side. I spoke, almost to a whisper while withdrawing my claws away from her, “I got it. That raven eye. Nearest to the beak. Try staring onto there.” Yang nodded and raised the coin to her eye again.

She stared for a few seconds. Silence once again loomed over us while I waited patiently for her to finish. As she removed her coin from her eye, she turned to me and nodded. Confirming what I had suggested to her as she raised her walkie onto her mouth. Pressed the button and spoke, ordering the three other officers into a particular direction. While she does that, I turned around and gaze at the piles of papers still sitting upon the floor. I walked over and dug through the pile. One by one, I resettled the papers into a new pile while reading over the contents that were written upon each paper. For after a while, I spotted something interesting. I shot back up onto my feet and turned to Yang who was already looking at me. Our eyes were met. Neither of us said anything. The silence was tensed. But I decided to break it instead. Walking to her, I held out the paper that was stuck inside the pile. She grabbed it suddenly and read it through. Then nodded before responding with her own information that she got from Kyro.

“They are attempting this now. But upon the news of hearing the forest was shaped like a Raven head. They presumed that if they tie ten X’s together and label them. They will get a crow hidden inside the raven head.” “Is that even true? Or a red herring?” I questioned her. Yang shrugged in response, and sighed while slumping against the side of the room itself and stared out towards the opposing wall. She remained in silence. At least for a while. And as she does, I had decided to walked to the window and stare out to the horizon and waited for their report. “It may take a while.” Yang joked, “Yeah,” I replied with a grin upon my face, “Zander might misinformed us if he remains excited about something.” Yang snuffed and shakes her head. A laugh escaped from her mouth as I followed after her.

We laughed till the sun hangs barely from the horizon and we were already out the room. Brought back onto the tree branch at the highest peak of the tree, We both looked to the grounds below us. We spread our wings, and jumped down. Descending slowly until we reached the ground where we folded our wings and smiled towards one another. We stared forth towards the forest entrance just as the walkie awoken. “Guys. You are not going to believe this.” “We already am.” Yang commented, I laughed and I swore I heard Kyro laughed also too. Though shaking my head, playfully growling at the dragoness adjacent to me. We remained silent while Zander responded afterwards to us, “We found a safe. Hidden inside of it was a stack of papers. These papers below to Tuwil and Rinichi. But why are they out here instead of the Chaos realm?” At the mention of the papers, both Yang and I stopped laughing. A curious look was drawn between us. We fell silent and said nothing more; having been interesting in an unknown case that we were now involved in. As Zander continued speaking and explaining about the papers hidden inside the case, the phone inside my pocket began ringing. Yang shifted her attention to me while I fished for the phone and pulled it out.

Pressed the button and threw the speaker onto my ear. I spoke, introducing myself and then listened to the response. It came like thunder. I had to pull the phone away from my ear in order to listen to it properly. But on the other side of the line was Tuwil. She was devastated and panicking that she had the nerved to call us suddenly. As I did my best to calm her down, I sighed and closed my eyes. My thoughts lingered upon my head as I wondered about the culprit behind this. It was not a murder or a case of an injury. But rather a ‘game’ as she likes to call it. I looked perplexed at her momentarily, but changed my expression as my tone drops. Yang looked surprise as I spoke to Tuwil. But the phone was dead after I spoke. I pressed the button again and turned over to Yang who already had her walkie out in front of her mouth; speaking to withdraw the other three back for a regroup.

“Something a matter?” I heard Yang said as her eyes met with mine. I shook my head and looked away. A sigh escaped from my lips while we listened to the leaves rustling in the distance before us. Our heads turned to that direction, spotting the three other officers who already joined up with us. With smiles upon their faces, it was quickly disappeared when we turned to them. I then spoke when the silence loomed over us, “It is about Tuwil.” No one responded so I continued, “She said something about her papers being stolen.” “Well are these it then?” Zander asked, holding up the series of papers in his claws. I nodded in response but poke the papers with my claws as I addressed the issue, “However, these are just one out of the nine of them. There are nine in total, according to the fox.” “All of which are where?” “In safes. Located deep within Chaos realm’s headquarters.” “Then we have no time at all, lets move.” Yang scowled and her head darkened. A frown emerged from her lips as her wings were spread. Everyone else nodded and mirrored her, flying off into the air once again which left me alone upon the solid grounds.

As my eyes lowered and stared upon the ground, I turned my attention towards the phone once again. I closed my eyes. I felt my heart pounding in my chest as I held up the phone towards my ear, pressed the button and listened to the ringing. When I heard a voice called out towards me, I smiled faintly to myself and turned around facing the forest while responding. “Its Ling, raven. We found the papers you are looking for. Zander has then right now. However, you can pick them up from the Order police station once we had leave for Chaos headquarters. We have important business to take care of there.” “Great. But there is one other thing…” “What is it?” “I will be in a meeting soon in a week. Can you and your unit gather up in front of the building of the desirable building. I will need you all to escort me towards the apex. Have to debrief our ‘boss’ momentarily.” I said nothing in the response afterwards. I listened but questions filled my mind. As I looked with worry, I opened my mouth. But the sounds of my walkie came alive again with Yang shouting out to me. Startled, I hanged up the raven and spread my wings. Flying faster into the air while heading straight for Chaos headquarters… Worries were expressed upon my face as I wondered what the raven’s meeting was all about.