The Raven And The Wraith (Completed!)

Chapter 1

The Raven and the Wraith
Chapter 1

I woke up when the wagon I was riding in hit a particularly huge hole, making it buck and heave hard enough to bounce my head off the hard, wooden floor. As far as getting woke up, it was an effective method, but not really a very pleasant one.

The wagons creaked and groaned as they traveled over the rough, dirt track through the woods, and the constant clopping of horse hooves accompanied it, like a background drumbeat for the complaining wagons.

I sat up, my muscles stiff, making me wonder if the wagons had been giving them lessons in how to creak and groan. I'd never ridden in a wagon before, and now, three days of riding in one had convinced me that when we reached the next big city, I would bail out and never set foot in one again.

Outside, I could hear the chatter of the wagon drivers, guards, and other members of our caravan. There were seventeen wagons in this merchant caravan, and I considered how lucky I had been to get in on this one. As I understood it, the larger the caravan, the harder it was to get employed. Only those with great skill would be hand-selected by the caravan leader, to work with and come along with the caravan as it traveled city to city.

I remembered meeting Tad, the leader of this caravan. He was one of those unforgettable people that you occasionally meet in life, someone so huge and intense in nearly every way that you couldn't help but be either scared of, or drawn to them. He was well over six feet tall and I would have guessed he was close to three hundred pounds. His beard was a bright silver monstrosity, so gnarled and bristly that it looked like a couple dead cats had been woven together, fluffed up, and attached to his chin.

His presence matched his mass, a booming voice and a quick wit, and he had little patience for fancy words or wasting time. As I was nothing more than just another homeless street boy, I had assumed he hadn't noticed me eying his caravan when they had first come into my hometown city. I was used to being essentially invisible to guys like him, so I had been a bit surprised when he had locked his piercing, blue eyes on me and motioned me over.

"You boy! What's your name?" His voice was deep and commanding, yet not unfriendly.

I stayed back, watching him warily. He didn't appear dangerous, exactly, but I well knew not to trust appearances.

"My name is Rahvin."
I told him, still watching his body language far more intently than his eyes or his face. In my experience, body language did not lie, and it almost always warned me what someone was about to do, at least a full second before they acted.

Years of living on the streets had honed my instincts to the point that this full second was more than enough for me to react as needed. I had rarely been caught off guard.

"Well, Rahvin, why are you so interested in my caravan? You don't have the look of one who's planning on stealing something. So what about a bunch of wagons such as mine would catch the attention of a street boy like you?"

I wasn't caught off guard by his question, but I was still surprised he had noticed me at all, much less been able to deduce that I wasn't planning on stealing from him. I got the feeling that not much escaped his notice.

"I need a ride to the next major city you're likely to be stopping at." I told him honestly.

I knew caravans of this size would likely hit only the larger cities, which was where I wanted to go. I needed to go to any large city, I did not care which, and I needed to be gone as soon as possible.

Tad seemed to be content to scrutinize me, his intense eyes hard at work as he calculated who I might be, what I might really be after, and how much it might benefit him to help me.