The Ravens' Coming

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    The ravens were coming, and they couldn't be here when they came. 
    The ravens were coming and Lishia was still struggling. The circles under her eyes were deep and black, and her breathing was coming in heavy, labored pants. He gently took her shoulder. Her eyes were half-closed and glazed over, not really registering anything. She wasn't doing well. But they couldn't stay here. 
    He looked to the sky and then back to his sister. The tendons in his hand were tightening. His fingers tugged harshly on his hair and he took a deep breath. 
    Lishia's eyes were almost fully closed now. He stood up again and cast his eyes across uniform gray above. He could feel them coming. Everything could. The very grass shrank and grew gray when the ravens passed over it. And those black specks before the mountains did not have anything good in them. He licked his lips once, then sank quickly to the ground at his sister's side. She didn't resist at all when he maneuvered her to lean against him, and her breathing had become much shallower. 
    "Just hold on 'Shia." He looked up and licked his lips again. "Don't you worry about anything, just rest. I'll take care of all of it." 
    He pulled out a tiny corked bottle from the pocket of his coat. He didn't want to use this again so soon, but he couldn't think of anything else to do; those cursed specks were coming closer, and the grass was shriveling faster. 
    He took a deep breath and a muttered prayer, then yanked the cork. 
    Slowly a sickly-colored iridescent goo slid out of the bottle and rose into the air like a cloud of thick smog. Three holes thinned in the shape of a droopily grinning mouth and a pair of eyes. The mouth leered pleasantly at him. "Well whaddya know, barely been two days and the little human needs me again. And how are we?" It leaned forward and its eyes narrowed delightedly. "Ohh, she doesn't look too good." Its voice was thick and syrupy and made Cadvan feel like something unpleasant was dripping down his spine. 
       He scowled at the thing from the bottle. "The ravens are coming. Get us somewhere safe, somewhere they can't get to us." 
    The thing's leer grew wider. "A please would be nice you know."
    The black specks were no longer specks, and they were growing as Cadvan watched. He clenched his jaw. "Please take us somewhere safe!" 
    The thing from the bottle cackled wetly as it swirled around the brother and sister, and its last words to Cadvan before they disappeared from the hilltop were "This will cost you, you know."
    "I know." 

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