Ravenswood Origins

The stars shown us all the ways of the world. I had discovered this truth long ago when I was but of lesser age, I was one of the first in my family to have received an education, not just a home-study where one learns the work and ways of the world from and through family and their experiences, but I was given the opportunity to and receive a proper education from a tutor who said he taught the once and mighty Alexander, the one whose life was born in a feather that he wears upon his helmet. The man claiming this was one of elderly status, which here in Ravenswood, was nearly impossible. The average man and woman died at the old age of thirty, or somewhere before forty. This man had clearly surpassed the idea of death when hair was just to turn grey at spots, whereas this man, as I noticed upon his entering my father’s home upon invitation, was full grey and had a long shaggy beard that nearly touched his stomach. He walked hunched over and had a cane in his right hand to help him balance. He wore grey and black for his wardrobe, where his cloak that he took off and placed upon the rack, was blue.

My father greeted the man and welcomed him in with a proud and warm greeting and smile. My mother bent her knee while lifting her long dress to show respect, my sisters too in their long dresses, my brother bowed. All of them much younger then I was, yet I thought the man mad and foolish to daresay that he was whom he said. However, my father believed every word the man spoke and thus sent me with him upon his request. Father told me that the man was going to be my tutor and allow me to become more then what he could offer. I asked him what he got for selling me and he just smiled, patted my head as if I were but a mongrel and walked away. My mother had already had my belongings packed as the elderly man ordered, my siblings all came around and waved me farewell without so much of a tear in their eyes, nor that of my mother as she handed me my items inside of a small bag that the elderly man strapped to my back.

We left what was once my home that evening, as the elderly man spoke to my father about timely matters and placement I did not follow, though it did become apparent what the meaning was.

The road we walked to his home in the mountain that watched over Ravenswood was steep and daunting. Each angle and turn could had been my last. The trees seemed to be alive and moving, the haunting and depressing feeling that I was to die there or upon the trail to the elderly man’s home was growing more and more inside of me. Despite the kind appearance of the man, I felt that there was something deeper and that he was hiding something more then what any one person would be able to get out. At one point he stopped and breathed in a large gulp of air and told me to do the same, it would help me adjust to the atmosphere better, as I did, he advised me to let it out slowly and repeat until he told me otherwise. Upon the final breath he told me to look around and angle my eyes toward the town below. I did as he instructed, as he is now my keeper, and looking down gave me a thrill! It was like I was higher then they were and in height I could soar higher and keep looking down upon them, as if I were their better due to my height advantage. Then the elderly man spoke to me, he was telling me that at this height, it was now and henceforth, while training and learning, to be the one to look over the town from the height and ensure that all was visible and well. If a moment were to rise where darkness appeared in daylight, I was to rush down with the wings of the gods and crush the ones causing it. I was now and forever to be a defender of Ravenswood.

To this I knew not what he spoke of, Ravenswood had not once been in danger of anything or anyone, nothing in the last 500 years, as the formation of the town had been the last major battle in the area and everyone else seemed to be leaving us alone. The only real trouble was that when the drunkards from the taverns emerged and began their nightly screaming and yelling or that of them being beaten down when they made poor advances upon the women whom were not wanting. Outside of those incidents, there was never any issue or problem.

However the words the elderly man spoke made me take a closer look and feeling. More inside me as I instantly knew that he could one day be right about that and I began to think that there is nothing and no one to lead or fight, then the thought hit me, and all of these thoughts and feelings that had happened and those occurring were all at once, maliciously, and simultaneously, as everything was just snapped into my mind from ages long past and futures yet to be. I did not move an inch for a long while as the elderly man walked inside the cabin to where I would be his pupal and son, as he to my tutor, master, and now father and mother.

Upon walking in I was greeted by a young man who was about my age, maybe a little older, the elderly man then gestured to a wooden door and behind it was a rather cozy looking room. In the center was a hearth and upon the walls were racks. The racks were neatly made but one, at once I was handed a bundle and told to make my rack, afterwards, and it was a quick learn, I was seated in the center of a medium size room, I was seated upon a stone step and handed a book as well as an ink well and quill. I was told by the younger man who seemed to be my elder by status or length, to be ready to write or read, to which I spoke of not knowing how to, he then laughed in his throat and took a seat beside me. The elderly man came into the room at this point along with four other children, two looking older then I where the other two were about my age, they too set themselves upon the stone stumps that scattered the medium sized room and all took out the same items that I had, this was when the elderly man began speaking. I somehow knew just what to write and how to write! It was like instantly everything that was requested of me I instantly knew how to do it, from dipping my quill into the ink, to the proper way to hold the quill to get the best writing look, as well as to be able to make it legible, even words that I had not known before I understood them all, as if just breathing the air here in the mountain was what enabled me to understand and do all that was spoken.

It was one snowy morning when I was out on my normal morning patrol, how long I had been there I was unsure of, as it seemed to me that time, TIME, in itself worked differently here than it did down in the town or for that matter the rest of the world, however, it was while I was making my rounds that I stumbled upon a darkening cloud that seemed to be making its way toward Ravenswood, I watched as it begun to fester and boil from the earthen soil below the Round Alter, as I had learned from the elderly man that was the spot where all the troubles and toils that affect the world emerge from, and it was doing exactly what the elderly man spoke! Without hesitation, I ran to the cabin and informed the elderly man as well as my elder in command, the elderly man spoke only one word to us both, and we instantly flung ourselves into action, there was no lacking or hesitation on either of our parts as we made haste for the Alter. We met up with the other four who too were training with us, my elder and I stood in the path that the black cloud was trying to enter into while the other four began making chants and sounds to subdue it and ensure it vanished without making it stronger or more fierce.

That was when I watched as all four of them fell with a single slice. I watched the metal pierce them and how they fell upon the ground, then I watched as my elder who stood next to me fell upon the same metal glare, then it took aim at me. I stood as best I could, ducking under the initial swing, the glimmer of the steel brilliant against the darkening background, it swung wide again and here as I rolled out from beneath it, I struck a blow with my sword and pierced the Alter, a loud thundering cry echoed around the hillside and valleys, I heard the clanking of shield and sword around me, I felt the thundering hooves of men in armor all rallying behind me and running headlong for me, I felt the metal against my skin as it began to try to cut inward. It was not successful, the feeling halted the very moment as all the trumpeting sounded, as the clouds parted ways and exposing me and my sword as I finished plunging it into the Alter, where the now Round Alter was split in two, one side where my sword remained, the other, laid bear with its underside to the ground covering the hole where the clouds formed, the small hump of rock was the only part known to be remaining, as we watched the elderly man wade through the crowd of men and he and the stone with my sword tucked inside it vanished before our eyes.

I was left to watch and guard Ravenswood and select those who would one day take my place. The elderly man I still have yet to see, and I am sure that I never will again.

This is how it is in Ravenswood, the impossible is ALWAYS possible.

- Edmund Percivall.