Prologue

Above the dark cemetery the sky was a grey whirling mass of clouds that smothered out the normal, pretty blue. Light rain fell, the cold of each droplet biting like tiny sharp knives. Leaves littered the hard moss-covered bricks, scattered as if lost and trying to find truth hidden with the day.

A scraggly, emotionless seeming crow cawed and broke the peaceful patter with its harsh tones. Unlike the other birds, the crow remained in its tree, the soft rain beating down mercilessly as its beady eyes glared at the surroundings. It cawed again and the sound drowned in the endless curtain of rain relentlessly drumming the earth.

The crow launched itself off the bare branches of the tree, and as it landed it transformed into a girl. Her damaged black boots hit the ground with a thump, and her obsidian eyes scanned across the marble gravestones with bright awareness. A small red scar decorated her the side of her neck; two ‘c’ shaped lines, one backwards, joined together with a simple pair of wings between them. Her black hair threaded with grey was a stringy mass of knots that fell limply down just past her shoulders, framing her thin, pale face that matched the rest of her skeletal body. Her clammy white skin stretched across her bones, and even the stained blue shawl and long leather pants couldn’t hide the sickly appearance. Underneath the shawl was the faint outline of an archaic symbol and the chain attached to it. She looked to be about eleven, with pointed half-formed breasts and a face devoid of wrinkles, but her true age was closer to eighty.

She crouched down, her thin fingers sifting through the leaves slowly. With an annoyed frown she began examining in another area, ignoring the chill of the rain. The water soaked her tattered clothes as she searched for the mark she was sent to find, but there was nothing to be found. Her chapped lips pressed together tightly when her gaze fell upon a near washed away footprint she had come to know all to well. Furiously she stamped the mud and destroyed the foot indent she saw far too many times.

Controlling the anger forming into a scream, the girl clenched her hands and stood still, letting the raindrops slip down her skin without caring. She tried to find the peace she usually felt with graveyards, but that day it eluded her. Abruptly she jumped into the air, and at the same time became a crow once more.

The girlcrow too was lost, but found no solace in the silence of the rain.