SEE.

:: It squawks at her and squints its beady eyes.

:: Extending her arcane senses, Alby realizes something's wrong about the reflection. Wiping the dust from the surface, she sees not herself, the raven, or the fields behind her, but the reposed face of a witch submerged in dark water. ::

🧿

:: It taps at the largest remaining shard of glass with its beak. ::

HERE.

:: When Alby approaches, she has to carefully pick her way over the rotten wood of the porch. The broken window appears dirty and unremarkable, and for a moment she wonders if this corvid is confused. ::

3/

:: It descends to land in the branches of a twisted oak tree at the crossroads where the fence opens, leading to a decrepit and abandoned farmstead. As Alby nears, the raven squawks and flaps off to the rotten front porch of the farmhouse, landing on the sill of a broken window. ::

2/

🧿 #BlueskyCoven

:: The raven hops again - one, two, three times - before it takes wing. It doesn't go far, landing on the fence every so often to wait for her to catch up.

:: At one point, it flies up into the sky, circling overhead, as though searching for something. ::

1/

:: It waits to see if its words mean anything to the witch. After seconds pass, it tries again. ::

HELP. WITCH. TRAPPED.

:: Again, after pausing, it perks its head up. Flapping over to a fencepost further along the road, it cocks its head to one side. ::

SEE? COME. SEE.

🧿

🧿 #BlueskyCoven

:: The raven shifts from one foot to the other, looking almost uncomfortable. It points its beak upwards, squinting at the fracturing sky. ::

WITCH. HEAAAART.

:: A pause as it considers, then it looks back to Alby. ::

TRAPPED. DEATH.

1/

:: The pause is long enough that Alby thinks perhaps that's it, she ought to be on her way.

:: As soon as it feels her weight shift, it croaks. ::

WITCH.

:: This is surprising enough to turn Alby's head back to the raven. Catching her eye it utters another word. ::

DEATH.

🧿

:: When she settles, the raven shrugs its wings back (with a little bit of side-eye), then nibbles both the strawberry and the walnut from her hand.

:: Sated, it clambers up her arm onto her shoulder and pecks affectionately at her hair.

:: It looks at her with one beady black eye. ::

2/

🧿 #BlueskyCoven

:: The raven flutters over from the fencepost and onto the witch's outstretched forearm. Its weight is surprisingly heavy, and the witch's arm dips a bit as it lands. Off-balance, the raven flaps and digs in with its talons with an irritated croak. ::

AWRRK.

1/

🧿 #BlueskyCoven

:: As Alby walks down the road past a golden field nearing harvest, a raven flaps down from the rapidly splintering sky to land on a scarecrow. ::

ARRRK.

:: The witch walks past, and the raven follows, hopping from fencepost to fencepost. Eventually, the tone changes. ::

HEY.

🧿