Karasu

First story just finished :-) It's called Karasu and I wrote it about three years ago so it's definitely a bit weird and not that great but it was I think the first story I wrote in English. It's also pretty sad I guess. Hope you enjoy it!

~PhotoKisser

***

Karasu

‘Karasu!’ a scream of a little girl buried in the never ending sounds of the battle around them. But the person who was supposed hear it, did. Karasu turned around and felt warm blood on his face. It was her blood…

***

They were looking at him. No, not looking. That word didn’t actually fit in this place. They were staring at him. He felt it. For some reason he couldn’t ignore it like he used to with all of the other annoying stares that he used to be given. He stopped. His dark hair once again fell in to his eyes. He looked at the child which was still inappropriately staring at him. She, because it was a girl, had pitch black hair, probably cut by herself with an old knife, because her bangs were in some places really short and in the others very long. The eyes staring at him were so dark that there was almost no difference in their color and the color of her hair. She had two sweaters on herself. The top one betrayed the existence of the second through some big holes. She probably wasn’t older than nine years.

Later on he never knew why he ever said that short word which had changed his life forever. He covered himself tightly with his white coat and looked seriously at the girl. Her face didn’t express any feelings except a little spark of curiosity. But even so it looked as if she were crying. There were no tears running nor did she hide her face in her hands but one thing was sure: deep inside her soul, she was crying.

Karasu himself didn’t have more than 25 years but had a lot of experience in dealing with other people. He was born in a steady family with enough money to feed everybody, but even there he was an outcast. He learned to hate people and he lived out of a small wage, being a currier. With that he didn’t have to contact anybody, and could be left alone.

‘Come’ he said roughly and hurried down the street. He looked like he didn’t care what happens to the child at all. It didn’t matter if she would follow him or stay under the cold wall of the building. He felt a little surprise when the girl unsteadily stood up and started walking. Her feet landed exactly in his footprints. For a long time there was just silence. None of them would talk: Karasu was trying to understand why would he ever do such a thing and the girl was focusing on walking.

‘I’m sorry, Raven…’ these were her first words.

‘What’re you sorry about…’ Karasu said a bit annoyed. ‘You should thank me for what I’m doing…It's ”Thank you” not “I’m sorry…”'

‘Thank you, Raven…’ the girl corrected her mistake.

Karasu stopped and turned around. He looked into her deep dark eyes. It was as he thought. She had no intention of saying her last words. She spat them out like bad medicine and the grimace of displeasure stayed on her face hidden behind the dark pupils. But he didn’t stop only because of that. She said it twice already. It couldn’t be just a coincidence.

‘Why are you calling me Raven?’ he asked in a similar manner as the girl said 'thank you'. His name, Karasu, it meant exactly that: Raven.

There was no answer. The girl was staring at the ground as if she'd never heard the question.

‘What’s you’re name?’ Karasu asked slowly continuing to walk.

Again there was no answer.

***

‘Thank you…’

***

Karasu held the door for her. But she didn’t enter. She was patiently waiting outside for everybody to enter or exit the room. She would probably stay in that spot but Karasu grabbed her arm and pulled her into the inn. She didn’t protest. She never did. Only small details attracted her attention. Karasu guided her across the room to a small table in the back covered in shadows.

‘Why are you doing that?’ Karasu asked.

The girl knew exactly what he was talking about. She always acted nice towards everybody. Bowed a little when she passed people, opened doors for them, always said sorry… She treated everybody like that not caring if they would notice it or not. But even with that she never said a “thank you”.

‘Why not?’ she whispered.

‘They won’t care if you wait or not. They don't see these kind of things Nor would they do anything about it. Why care?

‘Somebody can notice it… There would be no sense in it if everybody thought your ‘why”,' her words bore no anger, only a dare. 'Besides if I do that somebody can start doing the same. And there would be one more nice person in the world…’

Karasu sighed looking at all the drunken people. Unfortunately it was the only place opened right now so he just couldn’t go somewhere else.

‘I doubt there’s someone like that…’ he said, his voice just a tiny bit too sharp.

‘I’m sorry’ the girl said once again.

***

‘…for everything…’

***

The dagger was only a few inches from her face but the girl didn’t move. She wasn’t scared. Her face still didn’t show any expressions or feelings. The owner of the weapon was probably more scared then she was. His hands were shaking and eyes were filled with tears.

‘Give me your money… or she dies!’ he said in a trembling voice.

Karasu didn’t move. Just looking in his eyes the bandit could easily say that he lost. In one moment he shifted and in a second he was already holding a short blue sword, with a carved raven to the man’s neck. The bandit dropped his dagger and kneeled. He was scared. A lot more then the girl. Karasu never saw her scared. In fact he never saw her express almost any feelings.

***

She held him weakly and looked at him. In her big, dark eyes he saw something he never did before: fear, sadness, a whole palette of feelings. But the dominating one was happiness.

***

Karasu walked a lot quicker now that they were passing the crowd. He didn’t want to spoil her young eyes with a sight like this one. She on the other hand focused very hard on looking around, searching for something. Karasu noticed that her eyes were focused on the people standing on a small pile of straw and hay, and a moment later on something above them. He grabbed her arm and pulled her towards an empty alley.

“Die!” The scream of the people could still be heard even after leaving the square.

‘Barbarians…’ Karasu commented. ‘Laughing out of another person’s death…’

‘Why were they going to die?’ the girl asked.

‘Because they lied against the ruler, that’s why…’

‘But they didn’t tell lies…’

Karasu looked at her a bit irritated, but she didn’t seem to notice it and continued with her speech.

‘There were only three pigeons there’ she paused noticing the questioning look of Karasu. ‘Everybody has their bird. It’s their guide and protector. It always appears when they die. Every guide means something else: a pigeon - franc, and a Raven – guidance. There were only three pigeons. They were guiding their souls to the afterlife.

Karasu looked at her with a bit of surprise. He thought he already heard everything but now a new information came out of the girls mouth. He feared the question being born in his head: "who was she?".

***

Karasu hugged her tightly holding her weak body close to himself. He cried. The world seemed to disappear. The only thing that was left was him, the girl and ravens. It was enough. All the sadness in the world couldn’t make his happiness disappear. Yes, he was happy. He looked at the Ravens already flying away. She was free. After all this time of being stuck in a world where she didn’t belong, she was finally free.

***

Karasu was kneeling before a small stone with a Raven carved into it. A black bird was sat on his shoulder.

‘Thank you…’ he said touching the cold stone. He stood up. In the weak light of the settling sun he looked like a big raven.

PhotoKisser, winter 2006/07