Raven (16 page)

I could
easily identify the voices of Gabriel, Meredith, Wyatt and Rose. I
came to the conclusion that they had joined forces once again to
talk about me or my father. Either that or they were waiting for me
to wake to talk further about the news they'd hit me with a few
days earlier.

Or were
they eager to find out who had rescued me from my close call
yesterday?

As I
tried to stand up, I managed to knock over a bottle of water with
my leg. It crashed to the floor.

Hurrying
in, they all made a fuss of me. Meredith offered assistance where I
needed it the most. Having a shower with a broken leg isn't the
easiest thing to do, so she ran me a bath and helped me in. I was
grateful. Although I felt such a nuisance and a hindrance, I also
felt a massive sense of gratitude for having such caring people
around me. It would have been a very different story had I been in
England with Vivian and my father. Goodness only knew how I would
have managed.

After
I'd struggled to get dressed, Meredith helped me back to the sofa
where I lay down, exhausted. Barely a minute went by before Rose
whizzed in with my breakfast on a tray. A lovely hot cup of tea and
a plate full of eggs and bacon. I was thoroughly spoilt, and I
relished it.

The
others joined me while I ate and we chatted about general things
like the weather, friends and neighbours as well as our plans for
Thanksgiving and Christmas which were fast approaching.

But
ultimately I knew the conversation would move on to more pressing
matters. The unusually large raven's feather was cause for some
concern, as Gabriel explained to me. When our ancestors had first
changed, they morphed almost magically into the bird's actual size.
He had never seen or even heard of anybody having the ability to
change into a raven the size of a human. Yet there we were
presented with evidence to suggest it was possible. What we didn't
know was who in our community possessed the ability to change and
why wasn't Gabriel aware of it?

It
troubled him as he knew all of the members within the Tulugaq clan
and was on friendly terms with pretty much all of the residents of
Powell River. It was possible that whoever had saved me came from
further afield but why not show themselves?

Gabriel
was desperate that I recall exactly what had happened. I wished I
could remember but having fallen unconscious made it considerably
more difficult.

“
I
believe the only way to tap into your unconscious mind and find out
the truth, Lilly, is to take you on a journey to meet some very
unique and special people. But it will be quite a long journey and
much of it needs to be taken on foot and you are certainly not able
at the moment. Your leg must heal first and then we will travel to
the mountains to see the elders. We will do so in the spring. Until
then we must not worry about any of this. We must continue life as
usual. Although we do not know who this person, or creature, is, we
do know one thing. He saved you, Lilly. So clearly he wishes you no
harm. You must not dwell on your father's disappearance either. The
elders are aware of what has been happening within our family and
they are keeping eyes and ears open for any news,” he said while
the others nodded solemnly behind him.

“
He's
right, dear. You haven't been here all that long and look what's
happened to you already. You must completely settle in to life in
Powell River. When you've recovered and the weather starts to get
warmer, you and Gabriel will go and visit the elders. But until
then... just concentrate on your studies and making friends. Okay?”
Rose said with her eyebrows raised, waiting for my reply. I nodded
reluctantly. They all meant well.

But that
didn't mean I had to agree with them. Of course I couldn't. My
father was out there somewhere and he might be in danger. I didn't
want to wait until the spring. But I had no choice. I could do
nothing alone, especially with a broken leg. I couldn't even start
my part-time job.

There
was still a possibility that my memory might be triggered during
one of my dreams, but until that happened, I imagined the next few
months would include an awful lot of reading and very little
else.

Later
that morning after everyone, except Gabriel, had left and I'd spent
hours with my head in a book, Jo arrived.

As she
walked in, her brow was furrowed so deep with worry that she made
me laugh. “I'm okay, I'm okay,” I said to her with my hands held
up, before she'd even opened her mouth.

“
I was
so worried for you. Especially seeing as you didn't turn up for
school. I've obviously heard from the others but I want to hear
from you. What on earth happened, Lilly?”

I told
her all about the previous day, and she was relieved that we could
finally open up to each other about our family's secret.

“
I'm
so sorry I couldn't tell you anything before but I was literally
sworn to secrecy by the whole family. I really wanted to. It was
killing me. I have to admit, finally having a friend, a girl, to be
able to talk to about all of this crazy stuff is brilliant.
Sometimes it really eats you up when the only people you can talk
with are parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts,” she said, barely
taking a breath.

I
totally understood. Even though I'd only known the truth for a
short time, I did feel the need to have a close friend to confide
in.

She told
me about the time she'd had the 'family of ravens' talk with the
rest of the family and, although it came as a bit of a shock, she'd
always known our family was special. It was just a feeling she'd
had.

“
But
you've never transformed, have you?” I asked, eager to know more
about the physical change.

She
shook her head, “No, not yet, but I've had all the weird dreams too
so we're just waiting for it to hit me one of these days. I have no
idea when it will happen though. It's a bit scary, isn't it? Not
knowing how we turn. I worry that it will be painful,” she said,
twirling her long hair around her fingers nervously. “But Rose told
me that provided you relax completely and just let your body change
of its own accord, the pain should be controllable. She said it's
all mind over matter. I've been doing meditation and yoga ever
since!” she laughed.

“
Seriously?” I asked, wondering if she was joking or
not.

She
nodded enthusiastically and jumped up from the armchair,
demonstrating a few awkward-looking poses. “The yoga poses are easy
once you've done them for a while. When I first started, my muscles
were so stiff, I struggled even with the simplest moves. I'll teach
them to you and we can do it together,” she said
eagerly.

Looking
down at my leg and back up at her comically, she burst into a fit
of giggles. “Okay, I'll teach you in a few months when you can
actually get your backside off the sofa!” She sat back down on the
chair and curled her shoeless feet underneath her
bottom.

“
So,
you didn't see who rescued you yesterday, then?”

Shaking
my head and raising my eyebrows, I wished there was something
exciting I could tell her. The only way I would be able to identify
him would be by his voice, I told her, but I explained that I
didn't recognise it. It wasn't a voice I'd heard before.

“
You
don't think it was your dad, do you?” she almost
whispered.

It had crossed my mind but as I
explained, even though I'd barely ever heard my father speak, I
didn't
feel
like it was him. Surely I would have felt something. And if
it had been him, wouldn't he have stayed? He wouldn't have just
dumped me on someone's doorstep. And why would he vanish
afterwards?

“
It
just didn't feel like him, you know,” I added.

She
nodded, clearly understanding what I meant. We sat in silence for a
while, each lost in our own thoughts about the man who had saved my
life. Had I been left there, under that log in the storm, I could
have frozen to death. I could have bled to death for all I knew.
The thought made me shiver. There were many ifs in this world. I
was just grateful to whoever he was.

“
So,
did I miss much at school yesterday?”

“
Not a
great deal, unless you count poor Jemima falling flat on her face
in front of the basketball team in cheerleading practice. She had a
bloody nose and everything. Poor thing. Oh and Mrs Ormond seemed
interested to know why you weren't there yesterday. A little too
interested really. There's something odd about that woman, but I
can't quite put my finger on it,” she laughed.

She
asked how my date had gone with Oliver. Sonya had told her that
he'd come over and that we'd had dinner prepared for us.

My
instant grin answered her question. “That well, huh?” she laughed
and, as if on cue, Oliver arrived bearing a box of chocolates for
his "patient". It was good to see him.

“
Hey
Oliver, good to see you,” Jo said as she stood up, put on her shoes
and started doing up her shoe laces.

They
exchanged a few words before she decided to leave us
alone.

“
I'll
call you later,” she said with a wink, before shouting “Bye
Gabriel,” and closing the front door on her way out.

“
Ben
sends his love and hopes you're feeling better today,” Oliver said
as he bent to kiss me on the cheek. As usual, I blushed and smiled
as he handed me the pretty black box with a pink ribbon.

“
Awww
thanks Oliver... that's really sweet. But you didn't have
to.”

“
I was
going to go and start my training with Ben today... so much for
that,” I said, as I rolled my eyes and lifted my leg.

He
smiled and told me that Ben had said for me not to worry about it.
He wasn't overly busy at the moment anyway so it could wait a few
more weeks, until I was ready.

“
How
are you feeling?” he asked as he sat down and watched me rip off
the ribbon and delve inside the box to discover which chocolate was
which. He laughed at my enthusiasm.

“
I'm
good thanks. I woke up feeling a bit groggy but I feel much better
now.”

“
I
guess I was right to bring chocolates rather than
flowers.”

I nodded
with a mouth full before realising I wasn't being very polite, so I
offered them to him.

Chocolate wasn't something I was used to eating, but they
were delicious. They didn't last long though as we spent the next
few hours chatting whilst we savoured them. Occasionally Gabriel
would pop his head round the door to make sure we were okay, but he
figured I was fine whenever I was with Oliver, so he ended up
leaving us alone for a few hours.

Oliver
stayed with me the entire day.

“
I
feel bad about keeping you cooped up indoors for so
long.”

“
That's okay. You're not exactly in any state to do anything
else, are you? But maybe tomorrow we could try and go for a short
walk? What did the doctor say about walking?” he asked.

I
honestly didn't have a clue. I had been so keen to get out of the
hospital that I hadn't even asked any questions. I was sure Gabriel
would know though so I promised to ask him.

Oliver
scolded me for not talking to the medical staff and he shook his
head as if I was in big trouble but he couldn't keep a straight
face and ended up laughing.

“
Well,
I'll come over tomorrow whether we can go for a walk or not,” he
promised as he prepared to leave. “Call me if you need anything?”
he said as he kissed me gently on the lips. It was my first real
kiss and it felt like I'd been given an electric shock. Not the
kind that hurts, but a wonderful, sweet, electric shock. I smiled
and touched my lips with my fingers.

As I
slowly opened my eyes, I saw that he was smiling too. And then
before I knew it, he was gone.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I had to
wear my cast for nearly two months and they were, without doubt,
the best two months of my life so far. Even the pain and
awkwardness of a broken leg couldn't dull my happiness.

I'd
dreaded being unable to do anything, especially after Rose and
Gabriel said I should avoid agonizing over recent events and should
just concentrate on getting my life back together. That is exactly
what I did and admittedly, it was the best thing for me.

It was
January, it was absolutely freezing, yet I had become accustomed to
the colder weather in Canada. I had actually begun to love waking
up on a chilly morning and opening my bedroom window to take a few
breaths of crisp cold air. It was the perfect way to wake myself
up, followed by a hot bath, which I had finally mastered getting
into without the help of either Meredith, Sonya or Jo who had all
taken it in turns to pop round first thing to help. But still, I
couldn't wait to get the cast off.