Travis rubbed his eyes, yawning. Today he would have to search for some more food for the both of them. Today—
"Wake up. Wake up. Hello?" a female voice called, and he vaguely felt a hand on his arm, shaking him awake.
"Sage? Is that you, because I'm gonna sleep in today," He rubbed his eyes again, and instead of Sage, his eyes focused on a black-haired girl sitting beside him, her dark cloak wrapped around her tightly. She was staring at him, intently.
"Hey, do you remember?" she asked, adjusting the glasses on her face.
"Remember...? Who are you?" he asked as memories from last night started springing up in his head like daisies. "Oh... oh no.." he rubbed his face.
"Yes. You seem to remember. Well I'm Raven, the girl who just knocked you out with my dagger."
"Why? I have to search for her," he started to get up, then sat down, realizing it was hopeless.
She sighs. "You were looking up in the sky, shouting her name like an idiot, so I had to knock you out for a bit."
"That... that bird took her away? For real?"
"Yup. And it was a Valkyrie. And come on. I'll help you get into some clean clothes and we can chat."
"Valkyrie." he repeated. He had heard of them before but was not quite sure what they looked like. Weren't they involved in the Demonic War?
He grabbed for his daggers under his pillow before realizing they weren't there.
"I'll give them back once we get somewhere safe. Mine are better anyway, so I don't need yours,"
Reluctantly, he followed her down the alleyway. She led him down another alleyway, into the back door of an old bar.
"In here. There's a working shower in the back, and I stole some clean clothes for you. Hurry up, we don't have much time." she carefully laid Travis's daggers on the table.
After he had cleaned up, Travis grabbed his daggers. He felt refreshed, and clean. He had changed into something he would never have been able to afford on the streets, a thick light blue hoodie and black jeans.
He examined the dried blue blood on his blade, twisting it to look at it from every angle.
"Valkyrie blood. I wouldn't touch that if I were you." Raven was staring at him. "Plus, there's someone I'd like you to meet, and he's very glad to see you,"
"What?"
Uh oh, this can't be good. He thought, right before he could react.
In a split second, the black haired girl had him on the ground, arm behind his back.
His daggers clattered to the floor, and in a swift motion, he was brought back to his feet.
She dragged him to a room in the back of the bar, where a man was waiting for him. The man was dressed in a tan trench coat, and had almost matching sand colored hair, so unlike his own black hair. The only thing they had in common was their eyes. Both were gray and cloudy as the sky during a thunderstorm. The rest of the man's face was obscured with a black mask.
A chair was standing in the middle, a ring of light surrounding it. Raven dropped him in the chair, quickly tying his hands to the chair arms.
"Hey!" Travis shouted. He looked toward Raven. "I thought you were gonna help me!"
"Hello, son," the man spoke in a gruff tone, as if he had been smoking too much. He carefully removed the mask. "Long time no see."
Travis finally recognized the man, and he struggled to untie his bonds. "I don't want anything to do with you," Travis spat. "And you know that."
The man smiled, amused. "Yes. You've been avoiding me for ten years. Well, thanks to my daughter here, you're back into my custody."
Travis stared at Raven, who was watching quietly from the corner, hidden in shadow. "Daughter?"
"Yes. And she's done quite well so far, considering she's only a couple years younger. Oh how you've missed out."
"Why do you want me here? Just leave me alone, like you used to all those years ago!"
"Oho! Well, that's not quite the best way to start, but I'll accept it. T, you're here on a mission. And from what Raven has been telling me, it'll also save that girlfriend of yours."
"Don't call me T. Also, she's not a girlfriend. Only the friend I've lived on the streets with for a couple years,"
"That Valkyrie up there who stole your friend is someone who is willing to kill to get what she wants. She's dangerous, and I have a plan to capture her. If she gives up the location where the rest of them are, you can take your friend while me and Raven are attacking. We can save the world from these demons, and I know you'd like to live,"
"That's it? You dragged me here to save the world from a bunch of birds? Well, no thanks. I'd like to watch the world burn." Raven smiled a little from the shadows.
"You can save your friend though, and if you really want her back, then I say come on," she said.
"Yes, you're gonna come, whether you like it or not. Do it out of will or out of the power of friendship." he said, half-jokingly.
"Not much choice," Travis sighed.
The man slit Travis's bonds. "Helicopter outside the alley. Let's go,"
The helicopter brought back the bad memories of last night, when Sage had been taken. Travis wondered if she had already been killed. And what about the girl who took Sage? Her life was already in danger now that his father was hunting her. He knew he wasn't a very forgiving man.
"She's dangerous," his father's voice said in his head.
"Well what if she's not?" his own voice echoed.
"She is. She abducted your friend, so would you call that dangerous?"
"Not really. Sage isn't dead yet, because I have a feeling."
"Haha!" his father's voice laughed in his head. A feeling!"
The noise of the helicopter as they flew through the air, felt almost ear wrenching, even with the headphones on. He was slightly shivering from the cold wind.
"Here's a cloak," Raven yelled, over the sound of the helicopter.
Gratefully, he wrapped the black cloth around himself, quite enjoying the feeling of quick, cool air breezing in his face.
He decided to make small talk, just to pass the time. "So, do you know who your mom is? Because I know that you're related to someone else,"
Her face darkened a shade, and she looked down at the floor. "Rośe. I look a lot like her, but she wasn't a very good mother. Left the house a lot to drink, then disappeared one day,"
"I've never heard of anyone named Rośe. But I do remember about two years before I left the house my dad would sneak out the house a lot, probably meeting your mom. Well that would mean you're... Twelve? Thirteen?"
"Thirteen." After a while, she asked,"Who was your mom?"
"Sophia. I look a lot like her, too. She died giving birth to me," he sighs.
"Oh," she looks apologetic. "Sorry,"
"Can't miss someone you've never met,"
A moment of silence passes.
"With our matching dark hair, we could almost pass as siblings," Travis says, trying to lighten up the mood.
"But we are siblings," Raven smiles at him.
Those little birdies should be out and about, not hiding in their little tree," the man yelled over the noise of the helicopter. They had been searching for hours now, and it was getting dark.
"This was your great big plan?" Travis yells back, but the man ignored him..
"Maybe they'll come out when it's dark, Dad. They probably rely on the pitch blackness of the night." Raven suggested. "We can wait for them on the ground and go out searching again. All I know is that they left in that direction." She pointed towards the direction they were flying in.
The threesome landed the helicopter in a field, and stepped out for a lunch break.
Raven tied his hands securely, and then handed him a sandwich.
"Thanks for trying to save my friend last night, Raven. Those daggers really do some serious damage."
She snorts, then says,"Don't thank me. I literally just abducted you unwillingly and brought you to your dad—or our dad I should say, and you didn't even want to see him."
"Yeah, but he can help me find my friend."
She shrugs, taking another bite.
After they had finished their sandwiches, the man spoke. "I have been waiting and plotting for a long time to finish this mission. And T, I know you don't really know what you're getting into, so I'm gonna show you." The man hands him an old, leather bound book with thick pages out of the sandwich basket. Some pages jut out at the edges, like they were put in there hastily.
"Read," the man instructs.
"The Demonic War?" Travis asks, dusting off the cover.
"Yes. Then maybe you'll see why I have to do this,"
Soon, Travis realized that it was almost dark. The book had ripped out pages stuck inside, with little notes scribbled out here and there in his father's slanting handwriting. The man had also written some extra notes in the book, the writing sometimes filling up half the page.
Blue blood. Enhanced abilities. Those Valkyries really are dangerous. And.. Dark weapons that could destroy them completely? He thought. Those were powerful weapons that no one should be wielding.
"Finally. We can begin," the man rubbed his hands greedily.
"Now we just watch and wait," Raven says, turning to look up at the darkening sky.