[Corvus POV]
Corvus had a recurring dream that always came to him whenever he was grieving over his fate, to be isolated forever in this tower, like a monster that should be caged until his death.
The dream was about a girl with wavy dark hair sitting at the lakeside. She wore a maid dress and was quite beautiful, though her beauty would not bedazzle those in a banquet like a princess. She was a modest beauty with a thin smile on her face.
The girl would often come to his dream and asked. 'My prince, are you lonely?'
Which Corvus replied with a nod.
'Then, come to me, fly with me together since the sky is only for us,' the girl smiled as she got up from the ground. 'Or you can always accompany me in this lake.'
The girl did a sequence every time she entered his dream.
One hop.
Two hops.
Spin.
And jump
The girl jumped inside the lake and magically emerged as a black swan. Showered with the moonlight, the black swan swam beautifully across the glittering lake, swimming around as if she asked him to come with her.
Corvus could only watch her from afar until he decided to turn into a raven and fly above the swan. Though they were two different species of shapeshifter, the black swan swam across the lake with the raven flying above her harmoniously.
And when they finally finished, the black swan returned to the lakeside and did the same sequence and turned back to human. Then she said. 'My prince, meet me in the Swan Lake behind the palace, under the hill. You will know that it is me when you see me for the first time.'
After that dream, Corvus went to the Swan Lake that the girl mentioned in his dream. He saw a girl with a similar appearance often jumped to the lake and turned into a black swan, but when Corvus approached her, he realized that it was not the same black swan.
Corvus did not understand it either, but he did not get the same butterfly in his stomach when he approached this black swan. He could not feel the connection between them.
Thus, Corvus came to Swan Lake every night as a raven and wait until the girl in his dream appeared. It took him countless nights until the same girl jumped to the lake and emerged as a black swan as usual.
But this time, the black swan felt a bit… different.
The black swan looked confused, rather than her usual calmness. She honked few times in panic and hurriedly went to the lakeside.
She honked a few more times, not knowing what to do.
'Is that really her?' Corvus pondered. But seeing the confusion in the black swan, Corvus finally realized that this girl might be the same girl that came to his dream often. Although he did not understand what happened to her either, he could sense the familiarity. When Corvus saw her, his heart was inevitably soothed.
Corvus flew towards the black swan as a raven. He landed on the stone slab, curiously inspected the black swan.
The black swan honked at him few times, confused about how could she turn into a swan.
'So, she is a different person…' Corvus concluded. The girl did not understand her ability to shapeshift into a black swan. In contrast, the previous girl did it often without trouble.
Corvus did the sequence that the previous girl did whenever she wanted to turn into a black swan, and the current black swan followed and dove to the lake. Then, she emerged as the girl from his dream.
Corvus stared at the face that always came to his dream every night. She was actually almost identical to the previous girl that came here often, but when Corvus observed carefully, she was slightly more mature, and her gaze had changed.
She was not the dreamy girl that came here often. She looked modest and grounded, like a girl that had faced the reality of life.
As if the previous girl and this girl was the whole different person that switched soul, same face, different soul.
Corvus went to bring her dress and towel. He put it on the stone before leaving. He didn't have any intention peek at the girl like a pervert. Thus he went inside the wood to find an ivy that could guide her out of the woods.
Using the ivy, Corvus guided the girl out of the woods until they met the stone pathway leading to the back of the palace.
"I should go there? Am I a palace maid or something?" the girl asked.
'She doesn't even remember her origin in the palace. That means… she really is a different soul,' Corvus concluded.
Corvus accompanied the girl until she was near her friend, who waited anxiously behind the palace. He flew far away without the girl knowing.
He watched from afar as the girl finally followed her friend inside the palace and sneaked inside the maid chamber. Corvus perched on a tree not far from the maid chamber before returning to his tower, the Prince Tower.
He ruffled his feather before turning back into a man with a feather cape. There was a gust of wind when he transformed back into a man, and that wind should be dangerous enough for any human near him to die out of asphyxiation.
Corvus was in his early twenty, handsome, with thin lips and a straight nose.
His eyebrows were straight, but he had a raven feather at the edge of his eyebrows. He also had raven feathers on his cheeks and some part of his neck.
He had dark blue hair and dark blue eyes, a contrast that baffled everyone. His pupil was a small dark spot in the centre, very similar to regular raven eyes. This was because he still didn't have complete control over his own power.
The power that killed his father and little sister, King Orion and Princess Serena.
Corvus sat on the window, staring at the full moon that seemed to get closer yet unreachable. He finally met the girl from his dream, and he could not lie that he felt a slight comfort when he perched on her shoulder.
But what for?
The human Prince Corvus Lunaris had been trapped in this tower since he was ten. He might never be able to see her other than using his raven form.
Because he was too dangerous for her. Too risky.
And he didn't want to hurt anyone, let alone the girl that soothed his heart.
"It's okay. I may never see her with my human form. Because I just plan to stay beside her," Corvus said to himself. He was not in love with that girl. How could he fall in love with someone from his dream without knowing her true self?
"I will just accompany her as a raven, staying beside her to soothe my heart."
"I will never fall in love, I promise."
"Because I'm a monster…"