Walking down the path to the gate of Quebec Castle, the trio soon heard the sound of running footsteps coming up from behind them. With his golden eyes wide and his black tufted ears fully erect, Alexander turned to see Ian, Agatha and Hippolyta approaching. Alan and Gemma both stopped to see the two students both appareled for venturing out from Quebec Castle while Hippolyta was dressed as she typically was in a white dress, white pinafore and black shoes.
It did not take long for the six to begin their journey together and so did Alexander walk with these people who he viewed as his family. Many a hunting caracal came to view their humans as such if the humans were good and kind and Alexander's were both very good and very kind.
As they approached the gate, the sudden cawing of a raven, that vile carrion-eating death-bird, rang out. Stopping in his tracks, Alexander listened. He did not know the caw of this raven. The calls of the great horned owls Herod and Cleopatra, whom Captain Smith employed in falconry, Alexander knew well, just as he knew the honking and hissing of that nuisance of a Canada goose Lucifer and while Alexander had heard many a raven, he had never heard this one.
There was something not right here. First the theft of the Holy Grail and now the arrival of this strange death-bird… That it was but a northern raven there was no doubt, but that it was one whose caw Alexander did not recognize was something else entirely. It did not even sound truly like that of a raven, it was more like a demon in the form of a raven. There had to be a connection, like the presence of the Holy Grail had kept this particular death-bird off of the estate.
"Alexander! Come!" With Agatha calling, Alexander ran to catch up to his human friends, yet even then the caracal wondered, was it just a coincidence?