Howard woke up as the rays of the sun hit his face. The window and curtains were open and drawn.
A pain shot up his left hand and he looked at it see a round-shaped injury on it. He wondered how he got it.
He also wondered why he felt energized and ready to fight. He put it down to his dreams and he got out of bed.
He freshened up and headed to the sitting room where he was surprised to see the rest of the team all sleeping in different areas.
Frank was on the carpet. Nike and Juma slept against the wall. Violette was sprawled on one end of the sofa.
Only Winjoy had a semblance of one who wasn't overtaken by sleep. She was covered in a blanket warmly cocooned on the other end of the sofa.
On the table was a brown parcel that was glowing an electric blue. Frank stirred in his sleep and Juma grunted.
That was when Howard saw the healed-up wounds on Juma. It was as if he had been passed quickly through a blender.
He headed for the table and took the brown parcel to the master bedroom.
Like the previous egg, this one too was encased in a silver box. A box that had no seams, vertices or any edges. It would have passed off as a sphere only that it wasn't.
He looked at it closely looking for an etched drawing or any hint.
{Tap on it six times on one face and seven on the face directly opposite it.}
The crow appeared landing on the headrest. It looked at Howard closely and noticed the wound on his hand.
Howard did so and waited. A few seconds later, the box started to unwrap itself as if it was swallowing itself, slowly revealing a gold and blue egg-shaped jewel.
"How did we get it?"
{What day is it today?}
"Wednesday, right?"
The crow shook its head. {Friday the thirteenth.}
Howard remembered the mission was supposed to have happened yesterday. But he didn't recall anything of the sort and the way the rest were sprawled he doubted they would.
{Let's just say that we all succeeded in getting both the Faberge eggs. To you, it was a dream but it really did happened.}
Howard noticed the usage of singular on dream but if he was right he thought he dreamt more than one dream.
He remembered reading a heavy tome that burst into purple flames. Then a red fox and a black raven having a date. He also remembered parts of being part of an extraction team and he met Nyota.
At that thought, his hand pained at the injury and he gasped. The injury glowed and vanished immediately.
It all came back to him, every single detail. The crow watched him and sighed as the injury vanished.
{I should have known, that idiot put a tracer on you.}
"So what do we do next?"
The crow sent Howard a set of mental instructions. He followed them to the letter. He started by pulling out the pocket watch and placing it beside the Chanticleer.
Next, he pulled out the winding button and attached it to the face of the clock on the egg.
His last step was to then tap on the beak of the Chanticleer thirteen times at a regular interval. But for that to happen the cockerel had to pop out at the stroke of the hour.
That was in thirty-five minutes' time. Howard sat back and closed his eyes. Reliving all the moments that had led to this. He had finally accepted his inner self and was slowly outgrowing the teenage mentality.
Being trapped in your own body has its pros and cons. He had come to let instinct take over when he was in danger and he always came out almost unscathed.
The biggest con was he had to hide his teenage mentality from the rest especially Frank as well as his power-ups.
In as much as his adventure with the Crow was coming to an end, he still knew he had much in store.
One was to find out about Lynx, he was certain that was no dream. Which meant she was alive. His heart skipped faster as he thought of her.
Two, his former employer and Nyota Kusni were both alive and working together. From his previous memories, Nyota had killed him after the old man stabbed him in the back.
{Three, we are still stuck together until we finish what we started. Also, He knows you are alive. The tracer though destroyed as it left my domain managed to send an Affirmation to him.}
Howard knew who He was. Not Nyota Kusni but rather the demi-god that had attacked them twice.
A crowing sound rend through the air and a cockerel popped out of the egg. Howard quickly grabbed it and attached the gold wire to it.
He then tapped it thirteen times gently. On the thirteenth tap, the egg levitated and the clockface hand, spun in an anticlockwise direction furiously, kicking up a light breeze.
The golden wire started glowing and the energy zapped down to the timepiece. The crow also turned a golden hue, its luminosity intensifying until Howard had to close his eyes.
When the light died down, he opened his eyes to see a golden-haired, middle-aged woman staring at him.
Howard turned red and loomed aside.
"I didn't think you were that bashful," she said melodiously.
"I'm not, you are naked," he retorted. He felt a breeze hit his back and when she turned she was dressed in a white dress and brown beaded Maasai sandals.
"You must be Crow," Howard said. He received an open palm strike on his head.
"My name is Chronus, but since I took this female form, call me Aian."
"Does that mean that I am now free?" Howard inquired a small ray of hope appearing.
She narrowed her eyes at him and he noticed they were sharper than when she was a crow. The ray of hope fizzled out faster than it had appeared.
"What's the next step?"
"I need a certain set of armour, it's very crucial," Aian replied. "Literally one of its kind. Don't you think it is time to officially introduce the team to me?"