”Your perception is very keen Audra.”  Benaiah said. “And you’re right. It is going to hurt very much. Of a truth there is one thing in your favor. The arrowhead is already all the way through. It is not lodged in your shoulderblade as I had feared.<br/><br/>Alright, get ready. . . bite down hard as I count to three. One . . . Two<br/><br/><i>At the count of two he pulled hard and straight. The arrow slid out with less resistance than he expected. It made a sucking sound as the flesh closed around it. Immediately he spun around and dashed to the fire to retrieve the heated blade. He hastened back to the cot and cut away the splintered flesh. He was careful to take as little as possible.  The air was filled with the stench of searing flesh and blood as the hot blade hissed.  He seared both the entry and exit of the channel.  Then packed both sides with yarrow to soothe and aid in clotting.  He had forgotten to lay out the bandages for cooling so it was a minute or two before they were cool enough to apply. Other than that, everything went very well.</i><br/><br/>“Okay, you can breathe now.” he said. “We’re done.” You'll need to stay still for a day or two and stay propped up as much as possible. I guess I could stay here to tend your wounds until the critical period has passed. Lie still and I’ll take this bucket to the spring and get some fresh water. I suppose you’re thirsty after all of that. You’ll need your strength too, so this evening I will hunt in the forest for some meat.”<br/><br/>Benaiah’s eye caught movement at the window. He shifted his gaze and there beheld a large raven sitting on the sill. The bird cocked its head to and fro as it peered inside. Ben fanned his arm to shoo the fowl away but it stood firm on the sill and protested the attempted banishment in its raspy voice.<br/><br/><div class="bbMediaWrapper">
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</div><br/>“GO AWAY you pesky bird!” Benaiah said sternly.<br/><br/>“No!” replied the ebony feathered intruder. “<br/><br/>“Wh . . . What’s this? Benaiah exclaimed in wonder. “The bird speaks?!!” He turned to Audra. “Did you hear that?”<br/><br/>“ I would have a word with you Benaiah Stokes.”said the cranky raven.   “I have much to tell concerning you. Much that you need to hear.  Much that you deserve to know.”<br/>“I wasn’t always a raven. I appear as such because of a curse that has been placed upon me. My true form is human,  though I have not walked as a man for over twenty-four cycles of the seasons.<br/><br/>The hex was put upon me by by your true father, Benaiah Stokes.  His name is Malgamus. He is a wizard of high degree. He sits his throne high atop Mount Mysteria and fancies himself the master of all he surveys. He was one of the first  seven. He reigns here and his power has been unchecked for generations. He now suffers with fits of madness. The insanity befell him because of his ingestion of a silver elixer that he concocted. His beastmen extract and refine the silver from  the mines that lay deep in the belly of the mountain.<br/><br/>Your story, Benaiah, begins when Malgamus stared into his silver gazing ball and saw that Rachel, your mother, was fair. He watched her continuously. His lust for her became an obsession.  It was during the great war when her husband, the man that  you have called father all of your days, was away.<br/><br/>Malgamus took the form of an incubus and through the weakness of Rachel’s sleep did ravish her nightly. He violated her in that fashion for seven consecutive nights. Seven nights of passion. It was upon the seventh night that his seed took root in your mother’s womb.<br/><br/>I was his apprentice and human at the time. My name was Opledor Kreet. I confronted him on the first night when I percieved what he had done. I am sure it was due to his madness. The madness induced by the silver that even today courses in his blood and his mind. There was no reasoning with him, for he was consumed by his own lusts of power, sin and silver. It angered him that I disagreed with his actions. He cursed me to ever be in the form of a raven and banished me from his court to these forests and the foothills.<br/><br/>The bird then turned its eye toward the woman on the cot. As for you Audra, Daughter of the Valley, you know all too well of how powerful and dimented Malgamus has become. You too are cursed by him aren’t you?<br/><br/>There might be a way to break the curse, though it sounds preposturous. . .”