“Losa!” Magenta shouted as she reached the room. She saw Losa reading a book.
Losa raised her eyebrows and folded the book. She saw Magenta, who had called her name. She took a deep breath and asked her friend. “What do you need from me?”
“Mrs Luz wants to see you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Usual, she saw me again as her messenger. Ugh! I want to finish reading this book.”
She put all of her belongings in her bag. Magenta patted her on her shoulder.
“Alright, Mage. Just wait for me here for the next class.”
Magenta nodded and smiled, then she left.
---
“I WANT you to deliver these files in the faculty room, on the fourth floor. Put them on my desk, got it, Losa?”
She nodded at Mrs Luz's order.
“Good.”
She took all the files and then left the room. Jing is thinking of why Mrs. Luz faculty room is on the fourth floor? She’s wondering why.
A few minutes later, she reached the fourth floor. She was gasping when she stopped in front of the door of the faculty room. She laid the files on the floor before she opens the door.
When she opened the door, her eyes widened. That is not a faculty room! There're no papers, tables, and chairs. But it was a very dark dead forest and a haunted kingdom full of crows.
“What. . . the. . . hell,” she whispered.
She steps back away from that place full of darkness. Crowds filled the black kingdom. The trees are shrubby and no leaves; it looks like a forest of death.
A black smoke surrounded the whole place. Jing heard the cries of many souls from a bottomless pit. Her body weakened because of fear.
Suddenly, she heard footsteps from her back. The ground twitched, and the crow roared in the air.
A black smoke struck her, causing her to feel dizzy. Strange strength sprang up all over her body. She stood up while her two hands were on fire, and she is wearing a suit of armour.
She looks like a human crow. Suddenly, she heard a loud moan again. A rolling smoke is approaching her, but she broke it using the fire in her hand.
“Shit! A giant creature!” she whispered with gritted teeth.
Whatever the reason she is in this place, she needs to survive and save her life. She needs to protect this kingdom full of darkness. And she’s sure that is her mission at this moment. She needs to fight!
--
“LOSA! Losa! Are you okay?
She woke up immediately because of Magenta’s voice— Magenta is her friend, or she thought.
She got up from her bed then she touched her head when she felt its aching. She glanced around the room where she was— she is inside the clinic.
What happened to her was mysterious, but why is everything so real?
“Mage, how many days I have slept?”
“Duh! How many days? You have only an hour’s sleep. Mrs Luz found you on the fourth-floor unconscious. What happened to you?”
Her forehead creased, but why in her dream, he had been there a week. But why in this world is it only an hour? Did she come to that palace?
“Go ahead and rest. I’ll buy you something to eat.”
She had let Magenta go. She took deep breaths and stared at her two hands. She tried again to build a black smoke and fire out of it, but nothing is coming out looks like in her dream.
Once again, she felt pain in her head and a little dizzy. She tried to open her eyes, but it could not; also, she became unconscious.
*
SHE WAS in the place where she had been– in a castle surrounded by black smoke and crows.
According to the Giant in her last dream, she had spoken to, a witch cursed that kingdom, and all the peculiar creatures there were made crows.
Giant also said that the Prince she needs to save was a giant crow and only once appeared in the palace. The said prince just found at the top of the castle.
The palace cursed for decades. It was also decades ago when a woman came to the Blackerous kingdom to choose as a damsel crow.
Unfortunately, that woman is not the chosen one, and then she came. To know that she destined to save the cursed palace, she had to fight the prince.
She has to wrestle, and when she beat the prince, it means she is the one they have been waiting for to get rid of the curse. But when the prince hit her, that means she is not the raven girl they are asking. If that happens, she brought back where she came from; her memory will be gone, and no one will remember her.
“Are you ready?” the Giant asked her. It is next to her, and she seems a handful size for his size.
She took a deep breath. “Ready for what?”
“Ready to face him.”
Her forehead creased. “I came here to meet him at this time?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not ready yet! Then I don’t know how to fight!”
He grabbed her and placed it on his vast right-hand palm. “You don’t need to know how to fight, my dear princess. Just use your heart and mind. That how to fight.”
She smiled because the Giant said.
Something built in her chest— a burning fire of heart— maybe she is ready now. No hesitation.
She faced the palace— ready to facmeete the prince. No matter what happens, she needs to end it all.
