Troublemakers!Benchtrio AU

Traits of a Raven || Original Work

  Song is A Million Doubts by Glassio (this song reminds me of Ghostbur). Art is Tommy in stages (I guess. Seriously, what do I call these?).

Symbols of a Raven

Written by: emmict

Word Count: Roughly 1700 words

Note: This was written by me for a writing contest my library is doing. I am unsure of the results yet, as we turned them in just this past week. I will be sure to tell you guys the results when I get them! Thank you so much for the 3k! 

Trigger Warnings: Extreme misfortune (seriously, no joke), death, blood. 

Symbol One: A Shapshifter

The sun. The sun was bright and vibrant and strong, yet it was of no good news in the small town of Snowchester. Despite its name, the town had not seen snow in a good couple of decades. In fact, over the past few years, the land and air had been dry and the waters had begun receding.

It was on that hot mid-afternoon that a young boy sat in the fields, wishing for some water or shade or respite. Anything really to stop the unrelenting heat that washed the flat tundras of farm land for miles and miles.

It was on that hot mid-afternoon that he saw him.

The man was dressed in black, strange for a day so hot. He was too far away for the boy to make out any features except for elegant black clothes and a silver cane. The hood of his cloak was pulled over the stranger's head.

To his astonishment, the man pulled down his hood, spread his arms, and flew away.

The boy stood up, watching the raven with brilliant black plumage soar across the sky and into the distance before vanishing. He stared at the spot where the man had been standing. Nothing remained, or so it seemed.

He tried convincing himself that it had been the summer heat, but the next day he found a cane lying abandoned in the stocks of wheat.

Symbol Two: Ill Omen/Harbinger of Tragic News

It wasn't until the boy was six years older and leaving his childhood behind that he saw that raven again.

He was a strong, young man with prominent features, despite being only in his midteens.

The raven landed on his front porch, and when he opened the door to leave to help his master, a farmer of some renown, he was stopped in his tracks by the bird.

"Coming," it croaked.

The young man stared. After a moment, he said "What?" and then felt foolish for talking to a bird.

The bird hopped back and forth a couple of times then said, "Coming" again.

The young man looked around to see if anyone was watching. No one was. He crouched down to the bird's level. "What's coming?"

"Dry! Withered and dusty!"

The bird flew away, leaving the young man confused.

Symbol Three: Bad Luck

A month later, the young man finally made sense of the raven's words. For a while, they had thought they were finally beginning to recuperate. Apparently, they were wrong.

The drought returned, its grip stronger than ever, and the land withered and crumbled to dust.

The young man began to blame the raven. Raven's were bad luck and ill omens, everyone knew that. It had said that things would get dry, and here they were. The raven clearly knew what it was talking about, and did nothing to help. Nothing besides croak a few words to a young farmer boy.