I rode on a horse down the plain relief of Verlo with Rafael on my shoulder. I felt strong as much as I felt tired. I had been going forward non-stop, with little breaks not for me, but for the horse. Rafael pulled out a map now and then to check the direction as I held it out for him, but when we were halfway across the endless fields, he stopped checking the map, but flew above me as if he knew this part of Verlo from a bird's view better.
“Are we close?” I asked, as the crow landed back on my shoulder.
“Yeah,” he said in Erlan’s reassuring voice, but it didn't help me trust the little bird.
“How do you know that?” after my question the bird fell silent. I wasn't going to pressure the crow, so I let it be. The silence was filled with the horses' huffs and stomping on the gravelled path we had been following for a day.
But it wasn't long before the crow talked again:”I have been here before.” This time he didn't use anyone’s voice. It sounded so mixed with everyone he had heard it was his own. “I fly this way to deliver messages to my master,” he fluffed himself up as a child would do after doing something bad.
“Master? It’s not Erlan, is it?” He had never referred to Erlan that way, and I knew for a fact he never really did anything for the wizard.
“He would never be my master. I respect him too much for me to ever sit on his shoulder,” he said with an arrogant voice.
“Why is that?” The bird was making me more and more curious.
“Because the master I serve is evil, Erlan could never be my master,” this time I understood the bird. The crow would never take Erlan as a master, for he was too good for the little fella. But why did he serve a bad master if he had such a good friend as the wizard? “I’m sorry, Princess, I’m not as strong as Erlan was and I couldn't confront our master,” he apologised. The bird seemed open to questions, so I had decided to please my own curiosity.
"Our master? Do you serve the same person Erlan does and who is it?” Rafael nodded:”my master is a man you do not know and I wish you will never know.” I searched back in my memories to the day when the young Omargan prince came and he had talked about Questins' leader, who would use the mighty dragon as a weapon.
“I have heard of him!” I was delighted to be able to figure a few things out.
Rafael just sighed:”Poor Erlan, he has no saying when he is around. Mastermight be who I obey, but he has no true control over me.” That scared me. Did it mean Erlan didn't have a choice but to do everything his evil master ordered him to do?
“What do you mean by that? Is there no way for us to help him?” We still were unsure what we would do when we found Erlan and supposedly Verlos' army, but now was as good of a time as any other. Rafael fell silent again, probably thinking things through in his mind.
“The staff is what he uses to control Erlan, but the problem is we have to take it from him,” that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It shouldn't be too hard to fetch a staff out of someone's arms. Didn't even have to fight him if you did it quick enough. “I could do that!” The bird yelled in excitement and I could recognize Erlan’s voice. It made me wonder when he had said that with such a confident tone. Rafael would have been listening in on the king and Erlan making their plans so that he could report to his master. Made me realise how good of friends father would be with Erlan. I knew my father would take care of Erlan and wouldn't let anything bad happen to him, as he did, restraining to tell the Omarga knights who Erlan Dolos actually was. The bird took off again, making sure we were on the right path from above. The weather was refreshing, and it seemed the Sun would soon peek through the stormy clouds. Rafael's little silhouette went so far he was just a speck of black in the grey sky. Even though he was a crow, there was some wonder in the way his feathers ruffled in the cold wind. He had been a spy for the enemy’s this whole time, but the more I thought about it, the less angry I was. There was no way anyone could stay angry at the little mischievous crow.
I was pleased with how freedom had wrapped around me, just as the wind did with Rafael's wings. It was much more pleasant out here than it was in the palace, though home was warm and promised safety. The open sky and the sound of your own footsteps made a wonderful feeling. Although it was big and I was small, I wasn't scared of what would happen next. I knew that I would stand brave because my love needed me. My prince was the colour in my world even now, when I had learned myself to take action and when I had seen the beauty of the endless fields of freedom. I was content to find my prince and never let him go because of moments of doubts. A swoop of air raised my hair and made my little wooden crown shake. Rafael had returned, but he didn't land on my shoulder, this time almost floating in thin air. “Princess! We should rush!” He squawked, and I hurried the horse into a gallop, Rafael staying right next to me in flight.
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