The world opened up to a broad valley, covered in dense fog. The complete lack of sound caused my heart to skip a beat, and I took a tentative step forward, watching as the mist wisped around my legs with each step, revealing dozens of tiny blue flowers.

The wind picked up, and a gust of air slammed into my back as if it willed me to keep moving forward; however, as the fog rolled away, I froze. Thousands of bodies appeared as the valley opened up in front of me. My heart hammered in my chest as I dragged my eyes across the carnage. Dead warriors still clutched swords and bow's in their hands while others had shields and spears. I looked down at the body closest to me, his eyes dull and staring at the sky, and yet there was a smile on the dead man's face.

I whipped my head from the body to stare into the battlefield, surprised to hear the loud caw of a raven in the distance. I dashed forward, trying to follow its cries. Opening my mouth to yell to it, however, I couldn't find the words, so I kept running ahead, jumping over and around the dead. I slid to a stop just before running into a heap of bodies. The caw came again, causing me to look up. The raven was sitting on the shaft of a long spear. It cocked its head to the side and peered at me with one of its midnight black eyes.

My attention travelled down the spear until it fell onto the warrior. He was on his knees, hunched forward as the spear stuck through his back and into the ground. His leather armour was caked with blood and dirt, and two axes were clasped in his hands. "Agnar!" I heard someone scream and turned when I saw movement. A pale-haired woman scrambled towards him, climbing over the dead bodies as she rushed to him. She fell to her knees and raised her arm, her hand shaking as she gently pushed his dark hair from his face and tucked it behind his ear.

Her shoulders shook, and she leaned forward, placing her forehead against his. "eg vil finne deg igjen, min bedre halvdel." Her voice was raw.

Suddenly the raven sitting on the spear cawed sharply in my direction, causing the girl to spin around and face me, her violet eyes burning with tears, however, she didn't look at me, but behind me. I turned around to see a man with a bow drawn in his hands. His green eyes were promising death and chaos as he smiled at her. "Ikke i dette livet." He spoke and loosed his arrow.

I ran forward into the path of the arrow, trying to stop it from hitting its target. However, it passed harmlessly through my chest.

I turned back towards her just in time to see her fall to the ground.

***

I sprung up in bed, panting as if I had run a mile full sprint. I closed my eyes for a second, then turned to the mirror at the end of my small room. My usual wavy black hair and pale blue eyes stared back at me, and I took a deep breath. "Still me," I mumbled to myself as I shoved off the bed and walked over to the closet.

I jumped a little bit as someone started pounding on my door. "Derik! Come on, man! We've gotta go. Torri is going to kill me if I'm late."

Huffing out a sigh, I walked to the door and opened it. Edam turned to me as I frowned down at him. His dirty blonde hair was combed to perfection, and he wore a simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt "Then go already." I said, making a shooing motion with my hands. "I'm going to go for a run, so go on ahead," I said and started to close the door in his face. However, he shoved himself between the door and doorframe before I could close it completely.

"Torri won't be happy about that. She wanted us all to go together. It's our first day of college." He pleaded.

"Sorry bud, but you will just have to explain it to her, I will see you guys there." I grinned and shook my head as I went back to pull clothes from the closet.

"Fine! But you will hear it later." He said in a sassy tone and then started turning away. "Oh!" He suddenly said, spinning back around so quickly I was sure he would hurt himself. "Cause your our resident bird nerd and all; I figured you would like to know that someone spotted a white raven in the forest the other day." He grinned at me as my head sprung up to look at him and squinted my eyes at his teasing.

His smile widened as I grabbed my binoculars and shoved them into my bag. "I am not a bird nerd. I enjoy bird watching and learning about them."

He shook his head, trying not to laugh and turned to go down the stairs. "Later, bird nerd!"