A Soft Bed

Raven found himself sitting in a small, warm house. He looked around with wide eyes, still doubting himself. Had it truly been smart to follow this man here?

"Here, have a cup of tea." Raven jerked alert when a cup of tea was handed to him by the girl that he had seen earlier before his subsequent associations with Roland.

"Um... Thanks..." He carefully took the warm cup of tea from Xena and looked at it curiously.

"What?" Roland asked when he just saw Raven staring at the cup.

"...It's been... years... since I last had tea." Raven whispered, still staring intently at the cup. He held it up to his lips and took a slow sip. The heat of the liquid threatened to singe his lips, but he reveled in the feeling.

Ronald and Xena watched Raven with surprise.

"Say, kid. What's your name?" Ronald suddenly asked. He did not ask earlier because he did not want to make Raven change his mind about following him back to the village.

"Hmm? Raven." Raven looked up from the cup for a moment to answer. He immediately returned to sipping the tea in his hands.

Ronald studied Raven for a while more while Xena went on to take care of other things. He took in Raven's white hair, blue eyes and the fact that he was a Dark Magic practitioner into consideration as he went over various thoughts.

'I'm just overthinking things. It can't be possible.' Ronald eventually shook his head and dismissed the thought.

"You can rest here for now, Raven. No need to worry about a thing. We can talk more another time." Ronald eventually said to Raven and the young white haired boy nodded in reply. He then got up and turned to leave Raven to his devices.

As soon as Roland stepped out of the house, he found someone waiting for him.

"Hello Roland." A middle aged man whose hair had begun to grey stood in front of the house. He had a chubby appearance but he did not seem to be weak.

"Ah, Chief. How can I help you?" Roland smiled although he already knew what brought the other man here.

"Well, you see. I'm here to talk to you about the boy you were seen with earlier. I'm afraid some people are worried that you might have kidnapped him, as he is not from this village." The man smiled, but the smile did not reach his eyes.

The village chief's name was Gustavo, and he was on good terms with Roland. However, the consistent disturbances from some villagers that did not particularly like Roland had put him in a sour mood.

Roland sighed and stepped away from the house so Raven would not accidentally overhear him. He led Gustavo down a path and began to speak in a low voice.

"Look, Gus. I found the kid in the forest. You should have seen him, he was pitiful. I needed to help or my conscience wouldn't have let me be. I don't know anything about him yet, but I will try to find out. Let him just settle down for now." Roland tried to reason with Gustavo.

The chubby man stopped walking and folded his arms over his belly. "I don't like the mystery around this boy. You know what has been going on in the empire lately. I don't want any trouble, got that?" He directed a stern look at Roland.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure there's no trouble." Roland reassured him.

"Good. Then have a nice day. See you later." Gustavo turned away and walked off, leaving Roland to return to the house.

When he got back, he found Raven sitting alone in the living area. He looked around and failed to find Xena.

"If you're looking for the girl, she said that she would be back later." Raven said when Roland returned to the living area.

"Oh." Roland hummed and went to sit down opposite Raven. "So, Raven. Do you mind telling me where you are from?" He asked.

"I mind." Raven responded instantly and looked at him. Roland's lips twitched as he heard that. He did not expect to get stood up so quickly by a kid.

"..." Roland was speechless for a while. "Are you tired? I have a room you can rest in." He eventually decided to acquiesce and take a step back.

"..." Raven remained silent for a few seconds as he looked everywhere except for Roland's direction. Roland could tell that Raven was still undecided on whether or not he should stay here.

'I need to get more information about him and his past. Only then can I understand his situation.' Roland thought to himself.

 "Come with me." Roland turned around and began to head to another room. Without saying a word, Raven stood up and followed him, eventually stepping into a small room. There was a bed on the floor that was small but large enough for Raven to lay on. "You can sleep here tonight. We will figure out something tomorrow. Good night, Raven." Roland left Raven in the room and did not close the door to avoid making Raven feel trapped. He wanted to make sure that Raven was able to relax as best as possible to avoid anything going wrong. That way, he could coax out more information out of Raven in time.

Left alone, Raven remained standing in the center of the room for a time before eventually bringing himself to walk closer to the bed. He reached out and felt the softness of the bed, his mind going back to a time when things were much more simpler in his life.

'Just this once.' He thought to himself as he sat down on the bed. It was filled with a bunch of hay inside, which allowed his body to sink comfortably into it, compared to the dry and hard roots that he had always used to support his head as he laid on the bare ground out in the wild.

Slowly, Raven fell into a light sleep. A portion of his mind stayed awake, if only barely. But he was not able to sense the black raven that had landed on a tree branch that was within view of the window of the room. The raven let out a low keening noise before taking off once again.