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Chapter XI: A Simple name, a choking bird, and the time to take charge arrives.

Andrew managed to get a small fire going with a bit of effort and some encouragement from his buddy the raven. He laid Sonja down as close as he dare and then took off his ridiculously large shirt and laid it over her.

“You are gonna get cold,” his friend said.

He nodded and then looked at the large black bird on his shoulder. “I don’t seem to remember your name? You do have a name, right?”

The raven hopped off his shoulder and bobbed his head indignantly. “Of course I have a name. What do you think I am? One of those lousy pigeons or something?”

Andrew quickly apologized. “Of course I don’t think you are a pigeon. I just… well changing back and forth from a person to a raven has sort of hurt my brain.”

The raven nodded. “Yes, yes. I can see how all of a sudden having no wings and feathers could make a bird lose his mind.”

There was a brief silence punctuated by Sonja’s squeekish snoring.

Finally Andrew asked, “So, what is your name?”

The great black bird tilted his head and replied, “It’s Raven, of course.”

“Raven?”

“Of course.”

Andrew thought on this for a moment then decided he had best let it go and work out a plan on how he was going to get Sonja to the court.

“I suppose I could carry her,” Andrew muttered to himself after a time. “Toss her up on my shoulder and just carry her.”

Raven went over and poked her with his beak. “I don’t believe you could carry her mammoth weight all the way out there.”

Sonja’s hand shot out and caught Raven around his neck, squeezing a bit and bringing his little bird body close to her mouth.

Her voice was weak but still carried a tenor of her storm-like nature in it, “Would you like to rephrase that?”

Andrew jumped up and was at her side in a moment, totally ignoring his choking friend.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“I am feeling like it might be fun crushing your little friend here.”

He reached down and took her hand in his and she let go over Raven who cawed indignantly and hopped off out of her range.

“I don’t know how I am going to get you to court.” Andrew told her. “I don’t even know where court is.”

She smiled, even though it was obvious from her eyes that she was gripped in deep pain. “Remember what I told you?” she whispered. “This thing we are doing was going to have a moment where you needed to take charge. This is that moment.”

“I don’t know where the court is.” He pleaded.

She closed her eyes. “I’m going to go back to sleep now. Your buddy calls me fat again I will eat his wings with a nice little dipping sauce.”

Andrew squeezed her hand. “I don’t know where the court is.”

Raven jumped up on Andrew’s shoulder. “She’s not too nice sometimes.”

“You called her fat.” Andrew said still squeezing her hand. “She didn’t seem to like that and besides, you can see that’s not true. She’s just about perfect looking.”

The bird glanced at her and replied, “She’d certainly look better with feathers.”

Andrew dropped Sonja’s hand and left her to her snoring. He stood up and looked out into the night where he saw, miles off, a large gathering of camp fires. His mind clicked and he had a plan.

It was his turn to take charge.