Hey guys, we're just digging out some old stuff we've worked on, hope you enjoy it!
A lot of time and effort went into this 10 chapter story so we'd really appreciate some feedback as we'd like to know what you think of our writing and how we can improve.

Hope you enjoy it! :)

Chapter 1

Raven was sure he did not just murder someone. Especially not his beloved fiancée. It was a nightmare, a hallucination of his greatest fear. Those were the words he repeatedly hammered into his mind as he fled from where her body lay, her wide eyes glassy and lifeless, staring at him with what he imagined to be resentment. Rivulets of blood seeped from her limp figure, dyeing her pale hair a dark, disgusting shade of red - a colour that screamed of betrayal.

The only thing the man could be convinced of was that he was no longer human, but a mere earthly anatomy of some demon. He found himself labouring to squeeze out each breath in exchange for another shallow sip of life, an amount so small it wouldn't come close to calming him enough to think straight. The explosion of adrenaline he had at first, an awakening he couldn't even recall, was fading. Instead he was stumbling over his own feet on the uneven pavement in a futile attempt to escape reality. Raven could only pray that his legs would take him to some kind of sanctuary from the real world, even if temporary, just to make his heart cease its incessant act of pounding his little remaining sanity into nothingness.

He was more than relieved when he turned into an alleyway despite being forced to endure the sight of more dead bodies littering the ground, their throats slit open by his very own hands. Not that his left one even belonged to him any more. Running through the murky, brown puddles scattered across the grimy street, he came to something that was intended to be a threatening fence. However, it merely consisted of several pieces of wire running through splintered, wooden posts that were covered with a green and white patchwork of fungus. He leaped over the inactive electric fence caging the town, landing in the shelter of

the trees that were inviting as ever with their solid arms held out in welcome. He landed, hearing a familiar crunch under his feet that for once was not the crunch of human bones. Looking around him while he caught his breath, he realised that the forest was exactly the same as the last time he saw it; every branch in its place, every ray of sunbeam leaking through the ocean of leaves in golden shafts of light. But all Raven could feel was a black hole expanding in his chest at the thought of a certain girl; she once accompanied him to this very forest every afternoon to escape the filth of city life and corrupt nobles. He checked his right hand in a habitual search of a ring whose counterpart was still attached to the fourth finger of her slender figure that now lay dead, murdered. It was there, devoid of any attached affection it once had - filled instead with bittersweet memories now tarnished by guilt and loathing. Using his left claw, he was about to destroy the reminder when he heard a lyrical voice, vaguely familiar yet so foreign.

"You shouldn't do that, it looks important!"

Raven looked up in shock. His dull, golden eyes widened with fear, masking the mixed void of emotion housed only seconds before. Only a single word escaped his lips before exertion dominated him. The events of the night smothered him, feasting on his defenceless and traumatised mind. "Seris…?"

He bounded to his room and grabbed his blunt practice sword before heading outside to go through some simple disarming techniques. As a child living in a peaceful city with a protective family, he was supposed to never see any kind of violence in his life. All the fighting was done by Velder's extremely powerful military forces, not that there had been any serious conflict for the past half century. However, for some reason Raven really enjoyed the art of sword fighting and had taken it up as a hobby to do in his spare time. His mother had even sewn a tough, leather dummy for him to practise on, although he never had the heart to tell her that it looked more like a cute plushie to hug rather than a target to hack away at.

"Ha!"

With one last strike, the boy stabbed through the dummy's torn abdomen and flicked the mouldy stuffing from his sword just as he felt a drop of rain fall on his head.

With his sleeve, Raven wiped a thin film of frost off the windowsill and closed the window, taking a second to admire the view of a wintery Velder.

There was a click and the slight creak of a door opening.

"Urgh, I hate the cold", moaned Alex as he entered the room, shrugging his coat off where it landed in a heap on the ground.

"Hardened Black Crow Mercenary can't stand the harsh weather conditions of Velder?" Raven teased in a whiny voice.

His friend groaned as he pulled his crimson scarf off, scrunched it into a messy ball and threw it at the black-haired teenager. "Shut up, it seemed like a good idea this morning but it's just so bloody cold now."

Raven chuckled, "Sure. I'll be out for a bit, I'll probably be back in an hour or so. Noel wants me to go collect the money someone borrowed from him a month ago."

Several minutes later he was trudging through Velder, greeting fellow townsfolk and dodging powdery snowballs thrown by a group of mischievous children with faces tinted a pastel pink from the cold. Snow floated down slowly like little white feathers, dusting the roofs of houses and collecting on the branches of bare trees waiting to bloom, adding to the atmosphere of tranquility and stillness that had settled over the peaceful town.

He came to a simple two-storey terraced residence with enormous plumes of multi-coloured smoke billowing from the chimney. Before Raven even brought up his hand to knock at the door, it swung open to reveal a middle-aged man in a lab coat stained with every colour that could possibly exist in the visible spectrum.

"Raven, thank you for the money and your generosity. Honestly, commoner folk have so much more decency than nobles," he gave the black-haired adolescent a bundle of scrunched up money and began closing the door. "Now if you don't mind, I need to be getting back to my newest experiment."

The door clicked shut, leaving a whiff of an unpleasant something that smelled like wet dog.

Confused, he was backing away from the house when he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He swivelled around, almost elbowing the wooden shelves of a small stall that he had not noticed before.

"Hello! Can I help you?" a young girl asked.

She had slightly curled light blonde hair, bright gold eyes, fair skin and a face that was both pretty and delicate at the same time. In her hands was a plain pot of patted-down soil without even a sign of a plant much less a sprout.

"Oh, um…" Raven smiled shyly, "Just...uh, looking for flowers."

He pretended to look at the stall displays but there weren't many flowers so he ended up awkwardly shuffling up to empty pots and staring at them.

"Sorry, we don't have much at the moment because of this weather", the girl apologised.

"No, it's alright. So uh...what's this one?" Raven asked, trying to back out of the shop politely. He then realised that he had randomly pointed at a pot without anything but a pile of soil in it.

The girl looked at him strangely. "Don't you mean that one?"

She picked up a ceramic pot that held an elegantly bent flower with tiny, white petals, its stem curving over like the graceful neck of a swan.

"Oh um yeah, that one."

"Hmm that's the snowdrop. Pretty isn't it?"

Raven nodded in agreement. "Isn't it one of the first flowers to come out in spring?"

"Mmhm," the girl looked almost impressed for a second, "that's why it symbolises hope and new beginnings."

"Any story behind that?" he questioned, actually finding himself interested in this conversation.

"This flower first became a symbol of hope when a particularly long and freezing winter hit Elrios. The people were going to give up because they thought that the cold winter would never end, but then Salvatore Gaia appeared and transformed the snow into snowdrop flowers, proving that no matter what, winter eventually gives way to spring. But…" she put the pot away as she ended her rant, "I don't think you'll want to be looking at that one for a while. It hasn't fully bloomed yet."

"Oh?" the black-haired teenager looked confused, "So is there anything else?"

The girl looked very glad that she had found someone who was genuinely intrigued. "I think the best one would be the camellias. We only have the white ones at the moment, but those are my favourite."

"Why is that?"

"I don't know...but they symbolise adoration, perfection and gratitude. I quite like that," she answered.

Raven shrugged. "So you've memorised all of this symbolic flower stuff?"

She nodded happily, "My family has owned this little shop for ages and we all have a love for nature, especially this", she gestured at the flowers in the shop, "The meaning every flower has is fascinating, in my opinion."

He paused, before smiling at her warmly and holding out his hand.

She shook it and smiled back. "I'm Seris!"

"I'm Raven."

He had finally achieved his position as the Captain of the Crow Mercenary Knights and never felt so accomplished in his life, but that didn't make him entirely blind to the fact that there seemed to be some unrest among some of the authorities. Raven had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with him not being high-born but he had full confidence in Velder's superior judicial system and his fellow brothers that had trained with him for years.

he thought to himself as he proudly ascended the stairs to receive the shining badge he had dreamed of for so long.

Daffodils.

"You need a haircut~"

"Maybe later."

"You always say that."

"Well I like it this way..."

"Hmm~"

Seris combed her fingers through the tangles in Raven's nest of messy black hair and smiled to herself as he sighed in contentment and leaned into her hand.

"Is that why you don't want your hair cut?" she asked.

Raven grinned, taking her hand in his and rubbing his thumb softly over her fingers. "Maybe."

He leaned in and poked her nose with his,

making her giggle and poke it back, wrapping her arms around his neck and pecking him on the lips. Raven responded by planting a kiss on her forehead, followed by one on each cheek and one on her nose. When he finally kissed her soft lips, he could feel a smile from the slight curl of her mouth.

"I guess our little goody two-shoes wasn't so fit for the job after all," Alex mocked, shoving his so-called comrade in a way that no longer seemed playful.

Raven wanted nothing more than to feel his knuckles slam into that smug face, but instead he grit his teeth and pushed bundle after bundle of clothing into his wooden trunk. The very one he had once walked into that dorm room with almost 12 years ago.

"What's the matter? Going on a holiday already?" Alex asked tauntingly, "I guess the no-name peasant couldn't deal with the high rollers; perhaps it just runs in the blood."

He raised an eyebrow at Alex, who smirked in his arrogant triumph.

Raven shut the trunk forcefully. "Why yes of course," he agreed, ignoring Alex's second statement, "Holidays are generally lovely escapes from what bores or annoys you. Clearly, I deserve one."

"You don't deserve anything."
"Coming from the little brat who leeched off his father all his life? Sure", Raven picked up his belongings and threw on his coat, "We all know that the world is fair and rewards everyone who works hard...or at all."

"So you're leaving?"

"No, just taking a holiday, remember?" he had one hand on the doorknob. "And Alex...this is the last time we talk as brothers."

A silver ring.

In less than a day he was stripped of his title and imprisoned for nothing more than being a commoner in a position that was only fit for someone born to a noble family. Not only had he lost his position and dignity, he had lost his faith in the world and the belief that his beloved Kingdom of Velder could rise above the corruption that had suffocated it for so long.

He sighed as he leaned his head against the numbing frigidness of the metal bars that imprisoned him. Rattling his handcuffs in one last attempt to free himself, he was about to drift off into another episode of troubled sleep when he heard a nervous whisper. "Captain!"

Raven lifted his head and winced as he twisted his neck in the sudden motion. "Kurtis is that you?"

"Yes Captain! We have come to rescue you but we must move quickly," the voice replied.

He heard the click of a key turning a lock and unoiled door hinges screeching loudly as one of his Black Crow soldiers pulled him out and patted him down with a relieved grin, "Geez Captain, you sure aren't looking too good."

"I've been better," Raven gave the group a grateful smile and patted all of them on the back, "Now let's go."

"I don't think so", a familiar voice drawled as a man with silvery hair in a braid and a larger group of militants with torches and swords surrounded them.

The robot, or Nasod, as they were called, approached his broken body. It didn't try to finish him off and release him from the torturous grip of life like Raven wished it would. Instead, the whirring machine spoke to him in a computerised voice devoid of any emotion.

"Your comrades died for you, and you want to avenge them."

"Kill me."

It took a few seconds for the machine to register what he said but it simply replied with, "Do you wish to conquer the Kingdom of Velder and take back what was once yours? Do you wish to-"

"I wish to die!"

"Do you wish for rebirth? Power?"

Power...

Raven nodded once before he blacked out.

Anger. Pain and despair. An inescapable void of darkness.

Power.

Thanks so much for reading!