The Raven

“How can that be? 2000 years???”

“That’s what it says on the internet, Elara.”

She turned to look at him, her sea green eyes wild. “How do you know this internet is accurate?”

“Well, let’s look at another one.” Lubic went back to the search engine and opened the next website. That one just confirmed what the first one said. He looked at about five others and they all confirmed the information. “It looks like they’re all in agreement. We could go and see what the library has to say about this though, if you’d like.”

“Yes, please, let’s go there. This has to be a mistake!”

He checked his watch. “Well, if we hurry, we should be able to make it before the library closes.”

Lubic went to make their excuses to his grandmother. Then they headed outside.

“Your house is so strange looking. Well, all the buildings are rather strange looking. But at least your house is oddly pretty.”

“Thank you, I think.”

Elara’s gaze turned to the sky. “I wonder when it got so cloudy? It was sunny earlier.”

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Lubic said, looking up as well. “Those clouds sure moved in fast.” They were just about at his Protégé, when out of nowhere a gigantic Raven swooped out of the clouds, grabbed Elara in its talons, then quickly flew back into the clouds. Lubic stared dumbfounded as the clouds quickly dissipated, leaving no trace of bird or girl. The bird had disappeared before Elara had had a chance to scream.

It was then he noticed that no one else seemed to be around. “How did no one else see that???”

Elara

"Wha . . . ? How is that even possible? Jaleesa made it sound like Jared was extremely old. How could he be my brother?"

"Well, if I had to guess, I’d say you have the same mother. Although I didn’t think my grandmother would ever come back here. She hated this planet."

"Alright. Let’s pretend this is all possible for a moment. How old would your grandmother be then?"

"Well, what is the year?"

"2007."

"That doesn’t make sense!"

Lubic looked at her blankly. "What do you mean that doesn’t make sense?"

"I . . . I need to see the stars. I need to know how much time has passed."

"Well," Lubic said, checking his watch, "we still have a couple of hours until nightfall. But maybe we can just figure this out. Can you tell me anything that would be historically significant? Like who led your people?"

"Alexander Molossus had just taken the throne."

"Okay. Umm, I’ve never heard of him. Where was he king of?"

"Epirus."

He looked at her blankly for a few minutes. "I have no idea where that is."

"Maybe we should go look at the stars then?"

"We could go and look it up on the internet."

"Internet?"

"Come on, I’ll show you."

The two of them went to Lubic’s computer. Lubic did his best to explain how everything worked. Eventually he asked her to take it on faith that the little boxes could indeed tell him what they wanted to know.

"I’ll bring you to a library tomorrow. The librarians might be able to explain it all better than me." He typed ‘Alexander Molossus’ into the search engine. He opened the first website, skimming it quickly. "Ancient Greece??!!"

"What? What does it tell you?" she asked.

"It says here that Alexander Molossus was king from 350 BC to 331 BC!"

"And what does that mean?"

"He was alive about 2,300 years ago!"

"What??"

Family Values

Lubic felt his jaw drop. It has to be a coincidence! She can’t possibly be the same girl the witch was talking about!

"I’m sure this is quite a shock, meeting each other for the first time. Why don’t I leave you two for a moment?" Mary stood up. "I’ll go and get something to munch on."

"Okay," Lubic took a deep breath, "just what exactly is going on here?"

"I’m sorry," Elara whispered. "This is all so confusing! The whole world is so strange and terrifying! I didn’t realize I’d been gone for so long!"

"Easy there. It’s okay. Why don’t you tell me what you remember?"

"I remember the witch. Her face is burned into my memory. I can remember faces of people who are gone now. I remember my father visiting. And I can remember my grandmother." She looked up at him. "Where is my father?"

"Okay, first of all, who is your father?" Lubic asked, already sure he knew the answer.

"His name is Jared."

"I’m really sorry, Elara, but Jared is dead."

Tears started spilling from her green eyes. "I thought it was true! I hoped it wasn’t, but I knew, deep down, that it was."

"Is there anywhere else you can go to stay?" Lubic asked gently.

"All I remember is waking up with the clear command to ‘return to whatever family’ I have left. And this was where that led me." She peered up at him. "Everything is changed! The whole world is such a scary place now! This isn’t even my native language that I’m speaking. I don’t know what it is!"

"So how, exactly, do you know that I’m related to you?"

"Well, even if I didn’t just know that you’re my family, we have the same eyes. My father once told me that our family was gifted with eyes the colour of the sea. Only those related to us by blood, no matter how distant, will have eyes like ours. The colour comes from my grandmother."

"Wait a minute. You called me ‘uncle.’ Is that just a polite term for a relation?"

"In your case, no, it’s not."