Chapter 5

Raven's POV

Three years later.

I watched from my hut as the sun rose in the sky. The entire sky was coloured pink and orange. It looked so pretty. The villagers were now waking up at this time. Actually they were getting up earlier than usual lately. Tomorrow night is when three girls would be sacrificed to Ami.

I haven't seen him in two days. When we last met, he had told me that the day before the sacrifice, he would come get me. He had some work to get done back home. All I had to do was wait for him. Which is what I was doing.

I had woken up while it was still dark out. I took a bath in the river. The water was freezing cold that time of the morning. By the time I got out, I was shivering, my body shaking and my teeth chattering. Being who I was, I never dried my skin after my dips in the river. I never had anything to dry off with. So instead, I would stand naked in front of my fire until I was dry, then I would put on a dress. I actually had five now. All courtesy of Ami.

Once I had put on the prettiest white dress, I sat by the broken window of my hut as I watched the sunrise. A tremor went through my body. I gripped the rotting wood as I bit back a cry. Recently, the tremors I always felt when Ami was approaching, were getting stronger. Actually they were becoming a bit painful, too painful.

But that doesn't matter right now. The point now is, Amon is coming! Peeking through my window, I scanned the forest for any signs of my forest beast. Or rather, my demon. Between the trees behind my hut, I saw a shadow move and a twin green glow. Ami! The green glow were his eyes glowing in the dark.

Dashing outside, I ran across the grass before, making it to the forest. Looking around I spotted him. Leaning against a tree with his arms crossed against his chest was Amon. He wore a fitted black pants and fitted shirt. Squealing in delight, I ran up to him, literally jumping into his arms. He laughed in my ear as he hugged me tightly. Wrapping my arms and legs around him, I squeezed him. I really missed him. Yes he is the beast of the forest that everyone in my village is afraid of. But to me he's an important friend. He's my only friend.

Since the day he saved me from the villagers, he opened up to me more. He showed me his human side. He let me call him Ami. I know he wasn't happy about it the first time I called him the name, but he actually told me that I could call him anything I wanted.

"Hello little Raven." And he took to calling me 'little Raven' since that night three years ago.

"Hi Ami!" I leaned forward and kissed his cheek.

He chuckled and held me tighter. He set me down on my feet and held my hand as we walked deep into the forest. We went to our usual spot, the river. He sat down and I sat between his legs. He brought forward a tray of food for us. This had become one of our daily routines. Everyday when we meet up, we would have breakfast, then go exploring. He knew the forest better than anyone. So everyday he would show me a new area.

While I bit into a slice of bread covered in butter, he leaned back against the tree.

"Little Raven? Why so silent?" He asked, leaning forward to look at me.

Chewing, I looked at him innocently. What was he talking about? Let me eat Ami. I'm hungry. I looked at him confused. He shook his head and took the bread from my hands. I tried to snatch it back from him. All he had to do was stand and my bread was lost. Pouting, I sat down, grabbing a piece of fruit in the process instead. This was not over. I will have my bread back.

"I'm not quite. I'm just hungry Ami. I didn't eat well in the two days you weren't here. I couldn't find any more berries or nuts. Even the fishes seemed to be hiding these days." I said, shoving some apple, I think he calls it that, into my mouth.

Ami's green eyes turned red for a second. He growled. The thick black smoke started to form around him. Oh no. He's going to change. Reacting fast, I threw my arms around him, hugging him tightly, ignoring the smoke. It was getting thicker.

"No Ami! Don't change! They didn't hurt me. I just didn't have any food. Please calm down." I begged.

The smoke slowly started to disappear. I felt his arms touch my shoulders. Looking up, I smiled when I saw his eyes were back to their beautiful green.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to. I just..."

"I know. You don't like to see me hurt or hungry."

This is how Amon has been with me lately. He would get pissed off at everything the villagers did to me. Six months ago I had to stop him from trampling the village. When we had met that day, the right side of my face was red and swollen and my head was bleeding.

In front of the entire village, the village head had slapped me hard. I fell down and hit my head on a rock, causing me to get a small cut. He had hit me because once again they thought I stole from them. After he had hit me, he had the priests of the village strip me and throw me in the river. Once I was alone, I walked into the forest. I had made it to the waterfall before I sat in the grass waiting for Ami. When he had emerged from one of his many craters and saw me naked with my face swollen, blood dripping off my chin, he snapped. He had turned into his beast form and stomped to the village. I had to run to catch up to him, begging him to stop. He didn't want to, but I'm glad he did. I still don't even know why I stopped him in the first place.

"Ami....I don't want to go exploring today." I said moving away from him.

"Then what would you like to do today my little Raven." He said.

"Swim!" I said, taking off my dress and jumping into the river.

I shivered on contact, I swam. The water was really cold right now. I called Ami into the water. He hesitated. He doesn't hesitate when it comes to swimming with me. Standing up, I looked at him. He was looking away. His face was red. Why was Ami's face red? I've never seen him like that before. Does he have a fever?!

Rushing out of the water, I ran up to him. I stretched, trying to touch his forehead. He pushed me away and shoved my dress in my hands.

"How many times have I told you never to swim naked again?!" He shouted.

He sounded really angry. Why? I always swim naked in front of him. Why would it suddenly bother him now?

I put on the dress and looked at him. "Ami, what's wrong?"

He sighed and sat down, pulling me down next to him. "Raven you are aware that you are a girl right?"

"Yes, I know."

"Good. Since you don't have anyone to tell you, then I guess I will."

"Tell me what?"

And so he began to tell me how I should be behaving as an eleven year old. About the female body and all that stuff. I will be honest here, my face turned red when he was telling me about breast and female parts. I covered my face. I wanted to hide in one of his craters. I'm really embarrassed. I didn't even know about these things. My entire life I was okay with my nakedness, but now...

"I'm so sorry Ami!" He removed my hands from my face and hugged me.

"It's okay. You didn't have anyone to tell you. Just please. Don't show your body any more. Wet your dress, that's fine. I will always bring more for you."

Nodding, I told him I understood. He also then began telling me about the male body. Let just say, I'm glad I never saw Ami naked. And I told him just that. He laughed and ruffled my hair.

"So... You telling me who I will be eating this year?" He asked casually.

This will be the third year that I would be telling him about who the village is sacrificing to him. Grinning I told him about Elizabeth, Marie and Janice. All three of them had the village brown hair and brown eyes. They were extremely beautiful and skinny. I didn't like skinny. And I told him just that.

He laughed. He fell back on the grass and pulled me next to him. We just laid there in the grass for the next few hours, talking about every and anything. We watched as the sun set, colouring the sky blood red. The only time for the day Amon left me was to get lunch and dinner for us. We ate the meal, laughing at the way the villagers were moving.

Oh. Right now we were sitting on the tallest branch of one of the tress that was bordering the village to the East. Below us, the villagers were preparing for tomorrow. We watched as the men dragged the sacrificial stone to the edge of the forest to the West. The chains were brought forward. The chains were there to keep the girls chained to the stone so they wouldn't run away from Ami.

He laughed as he watched a man shake in fear as he nailed the chains to the stone. His laugher then died down when he spotted the village chef. He growled and tried to jumped off the tree. I held his hand and leaned my head against his shoulder. He looked at me, his breathing slowing down.

He touched my cheek and leaned forward, touching our foreheads together. This has become one of the things that he does the calm himself. I realized that over the past few months. Smiling at him, I kissed his nose. That was another one of the things that we started doing.

"I won't be able to see you for a week again little Raven."

"I know. It's okay. I'll be here. Hiding." I said grinning.

He kissed my hair and wrapped an arm around me. He pulled me close. "Happy birthday." He whispered in my ear.

Gasping, I moved away from him so quickly that I almost fell off the tree. How did he know? I never told him when my birthday was. Well actually it was tomorrow, the day of the sacrifice.

"How did you know?" I asked stupefied.

"I know everything about you. Plus I heard you talk in your sleep. So when is it?" He grinned at me, looking all innocent.

"Tomorrow. I'll be eleven."

"I promise, when I return, I'll celebrate with you."

"I'm holding you to that." He smiled, touching my head with his large hand. Pulling me close once again, we watched the villagers well into the night.

**********

THIRD PERSON POV

In the village chef's house, he was having a meeting with the main priest. More like an argument. The village chef wanted to sacrifice Raven this year. Every year, the same argument takes place. It was the priest who told the village chef that they can never sacrifice a child. The beast of the forest would run rampant through the village if they ever did.

"So we cant kill the freak and we can't even have the beast kill her?!" Halphas, the village chef shouted, slamming down his wine goblet.

The head priest, Leraje, pinched the bridge of his nose. Oh how he hated Halphas. The man was as vain as they came. Every year he would bring up the same topic, and every year Leraje would turn it down. Yes he hated Raven just like the other villagers, but he was the one who came up with the idea of sacrificing their women to the beast. The village had an over population of women.

But lately, the number of women being born into the village was dwindling. There was only a few teenage women left. In a few years, he might actually listen to the stupid village chef and sacrifice younger women.

"For the last time Halphas, we can not kill her. The beast will know she is a child." Leraje tried to explain for what seemed like the thousandth time.

"But we will offer her, right?"

"Yes. We will. Once she is of age, we will offer her to the beast." Halphas grinned at the thought. "Wonderful. Now send in the girls. I want my fill of them before tomorrow night."

Nodding, Leraje, went to get the women they would be giving the beast. Every year, both Halphas and Leraje would have sex with the women. The beast wouldn't know the girls weren't virgins so it didn't matter. Not all the eighteen year old women of the village were virgins anyway. So what would it matter that he and Halphas had sex with them.