Page 22 of Darkened Wings
A voice on the computer walked me through the whole thing. My heart beat overtime as my stomach did flip-flops while I answered question after question, trying like hell to make educated guesses. The gnawing in my gut told me I was failing. Picking the wrong answers. Right after this test, they were going to know the full spectrum of how much of a fraud of a raven I was, and I would be on my ass, in the human world, starting again from nothing.
But “after this test” was going to be a while. The test was in sections, each of which held many questions, and not all multiple choice, either. Because whoever devised this horror quiz also had a penchant for essay questions.
What does it mean to be a raven?
What do you hope to gain from your time at the academy?
What makes us better than crows?
I made my way through all the multiple choice and fill-in-the-blanks, leaving the half dozen more challenging questions for the end. I had a vague hope I’d run out of time before I had to do them. I noticed many of the others were repeats, reworded. Maybe in hopes of catching me in a lie? Trying to answer in a way that I thought they’d want to hear? My only efforts were turned toward honestly. I did not know what they might want to hear, and so I couldn’t fake it. My knowledge of facts was limited to those I had managed to convince my parents to give me, but just a day and a half of classes had taught me how little that was.
Ms. Leighton left after a while, muttering something about lunch, so I assumed that she assumed I’d be at this for a while. Which was fine with me. But also indicated that she believed it wasn’t possible to cheat on this test.
For me it wasn’t, for sure.
According to the instructions before I began, this was a placement test in order to determine what knowledge the student already had and where they should be spending their time. What classes they should be assigned to. The student should not worry about incorrect answers, assured the computer voice, which had a feminine British accent for some reason. Simply answer with the first thing that came into my head and move on to the next.
So, despite my worries, I did that. Answered as fast as I could. Listened to my stomach rumble because unlike certain administrators, I had not yet had lunch. I wondered if I was going to do better because I didn’t have a full belly, but in my case, it wasn’t something I was unused to.
Would there be any lunch left when I was done?
To my relief, I came to the end of the test and circled back to the essay questions.
What did it mean to be a raven? For me, it meant having someone to help me when I was hurting. To be there when I didn’t have anything else to give, but unlike with the other parts of the tests, this was not something I was willing to share. So I had to come up with something else to say.
Being a raven means sharing my body with another being who sometimes is in ascendance. It is the greatest gift to be a raven rather than any other kind of shifter or, gods forbid, a human. I get up every morning happy in the knowledge, honored by the knowledge of who I am.
I read it over. It was short but sweet and hopefully would satisfy those who wanted to place me that I understood we were the very bestest. I’d almost said I was grateful not to be a crow, but I saved that for another question.
What do I hope to gain from my time at the Academy of Ravens?
The truth of course was that I hoped to have a warm place to sleep, food to eat, and maybe even a friend or two. And an education that might help me support myself later. But a better answer might be,I hope to gain the best education possible in order to fully realize myself as a raven shifter and be an asset to the community.
I answered a few more with equal gobbledy-gook, the crow one just a chance to say we were the best and they had made a bad decision, before I came to the last one. One I thought must be for those who came to the academy later than others.
Why didn’t you come here sooner?This time I almost went with the truth. But then I reconsidered. My parents opinions could stay private.
I would have been here sooner if I could.
Ms. Leighton returned just as I was finishing up. She was holding a box of some sort, like a to-go container, which she found a place on her crowded desk to deposit. Then she dismissed me with a suggestion. “Hurry up or you’ll miss lunch entirely.”
I did not point out that it wasn’t my fault because I was so hungry by now that I feared hesitating even another minute. Instead, I raced out of the room and for the cafeteria. If the results of my test led to being placed in different classes, what difference would it make? I’d still get three meals a day and a warm, cozy bed. And a friend. I felt I could call Astra that now.
Chapter Thirteen
After lunch, I had phys ed, but I had no idea what that might mean here at the Academy of Ravens. In high school gym, we played various sports like softball and volleyball in season, along with silly things like square dancing when rain kept us indoors. Sometimes the teacher had us run laps around the track like we were members of the cross-country squad. There was a reason I was not on that squad. I flat-out hated running. And therefore, I had no desire to do that. I was also terrible at team sports and thought square dancing was for the old people who came into the cafe where I worked for a while. They wore those huge skirts with all the petticoats under that made them stand straight out and took up a whole side of a booth per lady.
So, no I did not love gym class and was not thrilled to learn it was required here at the academy. As I left the dining hall, I hoped I wouldn’t regret the burger and fries I’d gulped in the last five minutes it was open for lunch.
Of course, once again, I had to find where I was going and that made me almost but not quite late. I came upon the class as they were leaving the building and fell in behind the others. Unlike high school, nobody had changed clothes, which I hoped meant we were going to do something easy and maybe civilized, like a stroll through the gardens.
And at first, that was exactly what we did. The door we used to exit led right into the topiary garden, and I had my head tilted back, jaw hanging open, taking in the trees and bushes carved into the shapes of animals of all kinds. Elephants and horses and lions…but after a few yards, it became all ravens, and each of these had a plaque in front of it stating who it represented. It seemed that someone had decided to make this a memorial garden to great ravens of the past. It was beyond amazing to recognize that each one was different from the others. One was taller, one had wider feet, and some had almost perceptible feathers.
“Gwen? Are you coming?” The instructor had paused at the tree line. “If not, I’ll have to mark you as absent.”
“No, I am.” I sped up, trying not to get caught up again in the spectacle. I could come back and read all the plaques later. I didn’t know who those named on the plaques I’d actually read were, beyond the fact the Academy of Ravens deemed them worthy of this honor. Just keeping the topiaries in shape must be tremendous labor and expense.
We marched through the woods for ten minutes or so before we came to a clearing where everyone spread out and sat down cross-legged. Still not sure what we were up to, I took a spot not too close to anyone else, waiting to see what would happen.
