Short Story

Marcus had a bemused look on his face that melted into one of pure incredulity. First she refused to come down, and then , she wandered off without leave? As a naval commander and ship's master, the penalty for any slave who left the person of any officer without leave was to be lashed to the deck for a half day and get 10 strokes of the Cat. And yet, this brazen cocotte with the copper tresses felt free to so disrespect her own Master in his own household?

it is life, Mama!” Mama: “Oh—so now its life. Money is life. Once upon a

The shouting grows louder, and the smoke from the other building wafts into ours, forcing Polo to lay on his stomach. After a few hours, a loud grinding of metal on metal comes from above us, and the building begins to shake. For some reason, I feel the absence of solid ground. I fly out of Polo’s pants pocket and see that I am outside the building and falling toward the ground. The world seems to spin; one second, I see the pavement below, and the next I look up toward the smoke and flames emitting from the tower. Polo is falling too, only a few feet below me.

Anne Bradstreet, “In Reference to Her Children, 23 June 1659”, describes eight birds and their departure from her nest and expresses her feelings about their absence.

Flight came easy for the black feathered caller to the dead. The Chihuahuan Raven lifted off of the tree limb it found itself rooted to. Dropping a few feet, until it began floating slowly toward the ground were the wind fully caught under its wings. The breeze lifted it bodily into the air with ease. The raven began its difficult task of collecting. With outstretched wings, a full stomach for the carrion it had found lying on the cold hard pavement earlier that morning, and a dizzying understanding of things unknown to most humans, it swam through the air.

“How does she expect a blind bird to soar”, she muttered to herself as she turned her attention back to the hotel room. Her face brightened. The lights were on.

there? What's the password?... it had shut up its windows and drawn shades in an old maidenly

At the bird’s appearance and apparent vocal articulation, he is at first impressed, then saddened. He compares this evening visitor as only another friend which will soon depart, just as “other friends have flown before” (58). But the raven again echoes quite aptly his one-word vocabulary, thus leading the man on to think more deeply about the possibilities that exist at this juncture. Somewhere deep inside him, he has realized that it doesn’t matter what question he poses, the bird will respond the same.

I shuddered and momentarily shut my eyes tightly. Thereafter, I looked up and the small bird was lost like a teardrop in a field of snow. "It is such a cruel world", I thought to myself. Abruptly, out of nowhere, the small bird reappeared from the crevice, puffed out her chest and made strong eye contact with the falcon's fearsome black beady eyes. The much superior falcon could only retreat and flew slowly into the distance as a big relieving sigh escaped my body. Cool soothing raindrops started falling on my face so I swiftly darted/scuttle/hastened

prehistoric animals, were being levitated by pulley rigs, reminiscent of a macabre ceremony requiring witch's incense.

At last I spotted the gates of the burnt castle, lurking in the mist under the shadow of night. The rusted birds perched upon the gate which curled like the long hair of a gracious maiden, had likely remained in the same positions for two centuries, along with the unnatural ever-lasting bloom of the metal roses. Weathered gargoyles guarded the castle grounds, their eyes pouring spiteful remarks to whomever dared look in them. As the faint and melancholy glow of the moonlight began to seep through the branches of the wilting willows, the cold, damp ground shimmered like spun glass dancing across the floor.

I yanked one of the throwing knives out, flipped it and palmed the handle. Using the wall, I slid up, watching the sky for the bird. This time, I didn’t take my eyes off it. It was just as massive as I first thought, as it circled, its wings blocked the sky. It tucked its wings and dove right at me like a large rocket.

He opened the shutters and a raven steps into his room. The bird then rest himself above his door. Above his door is a bust statue symbolizing wisdom and the raven rests himself on top of the statue.

and saw her mom and sister, in their own bikinis. Smiling, she placed a handful of sun screen on her legs and rubbed it in, she continued up to her chest, neck, and face. Offering her sister, the bottle. Taking off her bikini top, she laid face forward, so her sister could place some lotion on her back, and places where she could not reach.

The beeping of a monitor was getting annoying. With the sterile smell and constant humming of technology, Corvus could have really used some music. His body ached from the fight he had won, ached from the damage that was finally catching up to him. His bones had broken numerous times, something he could easily fix. However, now he was just getting his energy back while the lab coat people ran tests on him. They didn't need his consent for anything given the fact that this hospital was not really considered such, but it was the only place he could really go while staying under the radar of the native population here that would be happy to see a bounty hunter like him floating dead in the ocean. Obviously, this was something he did not want,