The Raven Queen and the Highwayman.
By Rick Clarke
The one black eye of the raven queen blinked for the first time in a hundred years. Anger grew inside the bird as, from high in the forest’s branches, she felt the quiet whispers of the highwayman crawl their way up the bark of the tallest trees.
Who was this fool man, thought the raven, to claim that all the forest and all its secrets belonged to him. The bird queen stretched out her wings and brought a blanket of darkness over the forest so that the moon and all her stars could not see the ground below. Then down, down, flew the raven queen, guided by the grey flickering light of the highwayman’s soul and by the bright wings of the forest’s fairies, who gazed upon his handsome face.
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