Caw! Somehow the time had slipped away from her, it was already dark with not a star in sight, only the lanterns on the estate grounds offered a means of dim light. A long sigh escaped the aspiring sorceress as she allowed her head to flop back and stared at the ceiling of the makeshift workshop she had made for herself. The hydraulic lift had been unpacked and assembled, the other items in pieces and strewn all about. Those dark bags underneath her eyes had only worsened as she ran herself ragged with distractions and hardly ate.
Caw! The last thing she wanted to do was go back to her room and sleep. Every time she closed her eyes she still saw those images. She didn’t understand what any of it meant or why it was happening, all she wanted to do was scream. Tinkering with small projects was meditative for her in a way, though she knew deep down that it only put off the inevitable. A yawn parted her lips as she rose and stretched, noting how quiet it was on the grounds this evening.
Caw! Come to think of it, she had never heard a crow at the Estate before. Typically the area was kept free of carrion birds by hunters and pest control. Catisa shrugged it off as just one that got by and made her way out to the courtyard, perhaps with the season’s change the migrational patterns were too much to keep up with this time of year.
Caw! Heavy wings beat behind her, the call of the crow so close it pierced her ears. She whipped her head toward the sound to see the beast’s talons dug deep into a light post with its jet black wings spread wide, blocking out any light behind it. Her brown eyes met the black abyssal orbs of the massive crow and her entire being felt as though it were about to be consumed. Frozen in place, all she could do was stare as images flashed before her once more, screams filled her ears, and suddenly she was back on her childhood farm.
Dilated eyes darted back and forth as she looked around and dared not budge from the spot she stood in. It wasn’t real, it couldn’t be. Everything looked the same, the scarecrow still stood in the fields, even the air smelled the same as she remembered.
“Cat!” Came an all too familiar call from the open doorway of the small wood cottage illuminated by the warm light of a freshly lit hearth.
“No,” Catisa gasped, “This can’t be real.”
Suddenly the light from the hearth grew brighter and brighter, until it began to engulf the small house and flames licked at the window sills before it spread to the fields.
“NO!” She screamed, “No! Take me back to Suramar, don’t show me this! Don’t make me relive this!” Sobs interrupted further protest as the girl crumbled to her knees and buried her face in her hands.
“Awaken.” Came the command of a deep hollow voice void of life and emotion. It wasn’t even really a voice, so much as it just was. Her sobs ceased and she looked up, the view of her burning childhood home obscured by a tall figure with a long black cloak whose features were hidden by a hood save for violet eyes that peered out from underneath.
Her eyes burned from tears that streamed down her cheeks as she opened her eyes and looked around, fighting off sobs that made her chest heave. Tears had pooled upon the platform of the Hydraulic Lift where her head had rested only moments before and her senses slowly began to return in that makeshift workshop, windows still dark and the estate still quiet. Sobs ripped through her chest and she couldn’t stop, voice hoarse as she clutched the fabric of her dress at her chest and croaked, “I burned it, I burned it all down…” Over and over again, practically unable to catch her breath and shaking on the cold stone floor.
