• "Helena!" the woman's voice resounded across the stoney courtyard. "Helena! Fetch some water from the well!"
    "Alright, Mother, I will!" Helena answered. She left her seat from under the oak tree and ran towards the old well. The small, red-headed, girl could barely look over the edge of the well, let alone reach into it, so she climbed the edge and sat there while pulling the rope. Suddenly, she fell over the edge and into the well with a scream. As she fell, her head scraped the inside and she was knocked unconcious before reaching the bottom with a splash. Her mother heard her scream and came running. "Helena? Helena, what's happened? Helena?" she cried. She ran to the well, fearing the worst. "HELENA!!!" she screamed in horror. "Someone help my daughter, please!" she begged, but their house was too secluded from the city for anyone to hear. She could only sob helplessly at the side of the well as her daughter drowned.
    " Cease your sobbing, woman." a voice said. The woman looked up to find herself face-to-face with a masked man on the other side of the well. He wore a black cloak with his hood up, but long black hair escaped it anyways, and swirled around his shoulders.
    " Please! Save my daughter, sir!" she pled. Without reply, the man jumped into the well. The woman's eyes widened in suprise at the rash action. Seconds later, the man shot up from the well with the girl in his arms. Black wings had mysteriously spread from his back, and the woman wondered if asking such an ominous person a favor was a good idea.
    " Helena!" she cried, and ran to the man, who lowered the girl into her arms. " Helena, oh Helena!" she cried with joy, and held Helena close in relief. In doing so, she noticed her daughter's body had gone stiff and cold. Helena had died. " She's dead. We were too late." the woman said bitterly.
    " I can return her life." the man said quietly. The woman looked up sharply.
    " What do you mean you can return her life?" she asked.
    " I can revive her, but she will be in a Life Debt to me." he answered coldly. The woman looked down at her daughter's serene face. Life Debts where known as being terrible, binding, curses that kept one in servitude for their entire life. She looked around indecisively, before frowning up at the dark man.
    " Okay," she said hoarsely, " please revive her." The woman wondered if this choice would haunt her in the future, but in the end she wanted to see Helena's smiling face once more. The cloaked man stepped forward and laid a gloved hand across the girl's eyes.
    " Apodidōnai Bios!" he shouted, and lifted his hand. To the woman's suprise, the girl's eyes were open wide, and staring. Helena blinked with confusion.
    " Mother, what happened? Why are you crying?" she asked. The woman was astounded, and looked up at the masked man.
    " You really saved her..." she muttered in awe.
    " I will return for her, when she is of age, to fullfill her Life Debt. Do not forget, woman, that your daughter's life is mine." he said with a dry smirk. The woman nodded solemnly as she let her daughter stand on her own. The man's black wings began to flap in preparation to take off, when he felt a tug on his cloak.
    " What is your name, sir?" Helena asked him. Her hazel eyes were wide and determined, and her grip on the hem of his cloak was firm. The man turned to regard her for a moment before turning away again.
    " I am The Raven." he answered apathetically. " But you may call me Corvus, Little Helena." With that, he was airbourne, and Helena watched him fly away until she could no longer see him. She then turned to her mother, and was suprised to see her kneeling on the ground in mortifification.
    " Mother? What's wrong?" she asked, concerned.
    " The Raven... he said... he said he was The Raven... Oh Helena! The Raven!" the woman replied, shaken.
    " Who is The Raven?" the girl asked fearfully. She shivered as a chill went up her spine. Her mother was still for a moment, as if in thought.
    " No one, Helena, no one at all." She looked up at her daughter with a weak smile. " No one of importance."