Chapter 249-19: Rain Crow

heavy rain.

In the evening, the clouds turned dark, and a rare thunderstorm in the season hit this small port town with a Mediterranean climate in southern Europe.

The fishing boats lined up at the pier were bobbing up and down in the waves, and their wet flags were fluttering in the strong wind.

Every household closed their doors and windows tightly, but some people's windows were not closed tightly, and made clanging noises in the strong wind, which made people feel depressed.

People who stayed at home used the stored food to cook dinner, and occasionally looked out the window with worry, hoping that their loved ones who had returned home had not encountered any accidents.

A little girl wearing a knitted hat sat at the dining table, supporting her cheeks with her hands, staring blankly at the small cake on the table that her mother had prepared early in the morning, kicking her feet, wondering what she was thinking about.

There were lightning and thunder outside the house, and raindrops hit the doors, windows, walls, and iron sheets, making different sounds of dripping.

Amidst the complex noise, the door suddenly slammed twice, with a loud bang, as if someone was knocking on it deliberately.

The young mother, who had been leaning against the window and watching the line of phone calls that showed no one answering the call, suddenly perked up and walked quickly to the door with a sigh of relief and hope, still muttering something as if complaining.

".Nas, why is your phone——"

As the door opened, wind and rain rushed in like crazy, and even in the summer, it was chilling.

But her expectations were dashed. There was no one outside the door, the sky was full of flying garbage, and the Mediterranean pines at the door were bent by the strong wind, swaying back and forth, trying hard to resist.

"Nas, is that you?!"

Shielding her eyes with her hands, she stretched her head out with difficulty to look around the door, making sure that there was no one else there. She took a step forward and kicked a small lantern-like object lying on the ground that had been blown in from nowhere. There was a faint blue flame inside, but it was clearly sealed, so how could there be fire?

It was probably a decoration that was scraped from somewhere.

The blue fire seemed to have a kind of captivating power that made her lose herself in it even in the midst of a violent storm. After being drenched in the rain for quite a while, she was awakened by a flash of lightning, and the sky and earth suddenly became white. She looked around, picked up the lantern with confusion, and hurriedly closed the door.

Rumble.

The huge thunder resounded throughout the town, making people feel depressed.

"Mom, isn't Dad back yet?" The little girl looked up at her wet mother worriedly.

The woman forced a smile, put the lantern down, straightened her wet hair, wiped her hands, and then walked over to the child, squatted down, and held her thin face in her hands: "Honey, Daddy might have been delayed on the way. Look, it's raining so hard that the car can't move. We can only stay at the gas station and wait for the rain to pass. Don't worry, he left me a message before, saying that if he can't make it back, let's eat cake first."

"But I want to wait for Dad."

"Same, let's eat first. I'll record a video for you so he can see that our baby Phaedra has grown another year older." The woman said softly, "Don't you want to know what daddy is doing? I'll tell you secretly. Wait until he comes back. Just pretend you don't know. Can you do that?"

"Yeah!" Phaedra nodded seriously.

The woman took down the frame of a child's crayon drawing hanging on the wall. The drawing was barely recognizable as a family of three. Behind them, there was a large area painted purple. "Far, far away, um, that's the place you saw on TV last time. There is a lavender field that you like the most. It's full of lavender. At this time of year, when the breeze blows, it becomes a continuous purple ocean. He went to take a picture of the 'ocean' for you."

"Okay, I'm a traitor, you have to promise me that you know nothing, understand?"

"understand!"

Phaedra's eyes were filled with longing, and her inner uneasiness was immediately alleviated.

"Come on, let's eat cake."

"it is good!"

When I opened the lid of the cake, the whole thing was lavender, without any greasy cream. It looked like an ordinary home-baked cake, with a lavender pattern drawn on it with some syrup.

"My little angel, make a wish. I will record it for you and show it to daddy later." After lighting the candles, the mother recorded the video with her mobile phone.

"I, I hope"

Bang!

The two were stunned. It seemed that the window on the second floor was broken by something, and the whistling sound of wind could be heard downstairs.

"Honey, wait for me, I'll go up and take a look."

The mother put down her phone and hurried over.

Phaedra watched her mother leave, then turned around and saw the candles on the cake swaying and almost going out. She was so scared that she quickly stood up and protected the cake.

"Where does the wind come from?"

Phaedra looked around and found that the window seemed to be open a crack, and a slight cool breeze came in.

She carefully spread out her arms, blocking the wind and the cake, in the shape of a big letter "X", and moved slowly and carefully towards the window, step by step.

"Hey!"

With a slight tug, she closed the window tightly.

"Huh? What is this?" After closing the window, Phaedra noticed the small lantern emitting a faint blue light. Her attention was immediately drawn to it. She picked it up carefully and looked at it with fascination.

Behind me, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and my mother complained, "A crow came from nowhere and broke the window of the study on the second floor. The bookshelf was almost wet. It's really..."

Phaedra turned around and walked over with the blue lantern: "Raven, mother, what does a crow look like?"

"It's like this, don't touch it! There might be some virus in it, and it might even peck you." The mother scared Phaedra a little.

Although Phaedra kept her hands tucked in, her eyes were full of curiosity about other lives.

It was a bird lying down, with jet-black feathers all over its body. It looked like an ordinary crow, and there seemed to be traces of burning on the edges of its black feathers.

Phaedra seemed to have seen this kind of bird on TV, but it was never as real as seeing it in person.

My mother was a little worried. Crows are birds with strong symbolic meanings. They can be interpreted in two ways: good or bad. They can bring disaster or be interpreted as a blessing. But in terms of cultural memory as a whole, they usually represent bad things. Why did a crow enter the house at this time? Could it be that...
"Don't scare yourself." She shook her head vigorously, trying her best to put aside those bad premonitions.

Putting the crow on the kitchen counter, she warned her daughter: "I'm going to take a shower first. Remember, you must not touch it, okay?"

"Got it, Mom," Phaedra nodded, hiding the blue lantern behind her.

The woman left satisfied and prepared to take a shower and change her clothes. First, half of the door was wet when she opened it, and then she was cleaning the study, which made her completely wet. If she didn't change her clothes, she might catch a cold.

Seeing her mother leave, Phaedra obediently sat down on the chair on the dining table where the cake was placed. Seeing that half of the candle was already burned out, she became a little anxious and decided to blow out the candle first.

"Santa Claus, this doesn't count as a wish I made. I just want to wait for mom to make a wish together. Please forgive me and let the candle go out for a while." She didn't seem to understand that birthday wishes were not the responsibility of Santa Claus.

Sitting in the chair, the aroma of the cake kept tempting her, but nothing made her more curious than the crow, so she stretched her neck like a giraffe, wanting to see if the crow made any movement, but it seemed that she could only see the rising and falling of its breathing.

At least still alive.

"It takes a long time for Mom to take a bath." Phaedra muttered a few words, peeked back a few times guiltily, trotted to the counter, and carefully observed the unconscious crow from a distance.

"It seems to be soaked." She quickly pulled out a dry towel and carefully covered the crow's body, thinking that this would help it absorb the moisture. She just rested her head on the counter, quietly looking at the crow in front of her, feeling the tenacity of life.

After all, her mother told her not to touch her. No matter how much she wanted to touch her, she had to wait until her mother came out of the shower. She had always been an obedient child.

But while waiting, the small lantern she had been holding in her hand seemed to tremble inexplicably.

She lowered her head and looked carefully up and down, but seemed to have not found any switch. When she looked up again, she saw that the crow had stood up at some point, staring at her with eyes that seemed full of murderous intent.

"Mr. Crow? Miss?"

The crow ignored her and turned its gaze to the small lantern in her hand. Its eyes revealed a human-like look of anxiety. It opened its mouth wide, made a crow sound, and flapped its wings to fly towards her.

"what!"

Duang!

"ga"

Phaedra, who had been holding her head with her eyes closed, slowly opened her eyes. The small lantern in her hand was no longer in her hand, but lying quietly on the floor under the window with the crow.

It was obvious that the crow just now suddenly tried to snatch the lantern from her hand, and then wanted to leave, but because it was too anxious, it bumped into the glass frame and fainted again.

Not only that, there was a little blood on the ground, and it looked like the injury was more serious than before.

"Crow! Crow!" Phaedra walked to the side of the crow, stretched out her hand and then retracted it, anxiously spinning around on the ground, "That's right! Towel, towel, using a towel doesn't count as touching."

She picked up the towel that had fallen to the ground, gently wrapped the crow up, and hurriedly put it back in its place.

"Do you like this?" Phaedra picked up the lantern and after thinking about it, she put it next to the crow.

"Mom, mom, are you okay? The crow is bleeding. It just hit the glass again. It made a loud bang and it hurts!" Phaedra ran to the bathroom door and shouted while using her hands to imitate the sound of wings hitting the wall, making slight thumping sounds.

After a while, the mother, with a helpless look on her face, hurriedly finished her bath and, held by Phaedra's hand, rushed to the crow.

"Let me see. In this weather, no veterinary hospital is open. I'll clean it and put it in a box to see if I can save it. Don't be sad, dear. We have tried our best."

"Oh, oh." Phaedra looked at the crow closely. She believed her mother.

After cleaning and packing up the crow, she emptied out a small storage box and was about to put some useless clothes in it to keep them warm when she saw Phaedra already holding a pile of clothes of her own. The height blocked her vision and made her stumble.

The mother couldn't help but pat her forehead and said, "Fedra, the little crow doesn't need so many clothes."

"I, I just want it to pick and see which one it likes." Phaedra said in a low voice.

"Oh, I'll help it pick one. This one has your favorite lavender pattern. I think the little crow will like it, too." The mother picked out a piece of clothing that Phaedra wore when she was a child, which she probably wouldn't fit into now.

Phaedra nodded, "Well, is that enough? Will it not be warm enough?"

"Enough is enough."

After sending her daughter away, she used the dress to decorate it a little and put some grains in a small container to make a temporary sanatorium for the crow.

But she was a little worried, afraid that the bird might be carrying some disease. Phaedra was already very weak and needed to rest at home. But when she saw her daughter trotting over with a smile after putting away her clothes, her heart softened again.

"Remember, don't touch it. If you accidentally touch it, wash it off immediately and stay away from it. If you get too close, it will easily scare it. Maybe it just hit the glass because it was scared by you."

The mother found it strange to say this. The crow hit two pieces of glass and even broke one of them, but it was still alive. Was it because the quality of the glass was poor or was the crow too tenacious?

After giving repeated instructions, she placed the box in the corner of the living room and celebrated her daughter's unfinished birthday.

Phaedra even cut a small piece of the cake and put it in the box.

"Mom, why is there only one crow?"

"Perhaps, it just got lost. It also has a home, but the wind and rain were so strong that it was blown down. Then, it met our little angel Phaedra. I think it will be infected by your loving magic and recover as soon as possible and return to its home. After all, there are family members there who have been waiting for it for a long time."

"Is Dad lost too?"

"Well, it should just be blocked. Didn't I tell you that place is very far away?"

"Can I please not take the photo? I want my dad to come back soon so he can eat the cake I left for him. If it's been left for too long, he won't be able to eat it."

"If Dad sees that you care so much about him, he will be very happy. Don't worry, he will come back quickly to eat the cake you left for him."

Phaedra looked at the crow, which still showed no signs of waking up but was still breathing. As the crow rose and fell, her eyelids became heavy and slowly closed while she was sitting in her mother's arms.

Her mother held her in her arms, slowly walked up the stairs, put her back in the room, and covered her with a blanket.

"Good night."

She turned off the lights and left, then returned downstairs, pressing her hand on her heart blankly, as if something was making it difficult for her to breathe.

The phone rang suddenly, startling her, but more of a surprise. She quickly answered the phone, pressed it to her ear, and even slowed down her breathing.

"Excuse me, Ms. Talia?"

"Yes, yes, may I ask if there is any news about my husband?"

"I'm sorry, but we can only find the last record of your husband, Mr. Nas, who left Prosvence for the local countryside. According to passersby, he was looking for the lavender fields that were still in bloom, but the Gaul police did not find any trace of your husband after checking."

"That's impossible. He just wants to take pictures. He will come back after he finishes taking them. He must be there, in the most beautiful lavender field!"

"Don't get excited, ma'am. This is just a preliminary investigation. We are still following up. Please wait for our news. We will do our best to get Mr. Nas home safely."

"thanks, thanks"

She didn't know when she hung up the phone. She stared blankly at the photo on the screen, covering her mouth and crying silently.

In her tear-filled eyes, she seemed to see something flash.

She wiped away her tears and realized that it was the blue lantern she picked up. It seemed to flicker just now, but it might just be her illusion. Now looking carefully, there was no movement at all, and it was still the faint blue light.

Picking up the lantern, she stared at it for a long moment in confusion.

"Where on earth are you, dear?"

The blue light was dim and there was no response.

Talia laughed at herself, "I was so stupid. I thought you were the magic lamp."

Wiping away her tears, she turned off the lights in the house and returned to her room with the small lantern.

In the darkness and the sound of night rain, the crow's wings moved gently in the small box.

(End of this chapter)