"Croak..."

  Silence.

  "Ribbit, ribbit"

  "Argh," I grumbled before turning over to my back and scratching my exposed abdomen.

  "Croooaaak," once again the same sound echoed, distracting me from my peaceful slumber.

  "Frogs," I thought. " Is it morning already?" I turned my head to hide from the ray of light determined to wake me up. “Did I forget to close the blinds again,” I wondered. No, it felt too early to wake up, so I didn't even open my eyes. I tried my best to go back to sleep, but felt a sudden chilly sensation in my upper body. "Чортов ветер," I internally complained about the wind. With my eyes still closed, I started feeling around me in search of my blanket. Odd, something wasn't right. I couldn't feel the blanket anywhere, but what was even stranger, my bed felt damp and...crunchy? I started feeling around with my other hand. I wondered what that squishy thing I just picked up was. I was laying on my back when I brought my left hand in front of me before sluggishly opening my eyes.

  "Aaaaaaaaa," I screamed as I inadvertently loosened the muscles of my hand causing the hairy yellowish caterpillar to fall on my face.

  "Get off, get off me..." my thoughts were focused on it alone. I would have shouted if it weren’t for fear of it getting into my mouth.

  My body propelled forward, eyes closed. Stopping in place, disoriented, my hands were deep in something moist. Dirt?

  I felt it. It was still on my face. Oh god! It was crawling. “Aaaaa,” I screamed within. Now on my knees, frantically, I started swaying my hands and shaking my head in attempt to flick the disgusting bug away from my face. A couple of leaves fell out of my hair together with that caterpillar. Feeling of dizziness was overwhelming me, but I breathed a sign of relief as soon as that bug was gone. My long frizzy hair was covering my view, all I could tell was that I was in a pile of dead leaves. Confused, I stood up hastily.

  I almost fell down because everything appeared to be spinning around me. My vision went dark. I brushed away the hair covering my face as I leaned against the wall. For some reason, the wall of my room felt slightly warm and sticky. "Was this wall always this uneven?" I thought before realizing that this wasn't my room at all. As my vision finally came back, I could see a freshly made path of crushed vegetation and mud trail leading up a hill right in front of me. My mind was still a bit foggy, but memories of past night's fall slowly came popping into my head. It was most definitely a huge fall based on how I couldn't even see the top of that hill from where I stood. Thinking back, it was a miracle that the only real injury that day was a just a couple of minor scratches and bruises on my arms and knee. The soft, wet mud and heaps of fern and leaves played a key role in cushioning my fall.

  "Well, I need to figure out where I am," I thought to myself while turning around. I was hoping that I could find something familiar and start planning how to get back home. To my surprise, there was snow on this side. Snow? In spring. Something wasn’t adding up.

  I looked behind me, but it was still spring over there. "How is this possible?" I was confused and touched the snow. It certainly felt real. A sole narrow trail was leading deep into the winter forest. There was a steep hill behind me, nothing but snow on each side. There were no other options, I decided to follow the trail.

  I was wearing cow leather sneakers, thin leggings and oversized cotton t-shirt, but surprisingly I didn't feel cold at all. It was snowing heavily all around me. Howling of wind was heard passing through the whispering trees. It had to be freezing here, but the air felt lukewarm to me. I saw my own breath too. "This had to be happening because my mind wasn't fully awake yet," I reassured myself. Maybe I was dreaming?

  The trail seemed to lead me to an archway made of trees. In contrast to the surrounding winter forest of sleeping trees, those trees were in the peak of their spring bloom. The longer I looked in that direction the more voices in my head kept begging me to walk towards it. I had a feeling that all the pain will go away the moment I passed through that arc.

  With every step I took my head felt lighter and the hurricane of a mind I possessed slowly pacified. I spend so long thinking how I can escape this and here it was, peace at last. I felt my ties to reality dissipate. The world around me felt so new and unfamiliar. As I was drowning in a dream I couldn't escape, instinctively I knew that I was about to die. A single thought was on my mind, "It's too late to turn back now." Still I hesitated.

  I stopped next to an archway made of young towering trees with intertwined branches. Luscious, full of life and vigor with moss hanging from its branches, those trees looked ethereal. I found it beautiful how light shining on the bright emerald moss was refracted by the morning dew. A stark contrast to the seemingly lifeless, ominous trees covered in snow.

  This couldn’t be real. There was no way!

  I blinked. Then, the moment I opened my eyes, I saw the same arc. It was different. Winter forest was no more. A plain old green forest was left in its place.

  "What the..." I involuntarily exclaimed. No matter how much I blinked after that, the prior winter forest was no longer there. I closed my eyes and hesitantly I took a step forward to cross the threshold under the archway. A second passed, then "one, two, three," I counted in my mind before slowly opening my eyes. What I saw was just a regular pine tree forest. There was no snow in sight. I looked around, trying to find even a hint of oddity. Yet, everything was normal? I took another step. Every noise was a possibility of a hidden attacker. Then suddenly.

  "Thud!"

  I heard it. Something was hiding in the tree.

  "Tap-tap-tap!"

  "Is it behind me..." I thought as I was trying to remain calm. I couldn't wait any longer. I turned, I was ready to face whatever it might be. Only to see that it was just woodpecker. There, I stood with leaves and branches in my already messed up tangled hair. I tried my best to get some of it out, but it soon proved to be quite a challenge. My hands were covered in scratches and there even seemed to be some bruising. As I looked down at my dirt filled nails, I regretted not cutting them yesterday,

  "Great, now my acne for sure to get worse after touching my face with those dirty hands." The mind that never ceases to fight me had fully woken up as well as it started to complain.

  I could see four possible trails. There weren’t any path that I recognized since I never been here before or at least didn't have the memory of this place. "Well, I guess, there is no other choice," I said. I closed my eyes and span in place. "Eeny, meeny, miny..." I mumbled as I was spinning. "MOE," I yield out when I finally stopped. The path, which I saw when I opened my eyes was the path I ended up taking that day. This might seem like a dumb way to choose a path, but it had always worked for me. You could call this fool's luck if you want.

  This trail was broad and easy to walk. The further I went I went, the stronger the sound of running water was getting, but at some point the sound started to diminish. I urgently needed to wash my hands. Given that there didn't seem to be a clear path, I was left with no choice but to make my own. I needed to climb a small hill, but it's not like I had any other choice.

  "Ow," I cried out, touching something sharp while trying to get past the overgrown shrubs. Then I fell, again. In the short time I was distracted by thorn stuck in my finger, I ended up tripping on a tree root. What can I say, that's just typical me for you. In order to prevent myself from slipping on the mud I clung to the tree that was nearby. "Just WHY is there so much mud everywhere?" I angrily shouted. I suppose I was too loud since a lot of birds flew out of the nearby bush.

  " Birds...huh" Now that I managed to get past that little stumble, I remembered the cause of my current suffering. That talking crow was real wasn't it?

  I was halfway to the top of this hill when my train of thought was interrupted by a gust of cold wind that touched my skin. Goosebumps started forming on my exposed arms as the passing cloud covered bits of morning sun. "Where did my jacket go?" I mumbled to myself, my teeth shattering from cold as I crossed my arms in an attempt to preserve my warmth. The wind seemed to intensify, forcing me to shiver.

  I was about to lift myself up against the rock nearby when I heard that pesky voice from yesterday, "I wouldn't go there, if I were you." That vexing crow was standing on the large white rock to the right of me. Turns out he was quietly following me all this time. Believe it or not, but I was actually quite happy to see that ball of black feathers with hints of blue shine. I smirked and lunged to seize it.

  Despite my best efforts, I only managed to touch the tail as that thing escaped my grasp. "Tsk," I clicked my tongue, thinking how unfortunate it was.

  "What did you do that for?" He complained as he was looking at the messy feather on his tail. There was a hint of disdain in his velvety voice. However, I found it charming how now he truly looked like a fluffy ball of feathers.

  "Yep, I am definitely too nice," I thought, unable to contain my smile as I was imagining petting and hugging that adorable angry bird. "Hold on..." I just remembered, looking him straight in the pitch black eye and launching my complaint, "How long have you been following me for?"

  He didn’t give me much of a response; instead, he had the audacity to shrug and turn his beak away from me.

  "Come back here," I commanded and gestured to the ground in front of me with an index finger. "You stalker of a bird," I added in a quieter more scornful voice.

  That last bit definitely got him riled up. Once again he puffed up his feathered. Angrily flapping his wings while digging his nails into the branch, he shouted, "How dare you reduce me to a mere stalker, you...@&!)(67##/(*#." I couldn't quite understand what that last part was, but I figured it was some form of insult based on how mad he seemed. I was running out of time. Based on how high in the sky the sun was, I assumed it is at least 8 am right now if not already past 9. I couldn't quite pinpoint where I was at that particular moment; however, this most certainly wasn't the mountain my house was on. It made no sense how I could have ended up all the way on another mountain, not like I could find a logical explanation for everything else that happened.

  The peaceful green forest was filled with haughty voice of bird pacing back and forth on the lower branch of pine tree nearby. I wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying. Pretty sure it was something along the lines of how dare I call the refined and dignified him a stalker. I must admit that speech was way longer than it should have been. What can I say, that damn bird really likes to compliment himself. Honestly, the only reason I was allowing him to keep talking was because of his sultry voice. I suppose, I should be happy that at least this little annoyance had a pleasant sounding voice.

  "Gee, did I really just think that this stupid crow's voice is attractive?" I thought."Let's just hope this doesn't become some sort of kink," I prayed in my mind. At any rate, I was still stuck somewhere in the mountains and I needed to get back home, fast. That crow was so self absorbed that he didn't notice me scanning the mountain to possibly locate where I was. For now it seems like the only way to go is up. Too bad I didn't have my phone with me. That way I could at least get a rough idea of my location. From the looks of it, it will take me at least 6 hours to get back home and that is assuming that this was one of the neighboring mountains. I was calming myself by thinking that I have to be somewhere near my house since I couldn't have fallen that far. However, so many unexplainable things happened to me lately that I wasn't sure if I was even in the same plane of existence.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Perhaps I will be lucky and my family doesn't attempt to wake me up or get into my room, but they will definitely get suspicious if I don't even come out from my room in the afternoon. Yes, I just didn't have the time to waste on something pointless as this bird's blubbering.

  "Hey, just get to the point," I calmly said.

  The bird stopped talking after seeing my emotionless face. He flew back down to the large white sun-warmed boulder. " It's not the time yet," was what he said.

  At this point, I wasn't sure what he was trying to get at. I sat on the rock next to him. The warm sunshine was making me forget about my jacket. I also stopped paying attention to the conversation. From the small pieces of information that managed to reach my mind I concluded that he appeared to be insinuating how I will regret climbing up there. "Aha," I said, nodding my head out of habit. "I don't have time for this," I thought before shifting the conversation. "Do you have a teleportation power by any chance?" I asked.

  "No..."

  "Too bad..." I said with a sigh as I laid on the rock, enjoying the warm sun. I was visibly disappointed, but soon a smile appeared on my face as a thought came to mind. I asked with anticipation, "Are you some sort of God or messenger of God that will take me away to complete some mission? Do I get a reward?" I was very excited. "Will I be reborn as a villainess in the story I read and be forced to find a way to escape death as I make all the male leads fall in love with me?" I paused with so much still on my mind and then I stood up abruptly, startling the poor bird unable to keep up with my rambling. "Hold on.., can you turn back time or make me immortal..." I took a second to catch my breath as I was talking too fast due to my excitement. With a look screaming What Kind of Crazy Are You the crow was about to say something, but I cut him off, "just letting you know when I say immortal I mean eternal youth as well. Is there like some sort of contract that I need to sign? If so, I need to make sure I read it. Let's see what else..."

  I could see him flying towards me. "STOP," he yelled as he covered my mouth with his wings. "No... I am not here to do any of the things you just mentioned." I was hit on the head by his wings one more time. "You should read other things besides manga and light novels."

  Now that he started to make himself comfortable on my head he continued, " It seems like we have more work than I anticipated ahead of us."

  " So I don't get any powers, huh?"

  The crow proudly rose his head, "You my dear, get the chance to become master of the greatest power of them all."

  As always when I become curious in something, out of habit, I tilted my head to my left. I also slightly moved my head upwards following my eye movement as I looked up in direction of the crow, who was still standing on my head. "So what's the power? Can it help me get home faster?"

  He took out the branch from my hair that was in his way. "Power of science, of course," he said as he further tangled up my already messed up hair. At this point my head was the perfect bird nest.

  " I see..." once again I was disappointed. There didn't seem to be any easy solution to get home, so I only had myself to rely on. Nothing new. " So all I get is an annoying talking crow," I mumbled while resuming my climb uphill towards the sound of running water.

  "Raven," he grumbled. "Also, I warned you against going there. You will..." He stopped, seeing me continue with no hesitation. "Never-mind."

  I moved forward, not registering what was just said, "Well, that's fine. I can get rich by doing tricks and shows with a talking crow. That's not that bad." I tried to console myself to somehow justify why I was still carrying that useless crow on my head.

  "RAVEN, not a crow!" He empathized.

  "You are the only human who will be able to hear me," he calmly said with his smug voice full of egoism. He didn't even attempt to help me find my way back home and instead chose to comfortably sit on my head.

  "Oh..." I halted and said now with sprinkle of anger in my voice, "so I just get a crow and a possible title of crazy bird talking lady, got it, THAnksss!"

  "Ouch," I cried out when I felt a sudden acute pain in my head after the damn bird struck me with his beak.

  "Just how often do I need to tell you. I am not a crow, but a raven," he said. It wasn't like I actually cared. Plus I always confused those two. "Huge difference," he added.

  Considering how much he emphasizes it, that is definitely his weak spot. I chuckled internally as I was plotting on how I could possibly make use of this.

  "What was it you called yourself before..." I tried to remember as I continued my climb. However, my thought was soon interrupted.

  "WOW," I exclaimed, looking at the view from the top of the hill. I could see a majestic waterfall right in front of me. I felt droplets of water hitting my face as I got closer. It irked me a bit how the thing on my head kept clenching my hair, pulling at it as I ran downhill. However, the bright shades of green of this place overpowered that feeling, making me feel the sweet sense of serenity. "This would have been such a great spot to paint," I thought while make my way towards the riverside. The turbulent flow of water was plunging down into greenish river bellow. "Darn, I could have used the phthalo green oil paint for this river. Too bad I didn't find this spot then."

  "No, don't..." He screeched.

  "Oh right, I just remembered..." I said as I was bending over the moss-covered rock to dip my hands into the cold spring water.

  "It's too late now," he resigned.

  "It was Corvus something, wasn't it?" I lifted my eyes towards the bird that was still comfortably sitting on my head.

  No response.

  I continued washing my hands. I had no intention of falling into this river today, so I was constantly making sure I wasn't slipping. I saw the reflection of the black fluff on my head. "Should I drop him in this river," I thought. I was so annoyed by that sloth of a bird, I wanted a bit of revenge. "Hey, birdy! Corvus means crow in Latin, doesn't it?"

  I could see the condescending glare of black raven eyes through the reflection in the water.

  "It's unfathomable how YOU are the soul with infinite potential," he said.

  At the very least I was satisfied that my hands were finally clean. "Infinite potential," I pondered. Letting down the expectations of others was a very familiar feeling to me. "Not that it matters," I sighed softly. I put my hands back into the water, grabbing enough to wet my face. Cold, spring water felt amazingly refreshing in the skin.

  Now, I just needed to do something about the water dripping from my hands. Normally, I would just dry my hands with my shirt, but my clothes were so full of filth. I didn't want to just end up dirtying my hands again. I figured it was best to air dry them, and so I did on my walk along the riverbed.

  "Aren't ravens supposed to be the classic cliche protagonist's guide?" I didn't want to be consumed by my thoughts, so I asked as I continued walking in an unknown direction. "You seem pretty useless for a guide," I continued, since I didn't hear any response. Not sure wherever this river was too big in length or if my perception of time was wrong because of unbearable silence. However, it felt like I was walking for hours. Somehow it was easier to walk up a hill than this. It also didn't help that my feet were starting to feel sore. Again, I began initiating a conversation in an attempt to escape my boredom. "Why was I the one you chose to annoy?"

  At last, there was a response, "I wasn't the one who chose you, fate did."

  "Fate..." I mumbled to myself. "So what do you get from this?"

  Silence.

  "Okay then," he obviously didn't want to talk about it and I didn't feel like prying. Instead I asked, "How long are you staying with me then?"

  "Till the day you die," he said. " FYI I plan on living for a very, very long time, so you better figure out a way to prolong your short life."

  I wasn't sure why he was the one complaining about human lifespan. I thought ravens don't live longer than twenty or thirty years. But then again, he wasn't exactly the kind of raven you would normally encounter.

  As I was trying to figure out what this bird was, the river didn't seem to be leading anywhere and scenery was oddly similar. It was starting to feel like I was walking in a loop. "Since we are talking now. You mentioned power of science. Will you make me smarter?"

  "Just think of me as your guardian angel, giving you the kick in the butt you so desperately needed to finally use the potential you possess."

  He was right, I did need something to kick me into action. There was also so much I wanted to do in this life. "How are you going to do it?" I asked. "Is this going to be like one of those isekai gamer system manhwas where the main protagonist will have no choice but level up?"

  He pondered for a bit, "That's a good idea."

  I smiled, anticipating some sort of status window to pop up.

  "You can definitely figure out how to create such a system by programming. This is, the age of AI," he said. Then as he had more time to think he added, "You learning how to program will be useful to us. Start working on this as soon as you get home."

  With a pouty face I teased, "You have a knack for raising my expectations before crushing them to bits, you know."

  He seemed to have caught on and jokingly replied, "I have many talents. Glad you finally decided to acknowledge it."

  You know, scratch that, now I have known him for all those years, he might have been completely serious back then. Nonetheless, granted that I kept mentioning how annoying this newly found companion of mine was, it felt good to have somebody to talk to. You would think that at this age, I should have already figured out this socialization thing, but what can I say, it's tough. Back then, I only knew how to socialize at professional level at best. Making personal connections was a next level challenge I kept running away from. I had no idea why I was like this. It's not like I was happy being alone, since that just meant being along with my thoughts. Trust me, there is no better torturer than your own mind.

  Be that as it may, I am sure you just want to get on with the story. Let's see where was I...Oh right.

  Eventually all conversations seized as I became too tired to even talk. I didn't remember for how long I walked for. It felt as if roughly six hours have passed, but sun didn't even move to the halfway point. The sun was still shining straight into my eyes. My feet were numb. My throat felt dry. Periodically, I would subconsciously swallow imaginary sips of water as I looked at the murky green river. That was the sole difference. The clear spring river was getting murkier.

  As if to anger me further, something started blinding me from the lake to the right of me. That blinding light seemed to be a reflection of sunlight by something metallic. Next to the shallow part of the riverbed, in between multiple rocks submerged in water, there was a circular object that reminded me of a coin.

  My grandma would often say that picking up lost coins is bad luck. You pick up the illnesses and misfortunes of the previous owners, she said. Even so I was by no means superstitious, I have always hated dirtying my hands and in my mind money was the dirtiest of them all. Think about, it passes through different hands and who knows where else it been. Still, curiosity took over. As I was arching my torso in order to take a closer look, the sleeping bird on my head was jolted awake. I felt a gust of breeze from behind as he flapped his wings to keep his balance. "@<><<<**+€," he said. I couldn't understand him, not that I even care to understand. It was probably some Ravenian insult. Instead all my attention was focused on the coin. This coin didn't seem so ordinary as I previously thought, now that I had a better look. Water was bending the light and distorting the appearance of the coin, but I could still tell it seemed ancient. Something about it seemed magical as well. It reminded me of something from a DnD campaign. The side that was facing me, had intricately decorated outer-ridge of rich yellowish hue. The color was shinier than any gold I have ever seen. It had some calligraphic symbols on it as well. The meaning of which I wasn't certain of, but some words seemed Latin. The water ripples were making those already complicated symbols hard to read, but I found a familiar phrase that read "Momento Mori". The outer golden ridge encircled a silvery circle with a radius of roughly two centimeters. This inner circle was a piece of art in itself with its highly detailed depiction of a group of people clad in cloth, worshipping what I presumed to be an angel." This would be such a cool accessory," I thought. Unique, one of a kind things were definitely my Achilles heal. So yes, I did bend down to pick it up. The coin was about six centimeters in diameter. I held the coin by its edges. Immediately, the inner circular section of this coin flipped on its axis due to gravity. With the thumb of my left hand, I carefully rotated the inner silver coin to see the other side that was previously hidden. There was a human skull etched onto it. "Cool..." I thought. " This coupled with that remember death phrase will make a great staple piece of gothic inspired look." It was fun to think about this, but I also found it strange how the previously angered raven remain quiet all this time. Then when I was about to flick the inner coin, I heard.

  "Stop it," he said as he flew down from my head. That raven landed on my right arm, causing me to drop the coin.

  However, he was too late. I accidentally touched the inner silver coin with the tip of my index finger. The silver piece started to rotate on its axis as the coin was falling. Just before the coin could reach the water, it froze and only the inner piece was still spinning on its axis. Neither I nor the raven on my hand were levitating, so it wasn't the gravity that was responsible for this. If anything, it felt like the time itself had stopped. I no longer felt the wind, all nature's sounds were halted and the previously turbulent river was motionless. But...Why was that coin still moving and why weren't I and crow affected? The coin seemed to pick up momentum unusually fast and just kept spinning on its own. Then, there was a bright flash of light causing me to blink. When I opened my eyes, the time started ticking again. I was still in the same place or at least it looked the same. Well, except maybe one thing. There was a wooden sign with crudely carved letters. "Калинов мост," I read and as soon as I did so, it appeared in front of me.

  "The hell..." I exclaimed.