Steffi gave a shriek and lifted her arms high above her head. A massive pair of dark green wings unfurled behind her and Johnny's nostrils were assailed by a strong musty smell… He leapt back, but she darted forwards fast as lightening, scooping him up in her strong arms, breathing heavily onto his face, her blue eyes gazing into his with an unnerving intensity that he had never seen from her before. Her gaze was that of a hawk. She was giving off that musty smell stronger than ever and her feathers felt really weird. He was about to yell in fright, but then she spoke again, more softly.

"Have no fear, darling. We must fly from the danger." She kissed him tenderly on the cheek and he breathed a sigh of relief, putting his arms around her.

She pushed open the door. "Hold tight darling."

Johnny clung to her and she wrapped her arms tightly around him as her massive wings fanned out behind her and flapped once, twice and then she leapt into the air! They flew upwards with incredible speed. Johnny shut his eyes tightly against the blasting wind and buried his face in his stepmother's soft feathers. The wind roared, rushing past…

Then she ceased her upward flight and the roar of the wind quieted. The only sound was the steady beating of her wings. He looked up at her and she grinned at him. Her entire face was an immaculate bright green, but her lips were a dark green, nearly black. "Alright, my son?" Her voice was low and husky, but he recognised her tone. She was happy again. He grinned back.

"I – I think so… wow, I've never flown like this before!"

"Sorry, but we must fly fast. The Raven's minions are almost on us. Hold tight, my child." She was right. The terrible cawing mixed with the sound of evil voices was growing nearer. Johnny buried his face in her feathers again and she flew forward with incredible speed. He could feel the icy wind blasting against his back with great force. On and on they flew, on and on until Johnny wished they could just land. Steffi's body felt so warm now and he could feel the rhythm of her heartbeat as she flew. Had she been using up all her energy flying like this at night? Was that why she felt cold during the day?

Steffi was flying upwards again higher and higher until her bird's feet clattered on rock. She clattered across a rocky plateau and then came to a halt. "You can look now, dear Johnny."

He glanced around. Steffi had folded her mighty wings and they now stood at the mouth of a rocky tunnel. Where precisely this was, Johnny could not guess. He glanced around in wonder as his stepmother strode into the tunnel which was not long – there was a light at the end. The tunnel soon opened out into a rocky chamber suffused with silvery light. There was what looked like a large, spherical silver lamp suspended from the ceiling and a familiar rug on the floor. It looked like the spare hallway rug. The cavern was rocky, but draped in what looked like straw and animal furs woven together. In its centre was a large stone slab piled high with what he recognised to be his lost books and games. There was a large rock roughly hewn into the shape of a sofa which had been draped in the straw weave and then strewn with cushions.

Steffi sat her stepson down amidst the cushions and plumped herself beside him. Johnny could not help but glance down and see again how her legs were scaly bird legs ending in those clawed feet.

"Water, darling?" Steffi picked up a bottle of water from the seat beside her and he took a small drink. She stroked his hair, looking down at him with a tender expression playing about her dark green lips. "Are you sure you're alright? Flying like that is a new equilibrium, after all. Don't worry about the Crows, we left them behind quickly enough."

"Yes… mum, please, what's going on?" He looked up at her and she smiled back at him, the pale lamplight shining off her green nose and cheeks. Her thick, dark green hair was dishevelled from their flight.

"This is our nest, my son. I've just started building it and I will make it the home of your dreams."

"It's great, but why are there crow monsters chasing us and what's happened to you? Who is this Raven?"

She gave a husky sigh. "Darling… The story begins with my unhappiness. I was very, very unhappy when I first discovered I was barren. There is no cure in medicine and none in light magic or twilit magic either. I made the mistake of dabbling in dark magic. Dark magic goes against nature." She shifted a little, her claws clattering on the hard floor.

"There is a crime lord who has the title, 'the Raven.' He has used dark magic on himself and his henchmen with the result that they have become more successful thieves and assassins… When I first decided to use dark magic I sought out a dark magic practitioner and found him. The Raven promised to cure me with a dark spell and he promised that I would be able to have a child also, but he was not doing it out of the kindness of his heart… his black heart… he lied to me. He really intended for me to become a bird monster like his henchmen and a slave to his will. It has worked differently on me to how he thought it would and I have kept my mind, but now he has sent his minions to get me. I was a gullible fool. Dark magic always comes with a price. The Raven himself is proof of that, for he must now reside in his own netherworld. He mostly communicates with the outside world by psychic projections. He can cast a spell from a long distance..."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

She looked troubled. This idea made Johnny feel uneasy too. "What sort of spells?"

"For instance, he tampered with the text of your Bluestone Builder book. I understood it to be his warning that you should not underestimate dark magic or a villain who is a schemer. By the Moon, I pray that we are safe here…" She choked and her bottom lip quivered. "You heard him in the park. On the third night there is no road back. I cannot change back. I don't know what will happen. What will your father think? He's so practical and down to Earth and this is all kinds of bizarre... If my marriage is over, I don't want us to go back… I could not bear to lose you as well…" Shining tears were sliding down her face so Johnny put his arms around her feathery body. She unfurled a wing and gently wrapped it around him, stroking his hair with her human hand. Despite the pungent musty-sweet odour, the feel of her wing around him felt reassuring.

"How do you know you can't change back, mum? I've found out dark magic is real. Nothing seems impossible now."

She swallowed. "But what if I couldn't? I made sure that I adopted you as a condition of my marriage, but does the law apply to me anymore? How would I look turning up to parent's evening? Or anywhere? Now that I'm… If I am an outcast… What if I never saw you again-?" She covered her green face with her hands and began to sob, her feathery body shaking.

Johnny couldn't stand to see her cry. He had to comfort her. He knelt on her lap, putting his arms around her shoulders. She took her hands away from her face and gazed at him, her wide blue eyes shining with tears in the lamplight. "Do I get no say in it, mum?" He wrinkled his nose. He wanted her to be happy and silly again, like they had been that morning. "Remember what you said about Magnus? I love you too, even if you change shape."

Steffi gave a throaty chuckle and wrinkled her shiny green nose. "I love you so much, darling." They rubbed their noses together and Steffi wrapped both her wings around him. She murmured huskily into his ear. "I have wanted to look after you ever since I first saw your bright young face and looked into your sparkling green eyes. You have been the light of my life for as long as I've known Henry. I do want to work things out with him, but if the worst comes to the worst, I am ready to fight for custody."

Johnny wondered what she meant by custody. And was the Raven just after Steffi or was his Dad in danger? "Are your wings strong enough to bring Dad to this nest too?"

She bit her dark green lip. "I don't think so… I'd have to learn a spell of lightness or a spell of strength."

"Will the Raven go after him?"

"It's me he's after so… I hope not," her voice trembled. "I must warn him though and offer help also… it's my duty. I took a vow. I owe my husband the whole truth, however embarrassing." She sighed deeply. "There's really no time to be lost. I must take you with me, because if the Raven did find this place…" she shuddered. "I'm not letting you out of my sight." She stood and swept over to the corner of the cavern, Johnny trotting after her. She rummaged through a pile of cushions in the corner until she found a harness. "I think this will work. It's safer if I strap you to me. There was no time to retrieve the one back in the house, but this one will do."

She pushed her thick, green tinged hair away from her face and murmured… "now what will we need? My son's safety is paramount."

"Mum, what does it mean when you talk about fighting for custody?"

"Oh darling…" Steffi placed her hands on her temples, "please don't fret about it now, but when a mum and dad fight for custody of their child it means that they go to court to decide who gets to look after him and for what portion of the time. It costs money and it's not pleasant. But that only happens if the mum and dad can't live together anymore."

Johnny's heart gave a lurch. "You're not going to fight dad like that, are you?"

Steffi grimaced and covered her green face with her hands. "I'd hate myself if I hurt Henry, but I couldn't bear to end up alone… I'll get the money together. Please don't make me fight you, Henry." she was muttering to herself rather than to him. She shook her head, her wild dark hair flying this way and that and strode over to a crate in the corner of the cave. Prising off the wooden lid, she lifted out a sparkling diamond, the size of her fist and gazed at it reverently.

"Mum, did you steal that?"

"I'll be needing it soon, darling. There's no way around that."

Johnny's head was spinning. So she needed the diamond to pay for court? Were his mum and dad really going to court to fight each other? Even if they could somehow beat the Raven, a dismaying prospect remained. Which of them would he rather live with? Dad had always been there and living away from him was unthinkable, but he really didn't want to go back to life without Steffi either.

She had buckled a leather belt about her waist and was clipping different leather pouches around it. She had put the diamond in a leather bag and clipped that to her belt as well. She turned to gaze at him, her blue eyes showing that intense expression again, like she could see into his thoughts. "I sense your unease my child. Rest assured that only the Raven is my enemy and we are going to help Daddy tonight, come what may. He can decide what he wants to do afterwards. If he is prepared to stand by me, the three of us still could have a wonderful life together."

Steffi motioned for her son to come near and then she strapped him to her with a harness so that he was securely in place and then stepped out into the night. There was a full moon in the sky, a brighter moon than Johnny ever remembered seeing before. It seemed to blaze down with an ethereal light. Strapped to her chest, Johnny looked up at his stepmother. The ghostly glow of the moon lit up her green face. She smiled at him a little sadly. "Tonight will decide many things, my little love."

She flapped her wings once, twice and then she was aloft again, flying with great speed away from the mountains.

Suddenly she stopped flying and took a sharp intake of breath. A shadow reared up in front of them, forming the outline of a pair of huge, pitch black wings.

Johnny heard the evil voice of the Raven once more and smelled his putrid stink on the wind; "Where do you think you are flying, Harpy, clutching your fledgling like that? He will provide victuals for my Crows! Entrails, sticky treats for them after they have sated their lust for murder."

Steffi gave a terrible shriek, but the great shadow was already gone, replaced by a mob of smaller shadows on the horizon that cawed in harsh malevolent voices… Crows coming at them from all directions, above, below and from all sides, hurtling towards them with impossible speed, cutting off any way of escape…