A Song for Winter: Pet - Raven

    Clan Wintersong being witches and followers of the Allfather raised ravens as familiars. William was no different in this manner. Once he had forged his talisman and started mastering his magic his mother, Kathrine Wintersong, gifted him a fledgling raven. William named his new raven familiar, Viggo. Viggo was a pure black raven with grey eyes that grew to an impressive size of thirty-five inches long with a five-foot wingspan. The team of William and Viggo became inseparable since they met as they began to hunt, eat, and train together at all times. Soon the sight of Viggo circling in the skies above became a heralding sign that William was on his way.

   

    Ravens are rather competent mimics but Viggo was far better than most. William began to notice that Viggo was copying notes from the Wintersong after hearing them whistled in combat. After consulting with his mother and some of the elder witches William decided that training Viggo to use magic would be a good idea. Since the raven didn’t possess any actual magical ability of its own, William forged a small metal rune band to wrap around Viggo’s leg. With the rune band attached to the raven, William was able to store small bits of raw magic in the band. Then after teaching Viggo some note combinations for easy spells the raven became a low-level witch in its own right. A few notes here and Viggo could manipulate the airflow to grant him speed or summon small whirlwinds to confuse potential prey. William’s favorite trick with Viggo was to have him carry an arrow into the sky before releasing it with a magical boost to create a deadly homing missile. 

 

    When running into battle William would send Viggo into the skies overhead with a could specially enchanted darts. Viggo would release the darts onto hidden enemies on the battlefield. Upon impact, the darts would send a bright flare into the sky revealing hiding places of foes on the field. After expending all his darts, Viggo would begin cawing out notes of the Wintersong to hinder enemy archers with vicious backdrafts or blind combatants by blowing fresh snow into their faces. As a stealth scout at night, Viggo could scout far closer to enemy encampments than a ground scout could normally get without getting spotted. Upon returning to William the two could converse in their sort of secret language so Viggo explain what he saw. 

 

    On that night, that terrible night when William’s family was massacred, Viggo flew into battle alongside William. At first, the raven performed his usual round of tricks and spells to hinder Clan Bloodfang’s assault. Then the air began to crackle with weird eldritch energies that ripped through the skies. Seeing the sky split open William recalled Viggo back to himself. With tears in his eyes, he gave his familiar, no his friend one last command. Viggo was ordered to fly as far and as fast as his raven wings could carry him. The raven resisted at first but William became more forceful in his command until Viggo understood that it wasn’t up for debate. That was the last time William saw the raven he raised from a fledgling.