Happy Birthday

Raven gasped, beads of sweat dripping from her pale brow to the crinkled sheets of her bed below. The images were so real, even if the sunlight streaming through the slit between her curtains begged otherwise.

The sky glared a deadly red, the cracked streets filled with wind-blown debris, gouges the size of canyons were seeped with molten lava, monsters of grotesque size and shape were patrolling for anything that yet still clung hopelessly to life...

Panting, the empath leaned her head down and slid her grey fingers through pillow-mussed amethyst locks. She had to regain control of herself. Control at all times. Banished father or not, freed from her sinful obligations or not, that didn't change the fact that her emotions still held more weight than they ever should have been forced to shoulder.

Control. Peace. Tranquility. Azarath Metrion Zinthos.

A deeper, more decisive breath escaped her as she sat up more fully, taking a look around her demented bedroom. Everything was as it should be. Her ingredients for spells were stocked, her books were shelved in proper order, and her mirror was still safe inside a tightly locked, shapeshifter-proof, drawer.

Everything was safe. Everything was fine.

It was just a nightmare. It isn't real. Not anymore.

She was about to remove her leotard-clad body from her circular bed with hopes of showering away her troubled thoughts, when a sudden knock at her door (her senses identifying the knocker as a certain grass-stain) caught her attention. She frowned.

"Hey Raven! C'mon, it's time for your birthday breakfast! If you're not down in fifteen minutes, then i'm taking over the kitchen!"

The owner of the voice scampered off before she could throw some tofu-related insult back at him.

Begrudgingly, Raven removed herself from her bed and stood, lifting her arms and flexing the muscles for a stretch, when the sliver of sunlight caught her attention once again. Slowly she crossed over and, against her character, opened the curtains wide to let in the light. She couldn't see much of the city from where her room was located, but she could see the sea. The beautiful blue sea, lightly glittering with the sun and reminding her that if she was seeing a scene so beautiful, then all was truly well.

After all, right now, the scene was supposed to be far more gruesome. The sun was not supposed to be rising again. This tower was supposed to be his makeshift chair. Her friends were supposed to be fighting and losing and paying with their lives.

But they weren't. The sun was rising, the water was shining, and her friends were praying she made it down before they were subjected with the horrors of a proposed tofu birthday cake.

Feeling the warmth of sun against her skin, standing there and looking at what she'd accomplished, she didn't feel quite as troubled anymore. In fact, she felt her lips slowly tug into a rare yet meaningful smile.

"Today is my birthday," she said, to no one in particular. "For the first time in my life, i'm going to enjoy it. And there's nothing you can do to stop me."

Empowered by her verbal banishing of her nightmare's influences, Raven turned away from the window and summoned her cloak to her side, where she clipped it on and let the hood fall over her shoulders. She didn't care that she was still mussed-up and needed a good brushing. She didn't care that she was still wearing the odd smile on her face.

It's her birthday. She can be messy and happy if she wants to.