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"Oh, Ohh, Ohhhh!" said Raven. "Please, pleease, pleeease! Don't, oh don't,
oh please don't, please don't ask again. I've told you already, told you so
many, many times why I can't do that for you. I really can't. I just can't."
And once again, yet again, beautiful white, radiant Raven slowly took wing up and up and up through the darker than darkness darkness to the world above. And below, so far below, far below, People cried out in their misery. "Oh! Oh!! Oh!!!" they cried and they cried and cried. "Raven, Raven, Raven, we are nothing down here in this world of darker than dark darkness. We cannot see. We cannot find our way. We cannot be what we are to be if we are to be what we are to be. You must help us, help us, help us. Raven! Raven!! Raven!!!" Each day, as every day before and every day before that day, People cried and Raven begged them not to ask, not to ask for light. And each day after the long, wearing flight down to the darkness beyond darkness, beautiful white, radiant Raven turned and with ever growing weariness began the long, longer and seemingly longest flight back up and out of the nether worlds. "Oh, Ohh, Ohhh!" said Raven, "When will this ever end? The cries of People for light hurt so much?" One day, on an impulse she knew not from where it came, knowing not what she did, Raven flew directly to Sun, tore off a piece of Sun and plummeted as much as flew down, down, down to the huddled People below the below and gave them light. Instantly, she turned into the blackest of black to become the black bird we now call Raven. She lost all her powers as she lost the light stolen from the Sun. She lost speech and could no longer talk with the People to plead with them as they turned on her. "But I gave you light!" she thought. "Caw!, Caaw!!, Caaaw!!! was all she heard from herself. "Caw!, caaw!!, Caaaw!!!And then some People started to make up stories, too, such stories, such hateful, such wicked stories about her. They cursed her kind. They killed her kind. They drove her kind off. And the stories, the wicked, hateful stories People made up about her broke her heart, broke her heart still again and again. People now had light and, just the same, some People lost Light. "But I gave you light!" she thought. "Caw!, caaw!!, caaaw!!! was all she heard of herself. "Caw!, caaw!!, caaaw!!!" · · · · · ·
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