The sun beat down on the swampy land around New Orleans as Morganna soared excitedly beside her friend and sometimes teacher Kierun. "Oooh…I can’t WAIT Kierun….my very first parliament!!! Isn’t it just soooooooo exctiing?!?!?"

The large blue-black raven flying beside her chuckled, "You’ll do fine hatchling, just remember what I told you about how to act and pay attention!!! Believe me, I’ve gotten stuck on the lowest branches and it’s not an experience to be repeated!!! In fact, given the fact that you’re the only one of the kin that has talked to the prophet I’d venture to say you’ll do better than just fine!" Kierun swooped a bit and clacked his beak in pleasure, "Now look there….there is the meeting place….follow me, if you CAN anyway!!!" Giving a loud "Kaugh!!!" Kierun climbed rapidly, did a rapid swoop down in a down draft before sweeping into a tight spiral down to a tall tree in the middle of the swampy lands south on New Orleans while Morganna valiantly followed behind, earning a chuckle of approval from the older raven.

"Now pay attention hatchling…remember there’s a quiz later on," Kierun winked one beady black eye at Morganna as the settled on a branch about midway up the tree. The chatter of her kin surrounded her as she looked around, her eyes widening a bit as she realized just how many of them were here, just from the southern states.

"Kierun, how many of us ARE there??!?! And when does things start?!?!" Morganna flapped her wings impatiently, earning an amused look from the older ravens around her.

He clicked his beak at her again in amusement, "Anytime now…and lots more than anyone thinks hatchling…now shush I think the Minister is ready to start…" A loud female raven flapped from branch to branch squawking for quiet as she went, occasionally bapping an especially loud offender with her wing. Slowly the unkindness gathered in the tree quieted down, and as the Minster of the parliament flew to the top of the tree, the branches below her slowly began to flap their wings to stately beat as she began the invocation to the Lord Helios.

Morganna listened to the praises to Helios with a slight impatience even though she was VERY grateful for his patronage. Sure, sometimes her kin seemed to view the lord of the sun like a dearly beloved though slightly retarded relative, but his light was what made finding secrets possible many times! The invocations to her good friend Helios, nice guy that he was that provided her own little circle of sunlight when she asked nicely, went on for a long time, becoming more and more elaborate and intricate, for as all know, he DOES love such things!

After the invocation to Helios FINALLY wound down the Minister the parliament asked for Raven to watch over the gather. Morganna knew that even though the kin asked for Raven’s blessing, nobody REALLY expected his aid unless something REALLY major happened…like Barney assaulting the gathering or something!!! Raven does expect his children to look after themselves except in the most extreme of circumstances. By the time the minister had finished the blessing, she was bouncing impatiently until Kierun bapped her on the back with one wing. "Pay attention….it’s role call now and you might learn something…"

Roll call seemed to stretch on for ages, but luckily nobody who was expected to show was missing. Kierun had explained to her that if someone was missing without explanation a murder would be called (she still didn’t understand why it was a murder…that’s for CROWS! It should be an unkindness!) After the role call came the reports of the guardians of spirit eggs…and then the part that she had been dreading and waiting for with anticipation…the introduction of the fledgelings!!!

Kierun clicked his beak at her and led her to the top branch to be introduced. "Hey y’all…this is a new fledgeling…just out of her first year, Morganna." Morgie looked around at the staring eyes of her kin and waved one wing in greeting.

The minister fixed one beady eye one her, "Ah…I think I may have heard of you…you’re the one who hangs around all those non-kin, aren’t you? Anyway, time for your quiz…" The minister proceeded to quiz Morgie on what had happened earlier in the parliament…a quiz that she passed with flying colors, of course, being the super ninja raven girl that she was! "So hatchling got any news for us?"

"Of course I do!!! To start with the Tremere primogen of New Orleans is under some sort of compulsion or debt to the man in red…remember the bikini incident?!??! He’s the one that made her do that….still looking into that a bit but there’s been LOTS going on!!! There’s an ancient old dusty china man conducting some rituals with that vodoo queen…um…Madam Bluenose? Er…Glueshow? Besheau! That’s it…they had some weird glowing skull in their and patterns on the floor. Let’s see…what else? Oh, the owner of the night angel bookstore is a vampire…quite a nice one…Cecil seems to have some ties with the fae courts, Baron Lorence is his nephew or something, and for some reason Cecil isn’t allowed do anything about the jerk. There are 3 asian vampires new on the scene…I’ve met a couple of them, they have VERY strange powers…one of them used her blood for a whip and the other one grew turned into a cloud that melted people…it was GROSS!!! Despite that they both seemed fairly pleasant…th! e fi rst one was punishing a rapist and the other was just defending herself from the men in black."

"Anything else, hatchling…?" The minister flapped her wings a bit and Morgie just clicked her beak.

"Well…I met that prophet that’s been bumming around the city…." She said offhandly (if she’d been in homid form she probably would have been looking at her nails and pretending to be suave and disinterested)

"You WHAT?!?! Tell us everything!!!" The minister flapped her wings excitedly as the assembled corax pressed in closer.

Morganna straightened her feathers and looked around happily…well, it was like THIS…"

Many hours later, a tired Morganna and Kierun flew back towards New Orleans, "You did well, hatchling…already oviculum at your age! Did you have fun?"

Morganna did a quick swoop and roll, "Oh yes!!!!" and flew off into the sunset happily.