Thunder struck so close that dust fell from the ceiling. A deadly purple flash drove away the darkness for a moment, cut through the walls with shadows, but in the next instant the angry darkness returned. The wind blew something soft through the window; with a sickening squelch, it slid down the glass, only to disappear forever into the storm.
The noise of the crown of a mighty tree intertwined with the roar of a hurricane, the walls crackled. The centuries-old boundless trunk swayed noticeably. A thick sticky haze reigned in the house, the typhoon had long since cut off the wires; the outlines of the windows were barely visible from the lightning flickering behind the clouds.
Dale sat in the main hall, wrapped in a blanket. Somewhere on the second floor, water dripped, a tree swayed, a hurricane howled savagely outside the walls; a lone candle burning on the table cast dark purple shadows.
“I won’t sleep,” Dale whispered stubbornly. “On the ninth night, right? Let's see what will happen if I sit here all the ninth night ...
He wrapped himself more tightly in the blanket, but his paws were still shaking. My heart was pounding furiously in my chest. Friends, tired from the day, slept peacefully in their rooms; Dale didn't tell anyone about the nightmare that had been haunting him recently. Only you can’t fool yourself: he was scared. So scary that he decided to stay awake in a terrible night thunderstorm, just not to sleep. Don't sleep, do you hear? Don't sleep...
Through the noise of the hurricane, a muffled scratching sound came from the door. Dale distinctly felt the fur on the back of his neck stand up.
"I imagined" - he decided, convulsively clinging to the blanket. - "You never know what the wind rustles there"
The scratching repeated. Gray with fear, Dale covered his head with the blanket.
“There is no one there… There is no one! Nobody!!! No!!!"
Again, even closer, thunder struck, the mighty tree shuddered to its very roots. A furious gust of wind tore the door off its hinges, instantly blew out the candle; in pitch darkness, a numb Dale felt something touch his neck.
From horror, he could not even scream, his heart was covered with a crust of ice, his paws were taken away. But before falling into the merciful arms of unconsciousness, Dale heard a voice - dead, as if hewn from marble that goes to gravestones:
“Nur ain paar tage…” the stranger whispered, freezing the air in the room with every word. Dale, squeaking, lost his senses.
Came in after a couple of hours. The broken door was lying on the floor, the wind had already blown a whole mountain of sand and wet leaves at the threshold. Dale struggled to his feet, silently disentangled himself from the blanket, tore his motley shirt, tossed it aside. A wide strip of gray hair was visible, stretching from the shoulder across the chest and behind the back.
Without a word, Dale went up to the second floor, walking so confidently in the pitch darkness, as if his eyes - alive, bright, as before, only with a sparkle unknown before - acquired new qualities.
He walked past two rooms, opened the doors of the third without stopping, and froze by the bed where Chip was sleeping. He threw back the blanket, put his paw on his chest. The blond hair around the fingers instantly turned gray.
Arching convulsively, Chip dug his claws into the mattress and took a couple of breaths. Silently, he opened his eyes. They had the same sparkle.
"Virh nan'tn," Dale said softly. Nodding with difficulty, Chip silently got up from the bed and, following his friend, left the bedroom.
They went down to the main hall. Resolutely, without looking back, we went out into the howling storm. There, at the threshold, on a wide platform, once lovingly decorated with beads and pieces of colored glass, sat a crow.
The rain hit her feathers, and each drop, touching the bird, turned black; along the branch, like threads of a terrible cobweb, dark streams spread. Chip and Dale approached the night guest, who, with a sparkling eye, spread her wing in front of them.
In the midst of the glossy satin darkness, a gray feather gleamed lonely.