Ups and Downs by cover artist M St James offers us a feathered familiar to guide our way through this issue, starting with 'The Caged Bird Sings in a Darkness of Its Own Creation' by feature author Richard Thomas. Winged creatures fly to the rescue in 'Olympian' by FJ Bergmann, 'Andouille' by Mike Carson, and 'Dragon's Greed' by Sherilyn Moreton and Anat Rabkin. But human rescues miss the mark in 'All our Swains Commend Her' by Mitchell J Toews and 'The Least of Myself' by Sylvia Leong. The winner and runner-up of the Raven Short Story Contest alight, carrying memories and regrets in 'Revolutions' by Catriona Sandilands and 'Foam' by Alison Stevenson, while 'Waffles and Strawberries' by Susan Alexander shows us a present that fails to live up to the past. Finally, leave the known world behind and take charge of your adventure into the unknown with Melanie Martilla's 'Psychopomps Are Us', Mel Anastasiou's 'Stella Ryman vs the Board', and 'The Shepherdess: The Trail of Yellow Roses' by JM Landels.