𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑑𝑜𝑤𝐻𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟

Chapter 18

     Are the spirits watching me now? Eclipse wondered numbly.

     Reed's blood mixed with the water around him. Eclipse spat out his fur, and just stood staring at the Drolgon who she'd loved; who she'd just murdered. She sat down, put her paws on Reed's cold, lifeless chest, and hung her head. Tears poured down her face, and fell into the water, mixing with Reed's blood. She sobbed until her throat was sore.

     What have I done?

     Finally, she looked up. She thought she saw a faint movement in the bushes, but she wasn't sure.

     Probably just a deer or something.

     She got to her paws, dragged Reed's body next to a bush, and went back over to the water. She swirled her paw around until she couldn't see the blood anymore.

     Then she licked at her own wounds, seeing how bad she was hurt for the first time. She had a scar on her muzzle, her ear was torn and blood from her ear was dripping into her eye, her wing had a few tooth marks in it, her side was slashed, and she was covered in blood.

     She glanced back at the lake, and realized that the ice-cold water was the best way to wash away the blood. She tentatively put one paw in the lake, and shivered from the cold. But then she forced herself to splash some water onto her side and her other wounds.

     After a while, she was clean. Her wounds had stopped bleeding, and she hoped that they were small enough that no one would notice them. She shook herself, almost dry.

     She then sniffed out all the spots with her scent on them, and she covered the scent with pine needles. At last, the beach was clean again, with no signs of murder except for some pools of blood. But the pools could still be there, because Reed was "killed by a bear".

     Eclipse took one more glance at Reed's lifeless body, and she hurried back to camp. It was getting closer to dawn, and the sky was turning a light, milky purple. Eclipse flew up into the night, and flew as fast as she could toward the camp.

Finally, she arrived at the archway. She scented the air to see if any Drolgon was up this early, and she detected none. She silently slunk through the archway, and into her den. There, she cleaned herself until she no longer smelled of the forest. Then she slept, thankful for the comfort of the soft moss in her nest.

     But I don't deserve soft moss. I don't deserve anything. I'm a monster.

     You're not a monster, The Voice said soothingly. You did what was right, and none of the other Drolgons can see that. Reed just had to pay a price, just like if you hunt on another Pacree's territory, you have to pay the price of giving them any prey you caught. Now, you need to rest. Tomorrow, Pacree Sky will discover that Reed is dead, and you will need to be ready to tell your story of how you think he was killed by a bear.

     Eclipse nodded, tucked her wings around her, and her tail over her muzzle. And at last, even though she knew the following day would be probably the worst day of her life, sleep came.