Satin Rose and the Witch Hunters

48. The Hunt that Never Began

Even with the fire, the area was still dark. Shadows crept around us. Rising and falling closer as the fire began to die down. What happened here? My body was frozen in place. Everything seemed a little surreal and I frowned trying to understand it. I was expecting a wizard. Was that even Dutchess?

One of the kids raised his arms as if to hold or take Dutchess. In a shaky voice he said, "I didn't kill it."

This shouldn't have been real. This couldn't be real. My eyes narrowed at the cat. It was Dutchess, but the wings and horns? They looked more like shadows now, flickering in and out as the fire behind them danced on. It was a trick of the light. I had known Dutchess since the day she was a stray kitten. A regular cat. My cat. That was all he ever was and I wanted him to be nothing more.

A twig snapped beneath me and both boys looked towards me. I didn't even realize that I had been walking forward.

I steeled myself, gritting my teeth. "What's going on here?" I questioned.

The one not holding the cat booked it. He ran straight into the cottage that was leaning against the wall and then it was just me and the kid holding the cat. He stepped back. I couldn't just do nothing and took a deep breath, heat and smoke heavy in the air. "What happened?" I asked again.

"This... cat's been chasing me and my friend. Knocked over a lamp and burnt a shed to the ground. It's under control now." A crackle and pop came from behind him as the fire spat out a rock. With how dark it was seeing the boy's face was a challenge. As I peered at him, trying to remember if it was familiar, he stuttered. "A-are you a hunter?"

A nod was my only answer. Walking over to him, he clutched at the cat as if his life depended on it, he didn't run though and when I walked past him, and started stomping on the fire he was frozen solid. "We need to put this fire out completely. It could spread through the underbrush and into the city. Was anyone hurt?"

"N-no."

It wasn't that hot and the cool night breeze was already bringing a chill. Kicking up dirt to put out the last few embers I turned back to him. Moonlight had broken through the clouds, my eyes adjust to the light, and looking down at Dutchess, it seemed as if I had simply been imagining. "Did the cat cause the fire?"

"Yes. Are you going to kill it?" He was apprehensive and blurted it out so suddenly that I almost flinched at the question. "That's what Hunters do right?"

The shadows seemed to be growing again. Closing in and clumping around Dutchess, his head dropped with the weight of something that wasn't there yet it was obvious he was still alive and breathing. My eyes furrowed. Something was wrong. The shadows started to deepen as the a cloud passed overhead and the outline of bat like wings was suddenly visibly again. I grit my teeth, "That's what we do."

He looked down, holding Dutchess as gently as he could. There was something familiar about him that I couldn't quite place. My head was turning itself inside out trying to remember when he started talking. "Yes. But. I think we spooked it. The cat wasn't attacking us at first. We couldn't leave it alone though and it followed us. And we had to do something cause we were next to the Hunters camp-"

"I'll take it from here." I moved to take the cat and took one step back again.

"It's just. I've never seen a cat like this before. It seems special. You're a Hunter right? If you hunt something, doesn't that mean you have something your hunting for? Can't that be something special, something different."

What was I going to do? Carry her back to the camp? Put her in a cage? Report it to the Commander? It would be a wake up call.

My arms were still held out, but I didn't move any closer. The boy slowly realized that I wasn't about to retreat and slowly, as slow as he could possibly go, he gave me the cat. She purred and sunk into my me, probably smelling something familiar.

"Are you gonna kill it?"

For the first time since joining, there was finally something worth hunting. There was no way I was going to lose my her. Her head was still tilting to one side and on her back seemed like sticks that had stuck to her fur.

"This is my cat and a lamp burned the shed. She's already special to me. Go on with your friend back home. Things go bump in the dark."

"Thank you!"

Walking back, I looked back down at him and the dark shapes around him had disappeared like mist in the wind. There was nothing wrong with her. Just another normal cat. Nothing to see, nothing to report. Dutchess was snow white as the moonlight broke through the clouds again, purring deeply and sleeping. I looked over my shoulder back toward the boy and the cottage and grunted to myself. A candle had been lit by his friend who met him at the door. With his back turned I could see why he seemed so familiar. From this distant, his cape was almost the same color as that sky blue raven.