Mercy of the Witch

4. Homeward Bound

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Kane P.O.V

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We spent days upon days continuing our search for the witches to no avail, so in a unanimous vote, we decided it would be best to disband the hunting party and return home.

Our food and water sources were running low and we needed to replenish them as starved and dehydrated hunters weren't fun to deal with.

Unfortunately, we weren't exactly going home, but back to the village where we were staying at for the time being.

I was both disappointed and relieved at the same time. I was disappointed in myself because I had failed my task of locating the witch, but I was relieved that the group didn't find another witch. I didn't want innocent blood on my hands or to my name.

"Next time Kane." Kit whispered as he gently clutched my shoulders, giving me a small shake back and forth before letting me off with a reassuring squeeze as he matched pace with me.

"How do I know there will be a next time?" I sighed I always let my failures take over my mind.

"Kane." Kit paused stopping me in my tracks. We were bringing up the rear of the party watching everyone's backs so no one would notice if we lagged behind.

"There will be another chance, there always is. Don't think of this as a bad sign, you almost got the chance to talk to one. Next time you just need to go alone and try to find the same witch again."

"Thanks for that," I spoke play punching him on the shoulder.

I liked having Kit here with me; he always helped me and remained by my side. Looking at him now, he is no longer my childish cousin that used to follow me around. He was an adult now, well, as adult as 16 year old gets. He no longer has a small baby face or puffy cheeks and his shoulders have broadened into that to resemble a hardy and tough young man, although his personality is still that of a joker he always has a smile on his face through thick and thin.

And as much as his mother hated it, he still has his trademark thick shaggy black hair with a small and scruffy little beard. We looked as though we could be brothers instead of cousins; neither of us minded that as we grew up together. Our mothers would say that we were thick as thieves. Always getting up to mischief. Look at us now, I suppose she was right. My face darkened as I remembered our changes...

All of that childhood glee changed on the day my father died. And a few years later we lost Kits mother to an illness, so my mother and Kits father decided to combine our families and live together. To ensure that we were all protected and grew up with both a mother and a father figure.

Each member living in our household we were all related to, so no one thought anything wrong with how we were living at the time, many in our village expected them to marry each other.

"Are you still coming or have you found something?" James, one of the other hunters yelled out to us.

His voice broke me from my mind and obviously Kit as well we both lived in our minds when we weren't planning schemes together.

"Were coming!" I yelled back.

"We thought we saw something but the tracks are old. Maybe a few weeks old." Kit called over as we walked back over to the group.

"What do you think happened to Heller's son?" Another from the group asked looking over at Kit.

None of us has spoken about it since the night Heller left us; we were all trying to focus on the job ahead of us and keep our minds healthily occupied.