Cloak as Red as Blood

Chapter 6:The Quest Begins

I wasn't dead. I watched through unblinking eyes as Skylar and my brothers wept over me. I felt 

paralyzed, and my body hurt like hell. I wanted to tell them that I was still alive, but no words 

would come out. I heard a howling in the distance. The others made no indication that they 

heard it.  Suddenly the pain began to leave my body.  At first I thought that I was dying, but 

when I saw my brothers and Skylar staring at me with shocked expressions I knew that I was still 

alive. My body began to feel less heavy and I was able to move again. I blinked and slowly lifted 

my head from Skylar's lap. "Easy little brother," said Jonathan. "Don't try to move so much," 

said Henry.  "Hunter, are you okay?", asked Skylar. I wanted to answer her but once again no 

words would come out. The only sounds escaping my lips were gurgling noises, like I was 

choking on my own blood. Skylar stood up and looked at my brothers. Her wrist was bruised as 

was her face. Her once beautiful dress was reduced to shredded rags, and she was covered head 

to toe in blood, not her own.  Wait how did I know that! "I will go and fetch water from the well 

outside to dress Hunter's wounds, I'll be right back", said Skylar.  "Wait!", I called out mentally.  

"Skylar, come back!"

I stumbled out into the cool night air. My mind was struggling to comprehend everything that 

just happened. Hunter looked dead lying on the floor, now suddenly he was alive. How? With 

the injuries he sustained from Humphrey's attack he should be dead. And how had I killed 

Humphrey. I thought back to that memory flash I had experienced. The woman I saw in the 

vision called me Gothle. Was it possible that I somehow experienced one of her memories from 

when she was young. How did she, or I for that matter, summon a knife in my hand? My mind 

reached to one conclusion; one that my mother had said was impossible. As I drew up the 

bucket from the well I heard a mew from behind. I turned around and saw that it was the same 

cat. Looking into its eyes I knew instantly that it was trying to warn me. "Was that why you were 

in the house?", I asked it. "Did you know that Humphrey was in there?" The creature simply 

licked its paw like a common ordinary cat and didn't answer. "How could you have known?", I 

thought. "And why stay to warn me instead of fleeing?" These questions were interrupted by 

Henry's urgent voice booming from inside. "Skylar you better come see this!", he called. 

Dropping the bucket of water, I ran back inside the cottage to see what Henry was fussing about. 

What I saw completely threw me of guard. 

Hunter was sitting straight up without a scratch on him.  His ear had grown back, his skin 

completely healed of gashes, and his eye had regained life in it. "It's the queerest thing," said 

Jon. "One minute he's  laying on his back bleeding out, next thing we know his wounds are