Cloak as Red as Blood

Chapter 7:The Moving Cottage

I sat in the classroom dimension magically conjured by my familiar, Puss. Today I took my first 

steps into learning how to control my powers. I was brimming with excitement and anticipation 

of what I would learn here. Maybe I would learn more about the power I used to kill Humphrey. 

And then there was Hunter's affliction he had gotten from his battle with Humphrey. 

Here I could learn what it was and how to cure it. "Are you excited for your first day dear?" I 

turned and looked at the figure who had taken the appearance of Granny Gothle. Turns out the 

woman we met yesterday turned out not to be my grandmother.

When we approached her she looked so much like her. Same hair, same eyes, and same voice. I 

was so happy, until I quickly found out it wasn't her. "I'm not your grandmother Skylar," she said 

gently, touching my cheek. She guided us into the house and up the stairs. Granny lay in her bed 

dead as a door nail. She looked almost like she was sleeping. The woman who looked like her 

turned and spoke to me. "You had a vision of the wolf killing your grandmother," she said. I 

nodded and knelt down to  grasp her hand, cold from death. "What happened to her?", I asked 

eyes filling with tears. "The wolf took her by surprise. She was flayed alive with his claws and 

discarded in the woods." My eyes went wide at the word flayed.  When I looked at her corpse it 

seemed nothing had happened to her before her death. "I used a glamour spell to return her 

flesh, but the flesh itself is not real", explained the figure. It was like whoever or whatever this 

woman was, was reading my thoughts. Suddenly I felt bile rising in my throat. "What did the 

wolf do with her flesh?", I asked.  The woman looked at me sadly. "Are you sure you want to 

know?", she asked. My mind flashed back to the meat and drink Humphrey had fed me. I ran 

from the room and outside to spill my guts. I can't believe that I had actually dined on the flesh 

and blood of my murdered grandmother. I couldn't stop the tears that streamed down my face 

or the vomit that ran past my lips. After about thirty minutes or so the Loxley brothers came out 

to comfort me and clean me up.

I weakly stumbled back into the cottage and sat in my grandmother's rocking chair.  The woman 

came down the stairs and sat next to me. "What happened to you was beyond horrible", she 

said. "Words can't begin to describe the atrocity the wolf forced you to commit." She placed a 

comforting arm on my shoulder. "It's over now, the wolf has paid with his life." "Over?", I asked. 

"The guilt I feel for what I did will never end", I snapped. I snatched my arm away and gave her a 

cold stair. "If you aren't my grandmother then who are you and why do the two of you look 

exactly alike?" The woman got up to stir something in the pot above the fireplace. "Your