The Girl in the Cloak

Recovery

The following day was hell. The girl felt every part of her body ache. She slowly made her way to the bottle of potion meant to heal. Taking it from the pouch it was sitting in, to begin with, she sipped the first amount. The taste was sent from the gods. A combination of Vanilla and berries, the flavor danced around on her tongue like fairies in a fairy ring. Looking at the bottle she downed the rest in an instant. She laid down on the ground where she usually slept and closed her eyes for only a moment. She let the warmth pass through her body, starting in her gut and moving to her extremities. The potion made her feel like she never had before. When her eyes finally opened she saw things. Rainbow colored monsters. The trees themselves watched her and spoke to her.

"Welcome." they would say in harmony. As their branches waved towards her. Everything felt welcoming. The girl took up her cloak and started walking through the trees.

"Everything is so nice isn't it?" She spoke aloud as she started to skip. The water twinkled and sparkled as she watched it flow down the stream. Her long white hair flowed in the wind as she put little flowers she found into it. Everything around her seemed to emit beauty. She even thought she could see the beauty radiate off of things. The glowing objects smiled back and some things even talked to her. She wished this would never end. This view of the world was so much better than the world she knew. She could tell there was no pain or sorrow in this place. The girl only wished she could show Fa everything she was seeing.

"Where is Fa," The girl was speaking aloud, "She should have been in camp." The girl started to head back to the camp but every direction she went she ended up in the same part of the woods. The trees and other plants still smiled and acted friendly but no matter how much she tried she couldn't figure out which way to go to get out of there. The area seemed to infinitely loop back in on itself. she started to panic, but only for a second. Then a warmth ran through her body again. She felt at home and everything was back to being beautiful.

"Why won't you listen to me!"

The girl thought she heard a familiar voice but it was only for a second. If she didn't know any better than she would have thought it was the cloak yelling for her. But that didn't make sense to her. She looked down at her neck and the cloak wasn't there. She felt strange again, but only for a second until the warmth took over her again. Then everything felt wonderful again. She couldn't explain why but she knew she never wanted this feeling to end. If it meant drinking that potion more she would do it.

The cloak waved in the wind. A storm had reared its ugly head, but that was the least of its concerns. The real problem was the girl. She was wondering and not responding at all.

"What are you doing little one. This is dangerous head back to camp now." Its efforts fell short. No matter how much it tried all that it got in response was silence. The girl was in a different realm. It felt to the cloak that there was something blocking his signal to her. "If only we could find a way past it," the cloak thought to itself. It was running out of ideas. To its knowledge the only thing left it could do was engulf the girl to protect her. But that felt like a bit overkill. The cloak could sense the area around it getting more rugged. It tried to start to see everything around it. Nothing changed. All it could do is sense vibrations. It tried again. The cloak knew it had to see where it was going to keep the girl safe. But again nothing. It knew that it couldn't save the girl if it was only able to sense what was behind her. That wouldn't stop it from falling or running into something that she wouldn't get out of. The panic set in and with all the strength it could muster the cloak tried again. For a second it saw something. It couldn't tell what it was with how brief the vision was but it knew it had seen something. This was the first time it had seen anything to its knowledge. The cloak tried again using the last of its strength it could muster it pushed out and this time the world blinked into existence right before it's very eyes. What it saw was not beautiful in the slightest. The storm had grown stronger. Branches were falling and nearly missing her. Panic flooded the cloak. Everything it saw only provided more danger. Then it noticed something else, blood. Blood was dripping from the girl's ear and down her neck. It was a steady flow of blood that leaked from one ear only. Everything went dark as the cloaked stopped viewing the world around it and instead went to a familiar place, The nerves of the girl. It felt more like home to the cloak. He felt connected to the girl, but for now, it couldn't access the girl's mind. So instead it looked for pain. It didn't take long for it to feel it. At the side of the girls, head was an intense sensation like something was digging at her flesh. The cloak didn't have much to give but it gave all it could, the very last of its strength it had stored, and pushed at the area. The results were not what is expected. The open wound that was already there flooded blood out, way more then it should have, causing the wound to open more. The flow of blood poured out of the girl's ear, and with it a small black bug. The bug had ten small legs and twelve eyes. Its abdomen had a strange rainbow patterned swirl that leads to a point that sticky silk excreted from. It also had to feelers with hands at the end of them that could pick things up and bring them to its fanged mouth. When the creature was out of the girls ear the cloak felt the force stopping it from reaching her go away.

"Little one! Squish it now!" the cloak shouted to the girl.

With a sudden burst, the wonderful haven disappeared. There were no more rainbows, no more talking trees, no flowers in her hair. Instead, there were twigs in her hair and broken branches hanging from waving trees as a large dark storm-battered them. The girl looked down and saw the strange bug and without hesitation stomped on it. As soon as it died the ground rumbled.

"What was that?" She felt that old panic course through her. Another rumble hit but this time with a loud screeching growl. Something was angry.