The Crimson Cape

Chapter Eleven

Big White is dead. Silenced by the dagger Phoenix had sheathed on her belt. Finally, after many years of fearing wolves, Phoenix is able to let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Quickly," Esmerelda said, getting to her feet "collect some of its blood in this jar."

Esmerelda handed Phoenix a small glass jar she had brought from home to collect the wolf's blood. Phoenix uncorked the jar and set the cork to the side. Then, she grabbed the handle of the dagger that was still buried in the wolf's neck. She pulled the dagger out of the wolf's body and placed the blade in the jar allowing the blood to drip off of the dagger and into the jar. Esmerelda then picked up the wolf's neck and allowed more blood to flow from the wound and into the jar. When they were done, the jar was almost full of pure wolf's blood. The blood of the very thing that Phoenix feared the most.

Evander was still laying on the ground unconscious from the wolf's attack. Deciding that their best course of action would be to wait for him to regain consciousness, they set up camp and tried to make him as comfortable as possible. A few hours later, the sun had begun to set, and Evan had still not woken up.

"Is he okay?" Phoenix asked, concerned since Evan was still unconscious.

"I can feel a pulse," Esmerelda said, firmly grasping Evan's wrist "his chest is heaving, slightly but is enough to tell me he is breathing. He should wake up soon."

They laid a blanket over Evan and left him alone. They then started a fire and sat down around it to eat their dinner.

"Granny," Phoenix said sitting down next to Esmerelda "do you think that God would support what we did today?"

"Well," Esmerelda said, not quite knowing how to answer this question "You faced your greatest fear today and conquered it. In this situation, conquering your fear meant killing it. I think that God does not want us to be afraid of anything."

Esmerelda began to share a story from when she was a little girl. As a little girl, Esmerelda had an intense fear of the dark. She was specifically afraid of sleeping in the dark. So, she would leave her candle lit in her bedroom at night. However, her family could only afford cheaper candles, which could burn down in a week if they were left lit for too long. By leaving her candle lit overnight, Esmerelda shaved days off the candle's lifespan. A candle that should have lasted a week now lasts only a few days. This of course caused problems for her family, since they could only afford to buy new candles every once in a while.

One night, Esmerelda decided that she was going to sleep in the dark for the first time in a very long time. So, that night, she blew out her candle and went to sleep. She was able to go to sleep quickly after, but she woke up in the middle of the night.

In the corner of her room, a shadow loomed over the walls. Thinking it was a monster or something coming to hurt her, Esmerelda hid under her blanket. She peered out from underneath her blanket and saw that the monster did not move and was very still. She decided to investigate and got out of her bed. She walked over to the corner, where the figure stood. She discovered that what she had seen was just the shadow of a tree outside her bedroom window. Relieved, she climbed back in bed and went back to sleep.

"Of course, like you, I had something to motivate me to face my fear of sleeping in the dark." Esmerelda said. "My fear of the dark was costing my parents money. Since I thought I could not sleep in the dark, I used up more candles. In your case, you needed to kill the wolf to get its blood. If your cape had not been ripped and in need of re-enchantment, you would not likely have faced Big White."