Sancha: A Spirit Animals Story

The Cloak

Sancha had fainted, but she came around within less than a minute. By then, she'd been moved away from the corpse of their former captor, the one who'd been killed by his own monkey. Some may have fainted at the sight of blood, but Sancha had no squeamishness when it came to blood. She'd seen enough of it before. She had not fainted then, but she had now. It was simply the fact that this gruesome death was so reminiscent of one she'd seen before. She could still remember Zerif's jackal entering her father's chambers, a shadow in the dim and the dark, leaping up to tear out King Irwin's throat. Tarik and Finn knew of how her father died, and thus guessed correctly what had come over Sancha. By the time she regained consciousness, they had moved a good distance away from the remains of the scene, which Sancha was grateful for. 

Though Sancha had felt obligated to continue to the village they'd been heading for before this happened, Tarik insisted that they needed to put that off and head for the nearest Greencloak stronghold. There could have been many more people like the men who'd attacked them, and local Greencloaks needed to be aware of what happened and be on their guard. Sancha couldn't argue with that logic and so she agreed, though part of her felt guilty for not rendering aid sooner.

They'd ended up at a small keep called Hallow Hall. Its castellan, a strong spirited, gray-haired woman called Winona, who chose to wear a green fabric scarf in place of the typical cloak, welcomed them readily, though she would have liked them to forewarn her of their coming. Of course, there hadn't been time, but that didn't seem to matter much to Winona.

The trio got a hot meal that evening and real beds to rest on, both of which Sancha had to admit she was more than happy to enjoy, even if the room she was given was a tad drafty at night. The next morning, Tarik sent a message to Greenhaven, updating Olvan on their mission and their run in with the men in the woods.

When they'd explained to Winona what had prompted their stop at Hallow Hall, she took the story stoicly. Her spirit animal, some sort of hound Sancha had never seen before, accepted food scraps from its partners hand.

"Any ideas as to who these bastards were?" she asked when they finished. "Outlaws aren't unknown around here, but they tend to stay away from people like us."

"They weren't outlaws, that I'm certain of," Tarik stated. "And from what we heard them saying, they weren't working alone. Someone was giving them orders."

"Sounds like the Jackal's work," Winona muttered. Sancha nearly shivered. She knew who it was that Winona was referring to, and somehow, she felt annoyed that she hadn't considered that possibility before. 

"Possibly. If so, it's a good thing we escaped."

...

Sancha couldn't sleep. That night, she lay on the mattress in the room she'd been given for the night. Through the thin walls, she could hear Finn and Tarik talking in hushed voices, not knowing she was awake and listening, or perhaps they knew and had chosen to continue their conversation anyway.

"Do you think Zerif was involved in this?" Finn asked, though Sancha got the sense he already believed that to be the case, but felt the need to ask anyway.

"I can't be sure, but it would hardly surprise me."

Silence passed before Tarik spoke again, his voice sounding drained, as if having just endured insurmountable stress.

"We barely got out of there. We came so close to getting killed. And Sancha...by Ninani's grace if they'd learned who she was...I don't even want to consider it. Let's just be thankful that didn't happen. Our enemies cannot know who she is. Not yet."

...

Though Sancha wanted to keep going through other villages, Olvan had ultimately sent the order to have them head back to Greenhaven. She was disappointed, though she understood why they were being recalled. 

Finn seemed disappointed too. She had a sense why. Doubtless this whole trip brought back memories of his past, and thoughts about the countless others who had and still were enduring similar pains to those that he had once before the Greencloaks came into his life. Before Sancha did. He probably wanted to see them helped too. 

"You think they'll let me come back here?" Sancha asked him at one point during their trek towards the nearest port with which to get back to Greenhaven.

"I think Olvan will let you eventually. Honestly, we might have had no trouble if we chose to keep our cloaks in our bags."

"I didn't even think of that," Sancha admitted.

"Didn't occur to me till after. Besides, something tells me Tarik might not like it. I don't know him like you do, but I know he's devoted to his vows. For him, hiding that may be like having to give up an arm."

Sancha pondered this.

"If he had to, he'd do it, right?"

"If it really mattered, I suppose," Finn answered. "Probably wouldn't be happy about it."

"Would you?" Sancha asked.

"The cloak won't change anything if you ask me. I'm a Greencloak with or without the color on me. Heck, I could probably count the number of times I've seen Lenori wearing a cloak on one hand. Sure, the cloak is a badge of it, but it's just a cloak in the end."

"It means a lot though, doesn't it, to you all?"

"Yeah, but it means the same even when you don't wear it. I mean, you're not wearing a tiara or anything, but you're still royalty."

"I guess," Sancha replied. Truth be told, she'd never even worn a tiara in her life. By the time she was old enough to really wear jewelry, all but the most valued crown jewels had been bartered away to keep the castle she lived in maintained. "Dead royalty."

"Right, I forgot you mentioned that," Finn replied. "Maybe one day you'll be able to return."

"Doubt it. I'm basically a traitor."

"For helping us, yeah. It's stupid. It wasn't your fault you got forced out of your home."

"It wasn't, but I don't think my uncle would see it that way."

A/N: Hey y'all. I know it's been a bit, but here's another one. The next chapter will hopefully be out pretty soon (I don't intend to have as big of a gap between publishing as I did with this one and the last so I hope that makes you feel better). BTW, we're only a around 4 or 5 chapters from the start of Wild Born, so be prepared. Also, we're getting into major emotional roller coaster territory, so prepare yourselves. In the mean time, hope everyone is well and that you enjoyed the chapter.