Chapter 13 The Girl in Blue

It was painfully easy to sneak past every guard he came across, and Gabriel was starting to doubt the system his father had set up. When he reached the river, where he had seen the girl and his mother last, there was no one there. Turning to look at the village, he squared his shoulders and started to make his way there. He had to move carefully so no one would see him.

It took a while to figure out which house his mother was in. He spied her stepping out the door and stepped out from behind a tree. She stopped short when she first saw him, and he could see the fear in her eyes as she turned and shut the door firmly behind her.

"Gabriel, what are you doing here? Don't you know your father will…"

"I know," he said. His voice had gotten much deeper since the last time he had spoken to her. Turning his head, he could see the girl through the window, inside the house his mother had just left. "What's her name?"

"Sky?" asked his mother, a puzzled look on her face. "She's your sister. I had her after your father took you. She was so sickly… I couldn't leaver her to find you for fear she would…"

Gabriel was watching the girl through the window. She had a dress on that matched her name and she was twisting and turning in front of a mirror, obviously checking the dress out. Her hair was also up, in a fancy hair-do, that accentuated her face, making her even more beautiful than the last time he had seen her.

"Gabriel, you need to go. If your father finds you…" said his mother, looking around fearfully.

"He won't find me," scoffed Gabriel, waving a hand. "I've watched a doe give birth and could have touched the newborn if I'd wanted."

He didn't add that it was during a storm, and that a wild cat had then taken out the deer, but it was true he had snuck up on it. Turning away, as Sky left his field of vision, Gabriel ignored the looks from his mother. The questions he wanted to ask her weren't as important as he had thought. He would hide and talk to his sister.

His mother watched him as he seemed to disappear before her, and he almost laughed as she craned her neck, trying to see him. After a few moments, she turned and left, heading away. Could she be running to his father to tell him Gabriel was inside the compound? Or did she have an errand? It didn't matter. His father wouldn't find him, because Gabriel planned to be long gone before the man could show up.

Sky left the house and was turned, pulling the door shut when Gabriel stepped out into the path. When she turned around, she almost ran into him and he fought the urge to close his eyes and breathe in her scent.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't see… wait! You're that boy from the river! I remember you! You brought those rocks to build up the washing area."

Gabriel grinned, nodding. Her voice was soft and pleasing to his ears. He could live with that sound for a long time and never get tired of it.

"Thank you so much for that! It has really made washing the laundry so much easier. I should pay you back for it. How about…" She tapped her chin as she looked him up and down. "How about some clothes? Winter will be here soon, and I can't imagine you running around in nothing but that with snow on the ground."

"It doesn't bother me too much," he said with a shrug.

"Still, it's something I can do. Here, come inside and I'll measure you."

She grabbed his hand and his heart did flip flops in his chest as she opened the door and pulled him inside.

"Mother just left to fetch some things for supper and father won't be back for an hour or so. Something about traders from the city. I'm really excited to see what they bring. They haven't been here in a super long time and dad said he had patched up the troubles with their leader enough that trade would start back up."

Gabriel listened as she prattled on, and watched as she took a thick cord and started holding it up to him, measuring him somehow, then noted the measurements down in a book.

"Can you read? I know you've had to train a whole bunch with father, and now you patrol the lands around the compound. I can't imagine living out there all the time. There are so many monsters that roam the land, I'm glad we have the wall to protect us, and people like you to fight them off!"

Gabriel puffed out his chest at her praise, not bothering to tell her that there really weren't that many monsters. If she wanted him to be a hero, then he would be a hero.

"I have this book that mother gave me, but I find it really boring. You can have it and then I won't have to read it."

She had finished with measuring him and disappeared into a back room, reappearing before he could move to follow her, holding a black book. He took it, studying the black leather of the cover for a moment as she returned the rest of her things to their places and turned back to him.

"I really wish I had time to stay and visit with you, but I want to hurry to the market and see what the traders have brought. If you come back in a week, your new clothes should be done, and I can give them to you."

He nodded again, turning to the door as she opened it, and he stepped outside. Watching her shut the door, he raised his hand as she hurried away. Glancing back down at the book he wondered why he hadn't been able to say much to her. Had he even spoken at all? The sun was starting to go down and he needed to get back to his cave without being spotted.

Leaving the compound behind, Gabriel wasted no time heading to his cave. He made sure to not leave a trail behind him for his father to follow. Relaxing in his small cave, he studied the book in the fading light. Even if he never read it, the book was a gift from Sky, and would cherish it.

Grabbing a bite to eat, Gabriel settled down to sleep, excited about seeing her again. He woke before dawn and started patrolling the lands around the compound for the first time with a goal in mind. Sky had said he was a hero for keeping the compound safe, and so he was going to do just that.

After three days of patrolling, Gabriel was wondering why everyone was told there were monsters when there obviously wasn't. He had traveled all over the place, and other than a particularly large snapping turtle in one of the ponds he came across, there wasn't anything dangerous around.

On his way back to the compound, Gabriel tried to think of things to talk to Sky about, when he found himself at the river where he had fought the werewolf. It didn't seem nearly as big and fast now as it had when he was smaller. Preparing to swim across it, to get to the compound faster, something in the mud caught his attention.

The wolf tracks were far too large to be normal wolves, yet he could tell immediately that they weren't werewolf tracks. Looking up and down the river for any clues as to their whereabouts, Gabriel had a chill run down his spine when he spotted them watching him from the bushes.

He had been so caught up in his thoughts, he had carelessly walked into their trap. The river was the best place to hunt something, as the noise and the anticipation of getting a drink often distracted the prey. Tightening his grip on his spear, he crouched as they left the bushes to circle him. Each one was easily twice the size of a normal wolf.

Gabriel had killed many normal wolves before, but these were far larger. Keeping the river at his back, he swung the spear at the nearest one, that was trying to bait him into running. These wolves were new to the territory. They would be incredibly dangerous if allowed to leave. If he survived this, he had to track them down and either kill them all, or convince them this territory was his and not worth fighting over.

With that decided, he prepared for the first attack. When it came, Gabriel saw the wolf out of the corner of his eye, dodging the sharp teeth and stabbing it with his spear. The wolf yelped, jerking away from him, and he almost lost his grip on the spear.