Secrets of The Past

New Discoveries Part 1

I continued flying for what seemed like hours deeper and deeper into the woods.

The whole right side of my face felt hot and sticky. I still couldn't see out of my right eye, no matter how hard I tried to open it. I started to feel light-headed as I lost more and more blood.

I looked down. There was a clearing in the forest just down below. I decided to land. The vision in my left eye was starting to get blurry. I landed in a tumble landing on my face.

At least I didn't land in a tree I thought. The grass below me was dry and crunchy from the recent rain. I stood up feeling dizzy, grass was sticking to the side of my face that was wet with blood. I reached for my medical bag I kept on the inside of my cloak. Then I remembered, I left my cloak in the owl house. Stupid-stupid-stupid, how am I going to wrap my wound up with no bandages? I was reminded of my young training years.

I had just turned eight and was just dropped off at the top of the knee with nothing but the clothes on my back and a small pocket knife. The first one down the mountain alive passed Scout training. I was reckless and determined to prove myself to Uncle. I stayed up late into the night studying edible plants and demons I might encounter. I felt ready to take on the world. I started down the mountain alone and confident that I was ready to take on anything.

I shivered in the frozen merciless blizzard. I didn't have my cloak yet, just a thin jacket that was starting to get too small. I heard a loud roar in the distance. I turned around and there it was the legendary slitherbeast.

I heard the screams of other scout trainees. I started to run, I heard a loud crunch in the snow and a splatter of blood. The beast was getting closer. I ran faster but the snow was too deep for my short legs. A second later I was face down on the ground and the slitherbeast started to drag me across the snow, slashing my leg in the process. I grabbed for my pocket knife and started to stab the beast repeatedly, the beast roared in pain. the slitherbeast ran away still howling in pain, I tucked my leg close to my body a long cut was running from right above my left knee down to right above my ankle. We weren't allowed to take any medical supplies so I cut the sleeves off my jacket and used them to bind my leg to stop the bleeding, and I kept going down the mountain. I trekked through the icy snow shivering but if I stopped someone else would get to the bottom first and I would never be able to prove my worth to Belos. I walked through the night and finally at 3:00 am I made it to the finish line breaking the record time for the first one down the mountain, the last record being 6:00 am.

I sighed at the fond memory. I wish I could just go back to my old life. It wasn't much of a life, but it's still better than bleeding to death in the middle of nowhere. I ripped off my golden armor so I could get to my light blue shirt underneath. I ripped the bottom off it and started to gingerly wrap the strip of cloth around my eye. Thankfully the bleeding slowed to a trickle and I started to feel less lightheaded.

"Come on Flapjack we need to keep moving," I said walking deeper into the forest with Flapjack on my shoulder.

We walked on slowly. I was dizzy and thirsty. I could tell that my cut was getting infected. I needed to find a clean water source so I could clean it before it got any worse. I stopped to lean against a tree. My makeshift bandage was doing very little to stop the blood from flowing and the blood was getting all over my shirt. Ugg I just washed this, I thought looking down at my shirt. The blood was starting to dry leaving a dark brownish-red stain. Flapjack tugged on my hair.

"Ouch!" I said, rubbing my head. "You need to find a better way to get my attention, what is it?"

I turned in the direction Flapjack was facing. There was a small cabin in the distance that looked abandoned, but after the run-in, with Kikimora, I wasn't ready to take any chances. I crept silently up to the cabin, keeping away from the windows. I slowly opened the door. There was no one inside.

I walked in carefully if this was anything like the Owl House there could be defense systems. There wasn't a lot in the small one-room cabin. There was a small wood fire stove top with some pots and pans hanging from some hooks on the wall. There also was a desk and chair and a chest of drawers but what really caught my eye was the large chest sitting in the corner.

I walked over to the chest. There was a thick layer of dust coating the lid. I brushed it off, making a cloud of dust lift into the air making me cough. I lifted the lid, there wasn't much in the chest much to my surprise. All that was in the chest was a small pile of folded handkerchiefs, an empty journal, a small bag of snails and a neatly folded cloak.

I lifted the cloak up. It was made from a black witches wool. It was torn in some places like it was well used in battle. I put it on, fastening the clasp around my neck.

"Well how do I look?" I asked Flapjack.

"Good, good." Flapjack chipped in reply.

I picked up the handkerchiefs. Whoever lived here before seemed to really like handkerchiefs. I picked up one of the white ones. There were two, one white and one black. I carefully peeled off the makeshift bandage from my face flinching in pain. I discarded it then started to wrap my eye with the clean white handkerchief. Then I examined the bag of coins. There were just about 20 snails, just enough to buy some food and medical supplies from Bonesborough.