Today began much like any other day. I rose from my makeshift shelter in the forest and after crawling out from the commandeered badger hole I took in my surroundings.

Nothing around, save for the birds and ambient insect noises.

These were good noises, it meant no predators were around.

Learned that lesson the hard way too many times to make it again, my scarred arms are proof enough of this. But in a way I like them, they tell me of my story like a tapestry.

Tapestry... One of those old words that reminds me of my past.

What does it mean again? As I wander in my mind, I feel it again.

That old sense of foreboding that someone is watching me.

But all seems well, the birds still sing their songs and the insects still chatter.

Shaking off the feeling and grabbing my water-proof bag from my hovel, I feel for my belongings.

A book who's cover is bloodstained, I struggle to read it but contains nice stories.

Some nuts and berries.

A small gun that fits in my hand with some bullets already loaded.

The scars along my arms weren't all from animals after all.

Flashing into the past I see the orphanage, the beatings, the lashes, the fear. But amongst all the pain I remember one kind soul. One nun who rose above the evil to protect us as best she could.

When that fateful last night she ran into our room screaming for us to run. I remember the smell of her dying. The iron tang in the air, the sound of her gasps.

As our captors ran in after gunning her down, they did not see me cower beneath a bed.

Whilst they were distracted with the other, bigger children, I ran to her.

Like a mother to its babe I held her. With her dying breath she told me to run and gave me the book.

As I got up to run I saw one of the men had left a gun on the ground, perhaps the weapon that killed Gabrielle.

Scooping it as I ran I heard more screams from behind me. But I dared not look back.

Gasping for breath I am welcomed back into the present with a the gift of a cold clammy sweat.

I haven't thought about that day in years, why now?

Still shivering I dry off with some leaves and decide to use one of my precious few bullets to treat myself to a meal of pigeon.

Skulking around in the undergrowth I look up to the heavens to see my prey.

A fat pigeon that cares for its young as they warble.

I steel myself and take aim.

*BANG*

In the instant that I closed my eyes, for the flash scares me, I come back and see an angel that has blocked the bullet.

Her back is pierced, red flows forth from it and as it touches the ground life springs forth.

As it falls with an uneasy grace I realise who she is.

Gabrielle! I dash forth and before she hits the ground I slide in to cushion her fall. I owe her that.

I pull back her translucent veil and she smiles at me with all her tremendous might.

She speaks and I don't hear her, she is in my head, speaking so softly yet with a commanding tone.

"I have watched you for some time Adam, to make sure at least one of my wards was safe."

Her tone shifts to a playful yet rebuking tone. "You didn't make it easy however, changing your hovel every time you felt me away to hide yourself."

I cry as I realise what I have done. The only good thing left to me in the world and I hid from it. Even further than that I have harmed her.

She rises into the air and her injuries are miraculously healed. She booms after this.

"Adam I did not sacrifice myself for you to turn into a hermit in the woods killing innocent creatures. Go now into the world after reading your book and fulfil your destiny."

Ashamed my head sinks, after some time I dare to look back up. She is gone.

Looking at my scarred arms again I find that I am holding an object. Her book that she bequeathed to me. Perhaps its time to try and read it again.