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David...
“Where is Blossom?” They had given him his own tent, and David was grateful for that. The youths from his team had gathered for breakfast and were paired up like sets of earrings on a rack. There were random, indifferent shrugs.
There was no sign of his little buddy, the Wolf. Grabbing an apple from the offerings, he whistled the pattern they used to call to each other when they were tracking. Three short and two long. Nothing. It wasn’t like her to run off. He called her name out loud, and several of the children hissed at him to be quiet. There was a strangeness to their quiet, traveling with them on a search.
It seemed alien to him to send a group this young away from their homes. Colorado was vast, and he hadn’t really understood what intel had sent them in this direction. He kept expecting other grown-ups to join them, but the situation remained decidedly like a purposeful summer camp gone feral.
Two days before, one of the kids had returned with a scrap of shifter fur, dried and braided. There had been a flurry of intense messages back and forth to the core community. Much like with Bears, Wolves burned their remains to ash. The young people’s instincts had been to burn it, but they had been ordered to wait, to keep it until it was understood. He and Blossom had talked about it quietly yesterday in their downtime. The group was traveling along the borders of large private property but staying on public lands.
David walked along the border of their camp. Where was she? She never took this long to relieve herself. He gave a high, shrill whistle, and a dozen heads swiveled his way. He gestured with their shorthand that he was going to look for his partner down by the river. Blossom liked to watch the patterns of the animals. At eleven, she was already an impressive hunter. When they returned from their rounds, she often had a rabbit hanging from her belt.
He followed a deer path. There was a ribbon of her scent, as thin as a strand of hair along that direction. He adjusted until he caught enough of her scent to be certain that he was following the path she took this morning. Where was she?
David could hear the river and its tumbling over the rocks. She couldn’t be too far. He tried their whistle and heard, far in the distance, two shrill short whistles and a third that cut short.
Was it a human hunter responding to a sound for sport? Fine hairs on the back of his neck prickled. He picked up his pace, a new urgency driving him along the path.
Dogs, he heard dogs, barking and growling. It had to be hunters. Two fleet Wolves joined him, in their heart shapes, sleek and quick. They surged ahead, followed by two more. Silent as shadows.
The sound of the river could not hide the barking of the dogs. David slowed, careful. Through the trees, in the distance, he smelled human hunters and the metallic aroma of their ATVs. He was downwind.
The dogs stared up into a single tree, circling it, baying with excitement. High in the swaying tree, he saw who he most hoped not to. Blossom. Four human hunters, holding guns, looked up at what must appear to be a small girl to them. Across the river, they wouldn’t be easy to reach. Had the dogs driven her there? When the one man raised his gun to aim it at her, he almost cried out a threat. Along his sides, sharp electricity traveled under his skin.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
One of the dogs swiveled its head, sniffing the air. Its bay was a call to hunt, filled with a longing to pursue. The human leader rested his hand on the taunting human who stood next to him. His touch halted the man’s flow of threats aimed at the little wolf trapped high in the tree.
The leader gestured toward where the hound was looking. He gave a command, and the animals raced toward them. Dogs usually avoided shifters. There was a natural inhibition to approaching dangerous predators. His young companions were unnerved by this strange and sudden turn, and flushed from their shelter in the brush.
David had no fear of dogs, not even a pack. In his heart shape, he could rend them to pieces. But more importantly, he was trying to understand what was happening. The children were faster than natural dogs. Being alone and surprised was the only reason that little wolf could have possibly ended up in the tree.
The dog’s eyes were wild with excitement, yellow and crazed. They shot past him in pursuit of the youths. With a jolt, he realized that they must be trained to their specific scent. To Wolf shifters. He was as yet invisible to them, not marked as a target.
Were these the people that they had been warned about? Were they the humans who were hunting his kind? He watched as the men laughed and taunted the girl. Their voices echoed. Two of them were headed in his direction. Following the dogs in a jovial fashion as if they were on a fox hunt.
He could weave his way around them and approach the two who were tossing sticks and rocks at the trapped girl. He’d had to avoid an untold number of weed poachers when he was tasked with perimeter duty at the middle camp. Avoid their guns, report to the mountain, hunt them down and retrieve product. Leave them to rot in the wild.
She was cursing them. God love her. Loud and violent. They seemed amused by her vitriol. One of them looked strangely familiar. He’d seen a sketch. With a jolt, he realized that the bulkier man looked a lot like the neighbor that had broken into Nana’s house.
The two older women had argued a lot, but there were some features they had been very specific about with the sketch artist. The bulky human reached to the small of his back and withdrew a round barreled gun that David recognized as a sedation dart gun used in zoos.
No one would shoot a child out of a tree. Pushing himself faster, there was no way to reach the human before the dart was released. He saw it strike his friend. Blossom swayed in the branches, lost her grip and fell. Breaking branches as she fell, Blossom came rapidly down through the tree until she crashed into the forest floor. The dead weight of her body hit the ground so hard she bounced. David fought the urge to burst into bear. What would they fear more, a bear, or another human who had seen them shoot a child out of a tree? The ‘friendly neighbor’ lifted the girl’s limp body effortlessly and slung it over his shoulder.
David slowed as he got closer, careful of his noise. They loaded her into the back of one of the ATVs. With a cheery wave to his companion, the bulky man started the four wheeler and surged forward toward the dirt road that the forest rangers used. David gave in to his body’s desire to change, shedding clothing and shoes. He had the scent of the ATV. Oily, distinct, the aroma of the man and his friend. He could trail them, but he needed speed. The distance couldn’t be too far or they wouldn’t be leaving their friends and the dogs behind. Ditching his clothing, he split and rolled into his bear and made chase. Fast and powerful, David picked up speed as he left the line of sight of the men he had left behind.
...
Kay…
“What? Why are you so mopey?”
“I just can’t stop thinking about it. The first gig would have been tonight” Dan folded his arms across his chest. He was stuck in his head again. “It would have been good money for us. All they wanted to do was hire someone like us to go to their promotional events and set up some lighting. They are a start-up. And the pay was tempting. Our reel impressed them.”
“That doesn’t sound weird to you? I couldn’t find their company online anywhere. The guy was messing with you.” She placed another glass in the strainer. “Give things time. Real opportunities will show up.” Flicking her dish towel at him, she teased, “And anyway, didn’t you say that the guy at the coffee shop gave you the creeps? Who flies college students across state lines to trick out their parties?”
Dan danced backward, “Yeah, but money is money. I don’t care what people need good lighting for.”
“We are fine. We don’t need weirdo money.”
He gave a half-hearted snort in her direction. “Speak for yourself.”
Grumbling, he went back to the couch and reached for a comic book.