Jeanne stood shortly behind Maeryn who was on point as they moved down the road. The elf had and arrow notched on her string and looked around the area with careful gaze. Benkin was positioned shortly behind Jeanne, with Gabriel shortly behind and Leonidas taking up the rear.

It was quiet, as they moved down the road. The leaves were hardly making noise let alone swaying. Jeanne looked up as she felt her hands beginning to playing in the air. She placed one hand on the head of her hammer, her fingers tapping along the metal surface without any rhythm. The other hooking onto her belt with her thumb.

She half-expected to find some odd creature staring out at her. Weapons tightly gripped in their hands, waiting to strike out and try to ambush her and the others when the chance presented itself. She noticed Gabriel and Benkin had their weapons ready to face anyone they’d come across.

Jeanne was brought back to when she would be put on patrols back in the Cold Company. Hating every minute of it until they were back at camp and within friendly territory. Always wondering where the enemy was. If they were watching her and others out beyond the safety of whatever fortifications were thrown up beforehand. Were those on the other side simply watching them, or getting ready to try and thin their numbers by a few more than the day before.

She tried to keep these thoughts from her mind so she could focus on finding anything of importance. A rustling sound touched her ears and she turned to her right, towards the direction of the noise. Gabriel called out, “What is it?”

“Thought I heard something,” Jeanne replied. Keeping her eyes into the forest. “Did you hear that?”

Gabriel nodded. “I did, wasn’t certain if it was anything or just the wind.”

“Hold up here, while Maeryn and I check this out,” Jeanne followed, “Maeryn!”

“On my way,” the elf replied, quickly jogging up to Jeanne.

The two entered the woodlands, negotiating through thick brush. The ground was covered in fallen leaves, broken bark and snapped twigs, which crunched under their feet as them moved inward.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Jeanne moved herself around a large tree trunk as she noticed Maeryn kneeling down and examining something on the ground. She moved over to the elf. “What are you looking at?” she asked Maeryn.

“Caught whiff of something around here. Though it might be something.”

“Should I ask what that is?”

“It’s a little gross.”

Jeanne shrugged. “Not like we haven’t gone through disgusting thing in the past.”

Maeryn bobbed her head back and forth, mulling the words over. “Fair enough. Something I learned when my father was teaching me to hunt was to find things animals leave behind that can be used to track them. This can be bits of fur caught on brush, foot prints, things like that.”

“Makes sense.”

“Well, the problem is those tend to be hard to find. Even for elves, sometimes it can be lost in the plethora of everything else in a forest,” Maeryn said. “So, you try to find something that is a bit easier and something animal can’t help but leave behind.”

“What’s that?”

Maeryn looked up at Jeanne. “What do we all do at least once on any given day?”

Jeanne began scrunching her face. “I think I get what going with that. And it’s a little … more than what I was expecting.”

“It’s not glamorous, I’ll give you that,” Maeryn admitted. “But shit is a good way to track what you’re looking for. Course, it’s a lot easier to do that with animals than with sentient persons.”

“What do you mean?”

“How many deer do you see trying to hide their droppings to keep hunters from following them?”

Jeanne nodded. “Fair point.”

Maeryn sniffed the air again before moving aside some of the brush and spotting something underneath. “There we are,” she said.

“You found …” Jeanne began to ask before she saw what Maeryn found. “… shit?”

“Not old either,” Maeryn said, rising to her feet.

Jeanne just looked at Maeryn with a disturbed look.

“What?” Maeryn asked.

“I’m trying … really hard not to make a lot of shit-themed jokes.”

“This is a hard one for you isn’t it?” Maeryn asked.

Jeanne turned away. “Just stop talking about it, please,” Jeanne said, barely keeping back to the laughter.

“You know you want to say it.”

“I think this is a crappy way to find people, Maer,” Jeanne said.

Maeryn snorted out a laughter. “That was a bad one.”

“I think Doc is having too much of an influence on me,” Jeanne said, wiping away a tear from her eye.

As Jeanne was getting her composure back, she heard a harsh groan. She pulled her head back slightly.

“I know that was a bad one, but it didn’t need that response.”

“What do mean?” Maeryn asked.

“The groan.”

“That wasn’t me.”

“It wasn’t?”

“No, I thought that was you.”

Both women looked at each other and Maeryn turned an ear up and closed her eyes. In an instant, she opened her eyes, notched her bow with an arrow and loosed it towards a direction in the forest. They heard a sharp shriek and rushed to find the source.