Addie rushed out of her room, and Squishy scrambled out of the doorway behind her. Christena was on her way up the stairs, probably to wake Addie up for breakfast. “No time to talk gotta go!” Addie squeezed past the surprised maid and hit the lower floor running.
Behind her, she heard Christena yell after her, “There’s breakfast on the dining table!”
Addie turned around in the hallway, running off to the dining room to grab food as fast as possible. In a rush to get outside as soon as possible, she quickly swiped some boiled eggs off the table, letting them fall down. Squishy ate them before they hit the ground. Equally fast, she grabbed up a pastry in each hand, then ran out of the room, heading for the front door. She nibbled on the pastry while running through the halls. It tasted too much like strawberry jam, but she gobbled it down anyway.
She reached the main entryway and then scarfed down the remaining pastry before slowly opening the door. Squishy ran through her legs and was the first to get outside. He turned his head around to look at Addie, prompting her to follow him. Without a moment to spare, she walked outside and shut the door behind herself. Then, they took off at a sprint, something Addie idly realized they tended to do a lot these days.
As they sprinted through the swamp, flinging mud everywhere, Addie shouted through the rushing air, “Do you remember where to go?”
A mud-coated Squishy responded through their bond, “I remember well where we first encountered the fawn. Let us return to that clearing, and I shall attempt to track black cloak’s scent.”
Addie shivered, as some stray mud splashed up her leg, but she didn’t stop running. Her boot squelched particularly loud into a deeper bog, causing her to stumble and then nearly fall flat on her face. She was able to get her other foot in front of her for balance in time, luckily, and yanked her stuck foot out of the bog.
It didn’t take long to reach the clearing from the other night. Addie recognized the log that the fawn had been awkwardly resting on. It looked to be just the right height for sitting, so Addie did just that. After a moment, damp coldness started spreading through her skirt, causing Addie to jump back up onto her feet. She tried to wipe the back of her dress with her hand a bit, but it didn’t really make a difference. She should have realized a swamp log would be wet...
Meanwhile, Squishy seemed to be circling the outside of the clearing. For a second, Addie thought maybe he was just wandering aimlessly, but as she observed him, she realized he was doing more than just walking the perimeter.
As his paws padded through the cold mud, Squishy walked around the clearing while moving his head up and down. Sometimes, he trailed the ground with his snout, sniffing as he went. At other times, he would follow an invisible trail off the ground and up into the air. This pattern repeated a few times, until finally, Squishy stopped.
“I smell the fawn, but I cannot sense a trace of its mother, nor the man in the black cloak. I remember his scent, but all traces of it have vanished. But it’s more than that. Certain areas of this clearing have been completely wiped of all scents. In certain patches of the air, I can’t even sense the ever-pervasive scent of the swamp. There’s a pattern of sections in the air with no smell at all.” In emphasis, Squishy stood on his hind legs and angled his snout up and slightly to the right, sniffing at a patch of air. He dropped back down, then shook his head a few times.
At the mention of the fawn, Addie brightened up. Maybe the fawn would be a good bonded for Nettal! “Where does the fawn’s scent lead to?”
Addie watched Squishy as he followed a wandering path, visible only to his senses. He was still tracking the scent when Addie’s pacing stopped as she focused on her thoughts. She had become so one-minded earlier, wanting to track down the person responsible for hurting Nettal, but maybe that wasn’t the right thing to do. The universe almost seemed to agree with her, too, since black cloak’s scent was missing. But, at the same time, the fawn’s scent was still trackable.
Addie’s mood darkened as she remembered the last time she saw Auntie. She had avoided eye contact and didn’t want to talk about Sen’s idea. Auntie had brushed Addie off and even argued with Sen about giving Nettal a bond in the first place. She had also been against the idea from the very start. Maybe she was right, and it was too dangerous for Nettal’s soul.
Addie frowned in thought. They were so close she knew it. “Ugh! Why is it so hard just to try and help Nettal!” Addie complained aloud. First, it had been her dad, and now, it was her cousin. Except, this time Nettal was actually hurt, not fake hurt like her dad had been.
“I have discovered the path we should take if you wish to pursue the fawn,” Squishy said. His telepathic thoughts interrupted Addie’s negative spiral.
“Actually, I don’t think Auntie will let us bring the fawn back.” Addie closed her eyes and sighed, frustrated.
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Sitting here and doing nothing wasn’t helping, Addie decided. She wanted to help Nettal. If Auntie refused to let Nettal get a bond, then at least Addie could find the person who hurt Nettal’s soul. Addie’s thoughts drifted to little Lily and all the other children in Mr. Owlcharge’s Area who were suffering from soul damage. Black cloak wasn’t going to stop hurting people, Addie realized, and more kids were in danger than just the ones she knew. Addie made up her mind. Auntie wasn’t going to listen to her today either way. But Addie could find black cloak. She could make sure no other kids got hurt.
With her mind now made up, Addie’s heart once again beat with urgency. “Maybe we should find black cloak.” She said to herself more than to Squishy. She began pacing through the muggy swampy air. She knew they were close, the answer to finding black cloak just beyond reach. As Squishy circled the clearing searching for black cloak’s scent once more, Addie’s mind churned.
What if we're too late to pick up the scent? No, Addie thought, It doesn’t make sense for the scent to have just gone away. If that were true, there wouldn’t be spots of air without smell. Normally, the air would at least smell like normal swamp. There were patterns, specific identifiable places without any smells... and Squishy could find those places.. oh!
Addie’s eyes lit up as she spoke excitedly, “It’s ok that there are places without any smells! We can just follow that! You said there’s a ‘pattern’ to the spots of air without any smell, right? Let’s figure out if those spots go in the same direction!”
Squishy opened his eyes wide, “Cleverly thought!” Then, he hurried about the clearing, sniffing this way and that with renewed purpose. At first, he searched in a wide area, but soon enough, he narrowed the search down to a single path leading away from the clearing.
“Well, I find this rather odd,” Squishy began, “Both the conspicuously scentless trail and the fawn’s trail appear to follow in the same direction.”
That made Addie smile. Maybe she wouldn’t have to choose between finding one or the other. She and Squishy could find both black cloak and the fawn at the same time. “Alright Squishy, lead the way!”
All at once his body language shifted, his head came up confidently pointing his snout, and he flexed his legs in anticipation. Squishy paused for a moment and glanced back at Addie, “Keep up with me, my lady. I will not tarry.”
He took off, specks of mud kicking up behind him. Addie didn’t hesitate either. She began to run, too, easily keeping up with the much shorter Squishy. Again, they ran through the swamp, the pair of them easily navigating through the wilderness and avoiding any obstacles with their spatial senses. She felt the warm muggy air in her hair while hopping over rocks and twisting around bushes.
Occasionally, Squishy would pause to sniff at the air again, to make sure he continued to accurately follow the dual trail. He didn’t need to pause for long, just enough to correct the direction they ran in with some small adjustments. Addie took those opportunities to take a small break and catch her breath.
By their third break, Addie noticed that the swamp was starting to thin out, the insects and swamp creatures’ sounds becoming distant. Addie thought for a second that maybe she saw a stone path to their left, but she dismissed it since the stones weren’t following any pattern, and just seemed to be randomly there.
Though she had dismissed it as some slightly unusual natural rocky patch at first, after the fourth break, it became increasingly obvious that they were running alongside a broken down man-made stone brick road.
As they ran up alongside it, the road slowly became less and less overgrown with plants, until, eventually it looked, if not well maintained, then at least walkable. After another few minutes of running, Addie realized she recognized this road. Well, maybe not this specific road, actually. But the stonework did seem familiar, even if it was cracked and patchy. It looked like the same general design as the stonework used in Mr. Owlcharge’s Area, just a lot older and abandoned.
Addie’s suspicions grew when she started seeing broken-down houses a bit further down the road, and the swamp started thinning out to make place for the ruins. None of the buildings here could be lived in now, but once, they might have made decent homes for the common folk. Regardless, Addie wouldn’t ever live in something that small.
There were some black ravens on the various rooftops, Addie noticed. She spotted one in particular out of the crowd. It was the same size as the rest of the birds, but it looked more like a hawk than a raven, and it had a white feathered head. None of the birds were so much as moving or making a sound. They stared at Addie as one. Seeing them up there made Addie uneasy like staring would give her bad luck. She quickly glanced away, not willing to keep her eyes on the birds.
“Squishy,” Addie whispered as she blindly pointed her finger at the birds, “Can you look up on that rooftop over there?”
She watched Squishy turn his head to look, and it gave Addie enough courage to glance back up too. She quickly scanned the rooftop, but this time she didn’t see the odd white-headed bird. Now, there were only the regular ravens on the rooftop, and they seemed to be pecking and otherwise moving about as she might expect.
“What shall I look for?” Addie watched him move his eyes across the rooftop, but he didn’t see anything irregular, either.
“Huh. Never mind, I guess.” Whatever that strange white-headed bird had been, Addie was just glad that the ravens were acting normally again.
Almost right after that, Squishy led them onto the road directly, whereas before they had only been walking next to it. The dilapidated houses were getting closer now, too. Maybe it hadn’t been the strange bird that made Addie uneasy, she decided. This whole place was creepy, the ruined road, broken buildings, and the ravens on the rooftops were more than enough to make Addie hesitant. As if in tune with her thoughts, the temperature shifted and Addie watched in dismay as the bright and sunny day began to turn cloudy and cold. The shadows cast by the buildings elongated, and Addie started rubbing her arms to hold back the shivers. Somehow, the ruins dampened all sound. The only thing she could hear was her breathing, and to a lesser extent, her heartbeat.