The grass brushed up against his legs and he could hear Aceso legs pump through the grass as well. But other than that, he couldn’t hear anything, not a cow mooing, not a bird in the sky, nothing. The wind blew through the grass making it sway and shift. The effect reminded him of the ocean tide. The grass seemed to wave and flow just like the ocean. They could have been running on a field of green water.
As they ran through the tall grass of the plain, he looked northward and studied the mountain. It would have taken them the rest of today and perhaps all of tomorrow to get there in a straight shot. But he knew that they had to continue on their current path eastward to ensure that they avoided the prying eyes of people. A guy running after a wolf would not only raise a few eyebrows it would raise questions and curiosities. It would also point those federal agents who were hunting them directly toward them. People couldn’t be trusted in any circumstance but especially now. If Tasha kept her word the only thing, they would have to worry about was people and avoiding a certain helicopter.
Aceso stopped running. She swung her head left and right scanning their surroundings. She sat down in the tall grass. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on but he allowed his body to relax and he plopped down on the ground next to her. “What’s up? Do you smell something?”
Aceso cocked her head at him and with a playful look in her eyes she dropped down on her forepaws in the grass. There was no cover out here except for the grass and he followed her example. He rolled onto his back. As he did so he looked up at the sky as the green brown blades brushed up against his sides and folded over him. The sky was a pure blue with a few puffy white clouds drifting with the soft wind that made the grass move in waves. He found himself to be particularly happy right now. But he was unsure of the reason they had stopped.
Aceso probably thought that traveling in the daylight was too dangerous. She had taken what cover she could find in the deep grass and they would travel by night. Out here with little civilization there were no lights to uncover them in the darkness. It would be much easier to travel away from prying eyes if they moved at night. Besides, there are no rocks out here to trip over. Aceso had the right idea and he enjoyed lying here looking at the sky.
He must have fallen asleep, though he couldn’t remember doing it. Aceso was pressing against his side. It was still tender from when she had shaken him in that dream. It hadn’t ever bled but it felt bad and had left a huge bruise that being nudged made him wince. He pushed her away and sat up. The sky was black with night. He looked up and found his mother. She had taken on the shape of a fat sickle. In a few days she would be a proper crescent shape. For now, though she was less than her quarter phase but not quite a crescent yet.
He stood up and looked at the stars that had exploded onto the curtain of night. The dimmer the moon got the more stars filled the sky. In the mountains the stars had been amazing but now they were even more numerous, and the milky river of thousands of stars had only become brighter and more defined. He breathed the cool air. It was moments like this that made him happy to be alive. Aceso pushed his leg once and ran off into the darkness.
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“Hey, wait for me.”
They ran through the tall grass, the high blades scraping up against them. They couldn’t move as fast as they could on the open rock of the mountains. But he had become accustomed to running over the past few days and he had mastered running with Aceso and holding the speed and pace that she set. The only sound that followed them was the sound of the wind sweeping over the grass and their swift passage through that endless brownish green sea.
He looked up and saw the mountain. It was black against the stars. He could only make out the outline of the mountain against the star field. The mountain reflected no light. Even the snowcapped top was black. It was a mass of darkness on the horizon.
He looked out over their surroundings as they ran and he saw the glow of a town or city in the distance. He saw the plume of civilization make a halo of light that pushed back against the press of the night. Aceso was making a hard line away from the light on the horizon and if they stayed on the course she set, they would avoid the city, or whatever it was, without difficulty.
The air was getting colder.
He was glad that they were near their destination. His running and production of body heat was enough to keep the early autumn cold at bay, but he knew that if it was a few weeks later even running wouldn’t be enough to keep him warm. He wondered how Aceso would do without that nice coat of fur. He knew that she cared about him and would never put him in danger unless it was necessary. Still, they were running toward a snowcapped mountain. He wondered if he would be able to deal with that or just freeze to death somewhere along the way.
He didn’t really need to worry about that right now though. Now he was a ghost running behind his phantom guide in the middle of the night. How long had he been doing this? He wondered if what he had done his entire life had all been leading him to this crazy path he was now on. The metaphysical question of who he was surfaced in his mind and the question of his past actions faded like the starlight faded around the lights of the town in the distance. It didn’t really matter what he had done to get him here. He would have come this way sooner or later, being led by Aceso or by something else. He was who he was and he knew deep down that he had been born that way. He might have been moved to live out in the woods because of what he was. He shook his head and concentrated on his legs pumping through the tall grass. He was here and he had chosen Aceso as his alpha. What difference did anything else make?
They ran through the night. They avoided the town, which wasn’t that big. They did have to swing wide of an outlying ranch. The resident horses would have been spooked by Aceso, so circumventing the ranch fence and pasture took a little time but not much. And it was a necessary detour. Soon they had passed the little town. Just as the sun was rising in the east, and the golden red of the sunrise stained the perfect night sky, they were once again in the safety of the expanse and tall grass.
The sky brightened and he was able to look around him in the brisk morning. They were once again in the flat expanse between The Sierra Nevada Mountain range and Mount Shasta. He looked at the snow-covered mountain. They had traveled much farther last night than he would have thought possible. Maybe the grass didn’t hinder their speed as much as he had feared originally. The mountain loomed overhead. Its massive base commanded the entire northern horizon. He felt like he had to look straight up to see the snowcapped top. After tonight they would be there and well on their way up the mountain.