Chapter 15: Hiding
Asher and I continued to travel deeper and deeper into the south as he taught me how to hunt in various techniques to match different types of prey. He has been a wonderful teacher and the past few days I came home with four white rabbits, two brown birds, and a small deer. My mother was surprised at how well my hunting skills have increased. She always questioned how clean my kills are getting and how I taught myself so well. I could not tell her anything about Asher; I could not tell anyone.
As I was just getting back from hunting with Asher, with a fat rabbit dangling between my teeth, Lerina came up to me, "Aliana, you're never around anymore. The clan already has enough meat for the week. Don't you ever take a break?" She gave me a little smile as I dropped the rabbit at her feet, I shook my head and playfully pounced on the rabbit. "Of course; you like hunting, I guess I should have assumed that, as you are a new wolf and all. I mean I tried hunting as much as I could when I first became a wolf, but I was never any good so making clothes for the clan is fine with me." I just gave a quick nod and walked past her. So, people are starting to notice in just a week. That made me a bit nervous.
I was just about to head to the butcher's hut when my mother stopped me in the middle of the clearing. "Aliana don't forget about Verona's ceremony tomorrow evening. Everyone has to be there at each clan member's ceremony. Especially royalty." My mother obviously knew I had already known this, but it must have slipped my mind that it was tomorrow. I had not known it was that soon; Asher said he would take me to hunt fish at the waterfall tomorrow, I guess that would just have to wait.
I dropped off the rabbit at the butcher's hut; he gladly smiled and thanked me. Then I was off, back into the forest of the south.
Waiting for Asher at the edge of the trees to the south; I figured he would have already been here waiting for me to take the rabbit back, but I did not see him. I stuck my snout in the air for his scent, but it was faint from early this morning. I saw his large paw prints imprinting the white ground, with mine alongside them. He might have continued into the south from our trail that was left off; so, I followed.
It seemed like I had been walking for half the day when I reached the end of our paw prints, but his were still going. I looked at the sky to check the light, it was barely fading, which meant I had time to look for him before the ceremony. Not more than ten paws ahead of me Asher's footprints began getting lighter and lighter, fading ever so gently with each step. The skill it took to do that in new terrain was incredible to me that he could do it with such ease.
A twig snapped, and I flinched! I instantly looked in the direction of the sound. It scared me at first, but then I figured it was just falling from a tree that was shedding its branches. I walked toward the sound sniffing the air. Something smelled off, it smelled nothing like the strange squirrel I had once encountered, but I never forgot about him. What if it was another; yet somewhat different. It was not, I would have smelt the tinged scent it had. This scent smelled slightly fishy, intertwined with the smell of an earthy scent.
Twenty more paws ahead of me was a tree with the beginnings of another set of tracks. I could hardly see what the track was, but it looked big. I decided to investigate the strange track and once I got closer the scent got stronger. When the print was five paws ahead of me it looked the size of my whole front leg. The print looked boney and almost like a human foot, but longer in length and only four toes. A whisper shot out beside me and made me flinch. That is when I noticed the distinguished scent of Asher. He was hiding in a thick pile of the white powder that covered a large bush. It led down into what looked like a little cave underneath the bush. It had soft claw marks all over the entrance. He must have dug it, but why would he need to hide, as I was hesitating thinking slowly to myself, I felt teeth latch onto my shoulder and drag me into the whole. It was cramped with both Asher and I inside there, and I began to get afraid that it may cave in, but Asher would not let me out.
The sensitive hairs in my wolf fur stood up, as I saw a huge figure ahead of us. I could barely see the structure and fear was pulsing through my body, blurring my senses. Asher seemed tensed, but not as fearful as I was.
It began to walk towards us, I could feel my heart pounding at an intense speed as I stared at the large figure. Its boney feet imprinting deep into the white powder; as it drew closer it became more distinguished, which only terrified me more. It was like a large lizard that had its skin ripped from its skull and feet. The end of its toes were sharp and stained with blood; its skull was massive in size with huge teeth and gaping eye sockets, looking like a bear's skull. I have only seen a bear once in my life, and that was exceptionally long ago. My people think they have become extinct, but somehow, I believe they have just moved on into a different territory.
I thought it had found us out when it was only five paws ahead of us, but then it turned abruptly and began to run in a different direction. Asher crawled out of hiding and then turned around to help me, but I wanted to stay safely enclosed inside the deep hole. He looked at me with a sincere promise in his eyes; I was not too sure what that promise was, but it made me feel safer, to be by his side.
Suddenly a small flash of light beamed ahead of us that instantly caught my eye; Asher must not have seen it because he only noticed my intense gaze. I began to move towards the direction of the light, Asher didn't do anything, but follow. The trees were becoming thicker than before and not too far after that, I peered around a thick tree with messy branches and large dark stones caught my eyes quickly; the engravings on them proved to me that they must be important to something. I should have stopped, that should have been a warning to me to not go any further, but I was too curious to stop now. By now the creature's lingering scent was overflowing my nostrils with that earthly fish smell, and its prints left in the white powder were right in front of my own paws.
Asher nudged my side and pointed his head towards the direction that we came from, but I did not listen; I moved forward, moving my paw past the creature's giant print; I heard Asher sigh softly as I glanced back to see him following. Gliding my paws as discretely as I could over the white powder, I noticed a crevice between the dark stones, wide yet unnoticeable. I peaked in each direction then started towards the entrance.
Standing straight in front, I felt a breeze coming through, with slight warmth from the cold. I peered inside to see a faint light at the end. As I looked at Asher, he was sniffing the air, then he looked at me with a mysterious look in his eyes. I knew he wanted to head back, yet I also knew he was just as curious as I was to find out what this place was; so, he moved along past me into the darkness of the crevice's entrance.