Kelan looked at Ariel and, for the first, understood why she was so important to Trisha. She accepted Trisha for who she was and loved her unconditionally. He was wrong to have judged her so harshly. Ariel's quiet strenght and support helped his mate survive many painful events in her life.
Kelan walked over to Ariel and gave her a soft kiss on her cheek. “Thank you for all you have done for my mate. She is very fortunate to count you as her sister.”
Ariel's eyes filled with tears as she smiled up at Kelan. “Just bring her home to us. Bring her home, accept her, and love her. That is all she ever wanted.”
“You have my promise.” Kelan vowed softly before taking his leave. He had a forest to scour and a mate to find. Calling to his symbiosis, Kelan shifted as soon as he was out of the palace. Four of his brother's best trackers following him.
"Lord Kelan." Jaguin, one of the trackers Creon recommended, called out from high up in one of the trees.
Kelan jerked back to the present. He quickly shifted and lunged up to where the warrior was kneeling on a large branch forty feet in the air. Kelan landed lightly, shifting at the same time. He carefully worked his way over to where the man was kneeling.
“What have you found?” Kelan asked. He looked down at the ground far below and couldn’t help the thought that his mate needed her ass spanked for taking so many risks with her life. If she were to fall from this height she would be killed.
“Here, there is an impression and some slight scrapping of the moss covering the limb. I also found what looks like wood shavings.” Jaguin replied.
Jaguin frowned as he held the tiny specs of wood in the palm of his large hand. He couldn’t make sense of it. If the female were cutting on a branch, there should be more shavings. He looked around, studying each branch along the limb carefully. It didn’t make sense for the female to carry a branch up the tree. He was still shocked by all he was learning about the human female Creon asked him to help find. Never in his life had he tracked anything this difficult. At first, he and the other three trackers thought the female was just lost. If that were the case, it would only take them an hour or two to find her. It soon became evident the female knew what she was doing. The first day she moved at a fast pace. She was careful about not leaving obvious tracks but did not try to hide them. It was as if she were putting distance between her and those that might follow her. He, Palto, Gunner, and Kor all thought by the end of the first night when they still didn’t catch up with her that she would make a camp for the night and it would be easy to find her. After all, the night could be the most dangerous. The Werecats were nocturnal and so were the BearBeasts. It would make sense for the female to hide until first light. Instead, they discovered she kept moving deeper into the forests. They lost her tracks dozens of times. The first time it became clearer that she was now covering them was when they came across a set of Werecat tracks. Kor discovered the barest impression of her boot before it seemed to vanish. Two steps later, the huge paw prints of the Werecat were found. Lord Kelan, Palto, and Gunner quickly shifted to dragon form to see if they could scent any blood, the Werecat would have sliced through the female’s stomach and eaten her right there. None of them could detect any trace of blood. Palto finally found a small section missing on the mossy bark of a nearby tree where it looked like something knocked it loose while climbing. Lord Kelan shifted back at the finding and slowly climbed up the tree until he came to the limb where it appeared something had laid down, crushing a few of the ferns growing along it. The marking of a boot heel was outlined on one of the large leaves. That was their first clue the female was using the tree limbs as a way of moving. Now, three men covered the ground looking for tracks while two others were in the trees at all times. Their tracking slowed to a crawl as it became more difficult to find any tracks.
“She was here.” Kelan said quietly looking around. “Look at the impressions in the moss. They are several hours old.”
Kelan stood up and looked around. What was she doing? Kelan moved over to several branches hanging down. He moved several aside before he found what he was looking for, the fresh bark of a cut branch. Kelan touched it and felt the still sticky sap. He looked in the distance trying to figure out what she was doing.
“She continued along the branches. I can see where the moss is smudged from her boots.” Kor said. “She is very good. I don’t think I have ever hunted a more worthy adversary.”
“She is not an adversary.” Kelan responded quietly. “She is my mate.”
“I’m sorry, Lord Kelan, I meant no disrespect.” Kor said. “You should be very proud of her. I do not know many warriors who could have made it this far, not with the five of us following.”
Kelan nodded in agreement. “We don’t have much time. The storm is moving in rapidly and it looks to be a bad one. Can you tell which way she went?”
Jarquin nodded towards the northwest. “She changed direction again. She is headed that way.”
Gunner growled out low. “The forests thicken and become more dangerous the closer you get to the mountains. My home is not far from the valley leading between the two highest peaks. Only the experienced warriors go there to hunt the BearBeasts.”
Kelan looked grimly at the darkening skies and then at the mountains in the distance. “Gunner, you lead the way. You are familiar with the area. Where do you think she would seek shelter?”
Gunner was silent for a few moments as he thought about the terrain they were about to enter. “If she continues towards the mountains, there are many caves lining it. There are at least six big enough for your human female to seek shelter safely. If the female was able to reach the beginning of the mountains and if she was able to find one of the caves then that is where I would look first.”
A flash of lightening streaked across the sky followed by a loud rumble of thunder. “I suggest we find shelter in one of those caves, as well. The storm will be here soon and from the way my dragon is acting, it is going to be a nasty one.” Palto said as he joined the others.
Kelan looked at the men with him and knew they were right. As much as he would prefer to continue searching, doing so in one of the fierce electrical storms that were common to their world was suicidal. Kelan looked at Gunner who was studying him and gave a sharp nod.
Gunner didn’t say anything, merely shifted to his dragon and lifted up into the air. Kelan followed last. He let the sharp eyesight of his dragon look for signs as they moved in and out of the trees. He could see the path she followed through the trees. When the trail vanished, three of them moved closer to the ground while the other two continued to search the branches in an unspoken pattern of teamwork.
A bright streak of lightening flashed close by just as Gunner landed on the ground, shifting. “We need to take cover. It is too dangerous for us to be out in this.” He shouted above the rising winds.
Kelan landed beside him and nodded. Gunner led them a short distance until Kelan saw the odd rock formation jutting up from the side of a rock mass. Gunner drew his gun and approached slowly. He let his eyes shift to his dragon’s to search the inside for other creatures who may have taken refuge from the storm.
“It’s clear.” Gunner yelled moving into the darkened space.
Kelan nodded to the other men to enter before he did. He took one last look around the darkening forest, letting out a snarl of frustration. He knew they were getting closer. He could feel it.
Yes,
find
my mate. I need my mate
. His dragon coughed out softly.
Soon, my friend, soon we will have them both with us,
Kelan said soothingly.
Trisha pulled in the last of the larger branches and stacked it near the pile of moss she had gathered earlier. The storm was now raging fiercely outside and she was shivering from the combination of being drenched to the skin, the coolness of the cave she found, and the wind whipping through the narrow opening. First things first, get a fire going. Trisha pulled the leaves containing the shavings of wood closer to her and grabbed a small mound of dry moss she gathered before the storm hit. It took her almost an hour to get enough wood, moss, and leaves gathered once she found the small cave. She worked quickly clearing out an area big enough for her to create a small hide-away. The cave, if you could call it one, was probably no more than a ten by ten bedroom but it was relatively clean and dry. She almost missed the entrance to it. The one rock area she thought was a cave turned out to be an oversized trunk of a tree hollowed out against the side of a rock face. It was as she was turning away that she caught a glimpse of the small, dark cut in the rock face about twenty feet higher. Once she explored it, she discovered it was perfect. It was on high ground with little chance of a rock slide, the opening was barely big enough for her to fit through giving her protection from the larger creatures she noticed during her nightly travels, and unless you stood just right, you wouldn’t be able to see it. The storm was moving in faster than she liked and she didn’t know how long storms could last on this planet. She didn’t want to get stuck with no heat or food in the off-chance it lasted more than a night, so Trisha made a judgment call – get what fuel and food she could and hope the storm covered her tracks. She was able to get enough wood to last her a couple of days if she only used a small fire and several more seed pods, as well as, some of the fruit she recognized from eating at the palace that was growing wild. She made a ring of some of the loose stones and carefully piled some moss in the center. Taking one of the leaves, she opened it and piled some of the shaved wood on top of that. Trisha reached over for two of the rocks and began striking them against each other. After a few minutes she saw a small amount of smoke. She gently blew on it until the dried moss caught fire. She slowly added slightly larger sticks until the fire was going well enough she could add some of the bigger ones, making a small teepee.