A Blood-Like Rain

— Kaden —

I began to panic.

We were heading to battle, but I smelled my mate. I smelled my mate!

I tried to track the direction the smell came from but it was so faint I could hardly notice it. I moved in circles half in a daze. I found a line, a line she must have been traveling, but I couldn’t tell which way she came from and which way she was going. And I tried to sniff both ways to see which seemed the strongest, the freshest.

Sam noticed my change in behaviour and got closer. When I noticed him, I raised my hand to make him stop. I was afraid his sheer presence would make me lose her scent.

It wasn’t completely irrational either as my own scent on her tracks was enough to nearly destroy what little clue I had.

I went in further.

I followed one side of the track all the way to a small stream, then I lost her. I checked all over, on the other side, everywhere. The track ended here. My best guess was she walked in the stream for a while, the water masking her scent.

I didn’t realize I had bolted in that direction, until I heard Sam running to catch up.

We were far now. The noise of my men, faint in the distance.

“What is it?” asked Sam worried.

“I found her,” I said in desperation. “I lost her.”

“Who?” he asked confused.

“My bloody mate.”

“Fuck! Now?”

“Yeah.”

“This is not a good time for this.”

“I know,” I growled in frustration.

I walked for a while, following the stream. I still couldn’t pick up her scent, so I stop.

“What now?” asked Sam.

“I go the other way,” I said.

I went back on my track. It was easier to go by the scent I just left than try and pick hers again. I went at a dead run, Sam could barely keep up.

the clearing again

“What are you doing?”

where I was when I

“Here,” I said, drawing an imaginary line in the air with my finger, going from where we just came from to the opposite side. “This is her track. I don’t know what direction she went

looked back at the direction of our

“It’s the worst timing in the world, but if I don’t give this a chance—.” I didn’t dare

know,” he said.

just need to know if this leads somewhere.”

is still time until nightfall,” he said looking at the sky.

too. There was time, but not

quiet. Just in case it leads

your own?” It just

here,”

alone. That’s

the direction I had to go.

“What if it’s a trap?” he asked.

my head. “I don’t know, but I think I need to do this

don’t make sense.”

“I know,” I said in frustration. “Go,” I told him.

he was about

“I said go,” I insisted.

to defy me on this.

turned and followed the scent. I took my phone out and waved it at him behind me. “We

track. After a while, the smell got a little stronger and my heart did a

I kept running at the highest pace I could maintain in the wood. I covered a lot of

and my pace, she was probably walking, which

travel here.

resonated in

is

away from civilization, from my men, from any

but my feet didn’t seem to connect with my mind. I kept running.

feet wet far in the woods, otherwise? Then was she doing the same thing here? Would I lose her smell again? The tracks

was not visible anymore, the orange glow slowly

out of time.

eyes, my vision was

was close, I knew it.

I suddenly stopped.

was hiding her scent, she didn’t expect to meet someone so far in the forest. I had run relatively silently, but at this pace, I would have sounded like an elephant to anyone with heightened senses. I slowed my trek to a walk, silent, undetectable. The wind was coming

wind pick up speed, and I smelled her just before I could see

was this light exotic flower smell again, but it was richer now, softer, it reminded me of playing in the dead colourful maple leaf on the autumn ground as a child, of the feeling of strawberry juices running on your tongue,

of my vision, but I knew it