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.

clearing again I slowed down.

“What are you doing?”

to where I was

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 from but I know this side leads nowhere.” I pointed at where

back at the direction of our convoy then back at

the worst timing in the world, but if I don’t give

“I know,” he said.

just

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

was time,

I nodded. “Keep this quiet. Just in case it leads nowhere.”

he said. “You’re going on your own?” It just

here,” I told him.

moves alone. That’s your

looked in the direction I had to go.

it’s a trap?” he

hesitated. I shook my head. “I don’t know, but

make

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

looked like he was about to argue.

said go,” I insisted.

he wanted to defy

waved it at him behind me. “We keep in touch.” And I disappeared through

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

the wood. I covered a lot of ground and I was probably kilometers from

pace, she was probably walking, which explained why I was catching on,

path. I was far in the woods and the mountain, it was hard to believe someone would travel here. A little further, there were some paths

of Sam resonated in my head.

is a

away from civilization, from my men, from any resources or backup.

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

water to erase her tracks? The stream had been small, easy to cross, so why risk getting her feet wet far in the woods, otherwise? Then was she doing the same thing here? Would I lose her smell

The sun was not visible anymore, the orange glow slowly turning to midnight

was running out of

was getting

I was close, I knew

suddenly stopped.

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.

I got closer to the river, the forest cleared, the wind pick up speed,

the autumn ground as a child, of the feeling of strawberry juices running on your tongue, of a stormy night of April, of a warm blanket in front of a fire in the dead of winter, of the silkiness of a woman’s skin on mine, and there she was.

dark outline, barely visible at the edge of my vision,