“Which is why I suggest we stay here. We could get something from the kitchen, take a hot shower… nap. Napping sounds good.”
“Later,” she said again, pulling on the covers until they fell to the floor.
Knowing I’d never hear the end of it and lose even more sleep if I refused, I let out a long huff, then took on my wolf form before groggily making my way down the stairs.
Outside, a heavy mist covered the ground, the cooler air tingling in my nose but not enough to bother my wolf.
“So why do we need to go out this early anyway?” I asked, filling the silence between us.
“It’s when the prey is awake and out of their homes. Dawn and dusk are the best times to catch them off guard.”
“But it’s just the two of us.” Whenever she and Ash mentioned my going on a hunt, they made it sound like some
grand event. I always thought it’d require the entire pack, not just us, and certainly not at four in the morning.
“Come on. I know exactly where we can find them.”
From the manor, we headed west along the mountains until we were able to climb up the side. Usually one to speak up when things got uncomfortable, the discomfort I experienced left as soon as it began. Either because of my wolf or Fallen’s company, I wasn’t sure.
“Shouldn’t we watch out for other packs?” I asked, crouching low to the ground as we slowly made out way up an overgrown trail.
“Up here? No. Coren and his ilk may have walked these trails, but they don’t own them. No one owns the mountains as it’s where most of us go to hunt. There’s an agreement for all packs to have access to it. We might not need the food as humans, but our wolves still need the experience.”
“At four in the morning.”
“Exactly.”
Resisting the urge to groan yet again, I let her take the lead, borrowing strength from my wolf who was more than happy to be out in the morning fog.
The trail we followed wasn’t far from the ledge sitting above our stream, the sheer drop on the other side a constant reminder of just how high up we actually were. The height, however, didn’t bother Fallen. She simply walked with her nose to the ground, pausing to scent the air every now and again until she picked up something she recognized.
“Tell me what you smell,” she said, waiting until I was at her side.
Still not used to all of the different smells my wolf could pick up, I did as she asked, taking a deep breath until something new reached my nose. It wasn’t the cool water from the brook that likely fed into our stream. It wasn’t the trees to our south or the berry bushes along the trail that the birds had picked clean. No, this was something new, something I’d never smell before.
At first, I thought the scent might belong to a wolf. It definitely felt as heavy as one, but seeing as Fallen wasn’t crouched close to the ground, that clearly wasn’t it, either.
Not knowing what she’d picked up, I said the first thing that came to mind. “A deer?”
“Good guess,” Fallen said, casting me a sideways glance.
“Now, can you tell me why?”
Looking around, there was more than enough vegetation to feed it along with a series of smaller streams the further north we decided to go. The brush up here was close together, offering the cover it’d need from predators like us.
“The vantage point,” I finally realized, able to see for miles in all directions.
“Yes, but can you tell me what makes this scent so different from the others you’ve picked up in the past?”
“It’s heavier somehow. I’m not exactly sure how to explain it. It’s also musky, but some wolves smell like that as well.”
“Both are true, but what makes this a buck, and a young one at that, are the tracks you didn’t even notice to your left.”
Following her example, I tilted my head and looked under the brush. Sure enough, the telltale markings of a deer were there.
“But how do you know what it is?”
“You learn to differentiate them over time, much like you’ve done with the wolves in our pack. We all smelled the same to you until you got to know us better. In time, the same will be true for the creatures you hunt. Unfortunately, that only happens with experience.”