“Our food! All our food is gone.”
Angela’s exclamation had all four scrambling inside their tent and taking inventory of their items before Mindy declared that only the liquor had been left behind. Alarm sparked. His head snapped up as he climbed to the highest point until they were out of sight, giving him a fantastic view of the whole area surrounding the forest.
And that was when Nico spotted the fifth figure running away in a blur and disappearing into thick, dark trees.
Chapter 2
Anne Leonard felt bad for taking away all their food, but she didn’t feel bad enough, considering it discouraged that particular group from continuing their hike—a bad idea, really, with how inexperienced they were and prone to attract the attention of a predator if they kept this up. She had also left most of their valuables alone, but the food…oh, the food couldn’t be left behind, not when her stomach was grumbling, and there were not enough fruits left to pick to ease the hunger. She needed to find a river soon and maybe work out a way to get money to buy stuff from the more modern streets. But for now, the package she had in her hand felt like a treasure as she ran with the wind and ducked for coverage, her heart pounding in her throat at the possibility of being spotted.
She reached her hiding spot in no time and was quick to scan her surroundings before she pulled the bag open and winced at the noise it made. Claws would have been better, but her short dainty fingers were her available ones now and would do. A frown marred her lips when the goodies fell out of the bag, and she only saw crackers, cheese, and what looked like a jar of something fishy, but she shrugged and scarfed the cheese and crackers, then eased them down with a bottle of fizzy juice. Five minutes later, she was done and burying everything on the ground except the jar, which she wrapped in a cloth.
Rule number one of stealing food: either return what you are not going to eat or keep it somewhere hidden forever. The smell was bound to interest animals—or worse, predators—in the long run, so she went for the first option and snuck her way out of her hiding spot.
Anne had just reached the edge of that forest spot when she felt it: a wash of alert crawling over her skin as instinct warned her to be careful. She didn’t back away. Instead, she flattened on her front and buried herself under bushes, then surveyed the scene ahead. The grass was tall, and the steep climb to the right had enough hiding spaces for anyone to squeeze into, but somehow, she had a feeling the danger wasn’t coming from there. She glanced at the grass once more, peering to see if there were figures. The wind picked up and bared enough ground close by.Clear.
So, where was the danger?
“It’s the squirrel. The one you were after. It probably took all our food.”
The faint voice carried in the wind and she knew the women had not returned to sleep. They kept talking in low voices, much like they had hours earlier when they discussed topics she couldn’t relate to.
“So, are you saying a squirrel unzipped our tent, grabbed the food pack, and kept everything tidy while it snuck out and zipped it back?”
She winced, realizing she should have made a bit of a mess. But then again, she had expected them to keep sleeping instead of discovering the theft so fast—or wandering about now without a care in the world.
“It does sound sketchy. So, that eliminates a bear as well. They would have slashed our tent to bits.”
“Or a wolf.” There was a gasp. “They would have slashedusto bits.”
The protest gurgled in her throat, unheard. The shuffle of footsteps signaled they were near, so she kept her head down and waited them out.
“It’s just food. It’s three in the morning. I don’t want to keep searching in this place when it’s so dark.”
“We have a flashlight.”
“Jess, I swear to heavens, if you take one more step and get inside that dark area where a bear could be potentially waiting for us, I am going to drag you by the hair.”
“No bears here,” the woman named Jess reminded. “No tent slashes, remember? Maybe we will meet a family of squirrels.”
“Yeah. And maybe they will steal our designer shoes next if we invade their property.”
They laughed it off, surprisingly in a good mood despite not having food.
“Come on. Let’s just get some sleep, please,” someone pleaded. “Then we go back to the city in the morning and restart this adventure next week or something.”
“Or we can go to a resort,” someone suggested hopefully. “Somewhere we can sleep in a nice, cozy room.”
There were mutters of assent before the voices faded along with the footsteps. Something stirred at the nape of her neck as her head snapped up and her gaze scanned once more. Higher up her survey went as the trees swayed…and that was when she spotted a shadow perched on one of the tallest trees in the vicinity. The shadow was watching the campers as closely as she did.
She stilled when the head turned her way, willing herself to shrink under the bushes despite already being sufficiently covered. When the women entered that forest, the shadow disappeared, but she didn’t dare move. Seconds later, she watched the shadow make its way forward until moonlight illuminated to show a figure who was just as she expected.
It was a man, tall and muscled, dressed in jeans and a plain brown shirt. He could be mistaken for a camper with the casual attire, but something about the cut-off edges and the unkempt hair told her otherwise. She couldn’t see his face, but she could make out his eyes: lighter than his hair, glowing in the limited light…sharper than anything she had seen in her life as they bored into her area.
She felt naked but stood her ground, assured that she had made her escape. She brushed off any assumption of a camper because no camper climbed trees and scoured fields with the ease of someone who had been doing it all his life. What clan was he from? What protection did they have? Why was he all alone in this part of their territory?
When he turned and disappeared back into his part of the forest, she heaved a sigh of relief despite her heart still pounding madly. She stayed where she was, certain that as long as she never crossed that invisible line that had been staked long ago, she would be fine. As for those women…they were fine, too, as long as they stayed in their lane and their careless little campsite and never crossed the line, either.
She returned to her hiding spot and closed her eyes with that tidbit. There were no dreams, only a full belly and the nagging that she needed to wake up soon….