Believe - Chapter 16: Tracking

The muscles of Imya ached all over at the next evening and Red noticed that she was walking stiff after stretching and slowly getting up. Even though the weather cleared up he decided to give her a bit of time to rest up and heal her muscle ache.

"We gonna stay here tonight for you da rest, sure we do, yo!" he told her and she directly let herself fall on the ground and closed her eyes again, tired but happy that she did not have to run with the burning legs. She did not think about anything but directly went back to sleep with happy dreams. She did not notice that Red exited the den and left the pup alone. The fox ran through the night and only now and then watched for the star. It was still shining bright as if it was waiting for them to continue their travel. It seemed to have gotten bigger at the sky.

Imya woke up again when the light of the moon was shining through the bushes at the entrance into the den. Red still did not return yet and Imya just closed her eyes and listened to the noises of the night. The creaking of the leafless bushes and the call of an owl in the distance was all she could hear before she heard Red clearing his throat right in front of her. She had missed the light steps of the fox and winced when the sound was suddenly this close. She opened her eyes and saw him standing in front of her with a pair of rabbits in his muzzle. "Lunchtime!" he just remarked and let the rabbits fall to the ground. Imya was so hungry that she just brought a silent "Thank you." Over her lips before she started to grub. She ate slowly because she still was very exhausted and tired but she felt how the meet, that she chewed and swallowed, activated new energy in her and made her whole body feel satisfied and comfortable with each bite. She completely concentrated on the food in front of her and did not regard Red who also was eating his share of the bunnies with a smile, while he watched the small wolf pup eat.

"Are ya ready da walk now?" Red asked when she licked the last traces of the blood of the bunny from her lips. Imya winced a bit because she just got out of her trance, that she had been in while eating the bunny. "Yes, I think we can go on now." She said with a sigh. She still felt a small pain, more an itch, in her legs but she was sure she would manage to run for the rest of the night. "We not gonna journey tonight, sure we do not, yo!" Red said and Imya gazed up to him with a questioning look in her eyes. He was standing in front of the still laying pup and looked to into her eyes. "Ya learned da ropes of hunting and fighting but Imma gonna teach ya how to track the prey tonight, sure I will, yo!" he explained to her. On the one hand Imya was happy to learn something new again. Even though it had been exhausting for her in the last nights but she also felt proud to be praised and learn these valuable things from her new friend. On the other hand, however, she hoped that the tracking lesson would not involve so many running and ducking and tensing up which had brought her the pain in the legs. Her eyes reflected this twist in her emotions and Red smiled at her, showing his white teeth. "Ya don't hatta be afraid kiddo, sure ya don't, yo! Da tracking not gonna be exhausting for ya body, more for ya head." And he turned around with a chuckle and moved towards the entrance of the den. Imya slowly got up to her paws and then followed him, still limping a bit because of the pain in her legs but walking had the blood pulse in them and seemed to slowly make the pain less noticeable. It could also have been that she was just distracted now and therefore did not feel the pain. Imya did not care about the reason for it but just welcomed that the pain was slowly fading in her legs.

Red led her just outside and then stopped in front of fresh tracks. They were his own tracks but he asked Imya to follow them but not with her eyes but with the nose. It was hard for Imya at first to separate the smell from all the other smells but Red was very patient with her and let her go wrong a few times before he helped her to find the track again. "Now ya will follow da track of a bunny, sure ya will, yo!" he told her and told her to put the nose into the air and follow the scent of a bunny if she would pick it up. He followed her for half an hour until she was sure that she got the scent of a bunny and slowly followed the scent. Sometimes she noticed the scent on a tree or a bush. She discovered however that even if the snow was giving away the foot prints of her target of interest; it did not carry the smell as much as other objects. It was easier to get the smell from trees and bushes than from the snow but eventually her nose sensitized and she even picked up the scent from the white cover. Tracking was more relaxing than hunting itself but all the different scents sometimes made Imya dizzy and she got confused a lot. When the sky started to brighten up she finally got the hang of tracking to a point where she could isolate one of the smells every time and just follow this smell. "Ya learning fast!" Red praised her and Imya smiled at him. She was proud to be praised again by Red and just now noticed how tired she got from all the confusing scents and trying to differentiate between them. It was already bright when they arrived at another den of Red, that Imya had to find with her new-found skills. It was even harder to track his scent with the strongest scent coming from Red himself who stood next to her. When they arrived at the den Imya just crouched inside, lay down and closed her eyes exhausted. Zen smiled at the already sleeping pup when he got into the den and softly caressed over her cheeks with his nose. "Ya sleep well today." He whispered and then laid down next to her into the direction of the entrance to shield her from the cold air that invaded whenever a gust of wind was facing the direction of the entrance.