3.82 The Trail of Blood

         Everyone wanted to know that Aquilla was alright, but as the night wore on, the sleepyheads disappeared into their beds. The night watchmen filled their flasks, gathered their heavy cloaks in preparation for the wintery night ahead and took their positions outside. Tonight Akku and Nahash volunteered to watch over the sleeping temple and it was a bitter, cold night outside. The winter storm was picking up, icy winds whipped through the town, they huddled inside the shelter, praying that Jasun, Neter and Aquilla would all be okay. The sound of a snapping twig was barely audible.

         "Did you hear that?" Akku got up, withdrawing his knife. Nahash cocked his ear, listening... Another snap.

         "Neter? Jasun?"

         "It's coming from over there!" Nahash pointed to one of the houses by the vineyard.

         "It sounded like it came from over there…" Akku pointed towards the school, he headed out to investigate, so sure it was. Nahash followed, scanning the street, listening... They searched the street but the night was filled with the wild sounds. The storm was so violent, the snapping was most likely branches overhead. There were so signs of life, no wafts of smoke or telltale steams of breath in the icy air.

         "It's probably the storm" Akku put his knife away. "Wind snapping the branches overhead, they're all so dead and brittle now."

         The storm whipped the coast, waves crashed along the shore with violent force. Almost full, the moon rose in the sky, it was only a faint purple glow, but it was still there. Neter and Jasun stopped to rest, the trail of blood was heading to Kergal, Aquilla was obviously bleeding very badly, it wasn't easing up.

         "She's probably close to Kergal by now" Jasun studied the span of coastline ahead, signs of the mountain range loomed in the fog, not too far away. "Poor thing... Makes sense that she'd try to go home, hopefully she won't go anywhere else, hopefully she'll just go to the cave, hopefully she'll give us a chance to help her…"

         Neter was quiet, he wasn't listening, he was quantifying. It had been a very lengthy pursuit thus far, the volume of blood that had been lost was quite phenomenal. Jasun was keen to keep going, sensing the urgency.

         "We gotta hurry up, it's still a long way."

         Troubled, and growing increasingly doubtful that Aquilla would be okay, Neter pushed on behind him, but every step made the cloak of unease weigh more heavily upon his thoughts, soon he couldn't keep his problems quiet any longer.

         "Don't you think she's lost an awful lot of blood?"

         Jasun stopped to catch his breath, quantifying what he had seen for himself now.

         "Yes.... I think she's been hurt really badly. I'm really worried actually... Oh god... Do you think she'll even survive?"

         "Look how far we've come…"

         "Yeah…"

         "And she's still bleeding, really badly?"

         Suddenly Shadow bounded ahead, barking wildly, circling a burned bush. Jasun followed the dog to the bush at the side of the trail, stooped down and picked up a fluffy white corpse, frowning.

         "A white rabbit? Where did that come from?"

         Rage enveloped every cell in Neter's body as Jasun lifted the bloody white corpse out of the bush, he knew exactly where it came from.

         "ATLAN." He reached down and ran his finger through the blood, he held it to his nose, his heart plummeted.

         "Deer blood."

         "WHAT?" Jasun dropped the corpse and stooped down to run his finger through the blood. He too detected deer. "Ugh! My GOD! You're RIGHT!" He leapt backwards, terrified. "Why?"

         Neter was already storming back towards Anur. "We've been SET UP! THAT'S WHY!!!"

         "Deer blood?" Jasun echoed, stunned for a moment. "WAIT!" He hurried after him. "What do you MEAN we've been set up?" Even with a lame leg Neter was blazing back along the trail at full speed now. "Why? I don't understand! Was it a JOKE? Why? Who would go to these extreme lengths for a sick joke?"

         "EXACTLY!"

         "What about Aquilla?" Jasun was struggling to make sense of the gag.

         "AQUILLA'S FINE!"

         "WHAT? Was she not even injured after all? Who would DO THAT TO US?" He couldn't figure it out. "How many deer did they kill for all this blood?" Neter couldn't quantify any more. "Why would they be so mean?"

         "I DON'T KNOW!" Neter was so terrified and angry all at the same time he was barely able to contain himself. "All I know is we have to get back to Anur. I'm guessing Josh never saw Aquilla AT ALL!" He paused for a moment to catch his breath. "He asked if we heard her howling. Remember?"

         Jasun shook his head, unaware of the detail and shrugged it off.

         "I didn't hear anything…"

         "Exactly! If Aquilla HAD really been howling in the village, we would ALL have heard her!"