Chapter 10:
Getting to Work
The following morning a bleary eyed Nameless woke before Milly. Her grip had slackened during the night, so he was able to get up without waking her.
He took a moment to admire her sleeping face in the sunrise, she looked so very innocent. And then he remembered their intense conversation from the night before and hastily fled into the bathroom to wash up.
Every touch and embrace set him on edge, the sincere girl was pulling down his boundaries faster than he could erect them. He found himself looking forward to her morning milking, and what was likely going to be his only breakfast…
He shook the erotic thoughts out of his head, they had a long day today, Paul had told him the day before that he would arrange for Joe Rigby to come by and help with their roof sometime in the late morning. When not drunk on cooking sherry and risking death at the hands of Janet Skinner in an attempt to bed her entire Blomma garden, Joe was a Master Thatcher.
Nameless attended to a few chores around the cottage. He was sweeping the floor in the kitchen when Milly awoke and wandered into the living room naked from the waist up, having donned only her shorts knowing that she would need to be milked. His eyes once again had trouble looking away from her pink tips, especially when she pulled his face into her breasts for a morning greeting.
“Hungry Master?” She asked archly. He laughed into her flesh.
“Starving.”
“Well, you’d better drink up, because we have a lot of work to do, right?”
He nodded and enjoyed a balanced breakfast; balanced in that he drank equally from each of her nipples.
Afterwards he cleaned her up and milked her properly, mentally kicking himself; they were supposed to milk her into the buckets before he drank his fill. She had her own breakfast of oats, making much less of a mess then she had in Paul’s kitchen and then they set off to deliver the cream.
They now had just over five gallons of her milk between the night before and the morning. They were going to run out of buckets if she continued to produce so much; which was Paul’s reaction when he saw the cart with the thick cream aboard.
“Ha! Well done Moon-Pie! I’ll see about picking up a couple of proper milking pails today; if I can find two of the six gallon ones then that should be more than enough, you just bring one to me every morning and I’ll have the other empty ready to go for you. I bottled all of the milk from yesterday morning already, so once we bottle the rest we’ll bring the whole lot to market and then start inquiring after the milking pails.”
The farmer was in a good mood and the reason became apparent as they toted the pails into his barn and walked over the still figure of Thaddeus Kirk. He was face down in the dirt and stiff as a board; clearly the crooked man had run afoul of the farmer’s Cockatrice flock, his fancy clothes a tattered mess from the girls’ talons.
Paul stepped over him and into the barn to show them how to bottle the milk hygienically.
Once they finished they loaded up the cart with the bottles and Thaddeus, and Paul and Milly took the load to market. Paul had explained that people would appreciate getting a look at the heifer, a simple way to reassure folk that what they were selling was the real deal.
Nameless returned to the cottage to wait for Joe, aimlessly puttering about for awhile.
“Hello the house! Anyone home?” Joe had poked his head in through the door.
“Yes, come in please!” Nameless gestured to the kitchen chairs.
“No that’s alright; I’d rather you came out actually. Paul filled me in, man knows as much about thatching a roof as I do, and I do it for a living! So we can just get straight to work. I have the first set of bundles.”
“Is everything alright?”
They had met around town before, though never exchanging more than cursory greetings but Joe looked unusually nervous to Nameless.
“Er... yeah, it’s just… well hell! It’s those flower girls you see.”
“Oh! Um, are you gunna be okay?”
“Oh sure, I just need to get this job wrapped up, and well, avoid the section of fence over by the edge of the field right?”
As far as Nameless knew that was right across from the Blomma, he hadn’t seen them yet though.
“Yeah I guess, well if working will help then we should get to it!” He walked out onto the porch to join the other man.
Joe looked sheepish.
“Right, yeah, your right. So anyways I have enough bundles of thatch to keep us busy for several hours, er, my wife is with the wagon at the homestead actually, she wanted to um…she wanted to help. That trail is too narrow for my wagon so we’ll have to hoof the bundles in, as many as we can carry at a time.”
He gave Nameless a speculative look, sizing up how many bundles the scrawny man could carry.
Seeing his look Nameless tried to reassure him.
“Don’t worry, I might not be strong but I’ll work hard, and Paul and Milly will be back from the market in a while with our little cart so…”
“Good, good…” Joe face drifted off, looking in the direction of the Blomma garden, a wistful expression in his eyes, before he finally snapped himself out of it; “Okay, well let’s get to work then!”
As they began the arduous task of bringing the thatch through the trail, Nameless quickly realized that Paul’s wife had not in fact come to help. She merely placed herself between Paul and the fence by the Blommas and made sure that if his eyes ever wandered over that way her glare would be there to greet them.
Milly and Paul returned much sooner than he expected. Joe and his wife were still at the cottage, Joe having decided to get to work thatching, his wife having decided to keep watching Joe.
Nameless was shirtless now from the hot day and the heavy lifting, they had less than half the wagon unloaded and he was glad to see the cart.
That was, until he saw the stunned look on her face.
“Milly are you alright?”
“Oh she’s fine my boy!” Paul wore a smug grin; “Moon-Pie has been doing some figuring and I’m afraid she is just a little shocked by what she’s figured!”
“What do you mean?” Nameless asked but the old man just heaved a slightly tinkling sack at him, it was kind of heavy.
As Nameless looked, he realized it was full of coins.
There was more money in that sack then he had ever had all at once in his life.
“Wh-bu-!?”
“Ha! Now you see Moon-Pie’s problem? The milk shifted even faster then I’d hoped, seems there is a local shortage of the stuff, more than a few folk came from Wayfelt and beyond to try and procure some.”
“H-how much…” Nameless was still trying to process.
“Oh it’s simple really! Between yesterday and today we took just over seven gallons to market, two of which belonged to me mind you, with four quarts in a gallon, and we shifted the stuff in half quart bottles, that’s a pint for the less educated in the crowd, at one hundred forty five coins each…The end result kid, is your heifer just earned the pair of you five thousand bits and some change in a day and a half. Not to mention over two thousand bits for me.” The old man looked quite pleased with himself.
Nameless looked at Milly, her face still stunned as she turned to him.
“Master… my boobies… are worth a fortune…”
Paul laughed at that.
“Course they are! Even without the milk! I took some liberties so you’ve actually already spent a small amount on supplies, and I expect the price to drop some after the initial rush; I’d estimate you’ll pull in a thousand coins a gallon give or take. I used up all of the bottles I had stored so I ordered more. A lot more, I find the half quart ones always moved better then the full quart for some reason...” He trailed off as he realized the two kids weren’t really listening.
After several beats he sighed and left them to their shock, hauling some sundries out of their cart and into his house. He had ordered a six gallon pail, and managed to find another; he left it in the cart for later that night.
Abruptly, Nameless and Milly both started laughing at once, then hugging each other and laughing some more.
Paul watched them from his porch, smoking his pipe as they came to grips with their new reality.
Heh, to be young and get that first taste of success again.
He shook his head and went to look after his hens.
__________
Nameless was happy, after he and Milly regained control of themselves and their first real day of work on the cottage was finally finished they rested underneath the great oak tree in their field.
Our field! Ha! This place is already feeling like home…
Together they watched the sun set and then the moon rise through the tall grass; Milly held him to her side and was lost in thought, her hand absently playing with his hair.
She is always touching me; I don’t think she even knows that she’s doing it.
Not that he minded her touch, having her hand gently massage his scalp was quiet pleasant. He found himself growing ever more comfortable with her constant contact.
Her continued pensive expression was beginning to worry him though.
“Are you alright Milly?”
She shook her head slightly, bemused, and looked at him with an uncharacteristically subdued smile as he shifted away from her to better meet her gaze.
“Of course Master!”
He could sense that her usual cheer was missing despite her words.
“It’s just… you seem to be distracted. Did I do something to upset you?”
“Not at all!” She shook her head vigorously; “I’m just thinking about things.”
“What sort of things?” He pressed, bothered by her uncharacteristically downcast mood.
Milly sighed and regarded him thoughtfully for a moment.
“Master, you know that I love you right?”
Nameless’s eyes widened at her words. He knew they were true based on the strange sense that he got from her heartstone, but he had never heard her say the words outright.
“Milly… I, uh, yeah, I know.”
He blushed, and the more his face reddened the more embarrassed he became. He looked away in an attempt to compose himself.
We’ve seen each other naked! I just milked her! This is just talking, but her eyes are so blue…
“I know I wasn’t on my best behaviour, when I first bonded with you, and more than a few times since… but… Master-” she waited for him to return her gaze once more, but when he didn’t right away she looked down, took a shaky breath, and asked him what she so desperately needed to know, her voice a gentle whisper; “Do-do you love me too?”
Nameless whipped his head back; her face was turned away now, her cheeks red, her eyes watery, and her breath coming in shaky gasps as she waited for him to respond.
As he watched, a gentle tear made its way down her cheek.
She is terrified!
He didn’t need to sense her turbulent emotions coming from the braid around his neck to know that much.
“Milly, oh my sweet Milly…” His throat closed with emotion as he used his hand to turn her chin towards him.
I should have had the courage to tell you this already.
Her eyes slowly turned to meet his gaze; then widened when she saw that he too had moisture running down his cheek.
They widened even more once he found his voice again.
“Of course I love you. How could I not? You are the kindest, warmest, most patient girl I have ever…” His voice trailed off as she give of a resonate low of emotion, outright crying now.
His fears forgotten, he leaned into her and pressed his lips against hers.
They had kissed before of course, but there was something in the chasteness of this kiss that made it more intimate, more real and he felt more of his boundaries falling away.
The wetness of their tears intermingled on their lips as he leaned into her, her breasts squeezing against his shoulder. He realized it was the first time he had ever kissed her; she was always the one kissing him.
He vowed to himself to change that.
After several moments, their lips parted. They both still had tears running down their faces from the intensity of the moment.
Her breath came in shuddering gasps until she swallowed and composed herself.
“Master, can I…” She looked nervous again, but no longer terrified; “There is something I have wanted to do for you ever since you dove into the mud after my heart…”
She smiled at the image, it was the most moving thing she had ever seen and she knew that she would cherish the memory always.
He smiled in response.
“I would do anything for you Milly.” He rested his palm on her cheek lightly, while gently rubbing his thumb in the dimple on her chin.
She took another shuddering breath before she made her request with a rush of breath.
“Can I give you a blowjob?” Her face flushed even more.
For his part Nameless thought his heart was going to beat its way out of his chest.
That was the last thing he expected her to ask.
His hand had frozen in place on her face. Shock overwhelmed him.
She wet her pink lips with her tongue.
“I know you are nervous about having s-sex, and I know that I come on to you really strong a lot, and that some girls were… really mean to you in the past.” She took his thumb between her teeth, gently suckling it for a moment, before she released it and continued in an intimate whisper; “I just really want to show you that, well; girls can be sweet too… I can be sweet.”
She shifted in place with nerves, her breasts rubbing against his shoulder, nipples hard in the cool evening air.
“That is, if you’ll let me?”
Nameless was speechless, his heart pounded so hard he was sure she could hear it, he could sense her anxiety, but it was nothing compared to her desire.
The heat of it rolled off of her in waves.
She wanted this, more than she wanted him to milk her every day, to hold her, and to play with her breasts. More than anything in the world, Milly wanted to pleasure her man, her mate, her love. He was touched, he was terrified, and he was so very, very horny.
Unable to speak Nameless just looked at her, he could sense her growing fear that he would refuse, and he knew that if he did it would hurt her gravely. The courage it had taken for her to ask for this made him weak in the knees. He remembered what Paul said about taking the plunge and he closed his eyes for a moment, thinking about how this would change things between them…
And then decided that things needed to change; he couldn’t disappoint her, not again.
Slowly, shakily, he nodded his head.
Her smile was the sun coming up as she giggled nervously in relief, before leaning in for another kiss, this one much less chaste. She threw her leg over him, straddling his lap without removing her lips from his.
Nameless thought that he would explode right there. He had never been so turned on in his life: the inevitability of what was going to happen, of what she was going to do to him, made his cock so hard it hurt.
She had settled in his lap, grinding her crotch against his rock hard member through their jeans as she bathed his tongue with hers. He couldn’t help but return her passion, suckling at her mouth while his hands grasped at her flesh, his passion overcoming his inhibitions as he desperately tried to get at as much of her bare skin as he could.
She whimpered as she felt his hands clutching at her back, her sides, and finally fumbling to get under her shirt. She broke the kiss just long enough to shed the bothersome cloth that separated her master’s hands from her heated flesh.
When she leaned in again she felt his hands grip her breasts hard. His fingers toyed with her sensitive nipples, and even though he had milked her quiet recently she knew she had a bit more for him.
He broke their kiss as he felt her fluids on his hands. Slowly, his eyes not breaking from hers, he lifted one of her erect tips to his lips. She let out an involuntary moo, her eyelids flickering closed for a moment, when he licked her pink flesh, savouring the sweet creamy flavour.
However, as he brought her hardened nipple into his mouth he only managed one good draw before she pulled away. He couldn’t hide his disappointment as he had barely gotten a mouthful of her cream.
She giggled at his petulant expression.
“Sorry Master, but It’s my turn to drink from you…” Her voice was low and husky as she shifted off of him and settled down onto her thighs, her knees together and her hooves both to one side; “Can you… stand up for me? I think it will be easier that way, if you’re sitting I might poke you with my horns.”
He took a moment to get a good look at her; she was breathtaking in the growing moonlight and there was more than enough light to make out the hunger in her expression.
He stumbled to his feet, falling back against the bark of the oak tree, the roughness of it not bothering him at all as he watched her movements.
“Milly, I…” He finally found his voice, his doubts resurfacing once more.
“Shhhh, Master.” She cooed to him as she nuzzled her face against his bulge while her fingers worked to free his member from the constriction of his pants; “We both want this. The heat of the bonding might be over but I still want you so very badly, and the thought of taking you in my mouth…” Her voice faltered with passion as she shuddered against him; “I need this, so please don’t fight it okay?”
He could feel the softness and the warmth of her cheek through hit pants. He closed his eyes for a moment as he nodded to her, trying to collect himself.
The gentle rasp of his zipper scattered his mind further.
The sound was so loud in his ears, like anyone passing by would hear it, and it lasted so long… Finally he opened his eyes again and gasped as gentle fingers made contact with his erect cock, pulling him free into the cool evening air.
“It’s… it’s so big…” She said with reverence.
He thought his heart was going to explode at her words. The coolness of the air was nowhere near enough to put out the fire coursing through his veins.
She gently clasped him in her palm, giving a single hesitant stroke.
“Master?”
He looked down at her, tears staining his cheeks as the raw emotion and sexual tension combined to make this the most unforgettable experience of his life. His eyes met with hers and he saw something surprising.
Doubt was written across her features.
“I’ve never… done this before, so please... will you watch me?” Her breath caressed his erect flesh as her face drew near and she gave another exploratory stroke; “I know how, of course, my sister told me all about it, but…” She stammered and his heart broke for the poor girl, always having to take the lead because he was too weak, too soft.
He reached out with both hands, intending to reassure her with his touch; his hands settling on the downy warmth of her floppy ears as his thumbs caressed her horns.
She shuddered as he grasped her head.
“We could do it that way,” She whispered at him gently, mistaking his intentions; “If you move me how you want, then I’ll know that it feels good for you.”
Their eyes locked, sharing in the gravity of the situation. With no more words left to say, he nodded his understanding.
Slowly, she opened her mouth and gently stuck out her tongue, offering him a warm and wet bed to rest his engorged member.
Her demeanor was calm but her thoughts were frantic.
Please Master! Use me! Let me taste you!
Nameless nearly burst right then, he had never seen anything so erotic as his beautiful, caring, loving, and oh so very patient cow offered her mouth to him. That image, combined with the strange waves of passion coming from her heartstone, made him think his knees would give out.
Several heartbeats passed as he struggled to remain upright, he could faintly see drool rolling off of her tongue to land on her naked breasts below. With one hand she gently cupped his balls, while the other pointed his member directly at her exposed tongue. Her breathing was coming in rapid gasps as she waited for him to plunge his cock into the moist confines of her mouth.
Something had to give.
When she felt his hands grip her head she thought he meant to take her forcefully, and that thought had nearly made her swoon, but he just held her head in place. Her mouth watered even more as her gaze shifted from his eyes to the drop of pearly fluid that had accumulated on the tip of his member.
I need to taste him…
As she watched, the drop began to slide down his erect phallus, finding its way onto her thumb before tickling its way down her wrist. Her tongue twitched.
The tension finally broke with a mutual gasp when he slowly pulled her towards him. Gripping her head tightly, her panting breath chased away the coolness of the evening air from his exposed flesh as she drew ever nearer to her goal.
At last his sensitive glans made contact with the scathing heat of her tongue, stroking against it for a few moments before it made its way deeper into her willing mouth, stopping with half of his flesh still exposed, not wanting to choke her.
Milly’s eyes widened as she got the first taste of his musk, she could feel her heated sex grow wetter as she finally tasted what her master had to offer. Tears of joy streaked down her cheeks as she saw the pleasure in his eyes.
She began to suckle at him, clumsily at first as he still held her head in place. He appeared to be struggling to hold back.
She wished he wouldn’t.
Nameless was in heaven and hell at the same time, struggling to delay his release, all he could see was his faithful cow looking up at him adorningly with his cock in her mouth. His thoughts were in turmoil.
This feels so… so good! Milly, my Milly! Your mouth… so hot!
He continued to just hold her in place, afraid to finish too soon and deny her what she wanted most in the world. Sensing his hesitation Milly swirled her tongue all over his cock to encourage him to take it further and to taste even more of him.
He recognized her desire and withdrew his hips a couple inches only to push them forward and simultaneously pull her towards him, sinking his cock further into her willing mouth.
They tried to find a rhythm as he thrust forward and bobbed her head a few times experimentally on his erection. She had released his cock from her hand, placidly settling it in her lap while her other continued to stimulate his testicles for a few more thrusts before it too released him. She relaxed her neck as much as she could.
She was at his mercy, and she loved it.
Use me Master… Fill me with your warmth, I need to taste it!
He was panting now.
They had found a steady gait; She swirled her tongue over the head of his cock every time he drew her head back, and he would pause there for a moment to let her bathe his cock-head in pleasure, before he pulled her forwards again as she sucked him even deeper into her mouth.
He needn’t have worried about choking her; his cock was eventually bottoming out in her mouth, sliding an inch or so into her throat with ease. She was happy to take it, to take all of it.
His breathing ragged, their tempo increased as he felt his release approaching. He began making inarticulate cries of pleasure as he plunged into her warmth over and over. His balls were slapping against her dimpled chin as the speed of his thrusting increased.
Sensing his impending orgasm, Milly didn’t bother hiding her quiver of anticipation as she sucked him as hard as she could. The taste of his pre-cum was almost too much for her.
Give me all of it Master!
The stimulation reached a crescendo and he drew all but the head of his cock out of her mouth with a groan of pleasure, giving short, jerky thrusts to stimulate his cock head with her pink lips.
Milly sucked as hard as she could and lathered his sensitive head with her tongue until his cum finally began to spurt around the wriggling muscle. The musky taste of it caused her to achieve a small climax of her own. Both of their eyes were closed, lost in their own pleasure as spurt after spurt of his seed coated the inside of her mouth.
The sexual tension had been building for days, and as she said the night prior, he was backed up.
He just keeps going! So much!
Her cheeks began to billow out as her mouth was filled, with him lost to his pleasure, jerking her head back and forth slightly. She seized his cock with both hands and managed to pop it out of her mouth, stroking it vigorously with the head aimed at her face.
He grunted again and again as more and more of his seed blasted forth, coating her lips, her cheeks, her nose. One eye was basted shut. Another jet hit the dimple that he loved so much, leaving a string of his seed dangling from her chin. Yet another powerful burst struck her forehead and drew a line into her hair before finding her left horn.
With her mouth free she was able to swallow his first load with a desperate gasp, and then open her mouth to receive more of his love from his continually spurting cock as she jerked him as fast as she could; her tongue adding to the stimulation of her hands as she twirled it around his head.
He continued to clutch at her ears and horns, crying out in ecstasy.
At length, he shuddered and his spurts diminished, with her hands wringing his still-hard cock. She had to swallow twice more. As the heat of the moment slowly cooled, she began to giggle a bit. He had let go of her head, and was now slumped against the tree in blissful exhaustion. He opened his eyes again and took in the sight of her.
Her face was thoroughly coated, one eye closed, cum even dripped off of one of her horns. More than a bit had managed to find its way into her luscious cleavage.
“Oh my god, Milly! I am so sorry!” His eyes were wide with mortification at the sight of her.
“Why?” She smiled, licking up the last few strings from his cock head; “I’m not, that was better than I ever imagined. Not to mention more than I hoped for… much more!”
She giggled again as she happily set to work, using his cock to wipe his cum from her face before gently sucking and licking it off his turgid member.
Nameless groaned again at the sensation on his over-stimulated flesh.
“Milly… that felt… incredible.” He panted out, as he watched her happily using his cock as a napkin; “You were incredible.”
She couldn’t help but let out a soft moo of pleasure at his praise.
After a few more minutes of patiently using his cock to guide his seed into her greedy mouth she reluctantly put his tool back into his pants. She took her red hanky out of her back pocket and mopped up the residue from her face.
“Well. Now that that is do-” She was interrupted as he flopped down and threw his arms around her neck and kissed her hard.
She was startled, but pleased, until she noticed the tears streaming down his face and broke the kiss.
“Master! What-” He shoved his tongue into her mouth again.
She wobbled unsteadily with his added weight and at the surprising stimulation. She clutched him to her breasts, pressing her erect tips to his shirt.
Her worry over his tears eventually overcame her pleasure and she gently pushed his face away.
“Are you alright?”
He was crying openly as he clung to her.
“I’m so sorry Milly!” He sobbed.
“Master, I said it was okay, I loved it-”
“Not that! Never that!” he drew in a shuddered breath; “I’m sorry that I made you wait so long to be with me!”
Her heart pounded and her throat tightened.
“What are you saying?” She whispered, not daring to hope.
He composed himself and finally ended the hug, taking both of her hands in his and staring directly into her rapidly welling eyes.
“I’m saying that I am going to take you home, feed you the freshest oats, polish your beautiful horns and hooves again, drink every drop you have to give from your perfect breasts-” His voice and gaze were steady as, after a slight pause, he finished his thought; “-and then make love to you until you beg me to stop.”
It was a calm night. No harsh sounds interrupted the sense of tranquility in the air in Farmer Fletcher’s fields… until the stillness was broken by the joyful lowing of a very happy cow.
__________
While Milly bellowed her joy to the night, Miranda and Jan worked their way through the bushes following the scent of the Tenebrae.
They had picked up the trail in the wilderness to the east of Kettering and had followed it for two days as it meandered through the woods.
Their quarry was elusive, she kept crossing rivers and creeks which made it tricky for Jan and slowed them down.
Gradually they looped all the way back to the north, just on the outskirts of Wayfelt. Jan still had the Tenebrae’s trail, but it was faint so she knew it was still a long way off.
Something about the trail seemed off to the Wolfen but she couldn’t put her nose on it.
The scent had been getting stronger so she knew they were closing in, but neither of them wanted to encounter the girl in the dark so they looked to find a defensible space to settle in for their third night in the woods.
Once they found a safe spot they didn’t light a fire.
Miranda spoke, her voice tired from the chase.
“I think we’re pretty close to Wayfelt now, we could pussy out and go into the Aegis compound in the morning and get some backup if you want.” She handed Jan some dried jerky which the girl wolfed down.
“Mmmm… I don’t know. I don’t like how close this girl has gotten to civilization again.” Jan said after she finished eating.
“What do you mean?” Miranda chewed.
“At every turn she’s changed direction when too close to humans.”
“Yeah, after the initial change a lot of these girls get really shy, you know that.”
“And yet she was first spotted in some wheat field to the south right?” Miranda nodded; “If she’s trying to avoid people, why go traipsing through a field in broad daylight, and then continue heading into all of the cleared land around Kettering?”
“You think, if she was truly trying to avoid people, she would have headed east? Into the lowlands?”
“Would make more sense.”
The Aegis operative sighed.
“I don’t know; there are any number of monster girl villages in the lowlands that have their own warriors who wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, maybe she remembers that much.” Jan shrugged a bit, standing up and pacing in agitation, as Miranda continued; “We both know these girls don’t always make sense, at least not to a stable mind.”
“Yeah, but this whole thing feels off to me, even the intel packet. The witness said he thought it was a sheep girl. But why the hell would a sheep lead us on a merry chase through the bushes? And she doesn’t smell like any Lambda I ever met.”
Miranda could tell that Jan was worried and she was too. They had been after the girl for over a week now, which is about a week longer than it should have taken the experienced Wolfen to track down a simple sheep.
“What does she smell like?”
Jan huffed as she thought how best to describe the scent.
“Sour, bitter. Hard to put my paw on it. I almost think she has a good sense of smell herself and has been taking steps to try to obscure her scent.” Jan’s tone was serious.
“Such as?”
“Tree sap, some berries I know of. Hell, just rolling in the mud would wipe out a lot of it.”
Miranda considered her pet’s words for a long moment.
“I agree with you, I don’t like this either.”
“So there haven’t been any fatalities?” Jan asked quietly, settling down at last.
“None reported, why do you ask?”
“Because this is not prey that we are tracking, this is a predator.”
Miranda felt a sudden chill go down her spine at Jan’s grim pronouncement.
“Right, whatever she is, we can deal with it. If we go to the compound we might lose the trail and then this predator might just find herself some prey.” Her tone went from decisive to wistful as she considered her lover; “I wish you didn’t have to do this.”
“You’ve said that before Mistress, don’t worry about me. I’ve got this, let’s just get this done so we can go back to Kettering and pick on Wonder-Boy.”
Miranda snorted at that.
“You sweet on him or something?”
“Are you kidding? I love watching him blush! And I know you get a kick out of it too.” Jan sniggered.
“You are truly a monster.” Miranda announced drily.
Jan lolled her long tongue out.
“Get some sleep babe. I’ll watch over you.”
Miranda nodded and settled into her bedroll.
“Right, no funny business though, we’re too close now for that.”
Jan snorted.
“I think you could handle any funny business, you aren’t sleeping enough again.”
“Says the girl who’s had less than five hours in the last two days.” Miranda murmured from under her blanket.
“Says the Wolfen who can go on much less than that, frail little human girl.”
“Shhh, puppy. Mistress is asleep.”
As they bantered Miranda’s eyes had closed, so Jan left her in peace to walk a perimeter, her mind back to wondering about that damned scent.
__________
Miranda was awoken late in the night by Jan shaking her shoulder.
“Wha-”
“Wake up Mistress!”
As she turned over she could see the Wolfen in the moonlight, Jan’s ears were perked right up in excitement.
“What’s up baby?”
“I took a little scout, not far, but I found a fresh trail. She tried to loop around us again but this time I caught her! An hour, two at the most.”
Miranda nodded getting the message, it wasn’t ideal to go after the girl at night but Jan was a warrior, and knew that the best fight is a fight they start: if she was right on top of them it was best to hunt her down now then be hunted down themselves later.
It was just after midnight so they had several hours of darkness left, but fortunately the moon was very bright that night.
Miranda stowed her gear while Jan kept a sharp eye out. It only took her a couple minutes to get ready, they traveled light, and soon they set out.
Without speaking Jan led her partner back to the trail she had discovered and they followed it in the moonlight.
Soon the scent became even more pronounced to the Wolfen and she chortled smugly.
“I was right, Mistress. Tree sap. She’s clever but she is no Wolfen.”
“I’m so relieved to hear that, how long?”
“Close, a half hour at most.”
They continued to work their way through the undergrowth, at length they found themselves at the edge of a small open clearing and Jan stopped, her tongue lolled out in confusion as she sniffed at the air.
“What is it?” Miranda murmured, knowing a whisper would carry further.
Her eyes scanned the shadows around the trees looking for danger.
“I don’t get it. I picked up her trail-”
“I didn’t think you had lost it.”
“I picked up another trail… but that doesn’t make sense unless…” Jan thought for a few tense breaths and then her expression changed into one of alarm; “Oh you clever bitch! Miranda, she doubled back!”
Miranda looked to Jan at her sudden shout.
She watched the panic form in the wolf girl’s eyes and therefore didn’t see the dark figure silently leap down from the trees above her.