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Chapter 20 - Gone

-H-

There was a lot of blood in the dirt at my knees. The last of his furred frame had disappeared inside of me as a little chunk of metal fell into the puddle. My shaky hand reached for it, plucking it out of the wolf's blood, it was a bullet. I didn't know guns very well but I had shot 22s before and this was bigger than that. It wasn't silver, that's all that could kill werewolves right? I tried to convince myself, but deep down I knew that movies weren't reality.

His blood was.

Where were we? The woods all looked the same out this far. I tried to calm myself and think of what direction we had come from originally, before he had started stalking the boar. My hands were shaking, both from the fatigue of holding onto him and the belt as he carried me this whole time, and from the adrenaline flowing through me. Okay.. I needed to move, the wolf was hurt. Would he heal when he was inside me? How did this all work? Was he a fresh, clean slate every time he came out? Did he form anew or did he just have the one body? What would happen if he died?

My feet began to move, walking back around the bushes, over a steep hill, trying to retrace the wolf's steps as best I could. Why hadn't I been paying more attention? Both to where we were, and to the woods around us.. maybe I could have seen the hunter. But I didn't. The poor man had been hunting boar the same as us and my wolf had come up on him, surprising him. Could I really blame him for shooting a huge, hulking wolf that was suddenly over him? He probably thought it was self defense.. even if my wolf hadn't attacked him. A split second decision, a split second reaction to pull the trigger and try to get away. Tears welled in my ears as I saw the bullet hole in my mind. The wolf had seemed so confused, he didn't seem to understand how deadly bullets are.. and at close range too. I was lucky it hadn't shot through him and into me. Then we'd both have bled out in the woods, where no one knew we were except a panicked hunter.

I was lost.. I didn't want to admit it but I was. I needed the wolf, he'd know where to go. Maybe I was just hoping he would come out fully healed, fully fine. Closing my eyes I reached out for him again, called to him in need.

-Come back out-

Please. If he came out healed, then we would be okay, he could carry me back out of here.. If he was still hurt then I'd know and send him right back in after he pointed where I needed to go. A minute passed. Two. I called for him again. Nothing. He was gone..

My breathing got faster. I felt a cold sweat forming on my skin. This creature that I had barely known for a couple days was hitting me just as hard as anything else lately. Was it just because my emotional and mental state was just.. broken and raw right now? No, I think I was truly feeling for this creature. We had a connection, literally in this case. He was a part of me, maybe he was supposed to be there.. not just some foreign thing growing in me.

The trees all looked the same as I walked, the woods seemed dark and ominous but I wasn't worried about the dangers out there.. I was worried about getting back in time. Could he bleed out and die without a body? It was a silly concept, but I didn't know if his body was.. stored somewhere? Was it in another place? How did this work.. My primary goal was getting back home, maybe I could patch him up with whatever medical supplies I had at the house. I had at least a couple first aid kids, one in my car and one at the apartment, I'd tapped into both a few times.

First I had to find my car again. Find my car and avoid whatever boar's were around, if I got fired out here I'd probably die. My hand slipped to my pocket, pulling out the knife I'd brought and gripping it tight. A measly little weapon, what was it really going to do? It made me feel better, even if slightly, so I guess that's what it did. I just needed to find the stream again, then I knew I could find my car, that was the landmark I needed. Even if I had to follow it up and down until I found the parts I knew.

The wolf had been at home out here, in his element.. I was a little jealous of his senses. My dull nose didn't really give me any helpful information, my ears weren't strong enough to hear the stream with however far from it I was, my eyes were alright but it didn't help when it was just trees and hills. The hills might help some, I kept climbing to the tops of them, hoping I could see something, but it was usually just more trees.

The wolf had moved fast and easily when he started hunting but.. how far had he traveled? Did we actually go this far? Doubt started to hit me as I wandered, trying to think of how far we had gone from the stream. If I was going in the wrong direction I was screwed. A noise behind me made me stop and grip my knife.. It was the pig. The stupid pig that had started it all. Blaming the thing we had been trying to kill seemed dumb, but I wasn't exactly in the best head space. It snorted a bit at me, cloven hoof digging a bit at the ground, as it seemed to be deciding whether to charge me or not. It swung it's head a bit side to side, I could see those gnarled tusks.. and suddenly my knife didn't seem very useful with how quick those would tear me up. I made a quick decision and dropped the knife, grabbing a large branch above me and pulling myself off the ground.

My hand screamed at me instantly, right along the seam of my wrapped cut, but it was good I leapt up and clambered up onto the thick limb because that bulky hog charged and stopped right under me. It looked up at me, then started shredding and scraping bark on the base of the tree. He couldn't get to me, I was safe, but now I was stuck in a tree, trapped by Pumbaa down there.

"Go on! Get! Sorry okay, I wasn't going to eat you!.. He was.." I grumbled out, huffing to myself and watching the boar pace and snort below me.

He sniffed about in the dirt, that flat nose pushing some of it around before he found my knife, sniffing at it a few times and trying to chew at it.

"Go on, cut your mouth up, dumb pig.." I muttered and sighed heavily, rubbing my face.

I heard teeth on metal, a few dull chomps and then he was trotting off. With my knife. The fucking pig just robbed me. He seemed pleased with himself, waddling off carrying my pocket knife like a dog with a bone.

"Really?.. Just.. really?.." More grumbling from me, I was a bit salty about the whole situation but I guess I'll take it over being gored.

The pig was gone, but I waited a bit longer before hopping down. The last thing I wanted was to hop down and have him fly out of nowhere to gore me with his tusks AND inadvertently stab me with my own knife. Shanked by pig. Lovely words for my gravestone. Scanning around the quiet woods as I moved away from the tree I started noticing scraped bark on a few of the trees. Looking further ahead I saw more, and I began to notice a worn and trampled path in the dirt, along with vegetation that had bent or grown or been pushed out of the way to almost make little paths and tunnels through bushes or between shrubs and trees. Great.. I was on the boar highway.

These little paths must lead to somewhere though. Water, it had to mean water. They are going to head for the stream every day right? It was risky to follow the path and run into gangster Pumbaa again, but I needed to get out of here. Following the path I tried to stay quiet, to listen as hard as I could, holding my breath half the time. No sounds of animals moving through the brush, but the further I went I began to hear trickling. Fuck yes. Human brain one, knife-pig zero. Stabby hog can keep my damn knife, I've got a car waiting, see how he holds up against a car.

When I reached the stream it didn't look familiar, but I knew it would if I headed north along it, following the stream close and letting it lead me to where I buried poor Sawyer. If nothing else I let that guide me, she'd be my little guardian angel with the wolf gone. I kept my eyes out for where I had buried her, scanning around. Everything looked so different coming at it from a different angle, from a different direction, but I knew it when I saw it. The place made my heart sink, but as I walked closer I knew it, and there was a comfort in that.. I thanked her as I passed by the fresh packed dirt where I had buried her. Maybe I should have put some sort of marker or something, but I would not forget the spot either way.

My car was right where I left it, parked in a nook between some big bushes and brambles. Biting my lip I started it back up, praying that it would start.. that I wouldn't get stuck in the mud, that the continuous string of bad luck had ended with Pokey Pig back there. A sigh of relief filled the car as it rumbled to life and I backed out without issue, turning around and getting myself back to the main dirt road out of the woods and back to good, solid pavement.

I had to get home, and hope he wasn't gone for good.