Tracking

I think that was one of the longest rides I have ever taken. It was going to take me hands to find everyone I needed to apologize to after nearly running them down with Kai. The lanes between the wagons stretched out before me like fiendish ribbons of uncountable time.

I hit our wagon group at a dead run and jumped from Kai even as he dug his claws in to a sliding stop.

But they were gone.

I spun on a heel and began to strip Kai of my gear. I could not take him he was worn out from a day of riding. I switched everything to Kree. He was young, untried but he was fresh and I needed speed now more than anything. I would regret that choice in the hours to come, but at the time I thought it was best.

I took time to roll my bed and tie it onto the saddle. I took time to grab my weapons. I was in a hurry but I did not have a death wish.

Kree was fresh and eager to go. I swept a gaze over my wagon ... the kaiila and Yaz. And then I swung into the saddle, closing my eyes as the sickness rose. Only a moment I allowed it to slow me and then I was digging heels into Kree and he spooked and took off like a shot from a cross bow.

The only problem was I didn't know where I was going.

I hit the edge of the herd and began tracking Juu's wagon by outriders and those in the nearest wagons. It was daunting to hear they had left so early in the day, but I was one man on a kaiila. I could travel much faster if I could just get their direction. But tracking at night meant finding people and asking questions and that takes time. My nerves were shot full of holes by the time I got to the end of the wagons and ahead of me was the trail we had moved over in the last hand or so and here is where I lost them.

I swore for hundreds of bosk had walked over where their wagon tracks cut into the sod. I threw a leg over the pommel, chewing on the jerky pariah had brought me in the little pouch tied to my saddle ... and I waited for the moons to rise enough that I could see a little. And then began the pain staking process of tracking them through the hoof marks.

It was now that I began to realize bits and pieces of the Spex's words that I had forgotten. So much of it was like a dream. She had spoken Ani's name. How could I have forgotten that? There was more. I tried to go over it in my mind as I searched for the indentations of the wagon wheels.