The Fall Ball
Chapter 68

(Rose)

I take off into the woods. I run along the trail for a while.

“You need to go off the trail. And touch the trees, put your scent on things along the way.” Lilly tells me.

I turn to the right. I run and touch the trees as I go. Then I run to the left. I go in a zig zag pattern through the woods. I turn around and ran along the path I already took. Then I turn and went the other way again.

“You have 10 more minutes.” I hear Ash tell me.

“Okay. Do I need to be in my spot when the others come into mess up the scent trails?” I ask him.

“No, you dont. You can mix in with them if you want. But as they leave the woods you need to be in the spot that you have picked out. And stay there. Dad will howl when the participants start into the woods, so that you know to stay in your spot until you are found.” He tells me.

“Sounds good.” I say to him.

I run all over the woods. I make sure to touch lots of things to try and mix up the direction that I am going. Soon I see other women coming into the woods. They run along all over in multiple directions. They touch some of the spots that I have also touched.

I follow behind them and try to mix with them. They smile at me as they go. We mix and make my scent harder to follow. Soon they start to leave the woods.

“Are you ready to go hide?” Lilly asks me.

“This is the most important hide-and-seek game that I have ever played.” I say to her.

We walk up to the tree in the center of the trails. I noticed it when I first got into the woods. It is a large tree with a hollow center, a perfect hiding spot. So I was sure to run in all directions around this tree.

I climb into the hollow part of the tree, and climb up the center. Around the middle of the tree there was another opening that led out to a large branch. The branch was hidden by all the leaves, I sit on it and just wait.

I hear a howl and then feet running. I watch as the participants come into the woods. They run in all directions, some have shifted into their wolf to try and track me better. I watch as a few of them run in circles.

“Looks like they are struggling to track our scent.” Lilly tells me.

“Seems like we did a good job of confusing them,” I tell her.

We watch my dad come into the clearing. He sniffs around for a little bit and then stops. Looking down the trail, he tips his head to the side, like he is concentrating really hard.

“My dear Rose, I know that you are up that tree behind me. You did a really good job at hiding and confusing us all. But I have lived with you for years, I know your scent and it is easy to follow you. My wolf knows it too well, and he can tell it is strongest then.” My dad says to me through mind link.

“So does that mean that you are going to be my personal guard?” I ask him with hope.

“No, I am going to walk away. I am happy enough being a palace guard. I can protect you that way. I think that one of these younger guys would be a better fit for your personal guard.” He tells me. I watch as he smiles and walks away and out of the woods.

“Why did he do that? He would of been perfect as my personal guard.” I say to Lilly.

“He knows that he is older, and he thinks that you will be protected better by someone who is younger and faster.” She says to me.

I watch Caraig for a while. He goes up and down a few trails, he walks in a circle. He comes up to the tree, he is standing right below me. I try to keep my breathing and heart rate steady.

He turns and goes down another trail.

“I thought he had found us,” Lilly says to me.

“Me too, that was close.” I say to her.

I watch everyone else for a while, a group of 3 stops below my tree.

“How did she hide so well?” The first one asks.

“I don’t understand it. How can a small simple girl trick us all this well,” The second one asks.

“This is all stupid. .Why is she becoming our queen? She didn’t even have a wolf until a few days ago.” The third asks.

” Yeah, Ash could do better.” The second one says.

They talk a little more. I listen, and then I watch them walk off.

“I’m glad they didn’t find me, I would not want any of them to be my guard.” I say to Lilly.

“Yeah, that would of been hard to deal with,” she says.

We watch a little longer. Its fun to watch them all going in circles, but none coming close enough to the tree.

“Rose? Are you okay? It’s been about 2 hours and no one has found you yet, 20 of the participants have given up.” Ash asks me.

“Yes I am okay. And my dad found me, but he didn’t want to be my personal guard. He linked with me before he walked out of the woods. So do I just stay here until one of them finds me?” I say back to him.

“Yep, so there is 30 participants left searching for you. Craig is still in the woods looking for you too.” Ash says back to me.

“Okay,” I say to him.

I watch Craig come close to the tree again. He shakes his head and looks up.

“I found you.” He says to me through the link.

I smile down at him.

“Yes you did,” I say to him.

I go to climb back into the tree so that I can climb down. I feel the branch behind me shake and before I can turn to see what it was. A hand is placed over my mouth. As I start to lose consciousness, I catch a scent.

The scent of death.

“So glad I found you. Been waiting a long time for this.” The stranger says as he leaps from tree to tree with me.

“Rose!!” Craig yells out after me.

I try to link Ash but cant.

A howl reaches my ears.

“No worries, we will be too far away for them to find you very soon.” The stranger tells me.