“Huh?” Kre seemed to snap out of his daze and knelt down next to her. “Wait… that’s part of her dress…” He knelt down next to Kitalia and tried to tug the cloth out of her hands, but she clung to it tightly.
“Hey now,” she practically snarled, not happy with how grabby her companion was being with her find. “Let go and let me have a look.”
“But this was torn from her dress, I know it. She was just here.” He popped his head up and started to look around even more frantically than before, trying to spot the lady with the blue eyes.
Kitalia’s eyes narrowed as she scanned the trees around them. She had heard another set of howling, but this one seemed farther away, as if the wolf pack were going after other prey besides them. She had been so certain that they were the ones being hunted though, that she barely trusted her ears to this new development.
“Kre, this cloth has been here for quite a while. Look how weathered it is. If this were torn from a dress, it was not anytime recently.”
“It had to be,” Kre insisted. He shook his head and moved closer to get a better look at the shred of cloth. “I just saw her come through here and she was wearing a dress just like this. It has to be hers.”
“I think you might be seeing things. Too much stress has done a number on your mind, I fear. We need to…”
Another set of howls cut through the air, closer, but still farther than where Kitalia had expected the predators to be by now. Still, the two of them were definitely surrounded and this was probably the best place for them to make a stand as any. Plus, Kitalia had an uneasy feeling that these wolves weren’t after them because they were hungry.
“Get down,” Kitalia hissed, drawing a long dagger from her side. “There,” she gestured to the very base of the half-fallen tree.
“What about…”
“Get down!” she snarled again, waving the dagger at Kre threateningly. He did as she bade, sliding backwards under the large tree as slowly as he could so that at least he could say he was following her direction while still giving himself enough time to react should she need help.
Kre hadn’t counted on Kitalia backing up into the small nook as well, which made for a briefly uncomfortable situation that resulted in her smacking him upside the head. He took that as a cue to shuffle back as fast as he could and was surprised to note that the two of them seemed to move back a good amount from the boulder.
This far back, thick bushes rose up on either side of the tree trunk and the downward slope that they seemed to be moving along was very well hidden by the thick grass.
Kitalia put a hand in front of Kre’s face to indicate that he stop moving and she cocked her head to one side as if listening. She muttered something under her breath that Kre assumed was a curse but her hand stayed steady and so he tried very hard not to move a single muscle.
There… just under the rustling of the leaves… he could pick up a faint tune. What he had assumed was the wind blowing through the trees was actually a low whistle, sounding out a slow, almost mournful tune.