Kitalia had directed him inland, away from the riverfront as there would be less chance that he would run into their pursuit that way. She darted off on her own, ostensibly to look for food but she noted that she’d also keep an eye out for a new hiding place since he had, in her words, “…completely ruined the most perfect one in the whole of the forest.”
Before they parted ways, she did offer him some helpful advice, or so she called it, for minimizing the amount of noise he made while trudging through the woods. He accepted the advice with a grain of salt and a smile on his face, as was his new custom in dealing with all things Kit.
Still, he tried to follow her advice and stepped slowly and methodically through the woods, despite the growing need to relieve himself. Thankfully, he wasn’t terribly hungry as whatever it was that Kit put into the stew pot kept him pretty well satiated. He figured he had walked for about fifteen minutes before he found a small copse of bushes that didn’t seem to have any thorns or burrs that he could see.
After finishing his business with as much privacy as he could muster while a small rabbit watched him from across the glade. As he slowly stood up, he wondered if he could slowly grab a rock and nail the bunny before it hopped away. It was about twenty feet away, but he figured he had made that kind of shot about a third of the time. Not great odds in his mind, but he also figured that he really had nothing to lose by making the attempt.
The rabbit’s ears twitched as he selected a rock and he could see it start to tense up in preparation for a powerful leap out of the area. With that urgency in mind, he did a sidearm fling without taking the time to really line up the shot.
The rabbit made a clean escape, without even noticing the wayward throw that sailed about four feet over its long, flopsy ears.
He was disappointed by his failure, since showing up with a rabbit in hand would have earned him some credibility with Kitalia, but that feeling was replaced almost immediately by curiosity of the metallic ping he heard shortly after the rock left the glade.
Intrigued, but still wary with Kit’s warnings echoing in his head, he grabbed another rock and moved slowly towards the source of the sound. He paused at the tree near where the rabbit was standing and peered around as best as he could, but the shrubbery was too thick to make anything out.
Kre took a tentative step and reached his left arm out to move some of the leaves aside. He neither saw nor heard anything from beyond the glade and so he took another slow step and then a few more.
The next step he took sank down into the loamy earth about four inches and he nearly stumbled from the surprise. He thrust his rock-carrying hand down to stop himself from falling and heard the same familiar ping as the rock grazed something just under the moss.