Female Prey & The Elusive Prey

Chapter Two-2

He had to stop for a while. She was setting one hell of a pace. While he felt that he was slowly gaining ground, it was going to be a while before he caught up with her. A lot depended on whether or not Kurt or Lloyd could somehow get in front of her, but until he was sure which way she’d be going for a while there was only a small chance of that. They were both back by the original trail, waiting for word from him. He hoped to be able to tell them something soon, but elf-girl was elusive and unpredictable.

Still, he told himself, she only had so much food. Sooner or later she’d run out, and start to weaken. The way she was going, though, it didn’t look like it would be any time soon.

It was late afternoon when she reached the second ravine. The water had gone down since yesterday…or maybe this particular ravine just didn’t get that much in the first place. Standing on the rim, she looked down it. It looked difficult, but practicable, and it was unlikely anyone could track her through that jumble of rocks. She checked her gear to make sure everything was secure before starting down, stepping carefully. Some of the rocks were loose, and the wet ones were slippery. There was enough undergrowth growing in the ravine to give her some cover once she got far enough along it. As she picked her way, she kept an eye out for someplace she could climb up and out without leaving any traces.

He reached the spot where the upper trail crossed the next ravine. Her tracks showed that she’d gone down into it, but hadn’t come out the other side. He sat down on a convenient rock, shaking his head in rueful admiration. It would be just about impossible to track her in all those rocks, which was probably why she did it. Elf-girl was tough.

Still, she couldn’t go very fast down there. She’d tried a trick earlier, where she’d left the trail only to get back on it later. She’d probably exit the ravine somewhere to travel on easier ground. The only question, then, was which side would she get out on? He hated having to make a guess, especially with this girl. Whichever way he went, he thought it likely he’d be wrong. Time to contact the others. He took out his radio, hoping the battery would last. If Kurt and Lloyd could take positions on the lower trail where it crossed the ravine, they had a chance to intercept her. If and when they did catch her, they’d have to be careful that she didn’t get away.

The ravine was treacherous. Besides all the loose or slippery rocks, the depth of the water varied widely. The old saw that still waters ran deep was true enough, though. If she could see the water flowing, it was probably shallow enough to ford. If she saw little or no movement, she had to go around. She wished she’d taken the time to make herself a walking stick. It would be very useful here.

She was skirting one particularly dark and deep-looking pool when the rock she’d stepped on suddenly shifted under her weight. She flailed wildly for balance, but it was no use. She toppled over backwards into the very pool she was trying to avoid, praying that it wasn’t too deep as she fell. With all the gear she was carrying, she’d never be able to swim.

The shock of the cold water made her yelp. She went under, felt herself hit bottom, and struggled to get her legs under her. Her feet touched the bottom and she bent her knees before pushing upwards as hard as she could, ready to gulp air as soon as she broke the surface. The weight and bulk of her backpack slowed her.

The pool turned out to be no more than chest-deep. She stood gasping for breath, more out of shock than anything else, looking around wildly before she realized she wasn’t going to drown after all. Getting out of the pool proved to be difficult. There were few handholds, and she was soon shivering uncontrollably from the cold, cold water. She finally struggled out, dripping wet and chilled through. She’d have to get up out of here, on to level ground, and build a fire as soon as she could. She wished for the hot, dry weather she’d had to endure earlier.

It wasn’t easy to get out of the ravine. She had to move a considerable distance downhill, shivering worse with every step, before she found an exit. After two tries, she found she couldn’t climb out still wearing her backpack. It was too bulky, and some of the contents had taken on water, making it heavier. She shucked it off, tying a rope to it. With the rope in her teeth, she clambered out, getting very muddy in the process. Finally out, she hauled the pack up, using the rope. Once she’d retrieved it, she leaned against a tree, breathing heavily. The exercise had about done her in for now, but she still had work to do. When she’d recovered a bit, she picked up her pack and carried it with her hands until she found a spot where she could make a fire. She cleared an area of the accumulated leaves, down to the bare earth, and used the drier leaves and some small twigs for kindling. She had some matches in a waterproof container on her belt. Once she had a small fire going, she carefully placed bigger fallen branches on it. As they were catching, she stripped off her sodden clothes. She had to remove her socks too, but put her boots back on. Uncomfortable as wet shoes might be, there were too many sharp or hard things that could hurt her bare feet. She collected more branches, feeding them to the growing fire before opening her pack to see what damage had been done.

It wasn’t as bad as she’d feared. Her clothes were all wet, of course, but her sleeping bag, made to repel water, was only damp on the outside. She zippered it open and spread it out to dry. Her scanty food supplies were a bit wet, but she’d be eating them very soon anyway. A light blanket she’d packed was thoroughly waterlogged, as was her towel. Still shivering, she wrung everything out that she could, hanging it over various tree limbs to dry. She took an aluminum camp pot, filled it with water from her canteen, and emptied some soggy soup mix into it, setting the pot on the fire. Some hot food would take a lot of the chill out of her, but until her clothes dried, all she could do was huddle by the fire, trying to keep warm.

He finally got out of the ravine once he was sure she wasn’t going to double back along it. It took some effort. The sides were steep and rocky, offering few handholds. Some exposed tree roots came in handy. He paused at the edge of the ravine to contact Kurt and Lloyd and tell them she was heading downhill along the ravine. They could cover both sides of it and intercept her while he followed up, driving her into the trap. She hadn’t really had much of a chance to begin with, he thought, but she surely did make them work for it. He started downhill, keeping the ravine to his left as a guide. The hunt ought to be over by tomorrow. While he was looking forward to her capture, he’d miss the chase she’d led them on.

With any hunt, though, it was never safe to assume anything was over until it was over. Elf-girl had surprised them…well, him…more than once, and she might have a trick or two left to use. As he went along, he kept looking for any sign of her tracks, or anything at all that might show she had gone this way. By the time it was getting too dark to see much, he’d found absolutely nothing, and was beginning to think elf-girl had eluded him again. He felt suddenly very tired, and sat down for a rest. Where could she have gone now?

He took a candy bar out of his pack and munched on it glumly as he tried to figure out where she was. It was very possible she was on the other side of the ravine. It was also possible she’d doubled back. Either way, he was too tired and it was too dark for him to do anything about finding out. Not much point in contacting the others right now either.

As he sat in the gathering dark, something tickled his nostrils, faintly. He turned his head, trying to detect the smell...wood smoke. He stood slowly and shed his pack, looking around. While it was getting dark, it was still too light to see a fire, unless it was close by. He’d have to wait. In the meantime…he moistened a finger and held it up. There was no wind, but there was a slight movement of air downhill. For a moment, he wondered how he could have possibly gone past her, then realized she had to be on the other side of the ravine. If she’d built a fire, she wasn’t going to be moving any time soon. He sat down to rest, waiting for more dark.

It was night now. Kimberley had donned some reasonably dry clothes earlier, and the hot soup had helped her shake the chill immensely. She was feeling much better now, but very, very tired. Maybe she wasn’t in as good a shape as she thought. She yawned, her jaw muscles creaking. This was a hell of a way to spend a vacation.

The sleeping bag was dry now, and she stretched out on it. She looked up at her not-yet-dry clothes hanging from any available branches and smiled. Laundry day in the forest. The blanket should be usable soon, but her towel hadn’t seemed to be getting any less soggy with time. Well, maybe in the morning it would be okay. The small campfire crackled warmly, casting dancing shadows across the trees and the hanging clothes. It felt very cozy after her dunking in the creek, and she suddenly realized she was starting to doze. You just don’t go to sleep leaving a campfire unattended. It might wander off into the woods and cause all kinds of mischief. She sat up wearily and set about extinguishing it, dousing it with some water, poking it apart with a stick and throwing dirt on top of the embers. Finally satisfied that it was well and truly out, she laid back down on the opened sleeping bag with a sigh. After a long moment, she pulled the top flap over her and began zippering it together. She was so tired now that this simple task seemed to take forever, the zipper turning uncooperative in her fingers. Finally done, she started to take one last look around to see if she’d forgotten anything and fell asleep halfway through.

She was on the other side of the ravine, all right. He could just make out the dim glow of her campfire in the distance. It was so faint he actually saw it better out of the corner of his eye than he did when he was looking directly at it. He couldn’t tell how far away it was, but it had to be fairly close if he could see it through these woods. So close…a ten-minute walk, maybe? But the ravine kept him away from her as effectively as if it had been a castle moat. It was hard to get into, hard to cross, and very hard to get out of…in daylight. He wasn’t about to try it at night. There were too many ways to break an arm or a leg, or a neck. Well, nothing to do but wait for daylight then, once he’d relayed this information to the others. Some time tomorrow they ought to have elf-girl in their grasp. He heaved a sigh of relief, and then immediately thought of all the other ways she could go, eluding them again.