Wings in the Dark

Chapter 24: Hunter

*Reader's POV*

The trees loomed above you within seconds, feet maneuvering around the uneven and fully natural terrain as if it was smooth cobblestone, weaving between trees at a dangerous pace, taking deep breaths through your nose to hone in on a scent that was out of place, something fresher than the rest, something that could only be left by recent occupants. That was the trail you were racing to hone in on before it disappeared, sniffing at the air like a goddamn cat, glad that no one was around to witness it, which meant you wouldn't feel self-conscious doing it. You were free to hone in on the trail you knew they would have left behind no matter what they tried to do to hide it. And once you caught onto it you could memorize it, make it so even if they tried shaking you off the trail by running through a river like you would a bloodhound, you would be able to refind the scent with relative ease, and if you ever caught wind of it again you would know immediately who was in the vicinity.

You didn't intend to let this chase continue past today, though. You weren't going to let this threat linger after what they'd done. This was finished today.

The shot traveled much farther than you'd expected it to go, and still with stunning accuracy. If Levi hadn't jumped in front of you, it probably would have hit the mark. If the hunter that saw you had that kind of aim, you wouldn't have made it out of the Underground that night. It couldn't have been him. Which meant your hunter enemy got help before finding and attacking you. There was more than one.

Something important to keep in mind, especially when picking up on the scent of their trail. If they were smart, they split up for the time being, working to disorient by leaving a winding trail that was washed out and backtracked over and over again, masked, all of it.

You weren't going to let them shake you off the trail so easily. Not now.

You were impressively deep into the woods when you finally caught the faintest scent that didn't belong in woods that you traveled enough on horseback to know what scents should and shouldn't be here. You were able to follow it into a general area, finding a patch of disturbed foliage that marked where they must have set up to make the shot. They must have used a telescope for sight, which made the shot all the more impressive. Where the fuck did that older hunter find the help, and who the hell did he recruit in the first place to be making shots like this through the woods?

You paused at the spot, kneeling down and taking deep breaths, spending time there simply soaking it in, memorizing the two distinct scents that were congregated in this spot, your two attackers, what would have been Levi's assassins if you hadn't acted as quickly as you had.

Please, please let him still be okay when I get back...

No time to dwell on that now. You had to move, follow the scent before it faded, had to give yourself enough time to double back in case they managed to throw you off the real trail with some sneaky tricks.

Once you felt you had a good sense of both scents, you got to your feet, keeping your ears pricked even for the slightest out of place click in the distance now that you knew there was a sharpshooter in a team of two, following your nose along the trail of one of the scents, chosen randomly since you didn't have anything to base a guess on who your original enemy was. There was the older man, and the sharpshooter, that's all you knew, and that wasn't enough for you to tell the difference in scents between the two.

The trail led you deeper into the woods, something you used your ODM gear for, letting your status as a soldier work for you by giving yourself a tactical advantage. If they were expecting you to arrive on foot, you weren't going to give them the luxury of having a clear shot at you on the ground. If they wanted you, they were going to have to work for it, and you weren't going to make it easy. Hopefully they would expect you to be on the ground to use your vampiric speed to ambush them. Instead, you were using the ODM gear to swing through the trees, high enough to be obscured by upper branches and leaves, but low enough you could still catch the scent of and follow the trail of whichever hunter you'd decided to follow.