Your Trail of Blood in the Snow

Chapter 5 (Larry)

Even though the blanket was placed over the snow I could feel the cold running down my back. It was late afternoon, the sky was clearing and an orange color was flooding the area making the snow look a surprisingly golden, bright color.

Lucas' backpack was on the side, but I didn't see him. I moved my head to look around and searched for him, but to no avail. Some sounds coming from a nearby bush caught my attention. It moved a little and I thought it was a predator and that Lucas had left me behind to protect himself. It turns out I was partly right and partly wrong, because it was Lucas who came out of those bushes. My heart calmed down. When he realized I was awake he sat down next to me, leaning on his hands.

"Sorry if I left you for a moment, I had to pee," Lucas told me.

I found that I could move a little more than before, so I tried to get up to sit on the blanket, but I couldn't do it alone so Lucas helped me.

"The medicine must have worn off by now. The other dose is in the evening so you can talk."

I was doubting it, but the medicine was really working. The pain was almost completely gone, I sighed a little and started saying just one word, the same word I said before, "Thanks".

Lucas turned his gaze back, smiling.

"You already said that, mouse. I would like to talk to you, and like you, I also have some questions."

He looked up at the sky, taciturn. His fur, like the snow, turned a golden color in the glow of the sky. I had never heard of a white bat in my life and the only one I knew with anything like it was Ron, but her hazy past made several questions jump into my mind regarding Lucas.

"What is your name?" he asked. That question made sense; he had been taking care of me for almost two days and he didn't even know my name.

"Larry," I answered, my voice sounding normal which reassured me.

"Nice to meet you, Larry. You know, now that I know your name, I can follow up with the question that intrigues me the most: Why haven't you tried to run away? I ask because you're not the first one I've helped. I have saved the lives of some before you: mice, rabbits, raccoons and some foxes; in the case of the mice, at the very moment they woke up, they tried to run away. I don't blame them, as for the others, well... they tried to eat me, but you haven't even tried to move from where I put you, why? Is it for the same reason that you smell like a bat?

That question took me by surprise. Up to that point I hadn't thought about it, because, although if I doubted Lucas' intentions, I didn't try to run away. Maybe in the past I would have, but why not now?

I sniffed my forearm to corroborate what he said about smelling like a bat, but I couldn't pick up any aroma or scent... I figured it was stuff of his species, if Monti had been next to me, he probably would have blushed... I miss him a lot.

I improvised my answer.

"I think you would have eaten me the very moment you found me... besides, it's not the first time a bat has saved me. I think that's why I didn't run away."

Lucas did not seem "surprised.

"It's going to get dark soon. If we walk at night, it could be dangerous, so we must find some place to rest and..."

"Why did you save me?" I asked dryly, interrupting the bat's comment.

Lucas stood up, picked up the backpack and then held out his hand to me.

"I guess it's in my nature."

That was all he told me. I didn't want to ask anything else for now.

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