Incarnation | Wandering Stars Volume One

Chapter 21

SOUTH OF SENVIDAR

The pungent odor came suddenly to Batarel's feline nose, bringing him to halt. A few paces ahead, Tamael lowered his nose to the grass and a quiet growl escaped his throat. His head turned suddenly, then he began to move toward a hiding place nearby where a dense tangle of vines cascaded down from the limbs of a massive tree.

Batarel followed his friend into the bright, green strands of concealment. Crouching low to the damp earth, they both waited.

After a few seconds, a tall figure moved out of the trees on the other side of a clearing. His dark and muscled form was difficult to see against the background of jumbled branches and leaves, but even at a distance they could tell it was one of Semjaza's Anduarym. He was moving quickly by virtue of his enormous stride, but didn't seem to be in a hurry. Neither did he appear concerned about moving with stealth.

When the soldier had moved beyond sight, Batarel turned to his friend. "Spy?" he whispered as quietly as his animal vocal chords would allow.

Tamael nodded. "We will have to be more cautious from here on out."

Slowly, the two rose to their paws and crawled out into the open. Despite the confidence they had in their animal forms, which gave them a sensory advantage over anything else in the forest, they continued with caution to the north.

~

In the gathering mist of the afternoon, the two creatures came to the last of a series of mountain peaks just south of Senvidar. As they began their ascent from the foothills below, the breeze shifted slightly, bringing warning of a nearby threat. Batarel looked to Tamael, whose fierce golden eyes were narrowed, while the whiskered skin of his face twitched.

Tamael growled and bared his teeth.

Batarel knew instantly what it meant. For years, they had hunted together and their coordinated efforts had always been successful. Communication was no longer necessary, it had become habit.

The two animals, whose agile and powerful bodies were designed for silent movement and rapid attack, moved in opposite directions.

Tamael crept slowly, straight up the incline toward the enemy. His striped fur faded into the mist and the mottled brown and green colors of the forest.

Batarel turned westward and trotted quickly through the trees, leaping from clearing to clearing. When he'd gone a safe distance, he turned north and headed up the incline much faster than Tamael had done. Using the soft pads of his feline paws, he moved silently through the labyrinth of vines. As he climbed, the mist grew denser, reducing visibility and distorting the way sound traveled through the air. Batarel smiled inwardly as the environment began to favor his superior sense of smell. After long minutes of cautious footing, he topped the ridge and paused as a shift in the air took the scent of the enemy away. But a low sound to his right told him that he was very near his objective.

With unmatched agility, he scaled the thick, twisting trunk of a nearby tree. Between the digits of his supple feet, deadly claws dug into the bark, steadying his movement along a thick branch that intertwined with that of another tree. In this way, he moved across the remaining distance of the ridge to find his enemy almost directly below him.