What Happened to Normal?

Chapter 7

We crossed the camp to where the teens of our pack had stayed and been taken from. When we got there Josh showed us the marks from where they were probably actually dragged, unlike how the cubs had been carried away. I looked through the tracks thoroughly and found where one of them must’ve struggled, probably the one who had screamed. There were claw marks in the ground over one of the drag paths, the person who was dragged here was in wolf form, or at least their hands. “Either the one that was here wasn’t the one who screamed or they had only partly Changed.” I commented.

Josh looked thoughtful, “So, the one here was awake?”

“Yep.” I replied and began to investigate in silence again. There were two different marks made by dragging, one was wide, with slight indications of paws, others were thin, with arms maybe over their head. So the teens were sleeping in human and wolf form. As I went through I explained this to Josh and B.J, both watching me closely. I went back to the place where the one who had struggled was, this time I followed it in a straight line to where it was heading; every drag path was an almost perfectly straight path. I followed it all the way to the brim of where the forest it, a while into the forest was where our territory border was. I followed it into the forest about three metres then told Josh and B.J, “I think I smell something, I’m gonna Change.” And I did.

After my bones had broken and reformed I started to sniff around. I thought I could smell meat, not too old but not fresh either. I followed my node, Josh and B.J, still in human form, trailing behind me. Another twenty-thirty metres and the smell was strong. Closer, closer, closer until it was right under my nose. I sniffed it then backed away, crashing into B.J. Josh went ahead of us to where I had sniffed and went to pick something up, almost as soon as he did he threw it away again, disgusted. He spoke, his voice very clear to my sensitive ears, “That was human flesh.” He said, sounding partly unsettled.

B.J stared at Josh, then around where he had thrown the chunk of human flesh. I went and found it again, trying to recognize the smell of who it may have been, after a few seconds of sniffing I Changed again so I could speak to them.

“It isn’t one of ours, and by the time they had gotten into the forest they had picked them up and carried them or something, I couldn’t smell anyone from our pack but someone in our pack had bitten off a chunk of whoever’s leg and left it as a clue for us.” I informed them.

So…” B.J said, thinking out loud, “If someone in our pack bit off the other guys leg, or part of it, wouldn’t you have been able to smell who had bitten it off? I mean, we can always tell who’s meat it who’s my their scent of where they had bitten its throat to kill it, so if they bit him or her then you should have been able to smell it.”

I looked him dead in the eye, “I did smell them. It was Jason. The teens were dragged this way, no animals come this close to the border, no animal that would touch flesh, all of the animals in our territory eat plants. Nothing here could have moved that so… they were dragged through here Or carried and look,” I said, pointing to the ground where I had found the piece of leg, “There are marks here. On the ground, and paw prints!” I said, noticing the soft prints left over from someone running. “The wind’s gone over them a bit but there’s still prints there.”

“Umm…” B.J said to me, sounding amused, “They’re your paw prints, Brook.”

Josh stifled a laugh.

“Yeah,” I said, amusement of my own in my tone, “But I didn’t go over there.” I said, nodding my head in the direction that paw prints, bigger than my own, were making their way towards the far away border of our territory.